The Alchemist's House

Golden Lane, Prague · a winter night in 1599 · the gold that never came · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 7×7

Prague, Golden Lane, a frosty night in 1599. For months the alchemist Vavřinec had promised the emperor's court that his alembic would soon yield gold, and tonight a chamberlain had come to see the proof. The house was full: the maid stirred the soup in the kitchen, the apprentice fed the fire, a herbalist and a scholar had come in from the cold, and the owl watched everything from its perch. Before midnight Vavřinec was found dead in his laboratory, beside the alembic. The statements tell you where everyone was – find the one who was alone with him.

Rules

1. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
2. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the alembic, the owl, the bookcases, the cauldron, the candelabrum, the spiral staircase, the herb bed, the well, the table and the hearth) cannot be occupied; the armchair, the bed and the stools can.
3. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Anežka (the maid): She was in the Kitchen.
• Bohumil (the alchemist's apprentice): He was not in a corner of his area. He was alone with a member of the household.
• Cordula (the alchemist's sister): She was in the Bedchamber.
• Drahomír (an imperial chamberlain): The cauldron was somewhere in his column.
• Eliška (a herbalist from the Old Town): She was not beside the well. She was in a corner of her area.
• Filip (a scholar from the university): The candelabrum was somewhere in his row.
• Vavřinec (the alchemist): The victim. He was found in the Laboratory, beside the alembic – alone with the murderer.

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