{ "schemaVersion": 2, "meta": { "id": "case-002", "caseNumber": 2, "title": "Housefull", "subtitle": "A farewell show, a sealed booth, and five people lying about closing night.", "difficulty": "easy", "parSeconds": 900, "setting": "Deccan Talkies, a single-screen cinema, est. 1948, Sadashiv Peth, off Tilak Road, Pune — Sunday 26 April 2026", "contentWarnings": [ "Poisoning", "Grief" ], "authoredBy": "generated", "cover": { "src": "assets/cover.webp", "alt": "The cinema at night from across the street: a deco frontage with its letter board empty, one window still lit high at the rear.", "caption": "Deccan Talkies, Sadashiv Peth." } }, "suspects": [ { "id": "s1", "name": "Madhav Apte", "age": 58, "role": "Owner of Deccan Talkies", "relation": "Employer; the victim served his father before him.", "portrait": { "src": "assets/s1.webp", "alt": "Identification photograph of Madhav Apte, 58." } }, { "id": "s2", "name": "Shirish Bhave", "age": 52, "role": "Manager of Deccan Talkies", "relation": "Colleague of twenty-four years; the two ran the house between them.", "portrait": { "src": "assets/s2.webp", "alt": "Identification photograph of Shirish Bhave, 52." } }, { "id": "s3", "name": "Dilip Athavale", "age": 47, "role": "Proprietor, New India Film Traders, Matunga, Mumbai — dealer in cinema memorabilia", "relation": "No acquaintance admitted; the victim catalogued the prints Athavale had been buying.", "portrait": { "src": "assets/s3.webp", "alt": "Identification photograph of Dilip Athavale, 47." } }, { "id": "s4", "name": "Baban Shinde", "age": 61, "role": "Canteen and odd-jobs man, Deccan Talkies", "relation": "Fed him for forty years; left his tea flask at the booth stair every evening.", "portrait": { "src": "assets/s4.webp", "alt": "Identification photograph of Baban Shinde, 61." } }, { "id": "s5", "name": "Omkar Gadgil", "age": 28, "role": "Second operator, Deccan Talkies", "relation": "Apprentice and subordinate for six years; never once allowed to strike the arc.", "portrait": { "src": "assets/s5.webp", "alt": "Identification photograph of Omkar Gadgil, 28." } } ], "documents": [ { "id": "brief", "type": "prose", "title": "Case Summary — FIR 0231 of 2026", "source": "Vishrambaug Police Station, Pune — API S. R. Kulkarni", "date": "27 April 2026", "body": "**Bhaskar Jadhav**, 63, projectionist at **Deccan Talkies**, Sadashiv Peth, was found dead in the projection booth at 08:15 on Monday 27 April by the second operator, who had arrived with the manager for the morning's scheduled handover of the theatre's film collection to the National Film Archive of India. The booth was bolted from the inside; the bolt was forced by staff.\n\nJadhav had run the booth for forty-one years. Sunday night was the theatre's farewell show — the house closes for sale — and at his own insistence he ran the vintage carbon-arc projector for the occasion, alone, with the door shut, as was his practice. He had spoken openly against the sale, and against the management over wages he said were owed. He remained in the building after the show ended at 23:47; no exit is recorded for him.\n\nThe pathologist places death between **00:00 and 02:00**. Five persons connected with the theatre were on the premises on Sunday evening: the owner, the manager, the canteen keeper, the second operator, and a dealer visiting from Mumbai. Their accounts of the night do not agree.\n\nThe booth's exhaust cowl on the terrace was packed with two jute sacks. Both were dry. Rain had fallen on the terrace from a little after one.", "exhibits": [ { "src": "assets/victim.webp", "alt": "Bhaskar Jadhav, 63, in the booth beside the carbon-arc projector — proud, proprietorial, photographed for a farewell-show feature.", "caption": "The deceased. Photograph supplied by the family." } ] }, { "id": "roster", "type": "roster", "title": "Persons Present — Deccan Talkies, Night of 26 April", "source": "Vishrambaug Police Station, Pune", "date": "27 April 2026", "body": "**Madhav Apte, 58** — Owner, Deccan Talkies. Employer of the deceased; the deceased served his father before him. States he watched the last reel from the auditorium and did not leave it.\n\n**Shirish Bhave, 52** — Manager, Deccan Talkies. Colleague of the deceased for twenty-four years. States he was front-of-house with the guests until the end of the night.