Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Parc Fermé

Castelfiore, the second night of the Coppa delle Tre Colline · the classic cars locked in for the night · the chief scrutineer missing · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

Castelfiore, southern Tuscany. On the second evening of a three-day regularity rally the parc fermé came into force: the cars stay where they are, and nobody may touch them until morning. Valerio, the technical inspector, said that the number on one car’s chassis plate had been stamped twice – at dinner his chair was empty. Ten people were around the main square. Valerio was found dead. The morning start went ahead without him.

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 lamp, the counters, the suitcase, the clock, the table, the tyre stacks, the cars, the bistro table, the parasol, the fountain, the statue, the pillars, the ladder, the flagpole, the desk, the scoreboard, the fridge, the flower bed, the trees and the well) cannot be occupied; the benches, the armchair, the sofa, the chairs and the bar stools 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 – his square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Arianna (timekeeper): She was in a corner of her area. She was the only woman beside the flagpole.
  • Benedetto (route marshal): Exactly one row north of him was a female crew member. He was on the Piazza.
  • Costanza (press officer): She was in the Clock Tower.
  • Duccio (driver of a 1954 Lancia): The flower bed was somewhere in his area.
  • Elisabetta (Duccio’s navigator): She was in the Gelateria.
  • Filippo (driver of a 1952 barchetta): A chair was somewhere in his column. A car was somewhere in his area.
  • Giada (Filippo’s navigator): She was beside a chair.
  • Hannes (the hotel’s mechanic, from Bolzano): A pillar was somewhere in his column. He was the southernmost person in his area.
  • Isotta (the hotel’s owner): The armchair was somewhere in her row.
  • Valerio (the chief scrutineer): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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