The Frozen Fair

Millpond Winter Fair · the last evening · fireworks at nine · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 12×12

Last evening of the Millpond Winter Fair. As the fireworks begin, the rink master Virgil is found dead on the bench of the skate hut. Twelve people were on the fairground: skaters, fair staff and visitors. Read the statements, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer: the killer was alone with Virgil in the skate hut – and then slipped out of the fair without being seen.

Rules

1. After the crime the murderer left the fair through one of the two gates (the main gate in the north or the car-park gate at the end of the boardwalk) without meeting anyone: every area they walked through was empty. Areas connect only where a door or opening is drawn. The area of the crime itself is where the murderer started – it does not have to be empty.
2. “Glided straight to the Christmas tree” = the skater was on the ice in the same row or column as the tree, with nothing but empty ice between them – no object in the way.
3. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
4. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with an object (trees, lanterns, the snowman, counters, barrels…) cannot be occupied; path squares, benches, sleds and the stool can – the gravel path is part of the Park, everything else there is snow.
5. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “he was north of her” = in a row further up, in any column; “east of him” = in a column further right, in any row.
6. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Amos (hockey player): He was the northernmost person on the ice.
• Bonnie (figure skater): She glided straight to the Christmas tree.
• Clive (ski instructor): He was exactly two rows north of Bonnie.
• Dakota (student): She was in a corner of the rink. Exactly one column west of her was a man.
• Elliot (postman): He was beside a lantern.
• Freya (tavern keeper): She was the only person beside a counter.
• Gilbert (fireworks master): He was beside the fireworks rack.
• Heidi (skate-hire assistant): She was in front of a door. Exactly three rows south of her was a man.
• Ivy (photographer): She was in the bottom row.
• Joel (sledger): He was sitting on a sled.
• Kitty (retired teacher): She was beside a barrel.
• Virgil (rink master): The victim. He was found on the bench of the Skate Hut – alone with the murderer.

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