Crimzle › Previous cases › Case 015

Sabotage in the Last Exposure

Case 015 · 16 September 2026 · Hard

The city studio had been booked for weeks, every hour costed and signed off. On the night of the perfume shoot, the client’s team left just after midnight, trusting that the automated backup would secure every frame before the morning review. Instead, at dawn, the photographer found the primary capture system corrupted beyond easy repair and the entire session’s work unreadable. Insurance money, professional reputations and a long‑term contract now hung in the balance, and it was immediately clear that someone inside the studio had reasons for the system to fail at exactly that moment. With four people staying late and each with something to gain from the disaster, the question became who turned a long night’s work into useless pixels.

Suspects

• Adrian Cross

  studio assistant

  Adrian handled lighting setups, cable runs and late‑night cleanups, always the first to arrive and the last to leave. A permanent position with the studio depended on this campaign’s success, but a competing agency had quietly offered him a job if the client walked away dissatisfied.

  168 cm

• Marta Jensen

  lead photographer

  Marta owned the studio and fronted the campaign, but business had been tight for months and the client had refused to renegotiate rates. A technical disaster traced to faulty equipment would let her claim generous insurance and renegotiate future work on her own terms.

  178 cm

• Gareth Holden

  freelance digital retoucher

  Gareth had been brought in to polish the final images, but the client preferred to use their own in‑house team on future campaigns. A failed shoot would force the studio to rely on him longer, and he carried old grudges from past jobs where clients had dropped him without warning.

  172 cm

• Lena Brooks

  brand representative

  Lena represented the perfume company on set, closely monitoring every shot. An internal rival back at head office had staked their reputation on choosing this studio; if the campaign collapsed here, Lena could argue for the rival’s demotion and step into their role.

  182 cm

Possible tools

• the steel tripod

  A heavy steel tripod used to support large cameras or studio lights, its joints worn from years of use but still solid. It could easily crush a cable if someone lowered a leg in the wrong place.

  1.3 kg

• the sandbag counterweight

  A studio sandbag used as a counterweight to hold light stands and booms steady. Its fabric is faded and a bit frayed at the seams from being dragged across the floor.

  800 g

• the hard drive case

  A rugged shock‑proof hard drive case with multiple removable drives inside, used to store the night’s raw images. If mishandled or tampered with, it could turn a finished shoot into unrecoverable data.

  1.6 kg

• the reflector disc

  A collapsible circular reflector disc with a metallic surface that bounces light back onto the model. It is light enough to carry under one arm all evening without noticing the weight.

  400 g

Places

• the main shooting bay

  The wide open area where the backdrop was set and the perfume bottles were arranged, ringed by light stands and cables. Most of the night’s work happened here under the strongest lights.

  Indoors

• the digital workstation corner

  A dimmer corner of the studio with a calibrated monitor, keyboard and the primary capture computer connected by cable to the camera. The hard drives and backup system were all routed through this station.

  Indoors

• the props storage racks

  Tall metal shelves lined with glass blocks, fabric rolls and past campaign props, where assistants fetched and returned items throughout the night. The lighting here was colder and more industrial.

  Indoors

• the changing nook

  A curtained‑off nook with a mirror and small table where the model could change wardrobe and a makeup artist could touch up details. It opened back onto the main floor but felt separate and cramped.

  Indoors

Evidence & statements

1. Adrian Cross was not the one carrying the hard drive case.
2. If Lena Brooks was in the main shooting bay, then whoever was in the main shooting bay was carrying the sandbag counterweight.
3. Marta Jensen is taller than whoever was in the props storage racks.
4. Exactly one of these is true, never both: whoever was in the main shooting bay was carrying the sandbag counterweight, or whoever was in the main shooting bay was carrying the hard drive case.
5. Whoever was in the main shooting bay was carrying something heavier than whatever was with whoever was in the props storage racks.
6. If Adrian Cross was in the changing nook, then whoever was in the main shooting bay is taller than whoever was in the digital workstation corner.
7. Exactly one of these is true, never both: Adrian Cross was in the changing nook, or whoever was in the main shooting bay was carrying the steel tripod.
8. Forensic analysis showed that the only corrupted data trail on the capture system matched the connection pattern of the hard drive case: the saboteur was the one carrying the hard drive case.

Play this case