The Spare Key, draft for review

Case AL-014 · status review · corpus entry alibi-014-spare-key

What to review. Round 1, the account, the finding and the ceiling are from your notes. Rounds 2–6 are Claude's drafts from the round table in spec §8. One change from that table: round 4's revelation is Theo Pell at the box office, so the reply stays in Mara's voice; the table had the witnesses split on 8:50 or 9:20. The validator flagged her first surname, Voss, because it is the Breather's alias (Sienna Voss) and suspect names share one namespace with the con aliases. She was renamed Mara Tooley on 2026-10-14.

The case

Who opened the Ardent Theater's rear door after closing on Thursday?

On Friday morning the Ardent Theater's office was found unlocked and the box-office deposit was gone. The rear door logged one entry after closing on Thursday. Mara Tooley, the costume lead, has agreed to sit down.

Mara Tooley, Costume lead (she). Grey cardigan, sleeves pushed up, a tape measure looped around one wrist.

The account

I left the building before nine.
Nobody else had my badge.
I didn't see anyone on the way out.
The rear door always locks behind you.
I went straight home.
I've got nothing to hide.

Round 1 · Inferences · PRESS your notes

Line 1: “I left the building before nine.”

Access log, Ardent Theater, rear entrance (log)

Thursday 8:47 p.m. — Badge 0412 (assigned: M. Tooley) — access granted.
The system records the badge number used at each door. It does not record who was holding the badge.

Which choice is best supported by the text?

A. Mara Tooley entered the theater through the rear entrance at 8:47 p.m. — scope · The Embellisher
B. A badge assigned to Mara Tooley opened the rear entrance at 8:47 p.m. — correct
C. Mara Tooley returned to the theater after leaving earlier that evening. — distort · The Half-Truth
D. The rear entrance opens only with Mara Tooley's badge. — extreme · The Absolutist

Reply if held	“I gave Ellis my badge after rehearsal. His wouldn't open the rear door.”
Flat, if missed	Ellis Hart, later: "Mara lent me her badge after rehearsal. Mine doesn't open the rear door."
Line becomes	narrowed · Her badge came in at 8:47; who carried it is open.
New detail	Mara lent her badge to Ellis Hart after rehearsal.

Round 2 · Command of Evidence · PRESS Claude draft

Line 2: “Nobody else had my badge.”

Statement of June Abernathy, stage manager (statement)

I called the end of rehearsal at 8:30 and went to lock the props cage. Mara stayed behind in the wardrobe room to finish the second-act hems. Around 8:40 I saw Ellis, our set carpenter, at the stage door holding a green lanyard, and only the costume department wears green. When I left at 9:05, the costume hooks were empty except for the spare.

Which quotation from the statement most effectively supports the claim that someone outside the costume department was holding a costume department badge on Thursday evening?

A. "I called the end of rehearsal at 8:30 and went to lock the props cage." — irrel · The Professor
B. "Mara stayed behind in the wardrobe room to finish the second-act hems." — herring · The Red Herring
C. "Around 8:40 I saw Ellis, our set carpenter, at the stage door holding a green lanyard, and only the costume department wears green." — correct
D. "When I left at 9:05, the costume hooks were empty except for the spare." — scope · The Embellisher

Reply if held	“Fine. Ellis had it. I didn't think it mattered.”
Flat, if missed	The stage manager's statement, marked: the green lanyard in Ellis's hand at 8:40 was a costume badge.
Line becomes	broken · Ellis, a carpenter, held a costume badge at 8:40.

Round 3 · Central Ideas and Details · STAND Claude draft

Line 3: “I didn't see anyone on the way out.”

Night guard's log, Thursday (log)

8:55 p.m. Rounds, ground floor. Lobby clear. Stage door shut.
8:58 p.m. From the second-floor landing: one person leaves by the front doors, coat over arm.
9:10 p.m. Rounds, second floor. Office door closed, light off.
9:40 p.m. Rounds, ground floor. Nothing to report.

Which choice best states the main idea of the log?

A. The guard saw Mara Tooley leave the theater at 8:58 p.m. — scope · The Embellisher
B. The guard's rounds were routine, and one person left by the front doors just before nine. — correct
C. The theater is empty by nine o'clock every night. — general · The Generalizer
D. No one could have entered the building after the guard's 8:55 round. — extreme · The Absolutist

Reply if held	“He saw someone go. Not me coming back.”
Flat, if missed	Night guard, later: the person who left at 8:58 went out the front and did not come back.
Line becomes	holds · One person left by the front at 8:58; the guard was upstairs.

Round 4 · Cross-Text Connections · PRESS Claude draft

Line 3: “I didn't see anyone on the way out.”

Two statements, lobby (statement)

Text 1

Theo Pell, box office volunteer: I was counting the float at the box office window until 9:20. Mara came through the lobby just before nine, said goodnight to me, and went out the front doors.

