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Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Garden Centre

A garden centre · a May morning · the owner was found at her own counter · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 8×8

In May the garden centre is at its busiest: the greenhouse is full of seedlings, the nursery beds are in bloom and the terrace cafe serves scones under the parasols. Viviane, the owner, had three employees in that morning – a gardener, a cashier and a delivery driver – and four customers were browsing somewhere between the beds and the shelves. Around eleven Viviane went into the shop to open the till. When Brendan came to take over from her, he found her dead beside the counter. The gate had been shut all morning for a delivery, so everybody who was inside was asked where they had been.

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 flower beds, the planter, the trees, the potted plant, the fountain, the counter, the wheelbarrow, the garden hose, the hedge, the handcart, the crate, the shelf, the parasol and the bistro table) cannot be occupied; the stool and the benches 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 is a woman, in any column.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Aoife (gardener): There was no other woman in her area.
  • Brendan (cashier): There was no woman in his area. The fountain was somewhere in his row.
  • Colm (delivery driver): He was the only one beside a flower bed.
  • Dympna (a retired teacher): Exactly one row north of her was a member of staff. There was no man in her area.
  • Euan (a landscape architect): The counter was somewhere in his row.
  • Fionnuala (a balcony gardener): She was sitting on a bench.
  • Gillies (a farmer from the hills): He was in the first column.
  • Viviane (owner of the garden centre): The victim. She was found in the Shop, beside the counter – alone with the murderer.

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