\n\n**Dilip Athavale, 47** — Proprietor, New India Film Traders, Matunga, Mumbai. No prior acquaintance with the deceased admitted. States Sunday was his first visit to the theatre.\n\n**Baban Shinde, 61** — Canteen and odd-jobs man, Deccan Talkies. Employed forty years; fed the deceased daily. States he left for his nephew's room in Hadapsar after closing the canteen.\n\n**Omkar Gadgil, 28** — Second operator, Deccan Talkies. The deceased's assistant for six years. States the booth checks were completed at half past eight and found in order." }, { "id": "scene", "type": "scene", "title": "Scene of Crime Report — Deccan Talkies", "source": "Scene of Crime Unit, Pune City Police — PSI V. T. Gaikwad", "date": "27 April 2026, 09:10 to 11:25", "body": "The **projection booth** is a first-floor room at the rear of the auditorium, 4.2 m by 3.6 m, reached only by an **iron stair** of fourteen steep steps from the backstage corridor. The double door carries a felt smoke-seal on all four edges and an inside barrel bolt. The bolt was found thrown and was forced by staff at 08:15, before police arrival. The booth has no windows. A full tea **flask** stands untouched at the foot of the iron stair.\n\nThe deceased was found in the operator's chair at the **rewind bench**. There is no sign of disturbance or struggle anywhere in the room. The **carbon-arc lamphouse** is cold, its carbons burnt to stubs. The night's print is rewound, cased in six cans, and crated under a label addressed to the National Film Archive of India. An electrical conduit along the north wall shows perished insulation at two joints; the house wiring is aged throughout.\n\nVentilation is by a single extraction **fan** set in the duct mouth high on the rear wall, the duct rising to a **cowl** on the terrace. The fan's **drive belt** is absent. The pulley faces are clean and bright where a belt would bear. The belt has not been recovered from the booth, the duct, the terrace, or the yard below.\n\nOn the terrace the cowl was found packed with **two jute sacks**, dry to the touch at 09:40 despite rain recorded from about 01:10. The **terrace stair**, at the far end of the backstage corridor past the godown door, is the terrace's only access; no adjoining building meets the parapet.\n\nThe **godown** under the stage holds the print collection — 212 cans on the deceased's own catalogue, including early nitrate stock — stacked for Monday's handover.", "image": { "src": "assets/floor-plan.webp", "alt": "Floor plan, Deccan Talkies. The lobby opens off Tilak Road at the front. The backstage corridor runs behind the stage to the rear gate on Kelkar Lane, passing the iron stair up to the first-floor projection booth, the under-stage godown door, and, at its far end, the terrace stair — the only way to the terrace, where the booth's exhaust cowl stands. Cameras cover the front lobby, the rear gate, and the foot of the terrace stair only.", "caption": "Ground plan, with booth and terrace inset." }, "footnote": "The booth stair, the booth corridor, the godown door and the terrace itself lie outside camera coverage; refer to the CCTV review. With the fan stopped and the felt-sealed door shut, the booth exchanges no meaningful air.", "exhibits": [ { "src": "assets/scene-01.webp", "alt": "The booth as found: the arc projector cold, the print cased on the rewind bench, the operator's chair empty.", "caption": "Projection booth, as found. 27 April, 09:20." }, { "src": "assets/scene-02.webp", "alt": "The exhaust cowl on the terrace, its throat packed with two jute sacks — dry, though the concrete around them is dark with the night's rain.", "caption": "Booth exhaust cowl, terrace. 27 April, 09:40." }, { "src": "assets/scene-03.webp", "alt": "The tea flask at the foot of the iron booth stair, untouched, its cup still screwed on.", "caption": "Foot of the booth stair. The flask was full." } ] }, { "id": "forensics", "type": "prose", "title": "Post-mortem and Laboratory Findings — B. Jadhav", "source": "Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Sassoon General Hospital, Pune — Dr. M. V. Palkar", "date": "28 April 2026", "body": "The deceased was a male aged 63 years, of thin build. External examination found no injuries save old, unrelated abrasions to both shins. There were no marks of electrical contact. Lividity was cherry-pink and fixed.