The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 51 · Locked room ·
The Signal Box Tablet
A single track to Saltholm, one brass tablet to run it, and a signal box locked while the signalman had his tea.
The case file
Tuesday, 6:50 pm. The branch line to Saltholm is a single track, and no train may go onto it without the brass tablet from the instrument in the signal box. At 6:20 the signalman locked his box and went to the station house for his tea. At 6:40 he came back to give the 6:45 its tablet, and the instrument was empty. The 6:45 is still standing at the platform.
Fresh ice in the stair door's lock was unbroken, so the key was never used. The box has three other ways in: the window over the line, the stair window from the platform by ladder, and the trapdoor from the lamp room underneath. Four people were about in those twenty minutes, one each in the station house, on the platform, on the engine's footplate and in the lamp room, and each could reach the box one way. Find whose way it was.
Who was there
- Ezra Tangye, signalman. Thirty years in that box, a key on his watch chain, and a cup of tea he never finished.
- Miss Winnie Keast, porter. The only woman porter on the line since the war, holly on the platform lamps, and a borrowed ladder.
- Harold Sleeman, engine driver of the 6:45. Soot to the eyebrows, a tablet hoop over his shoulder, and a train full of Christmas mail going nowhere.
- Sid Trudgian, lamp man. Lamp oil on his cuffs, a soft voice, and a daughter who was meant to be on the 6:45 with her bag packed.
The places: the station house, the platform, the footplate and the lamp room.
The means: the stair door key, the stair window, by ladder, the line window, by hoop and the trapdoor.
Case 51 · Tuesday, December 15
The questioning room
This case's night is Tuesday, December 15, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Ruling out ways rules in a place
In a locked room, every way that is proven shut removes a door and the person standing at it. When a physical trace proves the way that was used, look at the map, not at the people. The way belongs to a place, and the place belongs to whoever no one else can account for.
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 Wednesday, December 16, the night after it opens.