Twenty-three defendants

Twenty-three defendants sat in the dock at the Tancos trial. For the court, the recovered grenade was the key piece of evidence. On the third day of hearings, it was no longer on the evidence table. Some clues in this case come as riddles. If one stumps you, a hint will solve it. Nine people and one grenade, one per row and one per column. Nothing is handed to you on a plate: you'll need more than one hypothesis to get to the end.

Suspects

• Ambrósio, the former minister on trial: He says he knew nothing. He says that, if he had known, he wouldn't have known either.
• Brunilde, the judge: She has twenty-three defendants and a room for eighteen. She had chairs brought from the bar.
• Clementino, the former military police director: He organised the recovery. In court they call it staging; he prefers logistics.
• Dília, the prosecutor: She wrote a nine-hundred-page indictment. The defendants read the index.
• Eduíno, the inventory sergeant: He knows how many grenades there were before and after. He just doesn't know what happened in between.
• Fausta, the defence lawyer: She defends three defendants at once. Each has a version, and she has all three.
• Godofredo, the prison guard: He escorts the defendants from room to room. He counted them in and out: twenty-three, and one grenade fewer.
• Honorina, the court columnist: She has written a hundred columns about the trial. None has an ending, because neither does the trial.
• Inácio, the court officer: He carries the evidence from the courtroom to the archive and back. The grenade has number 47 on its label.