How To Play:
Leave a comment on the blog post or on Facebook at DonaldJayAuthor or in the post on your favorite Facebook mystery group sharing how long it took you to complete the jigsaw puzzle (if you tried that) and how many (a number) of clues you spot in the picture.
But please Don’t Spill The Tea! Please do NOT put specifics about the clues in your comments just yet. That comes later.
Follow the post because tomorrow, after everyone has had a chance to play, I will open it up for you amateur sleuths to share specific clues you noticed and will share the ones I found (there may be up to nine clues).
The Backstory (Optional):
Here’s a little backstory to spice things up, if you like, but you can play without reading this.
You are Dianna Mattson, Dickens Station’s version of Jessica Fletcher. An international antiques thief has been traced to a room at The Inn at Dickens Station. The FBI has asked Chief Constable Peeler to arrest the suspect and to secure the room and its contents until they can arrive. Knowing your interest in such matters, Peeler invites you to tag along. When you, Peeler, and his men arrive, you meet the housekeeper retrieving linens from her cart, which is blocking the door to the room. The suspect has checked out, and the room has been cleaned. While Peeler and his men search the room for clues, you wait outside and, knowing that housekeepers see everything, you act clueless and ask the housekeeper if she knows what is going on.
She tells you she had never met the occupant but commented that he or she must have been an antiques enthusiast. She tells you about an exquisite tea service in a box that the guest actually used one morning earlier in the week. She shows you a picture on her phone that she had taken of the teacup, planning to look it up on the internet to see how much it was worth.