The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 57 · Locked room ·
The Longest Night
The winter solstice, a lantern walk in the snow, and the one piece of iron that can hang a man.
The case file
Monday, 9:15 pm, the longest night of the year. The Receiver of Wreck keeps what the divers brought up from the Halcyon in the strongroom at the Customs House: the empty strongbox and its sawn padlock, the evidence for Captain Rowse's trial. At six the Receiver locked and sealed the strongroom. At nine the padlock was gone.
The wax seal across the door is unbroken, so nobody used the key. The strongroom has three other ways in: the coal chute from the yard, the skylight from the roof, and the barred window on the street. In those hours four people were about the building, one each in the office, the yard, on the roof and in the street with the lantern walk, and each could reach the strongroom one way. Find whose.
Who was there
- Thaddeus Grose, receiver of Wreck. A ledger of every spar and barrel the sea has given back since 1898, and the strongroom key on a chain.
- Ned Bunney, coal porter at the Customs House. Black to the elbows, a shovel over his shoulder, and a yard full of coal to get in before the freeze.
- Saul Trewartha, steeplejack. Rope over one shoulder, no fear of heights, and a new halyard for the Customs House flag.
- Lewis Crago, marshal of the lantern walk. A marshal's sash, a lantern on a long hooked pole, and a second job writing local notes for the Clarion.
The places: the office, the yard, the roof and the street.
The means: the strongroom key, the coal chute, the skylight and the barred window.
Case 57 · Monday, December 21
The questioning room
This case's night is Monday, December 21, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A crowd is a curtain
When a crime happens in front of many people, nobody sees it, because everyone is watching the thing they came to watch. Ask who chose where the crowd would stand and when it would stop. The person who arranges a spectacle can hide anything behind it, and the delay they called is a clue in itself.
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 Tuesday, December 22, the night after it opens.