The Locked Wing

Ashcombe Manor · a stormy night · three keys, sixteen rooms · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

A storm has cut Ashcombe Manor off from the village. When the lightning stops, old Aunt Vida is found dead in the Tower Room, at the foot of its stairs. Sixteen people were in the east wing: the family, four house guests and the staff. The wing is a maze of locked doors – red locks on the family rooms, blue locks on the service rooms, gold locks on the tower – and everyone carries only the keys shown on their card. Read the statements, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer: alone with Vida in the Tower Room, with a key that opens its door.

Rules

1. Locked doors: the doors are drawn on the walls; a padlock shows the colour of its lock, a door without a padlock is open to everybody. Everyone came in through the Entrance Hall and can only be in a room they can reach from there through open doors and doors their own keys unlock. Nobody locked a door behind anyone.
2. Keys: the badges on a card show which keys that person carries – red (family wing), blue (service rooms), gold (tower) or none at all. A statement such as “a man with a blue key” refers to these badges.
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 furniture cannot be occupied, except the chairs, armchairs, the sofa, the chaise longue, the benches and the stool.
5. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row south of him” = in the row directly below, in any column.
6. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Ambrose (the baronet): He was alone in his area. Exactly one row south of him was a man with a blue key.
• Blanche (his wife): She was in column 14, with exactly one other person in her area.
• Constance (their daughter): She was alone in her area, not beside a statue.
• Duncan (their son): He was in the Long Gallery. Exactly one row north of him was a woman.
• Eugene (solicitor): He was in a corner of his area. There was a woman in his area.
• Florence (painter): She was beside a table, alone in her area.
• Godfrey (retired colonel): He was north of Henrietta, beside a potted plant.
• Henrietta (neighbour): She was the only one sitting on a chair. Exactly one row south of her was a man.
• Ignatius (butler): There was a man in his area. Exactly two rows south of him was a man with a blue key.
• Josephine (housekeeper): She was in the Library. There was a man in her area.
• Kingsley (footman): He was beside a crate. There was a man in his area.
• Lydia (cook): She was in the Kitchen. Exactly one row north of her was a woman.
• Mabel (lady’s maid): She was in column 15, not beside the mirror.
• Norman (chaplain): He was beside a candelabra. Exactly two rows north of him was a woman.
• Orson (gardener): He was beside a barrel. Exactly one row north of him was a member of staff with a blue key.
• Vida (the baronet’s aunt): The victim. She was found in the Tower Room, beside the stairs – alone with the murderer.

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