The Detective’s DeskPEN & PAPER · CASE FILE
Pen & Paper · A crowded museum preview
The alarm sounds, the display is closed, and a famous pendant appears to be missing. A courier has already reached the gate. Question the six people who handled the exhibition and separate an illicit meeting from a planned theft.
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 display holds a blue pendant, but nobody has established whether it is the insured original. The transport case is detained at the gate. No case or vehicle has left the secured grounds.
Contract courier
I collected the blue-ribbon case at 19:42. I never opened it; Nia said it was empty.
Nia owes me money, but this was a normal collection.
The collection receipt says 2.4 kilograms. That weight came from the case scale.
Conservation assistant
I was sealing a painting under a continuous treatment camera. Nia borrowed my gloves earlier.
I had reported Nia’s private viewings. She knew who reported her.
The empty replica transit shell should weigh 1.1 kilograms. I left its stock sheet in the workshop.
Security officer
I escorted a fainting visitor through the entrance from 19:37 until 19:45. Two public cameras cover that trip.
I had been disciplined for a previous false alarm. I was reluctant to call another.
The alarm was triggered from the curator’s local test panel, not by the display sensor.
Insurance assessor
I stepped into the terrace corridor. I said I was on a business call; that was untrue.
I was meeting the museum director privately. I feared a complaint about our relationship.
I saw Leo replace a white routing sleeve with a blue one before the alarm.
Jeweller
I inspected the pendant through the open case at 19:20. I left the original’s unique clasp mark visible on my report photograph.
I had argued with Nia about the quality of the display replica.
The replica is lighter, but the distinction you can trust is the repaired clasp.
Exhibition curator
I stayed beside the display during the alarm. I handed the courier only the empty packing case.
The museum was dismissing me after discovering that I had sold private access to its collection.
A blue ribbon means a returned exhibition object; the courier knows that system.
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 · Terrace
Selma meets the director and carries no package. Malik is visible escorting the visitor. Ada remains at her treatment camera. Ruth is in the ticketed lecture hall before the 19:34 opening.
Physical record · Display gallery
The case was opened once after Ruth’s examination, at 19:34, with Nia’s key. A clear reflection in the adjacent camera shows Nia opening it; no key handover or second opening occurs.
Physical record · Loading gate
The discarded white sleeve sends empty packaging to the museum store. The blue replacement directs it to Leo’s privately rented locker. The sleeve change predates the alarm.
Physical record · Display gallery
Nia’s local panel initiated a manual test at 19:38. The display sensor had not detected a breach. The manual test supplied a distraction after the recorded display opening.
Physical record · Loading gate
Leo rented the destination locker two days earlier. His signed paper lists “blue package” and a percentage of the pendant sale, dated before the collection.
Physical record · Workshop
Nia’s termination was due the next morning. A sale draft on her museum account quotes a price for the original pendant, not for a replica.
Physical record · Display gallery
The displayed pendant has a smooth clasp. Ruth’s 19:20 image records the original’s distinctive repair seam. Examination confirms that the gallery now contains the replica.
Physical record · Workshop
Ruth’s surrounding frames show the original in the open display, then Nia receiving the keys. The contact sheet contains no deletion or discontinuity.
Physical record · Loading gate
Inside the foam tray is the original pendant, with the repaired clasp. It is not a loose object that could have rolled in. A fresh shaped recess was cut beneath the “empty packaging” cover.
Physical record · Workshop
The shell and standard foam weigh 1.1 kg. The signed outbound case weighs 2.4 kg. Leo wrote “verified empty” beside that measurement before accepting it.
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.