The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 55 · Alibi web ·
The Glass Negative
Fifty winters of Port Merrow on glass, one plate from the morning after the wreck, and half an hour when it went.
The case file
Saturday, 4:20 pm. For the Institute's Christmas exhibition, Fifty Winters, Miss Augusta Trewhella has been printing the town's old glass negatives in her studio on Tidewater Street. At 3:30 the plate marked "Halcyon survivors, Fogbell Point, Dec. 7, 1904" was in its slot in the rack. At four it was gone.
In that half hour four people were in the studio, one each in the darkroom, the showroom, the attic plate store and at the shop counter. Each had something flat enough to hide a plate: a plate box, a picture frame, a sketchbook or a camera case. Find who took it, in what, and where.
Who was there
- Miss Augusta Trewhella, photographer. Silver stains on her fingers, a camera case she never puts down, and her father's plates in her care.
- Tom Glanville, apprentice. Sixteen, smelling of hypo, and trusted with the plate store for the first time this week.
- Mrs. Isadora Venton, painter of Christmas cards. Paint on her cuffs, a sketchbook under her arm, and a commission to copy the old views.
- Daniel Rowse, picture framer. Nails in his mouth, a hammer in his pocket, and a father in the cells since Sunday the sixth.
The places: the darkroom, the showroom, the attic plate store and the shop counter.
The means: a plate box, a picture frame, a sketchbook and a camera case.
Case 55 · Saturday, December 19
The questioning room
This case's night is Saturday, December 19, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: The best hiding place is in plain sight
A thing that must leave a room unseen is often not hidden at all, but disguised as something that belongs there: a plate behind a print, a page in a book, a letter in a pile of letters. Ask which objects in the room were new that day, and who brought them in. The newest thing in a room has the shortest alibi.
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 Sunday, December 20, the night after it opens.