\n\nCause of death was **carbon monoxide poisoning**. Carboxyhaemoglobin saturation was measured at **54 per cent**. The airways were free of soot; there had been no fire. Screening for the products of nitrate film decomposition (oxides of nitrogen) was negative. Moderate narrowing of the left anterior descending artery is recorded as a contributory vulnerability, not as the cause. Gastric contents were tea and a fried snack, several hours old. Death is placed between **00:00 and 02:00** on 27 April.\n\nThe source is consistent with the carbon-arc projector operating in the booth. An arc of this type, burning over a full programme, produces carbon monoxide in quantities that working ventilation removes as a matter of course. Saturation of 54 per cent indicates accumulation over **not less than two to three hours** in an effectively unventilated enclosure.\n\nThe booth's extraction fan was received as Article 3 and bench-tested. The motor is serviceable. The drive belt was absent from the unit as received. With a workshop belt fitted, the fan cleared a volume equal to the booth's in **under nine minutes**. With the fan stopped and the door's felt seal engaged, no meaningful air exchange occurs.", "footnote": "Carboxyhaemoglobin above 50 per cent is uniformly lethal without intervention. Onset is insidious — headache, confusion, then unconsciousness — and self-rescue becomes unlikely well before saturation peaks. The deceased knew the smell of the arc for forty-one years; carbon monoxide itself has none.", "exhibits": [ { "src": "assets/lab-01.webp", "alt": "Article 3: the booth's extraction fan on the laboratory bench — pulley faces bright and bare, the drive belt absent.", "caption": "Article 3, as received. Dept. of Forensic Medicine." }, { "src": "assets/lab-02.webp", "alt": "Article 4: the two jute sacks from the cowl, flattened on the bench, still creased to the shape of the opening they were packed into.", "caption": "Article 4. Both sacks dry as received." } ] }, { "id": "statement_a", "type": "statement", "title": "Statement — Madhav Apte", "source": "Recorded at Vishrambaug PS, 28 April, 10:40", "speaker": "s1", "preamble": "My father built this house in 1948 and I have sold it. You may imagine what the week has been. I will answer whatever you ask, but I will not apologise for the sale — the arithmetic did not leave me the luxury.", "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "I reached the theatre at ten to seven and received Sathe-saheb at the door at eight." }, { "id": "c2", "text": "From the interval to the end I did not leave the auditorium; I watched the last reel from my father's seat." }, { "id": "c3", "text": "I left a little after midnight, among the last to go." }, { "id": "c4", "text": "Bhaskar's dues were a matter of record and under discussion with the union; there was nothing new in it that week." }, { "id": "c5", "text": "I have not climbed the booth stair in years; the booth was Bhaskar's country." } ] }, { "id": "statement_b", "type": "statement", "title": "Statement — Shirish Bhave", "source": "Recorded at Vishrambaug PS, 28 April, 12:05", "speaker": "s2", "preamble": "Twenty-four years I have kept this house — the rosters, the licences, the rains that came through the roof. On the last night I was the manager, the same as every night. If you want the evening in order, I will give it to you in order.", "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "He messaged me on Saturday about the godown count, and I telephoned him back that evening; stock was always his worry, and mine." }, { "id": "c2", "text": "I was on site from half past three and took the felicitation from a quarter to nine." }, { "id": "c3", "text": "The godown count has been short for years — I reported pilferage myself last August and had the cameras put in." }, { "id": "c4", "text": "I stayed with the guests in the lobby until the very end; the terrace and the booth I left to Bhaskar, the way he always wanted." }, { "id": "c5", "text": "I lowered the front shutter at twenty past twelve and left by the rear gate." } ] }, { "id": "statement_c", "type": "statement", "title": "Statement — Dilip Athavale", "source": "Recorded at Vishrambaug PS, 28 April, 15:20", "speaker": "s3", "preamble": "I deal in what the trade throws away — posters, lobby cards, the odd projector lamp. Men like me attend the funerals of theatres