The Victim
Leopold Falk
Antiquities Dealer
Leopold Falk was a Viennese antiquities dealer with an established gallery and a reputation for knowing exactly what a piece was worth.
Cases
Vienna to Zagreb
Last Train to Zagreb
A locked berth, an empty case, and a storm with no exits
Case Brief
The public story is already unstable.
An overnight sleeper winds south toward Zagreb through a winter storm. The dining car is shuttered, the rest of the train sleeps beyond the locked vestibules, and the Viennese antiquities dealer in Berth 4 has been strangled on his bed beside his open display case. Three passengers ride this coach with the conductor — and every alibi has to fit inside a single narrow corridor.
Fit every movement inside the narrowest corridor on the train.
- Setting
- Vienna to Zagreb
- Case Type
- Quick Case
- Length
- Single sitting
- Suspects
- 4
- Locations
- 6
Cast
Everyone has a version of the night.
The Violinist
Thomas Erhard
Violinist
Thomas Erhard is a Vienna-based violinist heading to Zagreb for a concert. The storm has left him green around the edges and mostly invisible.
The Sleeper Attendant
The Conductor
Sleeper Conductor (ÖBB)
He presents himself as Jakov Kovač, the ÖBB sleeper conductor regularly assigned to this coach. He is polite, professional, and unremarkable in the uniform.
The Patroness
Lenke Ferenczy
Retired Opera Patroness
Madame Lenke Ferenczy is a Hungarian opera patroness and collector with a long, complicated history with the dealer — and a presence on this particular train that is not quite the coincidence she pretends.
The Provenance Researcher
Dr. Ivana Horvat
Provenance Researcher, University of Zagreb
Dr. Ivana Horvat is a Zagreb-based provenance researcher returning from a Vienna symposium. She made no secret of her disagreement with Falk at dinner.
Locations
The scene keeps changing when you look closer.
Crime Scene
Berth 4
The dealer's narrow first-class sleeper berth, the door found locked from the corridor, the small reading lamp still burning over the body.
Private
Berth 5
The violinist's adjoining sleeper berth, barely used except for a music folder dropped back on the fold-down table.
Common Area
Sleeper Corridor
The narrow side corridor of the sleeper coach, its window-side passage running past every berth and the lavatory.
Common Area
Corridor Lavatory
A cramped sleeper-coach lavatory at the end of the corridor — single occupant, bolt-engaged indicator on the door.
Restricted
Conductor's Galley
The sleeper attendant's small service pantry — a coffee urn, a duty board, and the staff roster sealed in its depot frame above the kettle.
Common Area
Lounge Vestibule
The shuttered dining car's lounge end, kept open as a smoking and reading vestibule with the train's satellite telephone.
Investigation Profile
What the case asks you to notice.
- Alibi gaps that sound too rehearsed
- Behavior shifts under repeated pressure
- Conflicting timelines across the same rooms
- Environmental details that make a story harder to defend
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