The Probability of Murder (35 page)

How did the delivery man know who was a convict and who was a guard?

Hint: Figure out what the first man said.

S
OLUTION:
Man #1 is either a guard or convict. If he’s a guard, he would tell the truth, and answer the question by saying, “I’m a guard.” If he’s a convict, he would lie, and answer the question by saying, “I’m a guard.” In other words, no matter what man #1 is, he says the same thing: “I’m a guard.” Those are the words that the deliveryman couldn’t hear.

That brings us to man #2, who said, “He just said he’s a guard. He’s telling the truth.” In the first statement, man #2 confirms that man #1 said he is a guard. That means that he is telling the truth and, therefore, is a guard himself. (If man #2 were a convict, he would have lied and said, “He just said he’s a convict.”) Now that it is established that man #2 is telling the truth, and, therefore, a guard, we can look at the rest of his statement. He said that man #1 is telling the truth, so we now know that man #1 is a guard as well.

As for man #3, he simply calls man #2 a liar, which we already know is not the case. Therefore, man #3 is lying and is a convict. The deliveryman gave his clipboard to either man #1 or man #2 to sign.

6. WORD PICTURES

a. O R S E M A N

(headless horseman)

b. H I J K L M N O

(H
₂
O)

c. DEEF

(feedback)

What is the only word in the English
language that ends in
-mt
?

BOOKS CAN BE
DECEIVING

-A Library Lover’s Mystery-

JENN MCKINLAY

Answering tricky reference questions like this one is more than enough excitement for recently single librarian Lindsey Norris. That is, until someone in her cozy new hometown of Briar Creek, Connecticut, commits murder, and the most pressing question is whodunit…

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and chowder … What more could any reader ask?”
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