Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Night Before the Derby

Basketball arena in Kaunas · the night before the derby · the floor was polished and the director was gone · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

In Kaunas, on the night before tomorrow’s derby, the arena did not sleep. At two in the morning Vaiva, the club’s director, was nowhere to be found. Nine people were still in the building: the team and the arena staff, a journalist, the sponsor and the derby referee. Vaiva was found dead. The derby was played without her.

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 lockers, the showers, the camera, the tables, the shelf, the trophy, the vending machine, the ball baskets, the cart, the cones, the potted plants, the TV, the espresso machine, the counter, the statue and the ticket booth) cannot be occupied; the benches, the chairs, the massage table, the stools, the sofa and the armchair can. An armchair is not a chair.
  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 southernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further down.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – her square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Aistė (team physio): She was beside the ticket booth.
  • Benediktas (the head coach): Somebody else in his area was beside a cone. He was beside a bench.
  • Česlovas (the captain): He was the southernmost person in his area.
  • Dalia (arena manager): A chair was somewhere in her column.
  • Eglė (scoreboard operator): She was beside a stool.
  • Faustas (the caretaker): He was the only man beside the trophy. The ticket booth was somewhere in his column.
  • Gintarė (sports journalist): She was beside a bench.
  • Henrikas (the main sponsor): Somebody else in his area was sitting on a stool. Exactly one row north of him was somebody beside a ball basket.
  • Ignas (referee of the derby): A cone was somewhere in his column. A bench was somewhere in his row.
  • Vaiva (the club director): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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