Text 2

Rosa Imari, usher: I left at ten to nine by the side door. The lobby was empty except for the box office, where someone was still counting the night's float.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A. Someone was at the box office window as the theater was closing. — correct
B. Mara Tooley left the theater after the box office had closed. — shuffle · The Shuffler
C. The lobby was empty for the whole evening. — distort · The Half-Truth
D. Mara Tooley said goodnight to the usher on her way out. — scope · The Embellisher

Reply if held	“Pell. I forgot about Pell. Fine, I said goodnight.”
Flat, if missed	Theo Pell, later: "She said goodnight to me at the window. She couldn't have missed me."
Line becomes	broken · She passed Theo Pell at the box office on her way out.
New detail	Theo Pell was counting the float at the box office until 9:20.

Round 5 · Rhetorical Synthesis · PRESS Claude draft

Line 4: “The rear door always locks behind you.”

Investigator's notes, rear door (memo)

While looking into the rear door, an investigator took these notes:
• Maintenance ticket 2207 was opened on October 1.
• It reads: "Rear door closer sticking. Door stays open unless pulled shut."
• The ticket was still open on October 8, the Thursday in question.
• A rear-door alarm is logged only when the door is held open for more than five minutes.

The investigator wants to show that the rear door did not lock on its own on Thursday. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A. A rear-door alarm is logged only when the door is held open for more than five minutes. — irrel · The Professor
B. A ticket opened on October 1 and still open on October 8 reports that the rear door stays open unless someone pulls it shut. — correct
C. The rear door has never locked properly since it was installed. — general · The Generalizer
D. Maintenance ticket 2207 was opened on October 1. — mirror · Echo

Reply if held	“That door's been sticking for a week. Everyone knows.”
Flat, if missed	Maintenance, later: the rear door had stuck open since October 1 and had not been fixed.
Line becomes	broken · The closer had stuck since October 1; the door stays open unless pulled.

Round 6 · Inferences · STAND Claude draft

Line 5: “I went straight home.”

Statement of a neighbor, Linden Street (statement)

I walk my dog at a quarter past nine every night. On Thursday I was at the corner of Linden and Fourth when Mara's car pulled into her drive. She waved, carried a garment bag inside, and her porch light went off a few minutes later.

Which choice is best supported by the text?

A. Mara Tooley drove from the theater to her house without stopping anywhere. — scope · The Embellisher
B. Mara Tooley arrived home at about a quarter past nine on Thursday. — correct
C. Mara Tooley walks her dog at a quarter past nine every night. — distort · The Half-Truth
D. Mara Tooley stayed home for the rest of the night. — extreme · The Absolutist

Reply if held	“Quarter past nine. Like I said.”
Flat, if missed	Neighbor, later: Mara's car pulled into her drive at about a quarter past nine.
Line becomes	holds · Home by about 9:15.

The finding

A badge assigned to Mara Tooley opened the rear door at 8:47, and the file does not show who carried it. — fits the file
Every paper agrees: the log records a badge, never a hand. Ellis had the badge at 8:40, and nothing places it at the door at 8:47.
Mara Tooley came back to the theater and opened the rear door herself at 8:47. — wrong
Overreach. The guard and Pell put her leaving by the front just before nine, and nothing puts her at the rear door.
Ellis Hart used Mara Tooley's badge to open the rear door at 8:47. — wrong
Wrong actor. The file puts the badge in Ellis's hand at 8:40 and never puts Ellis at the door.
Mara Tooley's account holds in every detail the file can check. — wrong
Three lines broke: Ellis had her badge, she passed Pell on the way out, and the rear door does not lock on its own.

The file puts her badge at the door and stops there. Whose hand was on it is on the far side of every paper here.

The retort library (Claude draft, first line of each from spec §6)

Key	Variants
`distort` The Half-Truth	Half of that's true. The other half's yours. Started well. Then you added the rest. The first part's right. Finish reading. Close. Close isn't what it says.
`extreme` The Absolutist	You think that proves it? Could have. Doesn't mean did. "Must have" is doing a lot of work there. Possible isn't the same as certain.
`general` The Generalizer	You're making an awful lot out of one detail. One night. You're calling it a habit. That happened once. Once isn't always. You've got one fact and a whole theory.
`herring` The Red Herring	What's that supposed to establish? You're looking at the wrong paper. Interesting. Also beside the point. That's somebody else's evening.
`irrel` The Professor	What's that supposed to establish? True. So what? That's a fact. It's just not about me. Fine. Now tell me what it has to do with my account.
`mirror` Echo	You're just reading it back to me. Those are the paper's words. What do they mean? Saying it again doesn't make it say more. I heard the paper. I'm waiting to hear you.
`reverse` The Contrarian	It says the opposite. Read it again. Backwards. Try it the other way round. You've turned it inside out. That's the reverse of what's written.
`scope` The Embellisher	That's not what the record says. Show me where it says that. You're adding to it. The paper doesn't. That's your story, not the file's.
`shuffle` The Shuffler	You've got the order wrong. That came after. Check the times. Read the times again. Then put them in order. Right things. Wrong order.
`stand` stand round	Read it again. That helps me. That's on my side, you know. Thank you. That's my point exactly. You just made my case for me.

Rendered from the corpus entries alibi-014-spare-key and alibi-retort-*. The corpus is the source of truth.