League Night

A small town in Ohio, Tuesday evening · the bowling league's last frames · a missing score sheet · Difficulty: Officer 4 · 8×8

Tuesday is league night in the four-lane Starlite Lanes bowling hall, on the main street of a small Ohio town. Vicky, the league secretary, told the owner that somebody’s averages did not add up. At half past nine the lights went out, and Vicky was nowhere to be found. Vicky was found dead; nobody checked the averages any more.

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 pin decks, the scoreboard, the arcade cabinet, the pinball machine, the ball racks, the counters, the shelves, the trophy and the vending machine) cannot be occupied; the benches, the chairs and the bar stool can.
3. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a league bowler” = the person in the row directly above was a league bowler, in any column.
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

• Arnold (owner of the alley): He was not beside a shelf. The bar stool was somewhere in his row.
• Brandy (runs the snack bar): She was beside the bar stool.
• Chuck (pinsetter mechanic): The trophy was somewhere in his column. He was beside a ball rack.
• Destiny (captain of the Alley Cats): She was in the Arcade.
• Elvis (mail carrier, Alley Cats): He was alone in his area.
• Flo (hairdresser, Pin Pals): A bench was somewhere in her column. She was on Lanes 3–4.
• Gus (car dealer, captain of the Pin Pals): Exactly one row north of him was somebody beside a shelf. Somebody else in his area was beside a shelf.
• Vicky (the league secretary): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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