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Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Balaton Beach

A beach on Lake Balaton · an August afternoon in 1978 · the lángos went cold · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 10×10

Lake Balaton, August 1978. The beach was full to the last sun lounger: holidaymakers from Budapest, tourists from the GDR who met their relatives from the West here every summer, the smell of lángos drifting from the buffet and pedalos rocking on the water. Valér, the beach manager, knew everybody's little secrets – who let rooms without a permit, who changed Deutschmarks under the poplars. In the afternoon heat he was found at the boat rental, beside the ticket booth. Everyone on the beach gives a statement – find out who was alone with him.

Rules

  1. Exactly two people were sitting on pedalos.
  2. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  3. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the reeds, the water, the lamp, the rubber dinghy, the parasols, the ticket booth, the poplars, the locker, the table, the slide, the shower, the counter, the fridge and the bicycle) cannot be occupied; the pedalos, the rowing boat, the sun loungers, the benches, the stools and the swings can.
  4. 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.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Ágota (a teacher): The counter was somewhere in her column. She was beside a parasol.
  • Balázs (an engineer): He was alone with a member of staff.
  • Csenge (a university student): She was not beside a bench.
  • Donát (a retired railwayman): Exactly one row north of him was an East German tourist.
  • Edda (a nurse from Leipzig): She was the only woman sitting on a pedalo.
  • Falk (a car mechanic from Dresden): He was the only one beside a poplar.
  • Gitta (the lángos maker): She was beside the counter.
  • Huba (the lifeguard): He was on the Pier.
  • Ildikó (the cashier): A pedalo was somewhere in her column.
  • Valér (the beach manager): The victim. He was found in the Boat Rental area, beside the ticket booth – alone with the murderer.

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