Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Flower Auction

Flower auction hall · before the five o’clock clock auction · the lots were on the belt and the auction master was gone · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

At the flower auction the clock starts at five in the morning, and by four the hall is already full of carts of flowers. This morning the conveyor belt ran, but nobody sat at the clock, and Veerle, the auctioneer, had vanished. Nine people were in the hall that night. Veerle was found dead. The auction was called off that day.

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 vending machine, the counter, the desks, the projection screen, the conveyor belt, the crates, the planters, the scales, the cart, the fridge, the tables, the espresso machine, the forklift, the bicycle and the tree) cannot be occupied; the benches, the chairs and the stools can.
  3. 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 was a woman, 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 – her square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Anouk (tulip grower): A table was somewhere in her area. She was beside a stool.
  • Bram (rose grower): The bicycle was somewhere in his area. A chair was somewhere in his column.
  • Cornelia (lily grower): A planter was somewhere in her row. There was a buyer in her area.
  • Daan (the clock operator): He was sitting in a chair.
  • Eva (the cold-store manager): She was in the Office. A bench was somewhere in her row.
  • Floris (the forklift driver): A chair was somewhere in his row. A desk was somewhere in his column.
  • Gerben (wholesale buyer): A stool was somewhere in his column. He was north of Anouk.
  • Hendrika (florist from Amsterdam): She was beside a chair. The espresso machine was somewhere in her area.
  • Veerle (the auction master): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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