the way relatives attend weddings. Sant Tukaram on carbon arc; I would have come twice the distance.", "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "Sunday was the first time I set foot inside Deccan Talkies." }, { "id": "c2", "text": "I came down from Bombay on Sunday and reached the theatre a little before eight." }, { "id": "c3", "text": "At the interval I stretched my legs in the corridor behind the stage; I will admit I wandered further than a guest should." }, { "id": "c4", "text": "I had written to Apte in February offering for the poster stock; he never favoured me with a reply." }, { "id": "c5", "text": "I bought nothing that night and carried nothing out." } ] }, { "id": "statement_d", "type": "statement", "title": "Statement — Baban Shinde", "source": "Recorded at Vishrambaug PS, 28 April, 16:45", "speaker": "s4", "preamble": "Forty years I have fed this house. Interval chivda for three generations, saheb. Ask me anything you like, only ask it slowly — since Monday my head has not been my own.", "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "I ran the canteen till the interval rush was done and shut it by half past ten." }, { "id": "c2", "text": "Bhaskar-rao had said no one was to come up during the show; I left his tea flask at the foot of the booth stair at nine." }, { "id": "c3", "text": "I handed the canteen keys to Bhave-saheb before I left." }, { "id": "c4", "text": "After shutting the canteen I went straight to my nephew's room in Hadapsar and did not come back that night." }, { "id": "c5", "text": "The storeroom under the stage held my mops and vessels; I kept it locked myself." } ] }, { "id": "statement_e", "type": "statement", "title": "Statement — Omkar Gadgil", "source": "Recorded at Vishrambaug PS, 28 April, 18:10", "speaker": "s5", "preamble": "Six years I was second operator and he never once let me strike the arc. I know changeover cues older than I am. Write down that he was the best projectionist in Pune, and then I will answer your questions.", "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "I laced the first reel with him at ten past eight and he sent me down to look after the front." }, { "id": "c2", "text": "At half past eight I ran the full booth checklist — carbons, spool tension, the exhaust — and everything was in order." }, { "id": "c3", "text": "Through the show I was front-of-house; I did not go up to the booth again until Monday morning." }, { "id": "c4", "text": "On Monday at a quarter past eight I forced the bolt with Bhave-saheb and found him at the bench." }, { "id": "c5", "text": "The exhaust fan had been serviced this month; it had no reason in the world to fail." } ] }, { "id": "comms_log", "type": "table", "title": "Call Detail Records — Extract", "source": "Requisitioned under s.94 BNSS; compiled at Vishrambaug PS", "date": "25 to 27 April 2026", "columns": [ "Date", "Time", "From", "To", "Type", "Detail" ], "rows": [ [ "Sat 25/04", "18:42", "B. Jadhav", "S. Bhave", "SMS", "\"Counted the cans. Nine short. We talk before Monday.\"" ], [ "Sat 25/04", "19:10", "S. Bhave", "B. Jadhav", "Call", "6 min" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "19:58", "V. Jadhav (Kothrud)", "B. Jadhav", "Call", "4 min" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "20:11", "VM-OFFERS", "B. Jadhav", "SMS", "Promotional" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "20:26", "022 4915 2260 (Metro Screens Pvt Ltd)", "O. Gadgil", "Call", "41 min" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "22:41", "M. Apte", "R. Deshpande (site office)", "Call", "4 min" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "23:56", "V. Jadhav (Kothrud)", "B. Jadhav", "Call", "Missed; unanswered" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "23:58", "R. Deshpande", "M. Apte", "Call", "1 min" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "08:17", "O. Gadgil", "112", "Call", "2 min" ] ], "footnote": "Records requisitioned for the deceased's mobile, the theatre's office landline, and staff mobiles. Message content is available for the deceased's handset only. The office landline logged no traffic after 19:00 on the 26th." }, { "id": "access_log", "type": "table", "title": "CCTV Review — Consolidated Timings", "source": "Viewing report, Vishrambaug PS; three cameras, fitted August 2025", "date": "26 to 27 April 