Scenedoku
Crime-scene logic cases
Rum Punch at Sundown
Bridgetown, Barbados · a sunset cruise on a schooner · the murderer was the only one alone · Difficulty: Inspector 8 · 9×9
Bridgetown, Barbados, a Friday in March. The schooner Sea Grape slipped out of the Careenage for its sunset cruise up the west coast: rum punch, a steelpan on deck, a swim stop off Holetown. Vernice, heiress of an old rum distillery, had chartered her for the evening. As the sun sank into the sea, the music stopped – Vernice had been found dead. Nobody had seen a thing.
Rules
- Here the murderer was not alone with the victim: the victim collapsed in company, and the murderer was the only person alone in an area.
- Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
- “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the anchor, the coil of rope, the winch, the dinghy, the barrel, the stove, the sink, the cooler box, the table, the lantern, the bar counter, the steelpan, the lifebuoy, the telescope, the helm, the globe, the chest, the parasol and the ladder) cannot be occupied; the hammock, the bench, the sofa, the bar stools, the deckchairs and the bunk can.
Statements
- Akeem (the skipper): He was with Brianna.
- Brianna (the first mate): A deckchair was somewhere in her column.
- Charmaine (the bartender): She was beside the bar counter.
- Dwayne (the deckhand and cook): Of the other people in his area, exactly one was a man.
- Everton (a cricket commentator): The bench was somewhere in his column.
- Fayola (a calypso singer): The bar counter was somewhere in her area.
- Gail (a hotel owner): Exactly one row north of her was a male crew member. There was a man in her area.
- Hartley (a property developer): The anchor was not in his area.
- Vernice (heiress of a rum distillery): The victim. She was found at the Rum Bar, on a bar stool.