The Clockmaker's Shop

A clockmaker’s shop · as the clocks strike six · the owner did not hear them · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 8×8

In Vreni's clockmaker's shop a hundred clocks tick at once, and at six they all strike together – the moment the shop closes. That afternoon the shop was still busy with the last four customers of the day, and the three members of staff had their hands full. Vreni herself had retired to the parlour to wind the old clocks, as she did every evening. When the chimes of six died away, Brigitta went to tell her that the shop was locked – and found her dead beside one of the clocks. Nobody had left: the key to the front door was still in Vreni's pocket. The staff and the customers each told the inspector where they had been at six.

Rules

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 (the clocks, the counter, the display cabinet, the mirror, the lamp, the desk, the shelf, the tree, the chest, the planter, the safe and the well) cannot be occupied; the armchair, the sofa, the stools and the bench 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.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Alois (master clockmaker): A clock was somewhere in his row.
Brigitta (shop assistant): She was the only one sitting on a stool.
Chrischona (apprentice clockmaker): Made no statement.
Donat (a notary): He was in the Storeroom. Exactly one row north of him was a man.
Elsbeth (a collector of music boxes): Exactly one person was sitting on the bench – not her, but somebody in her area.
Fridolin (a watchmaker from Geneva): He was in the Workshop.
Gottfried (a pastor): Somebody else in his area was beside the planter. He was in the Courtyard.
Vreni (owner of the shop): The victim. She was found in the Parlour, beside a clock – alone with the murderer.

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