The Boating Lake

A Victorian city park · a July Sunday in 1895 · three boats on the water · Difficulty: Officer 3 · 5×5

London, a hot Sunday afternoon in July 1895. In the city park the brass band was tuning up, three rowing boats drifted across the boating lake, the rose garden was in full bloom and the café terrace served lemonade in the shade. Vyvyan, a banker known for never leaving a tip, had taken the table on the terrace with his newspaper. When the band struck up at four o'clock, he was found slumped beside that table. Only four people had been near him, and each gave a one-sentence statement – find out who was alone with him.

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 table, the flower beds, the water, the buoy and the fountain) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the rowing boats and the bench can.
3. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Adelaide (a governess on her afternoon off): She was in the last column.
• Barnabas (a retired sea captain): He was sitting in a rowing boat.
• Clarissa (the flower girl at the park gate): She was in the first row.
• Dudley (the boat keeper): He was beside a flower bed. He was not beside the table.
• Vyvyan (a banker who never tipped): The victim. He was found on the Café Terrace, beside the table – alone with the murderer.

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