The "Black Stories" crime riddles thread

Started by Kumpel, Mon 13/03/2017 23:07:23

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Mandle

Case#56: The Unwelcome Detective

3:35 PM:

As you enter the room, the scene of the crime, the policemen scowl but back away and allow you access.

The deceased lies on the floor. He has been beaten to death it seems: He has massive bruising to his head and upper body.

Looking around the room you take in the mess that seems to have happened during the struggle, illuminated by the afternoon sunlight shafting in through the large uncurtained windows of the apartment:

The TV screen has been smashed.
The coffee table has been overturned and one of its legs has broken off.
A potted plant lies on its side on the floor.
A lamp has been knocked over and the bulb is broken.
A painting has fallen from the wall and lies face-down on the floor.
The sofa has been knocked out of position as evidenced by the dents in the carpet its legs left behind.
The bookcase has fallen, spilling books across the floor.

The police coroner tells you that the victim died about 10 hours ago.

You immediately tell the police inspector in charge that this is not the scene of the murder.

How did you know?


You may now investigate anything mentioned in the above description of the crime scene and more detailed information will be provided.

An example post: "Is the plant's pot cracked or otherwise broken?"

To which the answer would be: "No"

Up to five questions per person per post will be answered.

The game is afoot!

Yes

Was the soil in the pot moist?
Was he the only victim in the property?
Was the soil in the pot on the floor? (Some spilled on the floor, yes)


No

Was the detective killer?
Was the man known to the detective?
Was there mud from the pot on the victim?
Did the detective think that was not the scene of the crime because there was not any soil on the victim from the overturned pot?
Are there any footprints in the soil?


To avoid wild goose chases I'm just going to move any questions that would have no bearing on the solution to a list called:

Irrelevant

Are there any traces of blood in the room?
Did the victim bleed as he died?
Does the victim have any extraordinary body features? (fat, huge, etc)?
Was the knocked over lamp only lamp in the room?
Was the TV turned on?
Is the broken leg to the coffee table missing?
Could it have been used as the weapon?
Had there been an earthquake 10 hours prior?
Were the curtains anywhere to be seen?
Was he clothed?
Did the detective expect soil to be dry?
Is there a clock in the room?
Is there a safe in the wall where the painting fell from?

Riaise

Was the plant itself still in the pot?
Does the plant have flowers?
Was the lamp switched on?

dayowlron

I would guess that the primary clues were the fact that it is afternoon now and he has been dead for about 10 hours would mean that it was either dark when he died or the lamp was on so the question asked by Riase about the lamp could be a good clue, but....
Is there any neon signs that could have lit up the room?
However Just because it was dark wouldnt mean the murder did not happen there.
is the painting torn?
Pro is the opposite of Con                       Kids of today are so much different
This fact can clearly be seen,                  Don't you know?
If progress means to move forward         Just ask them where they are from
Then what does congress mean?             And they tell you where you can go.  --Nipsey Russell

Mandle

Yes

Was the soil in the pot moist?
Was he the only victim in the property?
Was the soil in the pot on the floor? (Some spilled on the floor, yes)
Was the plant itself still in the pot?
Does the plant have flowers? (It is a sunflower, yes)


No

Was the detective killer?
Was the man known to the detective?
Was there mud from the pot on the victim?
Did the detective think that was not the scene of the crime because there was not any soil on the victim from the overturned pot?
Are there any footprints in the soil?


To avoid wild goose chases I'm just going to move any questions that would have no bearing on the solution to a list called:

Irrelevant

Are there any traces of blood in the room?
Did the victim bleed as he died?
Does the victim have any extraordinary body features? (fat, huge, etc)?
Was the knocked over lamp only lamp in the room?
Was the TV turned on?
Is the broken leg to the coffee table missing?
Could it have been used as the weapon?
Had there been an earthquake 10 hours prior?
Were the curtains anywhere to be seen?
Was he clothed?
Did the detective expect soil to be dry?
Is there a clock in the room?
Is there a safe in the wall where the painting fell from?
Was the lamp switched on?
Is there any neon signs that could have lit up the room?
is the painting torn?

