Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Island Ferry

Split–Hvar car ferry · an August morning · a body halfway across the channel · Difficulty: Officer 3 · 7×7

An August morning on the first car ferry from Split to Stari Grad on Hvar: the decks are full of holiday-makers, the cars stand nose to tail below and the café smells of fresh coffee. Halfway across the channel Vedran, the owner of a hotel in Hvar town, is found dead. The ferry docks in an hour.

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 helm, the lifebuoys, the counter, the espresso machine, the suitcases, the table and the cars) cannot be occupied; the deckchairs and the stools can. A corner of an area is a square of it that faces outwards (another area or the edge of the board) on a horizontal and on a vertical side.
  3. Directions refer to rows, not to the same column: “exactly one row south of her was somebody beside a suitcase” = somebody in the row directly below hers, in any column, was beside a suitcase.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Antonija (captain of the ferry): The helm was somewhere in her area.
  • Božo (deckhand): He was not in a corner of his area. He was not beside a lifebuoy.
  • Cvita (barista): She was in the last column.
  • Dujam (retired fisherman from Stari Grad): He was on the Sun Deck.
  • Ena (lavender grower from Hvar): She was beside a stool. Exactly one row south of her was somebody beside a suitcase.
  • Frane (estate agent from Split): A deckchair was somewhere in his column.
  • Vedran (hotel owner from Hvar town): The victim. He was found in the Passenger Lounge, beside a suitcase – alone with the murderer.

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