The Cancelled Flight

The terminal of a small airport · the night the last flight was cancelled · nobody stayed on their feet who could sit · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

Just before midnight the fog closed in on the little airport, and the last flight of the day was cancelled. The stranded passengers and the night shift settled down in the terminal to wait for the morning – and after a day like that nobody stayed on their feet who did not have to: if a seat remained free in an area, everyone in that area was sitting. Shortly after two, Vikram, the airline’s station manager – the man who had announced the cancellation – was found dead in the Lounge, sitting in its only armchair. Nine people were in the terminal that night: five passengers and four members of the airport staff. One of them is the killer. Read every statement, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Vikram in the Lounge.

Rules

If a seat remained free in an area, everyone in that area was sitting.
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 counters, the suitcases, the luggage trolley, the security scanners, the table, the lamp, the potted plants, the departure boards, the vending machine, the sign, the shelves, the espresso machine, the café table) cannot be occupied; the seats – the chairs, the benches, the bar stools and the armchair – can: whoever is on the square of a seat was sitting.
Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of her 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

Amara (paediatrician on her way to a conference): There were exactly two other people in her area. Exactly one row north of her was a woman.
Bjorn (backpacker): He was not in a corner of his area. He was not beside a counter.
Chiara (violinist with a concert tomorrow): She was beside a shelf.
Deepak (software engineer): He was sitting.
Elif (lawyer who missed her connection): She was not sitting. A chair was somewhere in her column.
Farid (cleaner on the night shift): He was in the Concourse.
Giulia (barista of the café): She was the only woman beside a counter.
Hamza (security officer): He was not sitting.
Inga (check-in agent): She was in the Check-in Hall. She was with Deepak.
Vikram (the airline’s station manager): The victim. He was found in the Lounge, sitting in the armchair – alone with the murderer.

← Cases