The Mystery of Stony Lane

          Stony Lane is a long, narrow, dead end street. Stony Lane is connected
to Main Street, which is a very long street with many small roads connected to it.
There are hills on both sides of Main Street beyond the small roads. Stony Lane
is about 300 feet long from Main Street to the end of the street. Stony Lane is
not connected to any other street.
          John lives alone in a one floor house on Stony Lane. He has been living
alone for 20 years on Stony Lane.
          On a Saturday in July, at 7 o'clock in the evening, John walks out of his
house, and then he gets into his black car, and then he starts driving to a park.
He makes a turn from Stony Lane onto Main Street, and then he is going north
on Main Street. He drives three miles, and then he makes a right turn onto a
small road, which leads to a park.
          John enters the park, and then he parks his car on the side of the road.
Then he gets out of his car, and then he walks around the park for about 20
minutes. Then he gets back into his car at 7:30, and then he drives back to
Main Street, and then he makes a left turn onto Main Street, and then he is
going south on Main Street. He is going back to Stony Lane, and he drives
three miles, and then he makes a right turn onto Stony Lane, which is the
street where he lives.
          On the right side of Stony Lane, there are two houses at the end of the
street. There is a red house, which is the closest house to Main Street, and
next to the red house, there is a yellow house at the end of the street.
          On the left side of Stony Lane, there are also two houses at the end of
the street. There is a green house, which is directly across the street from the
red house, and next to the green house, there is a blue house at the end of
the street. The blue house is directly across the street from the yellow house.
          The red house is average size. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms,
a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, a cellar, and an outdoor porch in the
back.
          The blue house is average size. The blue house is very similar to the
red house. Both houses are the same height, and the same length going
across. The only major difference is the blue house has an indoor porch in
the back, which makes the length from the front to the back longer. The blue
house also has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room,
a dining room, and a cellar.
          The green house is small. It is about four feet lower than the red and
blue houses. The red and blue houses are about three feet wider than the green
house. The green house has two bedrooms and one bathroom, a kitchen, a living
room, and a dining room. It has no cellar and no porch. Every room is on the
same floor.
          The yellow house is very small. It is about two feet lower than the
green house. The green house is about three feet wider than the yellow house.
The red and blue houses are about six feet wider than the yellow house. The
yellow house has one bedroom and one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room,
and a dining room. It has no cellar and no porch. Every room is on the same
floor.
          Beyond the end of Stony Lane, there is a large amount of flat land with
no trees. There are hills about 200 feet away from the end of Stony Lane.
          Mike and Jill are married. They are young, and they live on Stony Lane,
and they have a dog. Mike and Jill live in one of the four houses. They live in
either the red house, the blue house, the green house, or the yellow house.
          Mike and Jill are on vacation, and they gave John the key to their house.
He would go to their house every morning, and unlock the front door, and then
he would let the dog out. In the early evening, John would unlock the door to
their house, and let the dog go back inside.
          The dog is standing in the middle of Stony Lane between the red house
and the green house when John makes a right turn onto Stony Lane. John parks
his car on the right side of the street just before the red house.
          John gets out of his car, and then he walks over to the dog, and then they
walk to one of the four houses. Then he unlocks the front door, and then he lets
the dog go back inside of the house. Then he walks back to his car, and then
he gets inside, and then he drives to his house, and then he parks his car in the
driveway. Then he gets out of his car, and then he walks to the front door. Then
he unlocks the door, and then he walks back into his house at 7:45.
          John works five days a week. On Monday through Friday, he would get up
very early to go to work, and he would leave his house at 5:30 in the morning. In
the summer, when he is leaving for work, sometimes he would be standing in his
front yard looking in the opposite direction of Main Street, and he would be looking
at the hills, which are less than 350 feet away from his house, and he would see
the sun rising behind the hills. He would always be looking in the opposite direction
of Main Street to see the sun rising behind the hills.
          Fifty years ago, there was a young woman who lived alone in one of the four
houses on Stony Lane who was murdered. Her name was Brenda. She lived in
either the red house, the blue house, the green house, or the yellow house. The
murder happened in the first half of July. Brenda was stabbed to death in her
