Crimzle › Previous cases › Case 024

The Vanishing Between the Shelves

Case 024 · 8 October 2026 · Hard

Bellamy Bookshop had closed to the public hours before Celia Pemberton vanished. Only four people remained inside the old shop and the cramped rooms above, finishing the cataloguing of a recent private collection. Shortly after ten, someone heard a brief struggle and the scrape of furniture from the upper floor, but no one admitted to seeing anything. By half past, Celia was gone, her reading glasses snapped on the floor and her handbag still behind the counter. Whatever happened inside those walls, she had not walked out by choice.

Suspects

• Cornelius Bellamy

  owner of the bookshop

  An aging but imposing bookseller, Cornelius Bellamy has spent four decades building his reputation as a guardian of rare volumes. The sudden disappearance of a trusted cataloguer under his roof threatens both his business and his carefully curated image.

  188 cm

• Irene Danforth

  restoration consultant

  Brought in to advise on the condition of the newly acquired collection, Irene Danforth prides herself on her professional distance. The loss of a key witness inside a client’s premises could damage the discretion on which her work depends.

  176 cm

• Thaddeus Ellsworth

  private collector

  Thaddeus Ellsworth financed the purchase of the private library now being catalogued, insisting on examining every title. If Celia had discovered irregularities in his documentation, her disappearance could shield him from awkward questions.

  182 cm

• Marius Selby

  assistant clerk

  Young and outwardly deferential, Marius Selby handles the day-to-day paperwork that keeps the shop afloat. Rumours suggest he owed money he could not repay, and Celia’s meticulous ledgers might have revealed more than he could afford.

  168 cm

Possible objects

• the iron paperweight

  A dense, cold iron paperweight shaped like a closed book, used to pin down brittle catalogue sheets on the crowded desks.

  1.1 kg

• the brass candlestick

  An old brass candlestick kept near the handwritten catalogues in case of power cuts, its base speckled with hardened wax.

  700 g

• the glass decanter

  A heavy glass decanter filled with dark port, habitually brought out by the owner on long cataloguing nights.

  1.3 kg

• the leather briefcase

  A scuffed leather briefcase used to carry appraisal documents and private correspondence, its lock recently scratched.

  500 g

Places

• the front reading room

  A narrow room at the front of the shop with two long tables and lamps, where reference works and fragile folios are consulted under watch.

  Indoors

• the rare volumes alcove

  A recessed corner lined with locked glass-fronted cases, holding the most valuable titles recently taken from their crates.

  Indoors

• the cataloguing desk upstairs

  A cluttered desk on the upper floor piled with index cards, ink bottles, and the ledgers Celia had been updating that evening.

  Indoors

• the back stair landing

  A small landing midway up the rear staircase, just wide enough for a stack of boxes and a single wall sconce.

  Indoors

Evidence & statements

1. Exactly one of these is true, never both: Irene Danforth was the one working in the rare volumes alcove, or Marius Selby was the one working in the rare volumes alcove.
2. Exactly one of these is true, never both: whoever was in the front reading room is taller than whoever was on the back stair landing, or whoever was in the rare volumes alcove was carrying the leather briefcase.
3. The heaviest of the four things was with whoever was in the rare volumes alcove.
4. Whoever was at the cataloguing desk upstairs was carrying the leather briefcase.
5. Marius Selby was not the one carrying the glass decanter.
6. Whoever was carrying the brass candlestick is taller than whoever was in the rare volumes alcove.
7. If Irene Danforth was the one carrying the glass decanter, then Cornelius Bellamy was the one carrying the iron paperweight.
8. A smear of fresh leather dye was found ground into the floorboards by the cataloguing desk upstairs, matching the scuffs on a single case: the culprit spent those minutes at the cataloguing desk upstairs.

Play this case