The Detective’s DeskHARD · CASE FILE
Hard · A dealer’s final private appointment
A photograph uploaded after the emergency alarm appears to show the dealer alive. Trace when it was actually taken, identify the private visitor and decide whether a later business deception proves a prior murder agreement.
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 supplied examination confines the deliberate close-range assault to Adrian’s final appointment. A continuous access record covers every person-sized entrance. The complete original image archive is independently backed up.
Business manager
I sent the photograph after learning the dealer had died. I wanted clients to believe the business was still operating normally.
I used an archived source image. I had no prior agreement with Mira about the appointment.
Duty doctor
The dealer died from a deliberate close-range assault during the supplied appointment interval.
A later file timestamp does not override an examination finding unless the image itself is authenticated as later.
Dealer’s archivist
I preserved an earlier publicity photograph in the image archive. I did not take the supposed later image.
The uncropped source includes a damaged display stand that was removed before the evening appointment.
Private collector
I left the dealer after an ordinary negotiation. The later photograph proves he was alive after my visit.
I had demanded that he withhold a provenance report concerning my collection.
Gallery assistant
I remained at the public packing desk under its camera. I argued about missing wages before the appointment.
The later proof-of-life image arrived from the dealer’s business account, not from a live camera link.
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 · Private viewing room
Mira enters at 20:10 and leaves at 20:18, clearly identified by face. No other person enters during the interval. The room has no second usable entrance.
Physical record · Image archive
The business account uploads an image at 20:40. That timestamp records the upload, not necessarily the exposure. Its public crop omits the display stand beside Adrian.
Physical record · Image archive
The uploaded image is an exact crop of a morning publicity frame, including an identical hand position and reflection. The uncropped stand was removed and logged before the evening appointment.
Physical record · Private viewing room
Adrian’s preserved appointment instruction requires Mira to answer for false provenance claims in her collection. Her reply demands that the report not be released.
Physical record · Packing desk
Celia remains at the public desk and Tomas at the backed-up image station throughout the appointment interval. Omar arrives on the authenticated emergency call afterward. The upload does not place any of them inside the earlier appointment.
Physical record · Packing desk
Nell learns of the death only after the appointment, then tells the client desk to use an old image to preserve orders. The recovered thread contains no prior arrangement with Mira to assault Adrian or provide an alibi.
Physical record · Private viewing room
Adrian’s fatal assault occurs during his final private appointment at 20:10–20:18. It requires a person in the room; no remote device is found.
Physical record · Image archive
Nell retrieves the morning frame after the emergency call, crops it and captions it as a current business update. She has already received the doctor’s death notification.
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.
Compare the records with each account. Work out what the evidence establishes, then separate that finding from anything it does not prove.