Interrogation: Find the Liar

Five suspects. Exactly one statement is false. And the one who lied is not always the one who did it. Sometimes they are covering for someone. THE CASE A dark room, a single lamp, papers on the desk. The terms are given to you up front. "It happened in the library. The weapon was a candlestick. Whoever held it is your culprit. And they were at the scene." Your job is to ask, to listen, and to name someone. WHAT YOU CAN ASK - Where were you at that hour? - Did you see them? - What were they carrying? That is the whole list. You cannot ask anyone whether they did it. You cannot even ask what they themselves were carrying. Where the weapon was is something you learn only from people who were in the same room. Real interrogations work the same way. Pressing one person gets you nowhere. Something only gives way when their account is set beside somebody else's. A LIE IS NOT JUST A DENIAL The liar's account holds together on its own. It is a complete second theory of the crime, pointing at someone else. That is why leaning on that person alone will not break it. It breaks only when laid alongside the others. And the reason for the lie changes every time. - The culprit hides what they were carrying - The culprit claims to have been somewhere else - Someone covers for them, putting the weapon in another's hands - Someone moves the culprit out of the room and points elsewhere In the last two, the liar is not the culprit. After you make the accusation, you find out why they lied. YOU DO NOT GET MANY QUESTIONS Rookie 5 suspects / 8 questions Detective 6 suspects / 7 questions Inspector 7 suspects / 6 questions Chief 7 suspects / 5 questions Three questions is the theoretical floor. No case can be closed in two. So at Chief you can afford exactly two wasted questions. Who you ask, and what, is the whole game. Stuck? An alibi check rules one suspect out for good. It narrows the field but leaves the chain of contradictions for you to follow. THE CASES DO NOT RUN OUT Nothing is pre-written. Your device builds each case as you open it, then verifies three things before handing it over: - That asking everything pins exactly one culprit - That the evidence alone gets you there, with no guessing - That it cannot be finished in two questions Solve as many as you like. There is always another. FOUR SETTINGS A night at the house, between the acts, the ship in fog, after lights out. Different people, different rooms, different things in their hands. YOUR CASEBOOK Close rate cases closed over cases opened Proven, not guessed of those closed, how many the evidence actually pinned Fewest questions, results by rank and by setting The second one matters most. A correct accusation only counts there if the testimony you gathered really did single that person out. With five suspects you will land a guess one time in five. That should not be called a case closed. FOR YOU IF - You like whodunits and the moment of the accusation - You like the feeling of catching a contradiction - You are tired of games whose stages eventually run out - You want one real case on the commute, not an endless feed - You want something with no reflexes and no timers - You want something that works with no signal