Inspector Manimegalai was woken up by the insistent ringing of the telephone. She kept her mobile phone switched off at night, but the station had instructions to call her on the landline if there was something urgent. The constable on the line sounded harried. Someone had broken into the director’s office in the Hainu Vappu Space Observatory and had stolen an important research paper that had taken months to put together.

The director herself had been part of the project, and it was crucial for the police to recover the papers immediately. Manimegalai yawned as she put the phone down. Her wristwatch showed that it was 5.15 a.m. “Still some time to sunrise,” she thought as she slipped on her uniform and made herself a cup of coffee.

The drive uphill to the observatory was beautiful as the cloud cover had cleared and faint streaks of orange and pink were visible on the horizon. As soon as she got down from her vehicle, she was met by the distraught director.

Inspector Manimegalai carefully examined the statements of all the people and concluded that the theft had most likely occurred between 3 and 3.30 a.m. She also strongly suspected one of them as she was convinced that they were lying.

Can you find out whom she suspected and why?