When Troti (The Ruler of the Inspectors) walked into the house, a police officer approached him. “We have two people in custody,” said the officer, “But we have to release them both if we can’t find out who did this. There’s Mary, a former business partner, but they got in an argument a while back and split the business up. Then there’s Roger, her ex-boyfriend. When we came, they were both looking at the body.”
“Where are they?” said Troti.
“They are upstairs in the victim’s room, where she was shot.”
Troti walked upstairs to the room. He saw the body, the light from the open window illuminating the waist to the head. The window looked old and there was no screen, just sliding glass. Through it you could see her backyard. There was a bullet high in her back. Troti looked at the suspects in the room. “I would like to have a word with both of you.”
Mary walked out in the hall with Troti and began to speak with Troti. “I don’t really know what happened. I heard the shot from my house; our houses are back to back. When I ran over, I saw Roger pale as a ghost looking down at the body. I think Roger shot the poor girl. Even if I was angry at her, she didn’t deserve what she got at all.”
She re-entered the room and Roger came out. “I came over to apologize to Julie. I knocked at the door, then heard a gunshot. I ran in and looked down at her. I was absolutely horrified at what I saw, but I didn’t do it. Mary came over a few minutes later, saying she heard the shot from her house.”
Troti then had an idea about who had murdered the girl. Do you know who murdered?
Solution
Julie was obviously face down because the bullet in her back was visible. But you know that she was standing with her back to the window because when she fell, the light was on the upper half of her body. You could not shoot her by coming in to the room. That means someone shot her through the open window. Roger had no access to any vantage points from where he could shoot her. Yet, Mary did. She shot the bullet from her window, which was just opposite hers, as their houses are back to back.
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