Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Deciding Touch

Livorno, a November evening · the club's épée and foil tournament · 14–14, one touch to go, and the maestro gone · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

Livorno, the city of fencing. On a rainy November evening in the fencing club the épée final stood at 14–14 when the hit indicator on the piste went dark, and for a minute the lights went out too. When the light returned, Maestro Vittorio, who had taught in the hall for forty years, was nowhere to be seen. Eight others were in the club. Vittorio was found dead; the deciding touch was never fenced.

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 trophy, the painting, the flagpole, the desk, the bookcase, the cabinet, the suit of armour, the scoreboards, the lockers, the coat rack, the shower, the mirror, the cooler box, the counter, the table and the espresso machine) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the stools and the benches can.
  3. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a fencer” = the person in the row directly above was a fencer, 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

  • Arturo (épée fencer, the club's veteran): The mirror was somewhere in his row.
  • Bianca (foil fencer, the junior champion): She was the only woman beside the cooler box. She was the southernmost person in her area.
  • Cosimo (épée fencer, the favourite of the evening): A scoreboard was somewhere in his column. A chair was somewhere in his area.
  • Delia (foil fencer, a guest from Pisa): She was alone with a man. She was beside the painting.
  • Elio (épée fencer, the maestro's nephew): Exactly two rows north of him was a fencer. There was no bench in his area.
  • Fulvia (runs the club bar): She was the only one beside a chair.
  • Guido (the club's armourer): He was not in a corner of his area.
  • Heidi (the referee, from Bolzano): The coat rack was somewhere in her row. She was in a corner of her area.
  • Vittorio (the maestro): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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