bedroom on a Friday night between 11:30 and midnight. It was a foggy night.
She was robbed. A front window was open all the way. There was a young
woman walking on the sidewalk in front of the house. She heard a woman
screaming from inside the house, and then she called the police on her cell
phone. Brenda was found dead on the floor at midnight. It was one of the
bloodiest murders that ever happened. The number of times that Brenda
was stabbed is equal to ten plus the number of bedrooms in John's house.
          When the murder scene was examined, a shocking coincidence was
discovered. If the murder happened one night earlier, or one night later, then
there would have been no coincidence, and fewer people would have remembered
the date. The murder happened on a day that was easy to remember. The murder
did not happen on a holiday. The murder was never solved.
          The murder house has a new owner. Some repairs were made on the
house. No rooms were added to the house. The dimensions of the house are
the same as they were 50 years ago. The other three houses look the same as
they were 50 years ago.
          Mike and Jill came home on a Monday, and it was two days after John went
to the park. The next day, on a Tuesday, they saw a photo of the murder house
the way it looked 50 years ago. The photo was taken one day after the murder.
Jill had a nightmare about the murder on Tuesday night. Three nights later, on
a Friday night, she had another nightmare about the murder.
          Mike and Jill could walk out the front of their house, and make a right turn,
and then continue walking straight on Stony Lane, and the next house that they
would pass on the same side of the street as their own house, would be John's
house. Mike and Jill do not live in the same house that John lives in.
          Mike and Jill's house has either two or three more bedrooms than John's house,
or John's house has one more bedroom than Mike and Jill's house.
          If John's house has one bedroom, then the murder house is a kitty corner away
from Mike and Jill's house. If John's house has two bedrooms, then the murder was
committed in his house. If John's house has more than two bedrooms, then the house
that is directly across the street from Mike and Jill's house is where the murder was
committed.
          Jill had two nightmares about the woman who was murdered 50 years ago.
In her first nightmare, she was standing in the front yard of a blue house with her
dog between 11:30 and midnight on a foggy night, and she was looking at the house.
She could see most of the house through the fog. The blue house was average size.
Jill heard a woman screaming from inside the house, and then she saw blood flowing
down the front of the house in many places. The front of the blue house was covered
in blood. Jill was frightened by the sight of blood, and then she ran to her house with
the dog. She went into her house with the dog, and then she went into her bedroom,
and then she got in bed with Mike. A minute later, she woke up, and she was
relieved to find Mike in bed with her, and it was only a dream.
          Three nights later, Jill had another nightmare about the murder that happened
50 years ago. In her second nightmare, she was standing in the front yard of a
green house with her dog between 11:30 and midnight on a foggy night, and she
was looking at the house. She could see most of the house through the fog. The
green house was small. It was about four feet lower than the blue house that she
saw in her first nightmare, and the blue house in the first nightmare was about three
feet wider than the green house in the second nightmare. Then the fog got thicker,
and then the fog was completely covering the green house. Then the fog started
to diminish, and then about five seconds later, the fog was gone, and the green
house was gone. The green house vanished into thin air. Then all of a sudden,
another fog quickly moved in, and then it was completely covering the land where
the green house once stood, and then about five seconds later, it was less foggy,
and then a yellow house appeared in the fog.
          Jill could see a yellow house in the fog, and the yellow house was on the
land where the green house once stood. She could see most of the house through
the fog. The yellow house was very small. The yellow house was about two feet
lower than the green house, and the green house was about three feet wider than
the yellow house. Jill heard a woman screaming from inside the house, and then
she saw blood flowing down the front of the house in many places. The front of
the yellow house was covered in blood. Jill was frightened by the sight of blood,
and then she ran to her house with the dog. She went into her house with the dog,
and then she went into her bedroom, and then she got in bed with Mike. A minute
later, she woke up, and she was relieved to find Mike in bed with her, and it was
only a dream.
          Mike and Jill might live in a house which is very similar to one of the houses
that she saw in one of her nightmares, but the murder was not committed in their
house.
          In one of Jill's nightmares, she saw the murder house exactly the way that
she saw it in the photo.



          1. Which house do Mike and Jill live in?

          2. Which house does John live in?

          3. In which house was the murder committed?

          4. How many times was Brenda stabbed?

          5. What was the coincidence that was discovered at the murder scene?