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Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Ruin Pub

A ruin pub in Budapest · a Friday night in July · the table football fell silent · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 8×8

Budapest, the old Jewish quarter, a Friday night in July. In the courtyard of a crumbling tenement house the guests sit in a sawn-open Trabant and in a bathtub lined with cushions, the DJ is warming up in the dance hall, and the bar has just tapped a fresh barrel. Vazul, the owner, had announced that he would sell the house to an investor at the end of the summer – not everybody was happy about that. Shortly before midnight the clatter of the table football on the gallery stopped, and Vazul was found lying beside the table. Everyone who was in the pub gives a short statement – find out who was alone with 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 bar counter, the barrels, the potted plants, the lamps, the table-football table, the crate, the loudspeaker, the bicycles, the sign and the DJ deck) cannot be occupied; the armchair, the bar stools, the sofas, the Trabant and the bathtub can.
  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 is a woman, in any column.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Abigél (the bartender): She was in the Bar.
  • Botond (the DJ): He was beside the DJ deck. Somebody in his area was sitting on a sofa.
  • Csongor (the bouncer): There was no barrel in his area.
  • Dalma (a university student): She was the only woman beside the bathtub. She was alone with somebody sitting in the Trabant.
  • Ernő (a regular, retired taxi driver): There was exactly one other person in his area.
  • Fruzsina (a food blogger): She was in the last column.
  • Gyöngyi (a tour guide): Exactly one row north of her was a member of staff.
  • Vazul (the owner of the pub): The victim. He was found in the Gallery, beside the table-football table – alone with the murderer.

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