Detective Ray walked into a freezing cabin during a blizzard. The sole occupant sat dead at a wooden table with a fountain pen in hand and a suicide note half-written. The ink on the paper was completely frozen solid halfway through a sentence, yet the cabin's iron stove was roaring with hot fire. Ray arrested the nephew visiting outside. Why?
An iron stove takes time to heat a freezing room. If the room was cold enough to freeze fountain pen ink while the stove was roaring, the stove had just been lit recently, exposing the nephew's lie that he sat by a warm fire all afternoon.
The physics of thermodynamics dictate that a hot stove would have warmed the room and melted frozen ink unless it was lit very recently after the crime.
About this riddle
Detective riddles are tiny mysteries. Look for the detail in the story that does not fit; it is usually the clue that solves the case.
Difficulty: Hard. More like this: Detective riddles with answers or try Truth & Lie Island for a different kind of puzzle.
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