2026", "columns": [ "Date", "Time", "Camera", "Observation" ], "rows": [ [ "Sun 26/04", "15:31", "FRONT LOBBY", "BHAVE in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "15:40", "REAR GATE", "SHINDE in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "15:52", "REAR GATE", "GADGIL in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "16:05", "REAR GATE", "JADHAV in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "18:50", "FRONT LOBBY", "APTE in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "19:28", "FRONT LOBBY", "Doors opened; public admission begins" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "19:41", "FRONT LOBBY", "ATHAVALE in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "19:55", "REAR GATE", "Canteen delivery, two crates; SHINDE receives" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "20:02", "FRONT LOBBY", "Chief guest received by APTE" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "20:24", "REAR GATE", "GADGIL out to Kelkar Lane; remains in frame, on telephone" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "20:52", "FRONT LOBBY", "Latecomers admitted" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "21:04", "TERRACE STAIR", "BHAVE up" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "21:09", "REAR GATE", "GADGIL in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "21:16", "TERRACE STAIR", "BHAVE down" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "22:36", "REAR GATE", "SHINDE out" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "22:47", "FRONT LOBBY", "APTE out" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "23:31", "FRONT LOBBY", "APTE in" ], [ "Sun 26/04", "23:47", "FRONT LOBBY", "Audience departure begins; house clear by 00:04" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "00:08", "FRONT LOBBY", "ATHAVALE out; carrying nothing" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "00:14", "FRONT LOBBY", "APTE out" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "00:22", "FRONT LOBBY", "Shutter lowered by BHAVE" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "00:26", "REAR GATE", "BHAVE out" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "00:38", "REAR GATE", "SHINDE in" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "01:08", "REAR GATE", "Rain; lens streaked from this time" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "01:12", "REAR GATE", "SHINDE out; carrying a trunk and a bedding roll" ], [ "Mon 27/04", "08:11", "REAR GATE", "GADGIL and BHAVE in" ] ], "footnote": "The terrace-stair camera faces the foot of the stair and records one ascent in the whole period reviewed (21:04, down 21:16). No camera covers the booth stair, the booth corridor, the godown door, or the terrace itself. No exit event exists for JADHAV.", "exhibits": [ { "src": "assets/access-01.webp", "alt": "Camera 3 on its bracket, aimed at the foot of the terrace stair — the camera that recorded one ascent all night.", "caption": "CAM 3, terrace stair. Fitted August 2025." } ] }, { "id": "records", "type": "table", "title": "Seized Records — Exhibits Register", "source": "Seizure memo, office of Deccan Talkies; Vishrambaug PS", "date": "27 April 2026", "columns": [ "Ref", "Date", "Item", "Note" ], "rows": [ [ "R-1", "20/04/26", "Letter, National Film Archive of India, Law College Road", "Inventory and handover of the print collection fixed for Mon 27/04, 10:00" ], [ "R-2", "2024–26", "Godown register, extracts", "14 cans condemned \"vinegar syndrome — destroyed\"; entries initialled S.B." ], [ "R-3", "21/03/26", "Challan, New India Film Traders, Matunga", "\"Scrap film, six crates\"; collected in person by D. Athavale; vehicle MH-12" ], [ "R-4", "11/04/26", "Maintenance log, booth extraction fan", "Serviced; new drive belt fitted; ₹850; \"running satisfactorily\"" ], [ "R-5", "09/04/26", "Sale agreement extract, with fixtures annexure", "Brass fittings and projection equipment sold separately to the buyer" ], [ "R-6", "15/04/26", "Staff settlement schedule", "Severances listed; JADHAV noted \"arrears 3 months — disputed\"" ], [ "R-7", "08/2025", "Pilferage complaint (copy), with camera invoice", "Filed by S. Bhave, August 2025" ], [ "R-8", "02/2026", "Purchase offer, New India Film Traders", "For the poster stock; no reply on file" ], [ "R-9", "—", "Office telephone diary, final page", "A Bangalore number in the deceased's hand, no name against it: 080 4361 1180" ], [ "R-10", "03/2026", "Electricity arrears notice", "₹1,14,600 outstanding" ] ], "body": "**R-2.