Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Hortobágy Bridge Fair

Hortobágy, the night of the bridge fair · the csárda of 1699 and the Nine-holed Bridge · the innkeeper is missing · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 8×8

On the night of the bridge fair at the Hortobágy inn, the taproom never empties. After midnight Valér, the innkeeper, was nowhere to be found. Eight people were at the inn: Valér’s wife, the barman, the cook, two shepherds, a woman painter, a drover – and Valér himself. Valér was found dead. Dawn broke without 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 waters, the trees, the mail coach, the cart, the lanterns, the counter, the table, the cauldron, the hearth, the sweep well, the barrel, the reeds and the willow) cannot be occupied; the bridges, the hay bales, the horse, the benches and the chair can.
  3. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a guest” = the person in the row directly above was a guest, in any column; “the northernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further up.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – his square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Ágnes (the innkeeper’s wife): She was the only one on the bridge.
  • Barna (the barman): A hay bale was somewhere in his row. He was beside the water.
  • Cecília (the cook): There was at least one other person in her area.
  • Dániel (csikós – horse herder): A lantern was somewhere in his column. He was north of Cecília.
  • Elek (gulyás – cattle herder): The horse was somewhere in his row. He was right beside an area where nobody was.
  • Fanni (painter from Debrecen): She was beside a bench.
  • Gáspár (drover): The barrel was somewhere in his column. Somebody else in his area was beside the barrel.
  • Valér (the innkeeper): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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