Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

Margaret Island

Budapest, a summer evening · after the last show of the Musical Fountain · the island between two bridges · Difficulty: Inspector 8 · 12×12

Margaret Island lies in the Danube, two and a half kilometres of park. On summer evenings the Musical Fountain gives its last show at nine and the island slowly empties. That night the fountain played on, and Vencel, the engineer, did not answer his phone. Twelve people were on the island. Vencel was found dead; the fountain played until dawn.

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 waters, the cherry tree, the rock, the water tower, the table, the parasols, the bicycles, the planter, the microphone, the slide, the flower beds, the arches, the pillars, the statues, the trees, the scoreboard, the fountain, the lamps and the pool ladder) cannot be occupied; the bridge, the benches, the chairs, the podium, the pools and the deckchairs 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 was a woman, in any column; “the northernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further up.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – his square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Adél (runner): She was beside a bench. She was the only woman beside a pillar.
  • Bertalan (swimmer): He was at the Franciscan Ruin. There was no other man in his area.
  • Csenge (actress of the festival): She was at the Centenary Monument.
  • Dénes (sound engineer): He was not in a corner of his area.
  • Eszter (receptionist): She was not beside a bench.
  • Fülöp (waiter on the terrace): He was the only one beside a bicycle. He was at the Grand Hotel.
  • Gabriella (bride-to-be): She was the only one beside the pool ladder.
  • Henrik (wedding photographer): The fountain was somewhere in his column.
  • Ilona (tourist): Exactly one row north of her was somebody beside the fountain. A flower bed was somewhere in her column.
  • Jakab (pedal-car renter): The rock was somewhere in his area. He was the southernmost person in his area.
  • Kinga (gardener): She was the only woman sitting on a bench.
  • Vencel (the fountain’s engineer): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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