** The condemnation entries fall in October 2024 (five cans), June 2025 (four), and March 2026 (five). Each is marked destroyed by burial, per nitrate handling practice. No burial site is recorded. All fourteen entries are initialled S.B.\n\n**R-3.** The challan is the third of its pattern on file; the earlier two, September 2024 and July 2025, name the same firm and the same description, scrap film.\n\n**R-4.** The fitter's docket carries a test note in the margin: \"ran 20 min, drawing well.\"\n\n**R-9.** The number is an unregistered fixed line.", "footnote": "The condemnation entries of R-2 and the collection challans of R-3 fall within the same fortnight on three occasions.", "exhibits": [ { "src": "assets/records-r2.webp", "alt": "Exhibit R-2: the godown register open on the evidence mat, its columns foreshortened past reading — one marginal initial pair legible: S.B.", "caption": "Exhibit R-2, exhibits register." } ] } ], "options": { "method": [ { "id": "me1", "text": "A fall on the iron booth stair in the dark, carrying the packed print down" }, { "id": "me2", "text": "Carbon monoxide from the arc lamp, in a booth whose extraction fan had been deliberately disabled and its vent packed shut" }, { "id": "me3", "text": "Carbon monoxide from the arc lamp, through the failed vent of a neglected building — an accident, and no crime at all" }, { "id": "me4", "text": "Fumes from decomposing nitrate stock stored in the godown under the stage" }, { "id": "me5", "text": "Heart failure in the heat of the booth, brought on by age and the night's exertion" }, { "id": "me6", "text": "Electrocution from the lamphouse's aged wiring during the show" } ], "motive": [ { "id": "mo1", "text": "Pressure from the buyer to deliver vacant possession without a sitting objector" }, { "id": "mo2", "text": "To stop Monday's archive inventory exposing years of print sales hidden as condemnation entries" }, { "id": "mo3", "text": "To keep the promised projection equipment out of the archive's hands so it could be sold with the fittings" }, { "id": "mo4", "text": "A dispute over three months' unpaid wages and gratuity, pressed once too often" }, { "id": "mo5", "text": "To silence the loudest public voice against the sale of the theatre" }, { "id": "mo6", "text": "To stop the projectionist disrupting Monday's handover of the collection to the archive" } ] }, "reconstruction": { "beats": [ { "time": "18:42", "text": "Saturday evening. Bhaskar Jadhav counted the godown against the catalogue he kept in his own hand, and messaged the manager: \"Counted the cans. Nine short. We talk before Monday.\" Bhave called him back within the half hour. Six minutes. Nothing of what was said survives.", "evidence": "comms_log", "provenBy": { "kind": "citation", "part": "why" } }, { "time": "20:26", "text": "Sunday. Omkar Gadgil's phone rang in Kelkar Lane — Metro Screens, forty-one minutes, the job he had not told anyone about. The half-past-eight booth checklist was never run. The fan above the booth was still working then.", "evidence": "comms_log", "provenBy": { "kind": "lie", "suspect": "s5" } }, { "time": "21:04", "text": "While the felicitation held every eye in the house, Shirish Bhave climbed the terrace stair. Twelve minutes: the fan's drive belt off, two jute sacks packed into the cowl. At 21:16 he came down, and by 21:20 he was garlanding the chief guest.", "evidence": "access_log", "provenBy": { "kind": "lie", "suspect": "s2" } }, { "time": "21:18", "text": "Bhaskar struck the arc for Sant Tukaram and shut the felt-sealed door, the way he had for forty-one years. The duct above him was dead. The booth began, very slowly, to fill with what the arc made.", "evidence": "forensics", "provenBy": { "kind": "citation", "part": "how" } }, { "time": "22:10", "text": "At the interval, Dilip Athavale left his seat and stood some minutes at the godown door — in a theatre he would later say he had never entered before that night. Three challans on file said otherwise.", "evidence": "records", "provenBy": { "kind": "lie", "suspect": "s3" } }, { "time": "22:47", "text": "Madhav Apte slipped out of his own farewell show, signed the early-possession letter and the fixtures annexure at the