The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 45 · Forged document ·
The Cottage Receipt
A will that leaves a cottage to the lifeboat, a receipt that says it was sold, and twenty minutes of recess between them.
The case file
Wednesday, 3:10 pm. At the reading of Miss Thomasina Gilbert's will, her cottage on Fogbell Point went to the Lifeboat Fund. The Hollin Trust's agent asked for a recess, and twenty minutes later he found a receipt in her box of papers: the cottage sold to the Trust on November 20 for $800, signed in her hand. Miss Gilbert died on November 30. Her nurse says she never sold anything.
In the recess four people were in the solicitor's rooms, one each in his private office, the outer office, the waiting room and the law library. Each had one thing to write with: a steel pen, a fountain pen, a lead pencil or an indelible pencil. Find who wrote the receipt, with what, and where.
Who was there
- Barnabas Nankervis, solicitor. Wing collar, a steel pen behind his ear, and forty years of other people's wills.
- Nurse Lilian Couch, miss Gilbert's nurse. Starch, sensible shoes, and a chart that says Miss Gilbert could not hold a cup on November 20.
- Lucius Gendall, agent of the Hollin Trust. Saltholm tailoring, a gold fountain pen, and a smile that arrived before the receipt did.
- Miss Phyllis Carbis, clerk to Mr. Nankervis. Sleeve guards, a typewriter she is proud of, and a new hat she has not explained.
The places: the private office, the outer office, the waiting room and the law library.
The means: a steel pen, a fountain pen, a lead pencil and an indelible pencil.
Case 45 · Wednesday, December 9
The questioning room
This case's night is Wednesday, December 9, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Paper has a birthday
A forged document is written today and dated in the past, and the paper will often give it away: a printer's code, a watermark, a form number, a pad that was not yet made. Check whether the paper could have existed on the date it carries. Then look at how it was written, because the tool usually leads to a desk.
How to solve a Night Desk case, with a worked example.
The solution
The night desk's write-up appears here once you solve the case, or from Thursday, December 10, the night after it opens.