Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Silvester Ball

The castle above Vaduz · New Year’s Eve 1912, midnight · a black-and-white ball on a chequered floor · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

The last night of 1912 in the castle above Vaduz. Vinzent, the castle steward, gave a black-and-white ball in the newly restored Knights’ Hall: everyone wore a single colour, and on the chequered marble floor kept to the squares of that colour. When the bells rang midnight, Vinzent was found dead in the Fireplace Room. Nine people were in the castle. The midnight waltz was never danced.

Rules

  1. The floor is a chessboard of black and white marble squares (R1C1 is white, the colours alternate): whoever was dressed in black was on a black square, whoever was dressed in white on a white square.
  2. The colour of each person’s costume is shown on their card. Whoever was on a chair, a bench, the sofa or an armchair counts as being on that square.
  3. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  4. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the pillar, the tables, the candelabra, the Christmas tree, the piano, the fireplace…) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the benches, the sofa and the armchairs can. An armchair is not a chair. A corner of an area is a square of that area that borders the outside (another area or the edge of the board) on one horizontal and one vertical side.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Angelika (the steward’s wife): She was in the Gallery.
  • Burgi (the steward’s daughter): Somebody else in her area was sitting in a chair. She was alone with a woman.
  • Christoph (forestry student): He was the only man beside the staircase.
  • David (notary): A table was somewhere in his column.
  • Elisabeth (schoolteacher): She was with Burgi. She was sitting on a seat (an armchair, a bench, a chair or the sofa).
  • Fidelis (bandmaster): There was no other man in his area.
  • Gerold (footman): He was sitting on an armchair or a bench.
  • Hildegard (cook): She was not in the Tower Room.
  • Ina (chambermaid): She and David were on the same diagonal.
  • Vinzent (the castle steward, the host): The victim. He was found in the Fireplace Room, beside the fireplace – alone with the murderer.

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