buyer's office, and was back at 23:31 — in his father's seat for the last reel of the house he had just signed away.", "evidence": "access_log", "provenBy": { "kind": "lie", "suspect": "s1" } }, { "time": "00:38", "text": "Baban Shinde came back through the rear gate and emptied the storeroom that had been his home for eleven years — a trunk, a bedding roll, a tin of tea he kept for Bhaskar. The booth light burned above him as he carried it out into the first of the rain.", "evidence": "access_log", "provenBy": { "kind": "lie", "suspect": "s4" } }, { "time": "01:30", "text": "The house was empty. Bhaskar had rewound the print, cased it in six cans, and crated it for the archive. The arc was doused. He sat down at the rewind bench and did not get up. The bolt was on the inside; the flask at the foot of the stair was still full.", "evidence": "forensics" } ], "closingLine": { "suspect": "s2", "text": "I stayed with the guests in the lobby until the very end; the terrace and the booth I left to Bhaskar, the way he always wanted." } }, "coldThread": { "label": "A Bangalore number in the telephone diary — 080 4361 1180", "glyph": "🧵" }, "answerKey": { "sealed": true, "salt": "a06d90566173ec72c4ce8fd9dc861505", "who": { "answer": "b1e8dcd1b8ede5c1c6b80da65f733c7475b125c37703e311d4edefc3eef4634c", "acceptedCitations": [ "c3e59c40e5c42672fa6b2fea6df7c146a530fbff04082625678cf15209ef20bf", "0bfb68a02bbc4fda1a78105c27c0c47c3ec65c5cf27cd247d1149de362c34a88" ] }, "how": { "answer": "ab242877d0504ca3092b44c36fd7bf412a23d363ca380cd74cd4960b74541876", "acceptedCitations": [ "a3416a68b1677b7fbb68ef0bc9b67248c24cc020e3d5368b69067f87036fa22f", "dfd803ea77610227b053e39af1bb9a5454bb5a1b6b4317ed0bd4d2524e4ccd23" ] }, "why": { "answer": "5e147f8110a795649dd03b9cbdfd6318622f5e8e6f1f8523aefd0df0d2c5720e", "acceptedCitations": [ "3d4e7d7ca14ed8781165f4d6e194628558f10dcfdc12b17fda44a44c3a8f8fe8", "dfd803ea77610227b053e39af1bb9a5454bb5a1b6b4317ed0bd4d2524e4ccd23" ] }, "lies": [ { "suspect": "s1", "claim": "d533bc9fd59537ea8f5b19645f61caacff1462654ed6d4eb7395048474f97fa1", "disprovedBy": [ "c3e59c40e5c42672fa6b2fea6df7c146a530fbff04082625678cf15209ef20bf", "3d4e7d7ca14ed8781165f4d6e194628558f10dcfdc12b17fda44a44c3a8f8fe8" ], "reveal": "He left his own farewell show at 22:47 and signed the possession papers and the fixtures annexure at the buyer's office. Demolition begins Tuesday; the cultural hall he promised the staff was never in the agreement." }, { "suspect": "s2", "claim": "9387618c8905e2693325865b276664e2342414dc61a21fcbddc9a6b37659b5b5", "disprovedBy": [ "c3e59c40e5c42672fa6b2fea6df7c146a530fbff04082625678cf15209ef20bf" ], "reveal": "The twelve minutes on the terrace were the murder: the belt off, the sacks in, back down to garland the chief guest. For years he had sold the archive under condemnation entries — the first sales paid wages the owner could not — and Monday's inventory would have ended it." }, { "suspect": "s3", "claim": "8850d6689a2e8058c3b07bad1a668cc5521433910ac4996cfa5221de92e7c14b", "disprovedBy": [ "dfd803ea77610227b053e39af1bb9a5454bb5a1b6b4317ed0bd4d2524e4ccd23" ], "reveal": "He had been inside three times before, collecting 'scrap film' by the crate. He suspected what the cans were and bought them anyway. He came to the farewell show to see the house whose archive he had been hollowing out." }, { "suspect": "s4", "claim": "9387618c8905e2693325865b276664e2342414dc61a21fcbddc9a6b37659b5b5", "disprovedBy": [ "c3e59c40e5c42672fa6b2fea6df7c146a530fbff04082625678cf15209ef20bf" ], "reveal": "There is no room in Hadapsar. He had slept in the under-stage storeroom for eleven years, and came back at midnight to carry his life out — the trunk, the bedding roll, the tin of tea — so that nobody would ever know it had been there." }, { "suspect": "s5", "claim": "d533bc9fd59537ea8f5b19645f61caacff1462654ed6d4eb7395048474f97fa1", "disprovedBy": [ "3d4e7d7ca14ed8781165f4d6e194628558f10dcfdc12b17fda44a44c3a8f8fe8", "c3e59c40e5c42672fa6b2fea6df7c146a530fbff04082625678cf15209ef20bf" ], "reveal": "The call was a job interview — the multiplex post he has since accepted. The half-past-eight checklist was never run. Whether it would have caught the silent fan in time, he will spend the rest of his working life wondering." } ], "coldThreadDoc": "dfd803ea77610227b053e39af1bb9a5454bb5a1b6b4317ed0bd4d2524e4ccd23" } }