Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Night Pharmacy

All-night pharmacy · two in the morning · the bell rang and nobody came to the counter · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 9×9

The Golden Lion is the town’s only all-night pharmacy, and at two in the morning the counter should never stand empty. It stood empty: a customer rang three times, the back door was ajar, and Vanita, the pharmacist on duty, was gone. Nine people were in the building. Vanita was found dead; the customer waited in vain.

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 vending machine, the shelves, the scales, the counters, the desk, the potted plant, the cabinet, the microscope, the sink, the table, the crate, the fridge, the kettle and the lamp) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the benches, the stools, the armchairs and the sofa can. An armchair is not a chair.
  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 – her square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Arianne (customer, a young mother): She was the only woman beside the vending machine.
  • Becky (customer, a nurse after her shift): She was not in a corner of her area. A counter was somewhere in her area.
  • Cameron (customer, a taxi driver): He was in the Back Yard. He was beside a bench.
  • Danny (the lab technician): The cabinet was somewhere in his area. He was in a corner of his area.
  • Emerald (the pharmacy assistant): The microscope was somewhere in her column. A bench was somewhere in her row.
  • Fedra (the cashier): She was not beside a chair. She was the southernmost person in her area.
  • Gene (the wholesaler’s delivery driver): Exactly one row north of him was an outsider. He was right beside an area where nobody was.
  • Hank (the landlord, in for his rent): He was not on the Shop Floor. Somebody else in his area was beside a shelf.
  • Vanita (the duty pharmacist): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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