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Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

Night at the Museum

Marlow Museum · late opening · the lights go out at ten · Difficulty: Inspector 6 · 10×10

Late opening at the Marlow Museum. At ten the lights go out for the evening’s “night walk” – and when they come back, Verity, the head curator, lies dead in the Egyptian Gallery, next to the sarcophagus. Nine people were in the building: two night guards, two curators and five visitors. One of them is the killer. Read every statement, find everyone’s square on the floor plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Verity in the Egyptian Gallery.

Rules

  1. The alarm log: after the crime the murderer walked from the Egyptian Gallery to one of the two exits – the main entrance in the Lobby or the terrace door of the Café – without meeting anyone: every area they walked through was empty. Areas connect only where a door is drawn. The Egyptian Gallery itself is where the murderer started – it does not have to be empty.
  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 (statues, the sarcophagus, the skeleton, paintings, crates, counters…) cannot be occupied; the benches and the chairs can. A corner of an area is a square of that area with two outer sides.
  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; “north of Bea” = in a row further up, in any column.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Aldo (night guard): He was south of Edwin. He was alone in his area.
  • Bea (night guard): She was in the Storeroom.
  • Cosmo (curator): He was beside a bench.
  • Delphi (curator): Exactly one row north of her was a female visitor. She was in the Armoury.
  • Edwin (student): He was beside a bench.
  • Fenella (retired teacher): There was exactly one other person in her area. Exactly one row north of her was a female visitor.
  • Gaston (art dealer): He was beside a statue. Exactly one row south of him was a woman.
  • Hilary (journalist): She was not beside a bench. Exactly two rows north of her was a man.
  • Isidore (collector): He was beside a counter. He was north of Edwin.
  • Verity (head curator): The victim. She was found in the Egyptian Gallery, next to the sarcophagus – alone with the murderer.

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