Daily Casefile · Detective
The People's Choice at Prendergast
≈ 6 min
Prendergast's summer preview evening doubles as the 'People's Choice' ballot: each of the four shortlisted young painters gets one wall, and guests drop paper tokens into a numbered brass box to name the piece that goes to auction first — the coveted opening lot. Tally closed at 8:30 PM and the box showed Lot 3, a modest still life, edging out the crowd favourite by eleven tokens. By 9 PM registrar Halima Odt had counted twice and found the box held forty more tokens than the door clicker recorded handing out — someone stuffed the ballot for Lot 3.
Subject
The People's Choice ballot
A numbered brass token box on the central plinth, meant to award the opening auction lot; quietly padded with forty extra tokens in favour of Lot 3.
The suspects
- Marisol Vane — Painter of Lot 3, the winning still life
- Declan Roe — Painter of Lot 1, the crowd-favourite portrait
- Halima Odt — Registrar, keeper of the ballot box and door clicker
- Greta Lindqvist — Visiting art critic reviewing the shortlist
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This case first aired on August 7, 2026. A fresh detective runs every morning — same rules, five minutes, one solution.