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"I'm on the Case" (Lateral thinking puzzler #3) Sorry for the delay!

Quacker2·4/17/2015, 12:47:45 AM·6 votes·1,462 views

Sorry for the enormous delay, I sort of forgot about this thread, but am here to revive it. Thank you drathturtle. I hope that you guys like this one the most! I included champion picks to go with the story for entertainment reasons as well (post if you like this idea).

ALSO, I WOULD RECOMMEND REFRAINING FROM VIEWING OTHER COMMENTS IF YOU WANT TO SOLVE THIS MYSTERY ON YOUR OWN.

Answer to Puzzler #2: "switch horses, that way you are making your opponent lose."

A lot of you guys got it right, Nice Work! Also for this next puzzle (and the next few, I am experimenting) assume that you are a detective.

It is a dark and stormy night at sea. With the waves so strong, youCaitlyn are practically clinging to your bed. Anyway, you are on your way to Great Britain from the Boston coast in an old -fashioned ship. As you finally manage to drift off and the storm calms down, a gunshot breaks the silence. Horrified, you run to the captain's quarters on the top level of the ship. As you are drying off, you notice the door cracked open with the captainGangplank fast asleep. You wake him up instantly and tell him that you heard a gunshot and you have no idea who would attempt such a thing. He replies to you, saying to lead the way.

Fortunately, the gunshot appeared to come from an area not too far from the captain's cabin. So you and the captain left the cabin and went to a nearby corridor that housed other passengers. The first two cabins down the hall were open and empty, the second two cabins were open with a few men playing poker, but the last one on the right was locked. Finding this a little bit suspicious, the captain takes out a master key looped to his belt (that works on all the doors on board) and opens it. Inside the room is the corpse of businessman Walter RobertsTaric . There is a deep, blood puncture hole in his chest and there is no sign of a pulse. He is dead. The room itself though is pretty ordinary, but really messy. One bed with the sheets and pillows sprawled out on the floor, a tipped over chair, and a few papers on the floor by the door. Clearly there was some kind of struggle.

Because you and the captain got here so quickly and this is the only corridor of cabins on the top deck, you figure that the culprit must be somewhere on this floor. You would have seen the culprit in the storm anyway. So you and the captain advance to the remaining cabins of the corridor.

The first suspect Thomas Howe Nasus lets you into his room after you knock on the door. His room is also pretty normal, with a few things overturned from the storm. When questioned, he reveals that he did hear the gunshot, but was too afraid to leave the room. When asked what he was doing, he said that he was writing a letter. You go to see the letter and see that it was written to a loved one named AnneAnnie in nice cursive writing.

The second suspect you interrogate, Lucy CarmichaelMissFortune is extremely nervous about being questioned. She claims that she was walking back from get a drink at the "Drunk Bunk" where she met some fellow friends on board the ship. She said that she heard the gunshot when she was on her way back. The door to her room, however, was found to be unlocked. Inside, though, there was nothing special. At her desk was an enormous blot with a vivid red hue. When asked about it, she replied "oh that is some of my spilled hair dye....how else would I get my hair like this?" Not wanting to find out, you reluctantly leave her desk alone.

The third suspect's door was locked. The captain uses his key to unlock the door where Eddy KingstonEzreal was found asleep and practically falling off the bed. Eddy tells you that he went to bed early since he got in a heated fight with Thomas Howe that afternoon. He said that he did not hear the gunshot, but was glad not to. "I am horrified of blood." A quick search of his room reveals a table tipped over, a few pillows on the floor, and an opened drawer in the back corner of the room. In the drawer is a pistol! with a bullet still loaded and ready to fire. Shocked, you sneak the pistol into your pocket and leave with the captain without another word.

At this point, you and the captain are back in your own cabin, where you discuss the suspects. "Well it has to have been one of them, no one else was close enough to the scene of the crime." After a few minutes of silence you get an epiphany. So you go to your suspect and tell him..."You are under arrest for the murder of Walter Roberts!"

Who did you suspect, and why?

Like always, submit feedback, and do tell if you like the long stories like this one or shorter puzzlers like before.

17 Comments

CerberusLycan4/17/2015, 1:19:32 AM5 votes

I always feel like I'm going to miss something obvious during these things, but here goes, I guess.

It was Thomas Howe (or should we call him by his real name; Susan?) because his alibi is that he was writing a letter during a storm which evidently rocked the entire boat. How is one supposed to produce "nice cursive writing" during something like that? Thomas had gotten into a heated conflict with Eddy earlier, and he was left with such rustled jimmies that he decided to murder somebody else and frame the crime on Eddy.

As for the puzzler itself, it looked almost intimidatingly long, but it was rather decently-written, and wasn't altogether hard to get through. This is only the first thread of yours that I've seen, but unless you notice a sharp drop-off in participation in this one compared to shorter, previous ones, you should go with what you feel like doing.

