The Cave

Show cave · the last tour of the day · a cry passed from chamber to chamber · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

The show cave had one tour left in the day, and deep in its far wing a speleological expedition had pitched camp. Vidor, the expedition leader, went ahead to the Lake Chamber to check the boats – and was found there, struck down beside the water. When it happened somebody shouted “Accident!”, and the cry went from chamber to chamber, passed on by whoever was there to hear it, for the cave swallows every sound that has nobody to carry it. Some of the tourists, the guides and the cavers heard it; the others, cut off by an empty chamber, learned of it only later. Fifteen people were in the cave besides Vidor, one to a row and one to a column, and exactly three of the fourteen chambers stood empty. Who was alone with him?

Rules

The relayed cry: the chambers of the cave swallow every sound. When the victim was struck, the cry “Accident!” rang out in the Lake Chamber and was passed on from chamber to chamber – but only by the people who were there: whoever heard it shouted it on into every chamber that opens from theirs through a passage (the openings drawn in the walls). So a suspect “heard the cry” if, and only if, their chamber is joined to the Lake Chamber by a chain of chambers that all held somebody, each linked to the next by a passage; whoever “did not hear the cry” was cut off by an empty chamber.
Three empty chambers: exactly three of the fourteen chambers were empty.
Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (stalagmites, pillars, rocks, crystals, the shelves, the counter, the lamps and lanterns, the water…) cannot be occupied; the benches, the boats and the camp beds can.
Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a woman” = the person in the row directly above is a woman, in any column; “north of Aurelia” = in a row above hers.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Aurelia (expedition surveyor): Of the people in her area, exactly one was a man. She did not hear the cry.
Bartholomew (rope technician): A lamp was somewhere in his row. He was not in a corner of his area.
Conall (deputy expedition leader): A lamp was somewhere in his column. There was at least one other person in his area.
Della (cave biologist): She did not hear the cry.
Ewan (expedition photographer): He was beside a lantern. Somebody in his area was beside the stove.
Fernanda (music teacher): She was beside a bench that nobody was sitting on. The ladder was somewhere in her row.
Gavin (retired miner): There were exactly two other people in his area. A lamp was somewhere in his column.
Hortense (travel writer): Somebody in her area was beside the signpost. She was the only woman beside a stalagmite.
Ivar (student): He was beside a stalagmite.
Jolene (nurse): She was not in a corner of her area. A stalagmite was somewhere in her column.
Kilian (cave guide): He was alone in his area.
Lucinda (cave guide): A boat was somewhere in her column. Exactly one row north of her was a man.
Margit (ticket clerk): She heard the cry. She was in the Entrance Hall.
Niall (boatman): He and Vidor were beside the same kind of thing. A bench was somewhere in his column.
Ottilie (cave geologist): There was no other woman in her area. She was beside a pillar.
Vidor (expedition leader): The victim. He was found in the Lake Chamber, beside the water – alone with the murderer.

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