Crimzle › Previous cases › Case 028

Blackmail After the Final Bell

Case 028 · 5 November 2026 · Hard

The last bout had emptied the gym of its cheering crowd, but the air still smelled of sweat, resin, and old canvas. As the lights were cut in the main hall, Bernard Rooke finally admitted to the management that someone inside the gym had been bleeding him for months. Anonymous demands had arrived before every major fight, each one threatening to expose a past mistake that would ruin his standing in the boxing commission and cost him what savings he had left. Now a new demand had arrived tied to tonight’s event, and for the first time Bernard was sure the blackmailer had been close enough to watch his every move inside the gym. The management locked the doors and called in an investigator before anyone could leave.

Suspects

• Desmond Netherby

  club manager

  A former middleweight who never made it past regional titles, Desmond now runs the boxing gym and negotiates fights and sponsorships. He knows every contract and quiet deal that passes through the office.

  178 cm

• Blanche Langmere

  accountant and gate cashier

  Blanche keeps the books, balances the cash boxes after each event, and deals with sponsors who prefer their payments off the record. Her calm manner hides a reputation for never forgetting a number.

  168 cm

• Magnus Fenwick

  headline boxer

  Magnus is the gym’s star heavyweight, fresh off a televised win that put him on the national circuit. His contract is the gym’s biggest asset, and any scandal around his training or medical history would cost everyone money.

  190 cm

• Constance Thorne

  cutwoman and corner assistant

  Constance tapes hands, packs ice on bruises, and keeps fighters presentable between rounds. Her work puts her close to whispered arguments and desperate negotiations in the corners.

  174 cm

Possible items

• the compromising photograph

  A grainy but unmistakable photograph showing Bernard passing a thick envelope to a suspended boxing official in a car park months ago.

  150 g

• the unsigned letter

  A neatly typed letter detailing Bernard’s private debts and hinting at match-fixing, with no signature but several precise figures only an insider would know.

  50 g

• the torn ledger page

  A page ripped from the gym’s old cash ledger, showing a cash withdrawal before a key fight that never appeared in the official balance.

  600 g

• the locker-room recording

  A small digital recorder containing a conversation where Bernard, his voice tense and low, agrees to ‘make it worth someone’s while’ before a past bout.

  300 g

Places

• the main training ring

  The central ring with its worn ropes and stained canvas, where fighters warm up and cool down once the crowd has gone.

  Indoors

• the corner stool area

  One corner of the ring laid out with the low stool, spit bucket, and ice, where cut staff tend to fighters between rounds.

  Indoors

• the speed bag corner

  A cramped corner with a mounted speed bag, scuffed floor markings, and a mirror clouded with sweat.

  Indoors

• the equipment racks

  Metal racks stacked with gloves, headguards, and coiled hand-wraps, just off the main floor of the gym.

  Indoors

Evidence & statements

1. Exactly one of these is true, never both: whoever stayed by the speed bag corner was Magnus Fenwick, or whoever stayed at the main training ring was Magnus Fenwick.
2. Whoever was at the speed bag corner is taller than whoever carried the compromising photograph.
3. Constance Thorne was not the one carrying the torn ledger page.
4. Desmond Netherby spent the last quiet minutes by the main training ring.
5. At least one of these is true: whoever stayed by the equipment racks was Blanche Langmere, or Blanche Langmere was the one carrying the compromising photograph.
6. Whatever was in the hands of whoever stayed at the corner stool area is heavier than whatever was with whoever stayed by the speed bag corner.
7. If Magnus Fenwick was the one carrying the unsigned letter, then whoever carried the locker-room recording is the shortest of the four.
8. A smear of rosin dust from the ring ropes was found ground into the rubber cap of the compromising photograph’s memory card: the blackmailer was the one carrying the compromising photograph.

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