The Detective’s DeskDorian Lake
Equipment officer
What happened from your point of view?
Four lenses were locked in my drawer, then vanished.
What should I check to test that account?
The supplier charged for four.
MEDIUM · CASE FILE
The Locked Drawer That Was Never Full
Medium · An amateur photography club
A locked drawer is said to have contained four lenses. Reconstruct the inventory from delivery to inspection, instead of treating a lock as proof of contents.
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 drawer is intact. One delivery carton and its supplier’s packing record survive.
People and accounts
Eli Hart
Club secretary
What happened from your point of view?
I saw one lens at intake.
What should I check to test that account?
Dorian asked me to report four missing, but I wrote what I had seen.
Sana Moss
Member
What happened from your point of view?
I borrowed that one lens under a signed loan.
What should I check to test that account?
I still have it available for inspection.
Nora Bell
Supplier clerk
What happened from your point of view?
We invoiced four but shipped one; three were back-ordered.
What should I check to test that account?
Our dispatch note was signed at the club.
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 · Club office
Loss claim
Dorian claims four delivered lenses disappeared from the drawer and signs the fund request.
Case record · Equipment desk
Supplier’s delivery follow-up
The three back-ordered lenses remain in the supplier’s warehouse and have never been handed to the club.
Case record · Club office
Secretary’s original count
Eli’s dated intake sheet records only L8. The sheet was filed before the dispute.
Case record · Equipment desk
Member’s lens inspection
Sana produces L8 intact. It matches the delivery serial and valid loan.
Case record · Equipment desk
Loan register
The sole delivered lens, serial L8, is loaned to Sana before Dorian claims the drawer was filled.
Case record · Club office
Invoice and dispatch note
Invoice bills four. Dispatch explicitly records one lens delivered and three pending; Dorian signs that note.
Questions to resolve
Who certifies a four-lens loss contradicted by their own delivery acknowledgment?
How many delivered lenses are unaccounted for?
Who is established as stealing a lens from the drawer?
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.