The Last To Know

Did the victim really die around 5:30 AM?
Did the victim wear sleeping clothes?

tzachs

Did somebody water the plant after the murder took place? (if that's true, then I'm guessing the detective somehow knew that, and then figured out the murderer dragged the victim after the plant watering, otherwise the person who came to water the plant would have seen the body and called earlier).

If not, then some more questions:
Was there something in the pot that shouldn't have been there?
Did the detective have knowledge about sunflowers and how to care for them?
Was there more than one murderer?
Is the scene the victim's apartment?


Stupot

I think there's a relationship between the sunflower and the fact that the windows are curtainless.

Was the sunflower open?
Was the sunflower closed?
We're there any sunflower seeds in the crime scene?
Was the plant pot upended with the soil only just spilling out onto the floor (suggesting it was placed there gently rather than knocked over in a struggle)?
Are ‘we' actually a detective?

Mandle

Yes

Was the soil in the pot moist?
Was he the only victim in the property?
Was the soil in the pot on the floor? (Some spilled on the floor, yes)
Was the plant itself still in the pot?
Does the plant have flowers? (It is a sunflower, yes)
Did the victim really die around 5:30 AM? (Sometime around dawn anyway according to the coroner)
Did the detective have knowledge about sunflowers?
Is the scene the victim's apartment?
Was the sunflower open?
Are ‘we' actually a detective? (Yes, but like a fiction "detective" who just sticks their nose in and gets away with it. Not a police detective)


No

Was the detective killer?
Was the man known to the detective?
Was there mud from the pot on the victim?
Did the detective think that was not the scene of the crime because there was not any soil on the victim from the overturned pot?
Are there any footprints in the soil?
Was there something in the pot that shouldn't have been there?
Was the plant pot upended with the soil only just spilling out onto the floor (suggesting it was placed there gently rather than knocked over in a struggle)? (No, it looks pretty natural)
Did somebody water the plant after the murder took place?


To avoid wild goose chases I'm just going to move any questions that would have no bearing on the solution to a list called:

Irrelevant

Are there any traces of blood in the room?
Did the victim bleed as he died?
Does the victim have any extraordinary body features? (fat, huge, etc)?
Was the knocked over lamp only lamp in the room?
Was the TV turned on?
Is the broken leg to the coffee table missing?
Could it have been used as the weapon?
Had there been an earthquake 10 hours prior?
Were the curtains anywhere to be seen?
Was he clothed?
Did the detective expect soil to be dry?
Is there a clock in the room?
Is there a safe in the wall where the painting fell from?
Was the lamp switched on?
Is there any neon signs that could have lit up the room?
is the painting torn?
Did the victim wear sleeping clothes?
Was there more than one murderer?
Were there any sunflower seeds in the crime scene? (Probably Mulder wasn't the killer)

Stupot

Despite being on the floor, was the sunflower in the daylight when the detective saw it?

Mandle

Quote from: Stupot on Sun 21/01/2018 04:30:53
Despite being on the floor, was the sunflower in the daylight when the detective saw it?

Yes!!! Very much so!!!

Stupot

Was the victim's body in the sunlight?
Was the victim sunburnt?

Guess
I think maybe it was a hot sunny day so you'd expect someone who's been in the sun for ten hours to be heavily burnt [although maybe sunburn work differently for dead people]. However our victim had no burns (or less than expected burns), thus proving that his body had been placed there some time after death.

janleht

Was the flowers facing wrong direction in relation to sunlight?

Mandle

#2252
Quote from: janleht on Sun 21/01/2018 21:35:48
Was the flowers facing wrong direction in relation to sunlight?

WINNER!!!

