The Dance Studio

A dance studio · the evening of the end-of-term show · the owner missed her own curtain call · Difficulty: Officer 4 · 8×8

The Dance Studio had been rehearsing for weeks for its end-of-term show, and on the evening of the performance the whole building hummed: four dancers were warming up, the teacher was correcting a last few steps, the pianist and the receptionist were busy with the final preparations. Véronique, who had founded the studio twenty years earlier, wanted to change into her evening dress before the guests arrived and disappeared into the changing room. When the first spectators rang at the door, somebody went to call her – and found her lying by the lockers. The show was cancelled, the doors were locked, and the inspector took down where each of the four dancers and the three members of staff had been.

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 counter, the lamp, the flower bed, the desk, the mirrors, the lockers, the piano, the parasol, the planter, the loudspeaker and the potted plant) cannot be occupied; the sofa and the benches 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

Amélie (ballet dancer): The loudspeaker was somewhere in her column. There was no man in her area.
Benoît (tango dancer): He was sitting on a bench. He was on the Terrace.
Clémence (contemporary dancer): There was no man in her area.
Didier (tap dancer): He was in the Lobby.
Éléonore (dance teacher): A bench was somewhere in her row. Exactly one row north of her was the owner.
Fabien (pianist of the studio): He was the only one beside a mirror. There was another member of staff in his area.
Gaëlle (receptionist): She was not alone in her area.
Véronique (owner of the studio): The victim. She was found in the Changing Room, beside a locker – alone with the murderer.

← Cases