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Crime-scene logic cases

Under the Hamam Dome

Sarajevo hamam · a sevdah evening · the domes carry every voice to one square · Difficulty: Inspector 8 · 10×10

A sevdah evening in a restored Ottoman hamam in Sarajevo’s old town: the singer’s voice drifted under the domes while the guests wandered between the warm marble halls. When the lights came up, Vedad, the owner of the bathhouse, was found dead in the West Halvet. In a hamam every sound travels – and the domes carry it to exactly one place.

Rules

  1. The domes carry every sound to exactly one place: the square mirrored through the centre of the bathhouse (row 11 − r, column 11 − c). Whoever was on that square heard the speaker – and nobody else did.
  2. Hearing is mutual: if she heard him, he heard her. The victim could be heard too. Helper: select a square on the board and its echo square is outlined.
  3. Nobody heard the murderer: the murderer’s echo square was empty. So everybody who heard somebody is innocent.
  4. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  5. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the counters, the shelf, the fountain, the staircase, the pillar, the lantern, the tea tray, the curtains, the coat rack, the marble basins, the fireplace, the cauldron, the firewood, the barrel, the crate) cannot be occupied; the benches, the stools, the carpets and the heated marble slab can.
  6. 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; “north of Amra” = in a row above hers.
  7. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Amra (manageress of the hamam): The crate was somewhere in her column. Somebody else was beside the same pillar as her.
  • Bakir (bath attendant): A carpet was somewhere in his column.
  • Cvijeta (tea server): She was in the Tea Corner.
  • Dino (accordionist): He was in the Šadrvan Hall.
  • Emina (sevdah singer): She heard somebody.
  • Faruk (saz player): There was no woman in his area.
  • Gojko (architect of the restoration): The barrel was not in his area.
  • Hajrija (journalist): She and Emina were on the same diagonal.
  • Ilma (historian): She heard somebody. She was lying on the heated marble slab.
  • Vedad (owner of the hamam): The victim. He was found in the West Halvet, on a bench – alone with the murderer.

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