The Turtle Soup Game

[Randy Jackson]

Many years ago, I taught folklore at a summer camp(we had new campers each week of different ages, from 8-15). At the time, the folklore class was pretty unstructured, so I could more or less do as I pleased. Sometimes I told ghost stories, sometimes sports games, sometimes mythology, whatever I thought might be entertaining to the kids. One of the most useful things we did was two minute mysteries, as they allowed me to be lazy.

The basic rules are as follows: a scenario is laid before the people playing, and you're allowed to ask as many yes/no questions as you like to determine the answer. The answer to the question may also be 'Irrelevant' if it has no bearing on the solution.

I request the following :

* One question per post

* If you already know the answer, please keep it to yourself and let others play. Same with Googling the answer.

Once the scenario is solved, the person who solves it gets to post a new one OR they can pass it back to someone else who's interested (FYI, I'm happy to post more).

So here's the first scenario:

A man is found dead, surrounded by 52 bicycles. What happened?

[Randy Jackson]

This one seems confusing for some so a little hint: the scenario plays out in an office  

[Randy Jackson]

I'm going to retire this question as I think it's confusing everyone, including me. So, here's a new one:

A woman comes home with a bag of groceries, gets the mail, and walks into the house. On the way to the kitchen, she goes through the living room and looks at her husband, who had blown his brains out. She then continues to the kitchen, puts away the groceries, and makes dinner.

[Peter Wrexham]

Was he already dead when she went out?

[JD DeLuzio]

Do we get to learn what the answer to the retired question was?

Also, in the current scenario:

Did she cause her husband's killing?

[Randy Jackson]

Yes

Peter Wrexham said:

Was he already dead when she went out?

[Randy Jackson]

No. 

JD DeLuzio said:

Also, in the current scenario:

Did she cause her husband's killing?

[Randy Jackson]

What happened was the writer visited the editor's office, but no one appeared to be there. Noticing that the windows ad doors were all closed, he opened them to discover the office staff passed out due to CO2 inhalation, therefore saving their lives. In this instance, the deadline was not a time when the author had to turn in work, but rather a physical breaking of a boundary. 

JD DeLuzio said:

Do we get to learn what the answer to the retired question was?

[Peter Wrexham]

Was he recently dead when she went out?

[Randy Jackson]

No
Peter Wrexham said:

Was he recently dead when she went out?

[Peter Wrexham]

"she ... looks at her husband, who had blown his brains out"

Is she looking at a photograph of the husband, who had killed himself years or decades ago?

[JD DeLuzio]

Is she looking at her late husband on the TV?

[Randy Jackson]

No

Peter Wrexham said:

"she ... looks at her husband, who had blown his brains out"

Is she looking at a photograph of the husband, who had killed himself years or decades ago?