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ArchiveAugust 18, 2026Rookie
Case File · Forensic · No. 053

Daily Casefile · Forensic

The Char on the Upper Platform

4 min

At Cresthaven Funicular Railway's upper terminus, fire broke out in the wooden ticket office and spread to the covered waiting gallery beside the winding-house. Station manager Herr Blum has been detained on suspicion of deliberate ignition after a failing inspection report threatened the line's operating licence. Investigator Adela Voss has been asked to reconstruct the precise sequence of ignition, spread, and the discovery that followed — and to date every stage from the physical evidence left at the scene. Determine the correct chronological order of the six events.

The scene

Cresthaven Funicular Railway, a twin-track cable-car station serving a hilltop spa hotel, Swiss Alps, 1926

The events

  • Station clock in the winding-house stops
  • Investigator Voss surveys char depth and accelerant absorption
  • Ticket office ignites and fire takes hold
  • Accelerant poured along the ticket-office skirting
  • Night porter Fenner sees the glow from the valley path
  • Fire crosses to the covered waiting gallery

Play today’s Forensic.

This case first aired on August 18, 2026. A fresh forensic runs every morning — same rules, five minutes, one solution.