Clues & Culprits › Archive › October 2026 › Oct 26, 2026 Hard
Oct 26, 2026 — Hard case
On Saturday morning air-traffic control closed Halston Airport for three hours because of fog that the Met Office insists was never there. When the terminal reopened, the duty-free's locked cabinet of rare whiskies, £600,000 of single malt, was empty.
This Hard case seats 20 suspects on a 4×5 grid. 15 of them carry a clue; the other 5 only have something to say about themselves. 4 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
Quinn the air-traffic controller starts the case already proven innocent:
Sadie and I have exactly two innocent neighbors in common.— Quinn, air-traffic controller (A5)
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: air-traffic controllers, customs officers, first-class passengers, airport paramedics, flight attendants, duty-free clerks. Clues about a role (“exactly one of the air-traffic controllers”) count everyone in it.
| Seat | Suspect | Role in this case | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Ada | air-traffic controller | Scholar |
| B1 | Bruno | customs officer | Enforcer |
| C1 | Celia | first-class passenger | Noble |
| D1 | Dina | airport paramedic | Healer |
| A2 | Esme | air-traffic controller | Scholar |
| B2 | Frank | customs officer | Enforcer |
| C2 | Gemma | flight attendant | Servant |
| D2 | Hattie | airport paramedic | Healer |
| A3 | Idris | duty-free clerk | Merchant |
| B3 | Joan | air-traffic controller | Scholar |
| C3 | Kofi | flight attendant | Servant |
| D3 | Lionel | first-class passenger | Noble |
| A4 | Marco | first-class passenger | Noble |
| B4 | Nora | customs officer | Enforcer |
| C4 | Olive | first-class passenger | Noble |
| D4 | Percy | duty-free clerk | Merchant |
| A5 | Quinn | air-traffic controller | Scholar |
| B5 | Ruby | customs officer | Enforcer |
| C5 | Sadie | flight attendant | Servant |
| D5 | Tariq | duty-free clerk | Merchant |
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 26, 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 · Medium case
- Previous Hard: Oct 25, 2026 — An Allergy to Tuesdays
- Clue types in this case: Odd and even clues · Neighbor clues · Most-neighbors clues · Above, below, left and right
- All October 2026 cases · More cases in airports · Meet the cast