Nucleophilic atk4/17/2015, 12:49:00 AM2 votes

Teemo because he is the devil.

2000boxes4/17/2015, 4:53:53 AM1 votes

i think it was the nasus guy, thomas howe. How do you have neat writing on a bumby boat

Chocolatine4/17/2015, 5:18:57 AM1 votes

I think it was the CAPTAINGangplank ! Who else could have locked the door behind! Beside, sleeping with your door ajar is just messed up if you ask me.

Tentacle Love4/17/2015, 6:07:21 AM1 votes

Pretty sure it has to be Thomas Howe, unless he's somehow able to write in incredible cursive during those crazy storm conditions where everything was in disarray.

Sirsir4/17/2015, 1:00:39 PM1 votes

Nasus has no alibi, the letter could have been written anytime (especially now looking at others posts, dammit) and him and Ed/Ez had gotten into it earlier, if he was too sleepy to hear the gunshot he was easily too sleepy to hear someone break into his room and stow the gun.

And its obviously not Ez faking it since anyone with half a brain knows not to leave a gun in an open drawer after shooting someone with a detective on board.

DrathTurtle3144/17/2015, 4:04:11 PM1 votes

So you go to your suspect and tell him...

So we can eliminate Lucy MissFortune immediately

We know that the door was locked when you arrived which means that either someone used a key, or was in the room still. Since the latter case was not allowed for, we assume that either the culprit stole the dead man's cabin key or had a master key. If the latter case is true, then we implicate the captain Gangplank. If the former case is true then we have to look at other possible evidence. We know that Eddy Ezreal has a pistol and that the pistol was loaded. "Nice cursive writing" would have been difficult to achieve if writing at sea during a storm, calling Thomas's Nasus alibi into question. We also have to consider that Eddy's door was locked. Sleeping with your door locked is not overly suspicious, but we did find it suspicious that the dead man's door was locked, so... also this means that for Eddy to have a gun it had to be his, or belong to someone who had a key that worked for that room. The captain Gangplank has a master key...

The only reason I have not to suspect the captain is that you woke him up. If you woke up to the sound of a gunshot and ran to the captain's quarters, he wouldn't have had time to get back and fall asleep. If you woke up, put some pants on, then ran to the captain's quarters then maybe...

I think that there is enough evidence in this scenario to convict Eddy, the gun in his locked room, his lack of alibi, etc. but I don't believe Eddy is guilty. I am going to say that the captain did it.

Mikal Pikal4/17/2015, 9:41:16 PM1 votes

I think Howe's lack of an alibi is a red herring. Just because he lied about the alibi does not mean he was the murderer.

I find Lucy interesting because her door was unlocked. Did she forget to lock it while she was out? Why was she nervous? Her story would be easy to verify though although she was alone when the murder happened.

Eddy is the second most obvious choice since the potential murder weapon was in his room. The problem is that the drawer with the gun was open, but the door to his room was locked. If he took the time to lock his door, why would he just throw the pistol in an open drawer and go to bed. It makes much more sense that the captain used his master key to open the door, but because he was rushing just threw the weapon in the drawer and ran out, locking the door behind him (the only one other than Eddy that could do that).

The captain is the most suspicious even though he apparently is not a suspect. The gunshot came from close to the captain quarters, yet he didn't wake up from the shot AND his door was creaked open. This is suspicious in and of itself but moreso when considering that it makes it more likely he should have woken up from the noise.

Assuming I am right (which I almost never am in these things) the only thing missing is some background for each character to come up with a motive. Each character should have a motive as well in my opinion. I find it most likely the captain did the murder, but I can't find a motive for any of them to kill some business man.

DrathTurtle3144/17/2015, 9:50:18 PM1 votes

As for the format of the post, I like the addition of champion icons, it really helps keep things straight because I have trouble keeping track of names of characters, but I like the problems with simple answers because I can know if someone has given a "right" answer and I can try to find either another "right" answer or a more creative answer. With a problem like this, I don't know if any of the reasoning provided to this point is "right" or if miss fortune did it...

delonix4/17/2015, 12:49:15 PM1 votes

I suspect the captain. Thomas Howe is probably lying about what he was doing during the storm, but the captain is the one with the master key, which would allow him, and only him, to lock the door of Walter's cabin after the murder. The captain then runs to his room, hides the murder weapon (or hides the weapon in Eddy's room, which seems less likely), and pretends to be asleep until you find his door open.

Sirsir4/17/2015, 2:41:03 AM1 votes

I'm going to attempt this... tomorrow, when its not 11 pm -.-

DrathTurtle3144/23/2015, 5:29:08 AM

can we get the answer if you aren't going to post the next puzzle? or if you are can you state a specific schedule and stick to it please, I miss these things. :)

Not trying to be mean, but I am checking the board daily and I'm always disappointing when I don't see one of these.