Crimzle › Previous cases › Case 022
Death in the Watchmaker’s Rooms
Case 022 · 23 September 2026 · Hard
The rain had just started when the call came in from the little shop on the corner, the one with antique clocks ticking at all hours behind dusty glass. Upstairs, in the cramped rooms over the shop, Ambrose Galbraith kept his workshop, his books, and his grudges. That evening the staff stayed late, arguing over lost stock, forged signatures, and a commission that had vanished with it. At some point in that stormy hour, someone turned on Ambrose and ended the argument forever.
Suspects
-
Clifford Norwood
senior watch repairer
For fifteen years Clifford kept the workshop running while Ambrose took the praise and the rare commissions. The night of the murder, Ambrose had finally confronted him about parts skimmed from clients’ watches, and hinted that the police would hear about it in the morning.
-
Juliet Brandt
junior apprentice
Juliet was the newest pair of hands in the workshop, quick with small tools and quicker with excuses. Ambrose had just discovered that a ruined customer piece had been signed off in her name, and that the compensation was coming out of her wages for the next year.
-
Vivian Redmayne
business partner and bookkeeper
Vivian kept the accounts and the shop’s fragile credit alive, smoothing over Ambrose’s temper with careful promises. She had quietly taken out a loan in Ambrose’s name to cover a bad season; the forgery was about to come to light in an audit he insisted on starting that week.
-
Jerome Vance
traveling clock salesman
Jerome brought in customers from small towns, taking a cut on every overhaul and trade. Ambrose had just cancelled a lucrative route after a complaint about counterfeit parts, leaving Jerome with debts he could not easily pay.
Possible weapons
-
the iron paperweight
A heavy iron paperweight shaped like a pocket watch, kept near the ledgers to stop them sliding on the polished desk.
-
the brass candlestick
A narrow brass candlestick, stained with old wax, used when the power flickered during late work.
-
the steel ruler
A straight steel ruler from the workbench, its edge worn smooth from years of marking cases and plates.
-
the glass bottle
A small thick glass bottle that once held cleaning fluid for clock mechanisms, now kept empty near the tools.
Places
-
the parts drawers wall
A whole wall of shallow wooden drawers, each one labeled in fading ink, where tiny gears and springs were stored in careful rows.
-
the polishing bench
A narrow bench under a bright lamp, scattered with cloths and rouge, where cases were polished until every scratch vanished.
-
the main workbench
The central table of the workshop, crowded with loupe lamps, tiny screwdrivers, and open movements waiting for careful hands.
-
the ledger desk corner
A cramped corner with a high stool and a sloping desk, where the day’s repairs, payments, and orders were written into thick ledgers.
Evidence & statements
- Exactly one of these is true, never both: Clifford Norwood was carrying the iron paperweight, or Clifford Norwood spent the crucial minutes at the ledger desk corner.
- If Juliet Brandt was the one carrying the brass candlestick, then whoever stayed at the polishing bench was carrying the iron paperweight.
- Whoever stayed at the main workbench was the tallest of the four.
- Whoever was carrying the iron paperweight was taller than whoever was carrying the brass candlestick.
- Clifford Norwood was not the one carrying the steel ruler.
- Exactly one of these is true, never both: the iron paperweight was the heaviest of all the things being carried, or whoever stayed at the ledger desk corner was carrying the brass candlestick.
- At least one of these is true: Vivian Redmayne was carrying the glass bottle, or Vivian Redmayne stayed at the polishing bench.
- A faint smear of rouge from the polishing cloths was found on the killer’s sleeve and on the edge of a broken watch crystal: the killer spent those minutes at the polishing bench.