Clues & Culprits › Archive › October 2026 › Oct 25, 2026 Medium
Oct 25, 2026 — Medium case
Acting on a tip-off, customs officers searched the Alpine Night Express from end to end for two hundred smuggled Swiss watches. They found nothing but a dining car that smelled wonderfully of fresh bread, and waved the train across the border an hour late.
This Medium case seats 20 suspects on a 4×5 grid. 17 of them carry a clue; the other 3 only have something to say about themselves. 3 of the steps can only be proven by reading two or more clues together. Every verdict you enter is checked against all the scenarios that still fit the statements on file, so a move only sticks when it is proven.
The opening statement
Idris the commercial traveller starts the case already proven innocent:
Nobody between me and Leo is a criminal.— Idris, commercial traveller (A3)
The lineup
Suspects stand in alphabetical order, left to right and top to bottom. Each belongs to one of Clues & Culprits’ twelve character classes — the badge on their nameplate. This case uses 6 of them, each cast as a role in the setting: conductors, porters, commercial travellers, musicians, engineers, chefs. Clues about a role (“exactly one of the commercial travellers”) count everyone in it.
| Seat | Suspect | Role in this case | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Arlo | conductor | Courier |
| B1 | Bea | porter | Servant |
| C1 | Cal | commercial traveller | Merchant |
| D1 | Dev | commercial traveller | Merchant |
| A2 | Ezra | musician | Artist |
| B2 | Freya | engineer | Laborer |
| C2 | Gus | chef | Cook |
| D2 | Hana | chef | Cook |
| A3 | Idris | commercial traveller | Merchant |
| B3 | Juno | conductor | Courier |
| C3 | Kira | musician | Artist |
| D3 | Leo | conductor | Courier |
| A4 | Mabel | chef | Cook |
| B4 | Nico | musician | Artist |
| C4 | Otto | engineer | Laborer |
| D4 | Percy | commercial traveller | Merchant |
| A5 | Quentin | porter | Servant |
| B5 | Rufus | engineer | Laborer |
| C5 | Sadie | porter | Servant |
| D5 | Tess | conductor | Courier |
Stuck?
The in-game hint first points at the statement to re-read, then at the suspect you can prove, then shows the proof. For a gentler nudge, open the spoiler-free hints for Oct 25, 2026, or press Share to send a friend your exact board. New to the format? The deduction-puzzle guide covers the habits that unlock every step.
More cases
- Same day: Easy case · Hard case · Evil case
- Previous Medium: Oct 24, 2026 — Breakfast with the Gorillas
- Next Medium: Oct 26, 2026 — Three Hundred Thousand Too Many
- Clue types in this case: Same-verdict and exactly-one clues · Neighbor clues · Common-neighbor clues · Above, below, left and right
- All October 2026 cases · More cases in night trains · Meet the cast