The Detective’s DeskHARD · CASE FILE
Hard · A sealed medal display
An intact cabinet seal and a borrowed room key suggest an impossible theft. Establish when the original last truly occupied the display and whether the outline visible through glass identifies it.
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 cabinet remains sealed until a supervised opening. Its original key is held by the duty officer. The room key cannot open it. All outgoing boxes are held on site.
Auction custodian
The medal must have been taken through the locked cabinet during the preview. I sealed the cabinet myself.
The last publicity photograph was taken before I made the final catalogue arrangement.
Bidder
I inspected the locked cabinet from outside. I could see a medal-shaped silhouette on the mount.
I did not inspect its reverse or the cabinet interior.
Duty officer
I recovered an engraved medal from Mina’s outgoing label box. The cabinet seal was still intact.
The original’s engraving is documented independently of its silhouette.
Watch repairer
I borrowed the room key to repair the wall clock. I never had the cabinet key.
The clock visit occurred after the cabinet was sealed.
Photographer
I made the publicity image before packing the catalogue labels. I did not certify the final cabinet contents.
My contact sheet includes the custodian moving the tray before sealing.
Read each record on its own terms. A claim made by a person is different from a fact established by an independent record.
Physical record · Sealed cabinet
Omar’s room key has no cabinet function. His wall-clock repair is recorded after the cabinet is sealed and does not include handling the outgoing label box.
Physical record · Photography desk
Early frames show the engraved original. Later frames show Mina lifting it from the tray before she installs the silhouette and closes the cabinet. The public publicity image predates that change.
Physical record · Photography desk
The uncropped final frame shows the engraved reverse facing Mina as she lowers the original toward her label box. It corroborates object identity, rather than merely a similar outline.
Physical record · Photography desk
Mina signs that the engraved original is present when she seals the cabinet, after the contact-sheet frames show her removal. Her declaration is not verified by the earlier publicity photograph.
Physical record · Sealed cabinet
The display mount holds a medal-shaped cardboard silhouette, not an engraved metal medal. An outside outline did not establish that the original was inside.
Physical record · Sealed cabinet
The numbered seal is intact from Mina’s closing to the supervised opening. No cabinet entry or broken seal occurs during the preview.
Physical record · Outgoing labels
The engraved original is recovered under catalogue stock in Mina’s outgoing label box. Its documented reverse engraving matches the original in the early frames.
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Compare the records with each account. Work out what the evidence establishes, then separate that finding from anything it does not prove.