Case 013 · Paper trail
The Sunday Train
Read the scene and inspect both pieces of evidence. Make your accusation, then open the hints or solution when you’re ready.
Open the case & evidenceFree to read · nothing to fill in
The Station Hotel at Netherford kept two things with religious care: its register, and its opinion of itself. When the office cash-box went missing between Sunday supper and Monday breakfast — forty-one pounds and the Christmas Club money — the proprietress produced the register for the constable like a churchwarden producing the parish rolls.
Only one guest had arrived that Sunday: a Mr. J. Carew, who had signed in the neat, forward-leaning hand of a man used to signing things, and who had been all sympathy at breakfast. “A bad business,” he told the constable. “I came in off the London train last evening, took my supper, and slept like the dead — heard nothing. You’ll want my particulars; they’re in the book.”
They were. Here is the page.
DOCUMENT IN EVIDENCE · 01
| Date | Name | Address | Arrived | Room |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri. 16 Oct. | Miss E. Prowse | Cheltenham | 4.10 p.m., per motor-coach | 2 |
| Sat. 17 Oct. | Capt. & Mrs. R. Holt | Shrewsbury | 6.55 p.m., per 6.30 ex Birmingham | 4 |
| Sun. 18 Oct. | J. Carew | London, W. | 8.40 p.m., per 8.15 ex London | 6 |
And here, for completeness, is the framed notice that has hung in the hotel’s hall, beside the barometer, since the last week of September — as it hangs in the booking office across the road:
G.W.& M. RAILWAY
DOCUMENT IN EVIDENCE · 02
YOUR CHALLENGE
Read the two documents against each other. What is wrong with the register — and what does it tell the constable about the sympathetic Mr. Carew?
Name your answer aloud before revealing the solution. No typing or sign-up needed.
Hint one · A nudge
The register is honest about everything Mr. Carew wrote in it. Check the one column where his entry makes a claim the other document can answer.
Hint two · A stronger push
What day of the week did Mr. Carew arrive — and what does the framed notice say happens on this branch on that day of the week, from the end of September?
Reveal the solution & reasoning
His claimed train arrival does not fit the timetable.
Carew’s entry says he arrived on Sunday, 18 October, at 8.40 p.m. by the 8.15 train from London. But the railway notice says there is no Sunday service on the Netherford branch during that period. That train and its arrival belong to the weekday service.
The contradiction comes from comparing the two documents. His helpful manner at breakfast proves nothing; the arrival he put in writing is what the constable can challenge.
The Examiner’s lesson
Read one document against another. The register contains Carew’s claim. The timetable supplies the fact that contradicts it.
A false arrival is not proof of theft.
Carew may have concealed his route, a travelling companion, or an earlier arrival for another reason. The book’s optional follow-up asks you to suggest an innocent explanation. The evidence gives the constable a lead to investigate; it does not establish who took the cash-box.
Scene, evidence and hints from Case 013. Solution condensed from the book’s explained verdict and follow-up, pages 158–160.
That was one case. Nineteen more await.
That was one of the short ones, ten to fifteen minutes on the easiest rung. From there the cases add suspects, false alibis and the mistakes a killer cannot take back, up to five Unsolvables that run past thirty minutes each. The complete book includes this case and nineteen others.
★★★★★
A great set of mysteries and cases, I have enjoyed slowly working my way through them.
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