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Owl Radio · two in the morning · a nine-minute record, then silence · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 9×9

At Owl Radio the night belongs to Vian: at 2:04 he put on a nine-minute record and did not return to the microphone – dead air. Nine people were in the building that night: the night host, three other presenters, three crew members and two guests. Vian was found dead. The nine minutes proved endless.

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 radio mast, the desks, the computer, the counter, the safe, the espresso machine, the fridge, the loudspeaker, the mixing desk, the shelves, the DJ deck, the radio set, the microphones, the lamp, the TV and the potted plant) cannot be occupied; the bench, the chairs, the sofas, the armchair, the stools and the pouf 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 guest” = the person in the row directly above was a guest, 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

  • Aida (producer of the night show): She was the only one beside a chair.
  • Bruce (news editor): The radio mast was somewhere in his area. He was in a corner of his area.
  • Carter (sound engineer): He was in the Control Room. A chair was somewhere in his row.
  • Derek (the weekend host): The espresso machine was somewhere in his row. Exactly one row north of him was a guest.
  • Elisa (the news reader): The radio set was somewhere in her row. There was no man in her area.
  • Fedora (the morning-show host, in early): She was sitting on a seat (the armchair, the bench, a chair, the pouf, a sofa or a stool). She was the northernmost person in her area.
  • Gus (music critic, the night’s guest): He was not with Aida.
  • Harper (singer, in to promote her new record): She was the only one sitting on a sofa.
  • Vian (the night-show host): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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