Indeed, the sunflower was still facing mostly away from the sunlight coming in through the big glass windows and our detective knew that if it had actually been on the floor there for 10 hours it would have turned itself to face the light source much more.

This told him that it was most likely that the man had been killed elsewhere 10 hours ago and then moved here much more recently and then the "evidence" of a struggle here had been staged.


This is not my own original puzzle. It comes directly from an episode of the Japanese anime "Detective Conan" AKA "Case Closed":


dayowlron

well what if he killed the guy there then destroyed the apartment by searching for something he had that the murderer needed back? The pot could have been knocked over during the search instead of knocked over during the struggle. Just thinking out loud.
Pro is the opposite of Con                       Kids of today are so much different
This fact can clearly be seen,                  Don't you know?
If progress means to move forward         Just ask them where they are from
Then what does congress mean?             And they tell you where you can go.  --Nipsey Russell

Mandle

Quote from: dayowlron on Sun 21/01/2018 23:24:02
well what if he killed the guy there then destroyed the apartment by searching for something he had that the murderer needed back? The pot could have been knocked over during the search instead of knocked over during the struggle. Just thinking out loud.

Pretty unlikely though that he would break the TV screen, overturn a coffee table and break one of its legs off, etc. during such a search. And also why would he be doing the search many hours after he did the murder? I guess he could have realized much later that he needed to find something in the apartment but wouldn't it be incredibly risky to go back after so long? And wouldn't the search be more widespread?

Anyway, it was a trick from a show aimed mostly at kids so...

Which brings up an interesting cultural point actually:

In western countries we have child detective stories like The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew aimed at the 8-14 year old audience but the crimes in these stories are rarely (if ever) violent. They are usually thefts, smugglers, and at worst maybe kidnapping. The bad guys might threaten violence by holding someone at gunpoint or something but people rarely (if ever) end up getting hurt, including the bad guy(s).

But in Japan they have Conan, also aimed at about the same age demographic, but in this show someone gets straight up murdered in every episode! And right in the first scene! And often in violent ways: shot, stabbed, crushed under a heavy falling object, killed in a car crash because of tampering etc.

And Japanese kids and parents are fine with this. In fact many families watch the show together and have a great time trying to figure out the mystery first.

I doubt the show would be acceptable by western TV station or viewer standards. Probably why it's never caught on in the western world despite being quite an excellent show.

janleht

Yay :)
I think that was a good puzzle and something that could happen IRL too.
Although the "uncurtained windows" sounded so suspicious that maybe it was too big of a hint.

Mandle

Quote from: janleht on Mon 22/01/2018 13:26:16
Yay :)
I think that was a good puzzle and something that could happen IRL too.
Although the "uncurtained windows" sounded so suspicious that maybe it was too big of a hint.

Cheers!

Well, it was a one-trick puzzle so I felt it didn't need a lot of hit-and-miss random questions to bog it down. My idea was also that the players had a kind of "detective vision" like in many sleuth games where they could pretty much glance at things and either see a "sparkly" or discount them as unimportant, hence the hints about the windows and the "Irrelevant" list.

The time it took to solve was pretty in-line with the complexity level (low-medium) of the puzzle I felt so it was probably fairly well balanced.

Good job solving it by the way!

Over to whoever comes up with one next!

Mandle

Case#57: Tech Support

As a tech support worker on a phone service for a range of obscure software products you don't usually get a call like this:

Caller: "HELP!!! I'M C-C-COVERED IN BLOOD AND I D-DON'T KNOW W-W-WHY!!!"

(Players are limited to one response to the caller per post. The GM (me) will decide if responses are eligible as serious replies to the caller. The round will be only the phone conversation as it plays out.)

Cassiebsg

- Have you tried to turn the computer off and then on again? (roll) (laugh)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Mandle

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Sun 11/03/2018 14:16:17
- Have you tried to turn the computer off and then on again? (roll) (laugh)

Haha... somebody had to and you took it upon yourself...

Now that that's out of the way... (laugh)

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