The Detective’s DeskIdris Cole
Stagehand
What happened from your point of view?
I heard Lena’s lines but could not see the booth.
What should I check to test that account?
The same cough occurred in exactly the same place twice.
MEDIUM · CASE FILE
The Voice behind the Curtain
Medium · A puppet theatre rehearsal
A prop breaks while its operator’s voice can be heard from the booth. Question the crew and separate where a voice comes from from where a person stands.
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
Only the bird’s drive belt is cut. A rehearsal recorder can play through the booth speaker, and its supplied operating sheet explains how.
People and accounts
Mae Hart
Sound assistant
What happened from your point of view?
The recorder can play a voice through the booth speaker.
What should I check to test that account?
I kept today’s cue card.
Oli Reed
Prop maker
What happened from your point of view?
The belt was whole at the equipment check.
What should I check to test that account?
Lena alone signed it out for a closed inspection afterward.
Lena Voss
Puppeteer
What happened from your point of view?
I stayed at the microphone. Everyone heard me rehearse.
What should I check to test that account?
The recording machine is used only for music.
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 · Sound desk
Audio comparison
The booth rehearsal repeats the identical cough and chair squeak from an earlier recording, down to the measured waveform.
Case record · Prop bench
Sole inspection handover
Oli hands the whole tagged bird to Lena for a private inspection. Lena returns it with the same tag and a cut belt; nobody else handles it between.
Case record · Prop bench
Belt examination
The new belt has one clean deliberate cut, not a wear fracture. Its dated inspection tag was attached while it was whole.
Case record · Stage
Stagehand’s sight line
A solid curtain blocks Idris’s view of the booth. Hearing the loudspeaker cannot locate Lena.
Case record · Prop bench
Cancelled solo request
Lena asks to cancel the automated bird solo so she can perform alone; the director refuses. This is a motive, not by itself proof.
Case record · Sound desk
Recorder cue card
Lena signs the cue requesting playback of her earlier lines through the booth speaker during the prop inspection.
Questions to resolve
Who had the exclusive handling interval in which the belt was cut?
What does the heard voice establish?
Who is established as knowingly helping the damage?
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.