The Detective’s DeskMina Moss
Workshop tutor
What happened from your point of view?
Ivo attended the early workshop but left at the break.
What should I check to test that account?
The roll is a start-of-session attendance list, not continuous coverage.
HARD · CASE FILE
The Room with a Borrowed Name
Hard · A small writers’ retreat
A room register appears to place a suspect on the wrong floor. Compare the permanent room marks, temporary name cards and the key actually borrowed.
Read the case file below, or open the interactive desk to examine records, keep notes and submit your reasoning. These are the case materials, without the solution.
The scene
The manuscript’s pages have continuous watermark numbers. Two temporary door name cards have been exchanged; the room numbers carved above them cannot move.
People and accounts
Ivo Bell
Retreat organiser
What happened from your point of view?
I stayed in the room marked “Vale”, away from the manuscript.
What should I check to test that account?
The attendance list uses guest names, not carved numbers.
Ari Cole
Publisher
What happened from your point of view?
I received a sealed draft from Ivo.
What should I check to test that account?
He described it as his own complete work.
Selma Hart
Housekeeper
What happened from your point of view?
I lent Ivo key 6 for a linen delivery.
What should I check to test that account?
Ivo had asked me to swap the two name cards for a game.
Nora Vale
Author
What happened from your point of view?
My manuscript stayed in room 6.
What should I check to test that account?
Its carved number is above the movable name card.
Case records
Read each record on its own terms. A claim made by a person is different from a fact established by an independent record.
Case record · Reception
Name-card swap instruction
Ivo asks Selma to swap the Vale and Bell cards before the linen delivery. He signs the stated “game” instruction.
Case record · Linen desk
Linen assignment
Selma instructs delivery of a wrapped towel only, expressly forbidding entry into the writing desk. No manuscript request is made.
Case record · Room 6
Author’s page record
Nora’s draft uses watermark sequence 201–260, including an original handwritten correction on page 217.
Case record · Linen desk
Key loan and door log
Ivo borrows key 6 and opens the carved-6 door during the manuscript’s disappearance interval. The name card then reads Bell.
Case record · Publisher desk
Ivo’s covering letter
Ivo signs that the enclosed original pages are his own unpublished work, sent before the missing-manuscript report.
Case record · Reception
Permanent room plan
The manuscript is in carved room 6; Ivo’s assigned room is carved 9. The removable name cards can be exchanged without changing locks.
Case record · Publisher desk
Publisher’s sealed delivery
The draft received from Ivo has watermark sequence 201–260 and the same original correction. It is not an independently typed similar story.
Case record · Workshop
Workshop roll and break note
Mina’s roll records arrivals only; her break note records Ivo leaving before the key loan. It supplies no continuous alibi.
Questions to resolve
Who removed and submitted Nora’s original pages?
Which room did the borrowed key open?
Who is established as knowingly assisting manuscript theft?
What does the workshop roll establish?
Use the interactive case desk to select your finding and cite the records that support it. The answer is checked there, and your progress stays in your browser.
Build your finding
Compare the records with each account. Work out what the evidence establishes, then separate that finding from anything it does not prove.