The Last Morna

Mindelo, São Vicente · carnival week, after midnight · the last morna of the night · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

Mindelo, São Vicente island, the Friday of carnival week. In a small harbourside club Dulce’s house band played the old mornas of Cape Verde until late at night. Valentim, the record producer from Lisbon, had come to hear the band; by midnight almost everyone had a reason to be angry with him. After the last morna he was found dead. Nobody left the club.

Rules

1. On the Stage there could only be musicians.
2. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
3. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the parasol, the telescope, the tables, the counter, the tree, the microphone, the barrels, the music stand, the sink, the piano, the mirror, the dressmaker’s dummies, the well, the stove and the coat rack) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the bench and the stool can.
4. 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.
5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Adilson (cavaquinho player): He was not alone in his area.
• Benvinda (morna singer): A barrel was somewhere in her row.
• Celestino (violinist): Somebody else in his area was beside the microphone.
• Dulce (owner of the club): The microphone was somewhere in her column.
• Edmilson (barman): The sink was somewhere in his column.
• Filomena (cook): She was the only one beside the stove.
• Gilberto (fisherman, carnival drummer): He was not in a corner of his area. A chair was somewhere in his row.
• Hermínia (carnival costume maker): Exactly one row south of her was a member of staff.
• Valentim (record producer from Lisbon): The victim. He was found in the Dressing Room, beside a dressmaker’s dummy – alone with the murderer.

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