Detective series's answer

Question1. The jewel thief  : Detective John Volt. (detective puzzle series)

Mrs Lucy had her front door fastened before going to the market to buy some food. When she came back after an hour, she found her front door open. She rushed to her room and found her valuable jewels missing, so she immediately contacted the best detective in the town John Volt.

Crime scene:

 The front door was left half open. Nothing other than the jewels were missing. The shelf where the jewellery was kept was found open, with its lock lying on the floor. All the other things in her house and her room were untouched. The door’s lock was unfastened and was found on the ground (no finger prints were traceable). The cupboard which contained the jewellery had its lock neatly detached from the cupboard’s door and was laying on the floor next to it.  

Investigation:

John Volt investigated the crime further and noted down the information he gained, which are listed as follows:

1.     Mrs Lucy found her jewels robbed at 1 53 pm.

2.     The milk man had delivered the milk at his usual time 6 am. Mrs Lucy also reported that the milk man got his monthly payment. 

3.     The newspaper delivery boy delivered the newspaper at 6 15am (his usual time). The newspaper boy had seen the neckless (one of the missing jewelleries) on Mrs Lucy’s neck and said “Nice neckless Mrs Lucy. Is that diamond”. And Mrs Lucy had simply replied “yes it is, thanks”.   

4.     The carpenter who had mended the house’s showcase furniture which was in the drawing room had come at 7 45 am to receive his final payment. He had mended the broken glass. Mrs Lucy’s showcase furniture’s glass got broken ten days before this robbery took place. The next day, she had enquired for a good carpenter, and had got the carpenter’s number from the cook.

5.     The plumber had done his pipeline mending work at 9 00 am and left after he had finished his work. Lucy said that the plumber was hard to negotiate with, to get him to accept for a fair price. She also reported that he complained about him not being paid well and he also added that this is what drives people to follow unjust means to earn money.

6.     The maid who cleans the house hadn’t come for three days; she had claimed that she had to go to her hometown to attend her sister’s marriage. The maid comes by 12 00pm and finishes her work by 2 30pm and leaves the house by that time.

7.     The cook had left her job seven days before the robbery claiming to return back to her hometown permanently. Each day she would come for work by 9 00 am and leave by 12 00 pm.

8.      Sometimes, when Mrs Lucy had to leave the house, she would give the maid or the cook the house’s key to let them work when she was not at home.

Mr. John Volt found this case as one of his easiest cases and solved it in a second after he had finished drafting the above report and closed the case capturing the robber in an hour and returning back the jewels. Now….,

Who was the robber and how did he rob? Find out, to become the best detective!

Answer for 1 (The jewel thief)

The answer:

The carpenter stole the jewels. The cook helped in informing the carpenter about the exact location and whereabouts of the jewels.  

The reasoning:

John Volt was sitting in his office room awaiting for Mrs Lucy to arrive. He had promised to explain how he had managed to solve the case so quickly. Mrs Lucy arrived and John Volt could see the enthusiasm in her eyes. He said “Mrs Lucy, I guess you are very eager to hear about my reasoning, is it not?” Mrs Lucy said “yes Mr Volt, I really want to know how you had managed to solve the case so quickly.”

John Volt said “First I had to eliminate the long list of people who could have stolen the jewels. So that I could short down the list enough to coin out the ones involved in this case. The milk delivery man seemed innocent enough, and could be eliminated from the list. And though the paper delivery boy asked about your neckless, it doesn’t give me any special reasons to suspect him either. The cook had given you the number of the carpenter and left her work three days after the carpenter had worked in your house. It’s not a coincident, and she left her job to be well away from this thefts negative outcomes.

“The carpenter is the only person who could break the cupboard’s lock that neatly, within an hour’s time. The carpenter and the cook have been waiting for the right time; they wouldn’t be able to commit their crime if your house’s maid was anywhere around. So she taking an off for three days gives them the right chance to commit the crime. The plumber might have been harsh with his talk, but a criminal who plans his theft won’t be so emotional especially if he was going to commit the crime the same day. And any other people we could think of, like your neighbours or any other person who you hadn’t come across can be ruled out from the list; because, given just one hour to commit the crime and not being aware of exactly where he might find the jewels would make it very difficult for them. In my opinion, to would be impossible.

“So the only way this could have happened is, once the carpenter received his final payment from you he had been around waiting for you to leave the house. You said you have a habit of giving your house key to the maid or the cook when you are not at home, which I think is a bad practice, so the cook might have made a duplicate of it well before she planned for the theft. The carpenter was given the house key so he had no problem opening the house. But once inside and right in front of the cupboard that contained the jewels, he had to use his carpentry skills to break down the lock

“One might argue that any carpenter could have done that, not exactly the one who had come to your house to fix your furniture. But any carpenter wouldn’t have had a glimpse of your house from inside, which eventually leads him to find it more unfamiliar and ultimately more difficult to do the job so quickly.

And that’s all I have to say about it”

Mrs Lucy said “Mr Volt, thank you very much. But I have one more doubt, how were you able to capture them in not less than an hour? That’s really great!”

Mr John said “Mrs. Lucy, I have another appointment now, and the time for it is nearing. This is another story, I’ll tell you after my next case. Don’t worry Mrs Lucy, I’ll finish this new case sooner than you could imagine!”

                

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