First, the mystery ...
“Black diamonds?” Dianna Mattson stood erect after passing under the yellow crime scene tape. She raised an eyebrow at Chief Constable Robert Peeler. “Natural or treated?”
Peeler ducked under the tape to join Dickens Station’s General Store owner and resident amateur sleuth in the Dickens Manor library.
“Natural, quite rare, and valuable, although most of the value in black diamonds is due to their size,” he answered. “And we’re not talking salt and pepper diamonds, either. These were solid, opaque, black diamonds clipped from a set of Amelia Dickens’s Victorian mourning jewelry collection.”
“Clipped?” Dianna’s question did nothing to interrupt her pacing scan of the room.
“Clipped,” Peeler confirmed, opening a jeweler’s tool case on a small table in the corner. “Most likely using these wire cutters.”
“Suspects?” Dianna asked, pausing briefly to warm her hands by the coal-burning fireplace.
“A team of three researchers and their interns from the History Department at Southeastern Vermont University. Amelia granted them access to her collections for research,” Peeler reported.
He opened his palms above the jeweler’s tools. “Our first, and primary, suspect goes by the name of Amanda Chase, professor of antique fashion who specializes in period Victorian jewelry.” He stepped over to another table located near the French doors leading to the garden and scattered with various bric-a-brac. “Our second suspect is Charles Chifforobe, professor of design, researching furniture and tools of the 1800s.” Then Peeler pointed to a table piled high with leather-bound books. “And the third, an antiquarian researching British Victorian books and bookbinding techniques. His name is . . .” Peeler consulted his notebook. “Gladstone, Horace Q. Each of the professors has an intern working with them. The professors are living here, at the mansion. The interns are staying and working at the Inn. Better Internet.”
“Motive?” Dianna stopped opposite Peeler, examining a gaming table set up between them in the middle of the library. “I mean, besides the obvious.”
“None that we’ve uncovered. However, this was to be the final night of the last assignment for this team. The University experienced cutbacks and announced plans to retire all three professors after this assignment. They will each receive a hefty retirement package from the University. So, while the timing is curious, the plans would not seem to precipitate such an obvious heist, of which all three would naturally be suspected.”
“There is one fact that would point to Ms. Chase, however,” Peeler continued. “Our investigation has revealed that Chifforobe and Gladstone are actively seeking placement with other colleges, while our fashion professor has not.”
“No?” Dianna prodded.
“It was well known that she planned to retire in the Maldives. She already has a one-way ticket.”
“Maldives?” Dianna’s gaze found Peeler’s. “And that makes you suspect her, because . . .?”
“No extradition.”
“Oh.” Dianna rolled her eyes, then resumed her questioning and observation of the games on the table. “Who discovered the diamonds missing, Amelia?”
Peeler nodded. “She informed the professors that dinner was served. After they left the room, she entered to double-check the security of the garden doors. Knowing the finicky nature of the doors’ antique hardware, she made it her habit to check them, though she couldn’t say if the three professors were aware she did so. Upon refastening the doors, she noticed some debris on the carpet. When she picked it up, the tiny pieces looked to her like fragments of jewelry findings. Fearing Professor Chase had somehow damaged her antique jewelry, Amelia looked through the cases Chase had borrowed for her research. She found the damaged jewelry absent the missing gems buried deep in one of the cases. Then she called me. I instructed her not to say anything to her guests until we could secure the crime scene.”
Dianna returned her attention to the games on the table before her. “There are two active games, but three professors. The interns played?”
“No. The interns were not allowed in this room. They worked from the Inn and kept in touch electronically.” Peeler answered. “Professor Chifforobe played against the other two. He said he does that to keep his mind sharp. Every evening, he would invite his two colleagues to select a game from Amelia’s collection in the parlor. They would bring them in here and set them up.” Peeler placed his hands on the backs of two chairs. “Then they would play from my side while Chifforobe walked back and forth on your side playing both games simultaneously. This evening, Professor Chase picked her usual challenge while Professor Gladstone chose chess, for the first time.”
“That would explain why there are no chairs on this side.” Dianna focused her attention on the chessboard. “My guess is he won often?”
“Quite often, according to the other two,” Peeler confirmed. “Why?”
Dianna pointed. “He has Professor Gladstone in checkmate. And here—” She shifted to a word-formation game using lettered tiles. “A much closer match. Almost all the tiles have been played and the scorecards show the game was close but Professor Chase was winning. What tiles does she have left?”
Peeler consulted the rack of lettered tiles in front of him. “O and U.”
Dianna scanned the board until she was satisfied, then glanced at the rack of tiles in front of her. “And Chifforobe had O, D, and H.” She scanned the board again.
Peeler nodded. “Chifforobe told us he lost because he had no more words to play.”
Dianna gazed up at him from beneath her eyebrows. “Really?”
Peeler scowled and looked over the board.
“You mentioned Amelia entered the room to secure the garden doors?”
“Yes,” Peeler confirmed. “But I’m way ahead of you. They were unlocked, but there are no tracks outside the doors and no indications inside that anyone entered or left that way.”
“Just one more question,” Dianna said. “Your men searched the suspects, their rooms, and this room?”
“Correct. All but this room. My men have interviewed the suspects and interns and searched their belongings. I’ve kept this room a pristine crime scene until now. We are to search in here next for the diamonds, but that will entail turning the room upside down. I had rather hoped you may spot a clue that may save us some trouble and Amelia the inconvenience. That’s why I asked you to come and take a look. Have you? Any idea where to look for the diamonds, I mean.”
Dianna stiffed a grin. “Oh, Bobby. I not only know where to look for the diamonds, but I’m pretty sure I know who took them.”
My challenge to you . . .
Mystery lovers, pause here!
You now know all the evidence available to Dianna and Chief Peeler. Have you solved the mystery? There are three questions you should answer before reading the resolution. Who took the gems? Where are the gems now? How did the criminal plan to execute the heist?
When you have your hypotheses in mind, read the resolution as Dianna Mattson and Chief Peeler solve The Case of the Telltale Tiles..
The Resolution ...
Peeler shook his head and chuckled. “Please, explain.”
Dianna obliged. “The entire plan unraveled when Amelia tripped your investigation weeks before it was due.”
“Due? As in planned?” Peeler questioned.
Dianna nodded. “As you have already pointed out, the crime would have most certainly been discovered, but not immediately. Amelia had no reason to suspect the professors. They’re experts in their respective fields. You said the criminal buried the damaged settings deeply in one of the cases. A cursory check of the jewelry cases by Amelia upon placing them back in the vault would most likely not reveal the missing gems, provided the immediately visible contents appeared in pristine condition. No, Amelia would only have discovered the crime when she needed to wear or display that particular set of mourning jewelry, possibly months or even years later. By then, Professor Chase, the obvious suspect, would be safe in the Maldives where there is no extradition and where U. S. law couldn’t touch her.”
“So I was right, it was Professor Chase!”
“Not so fast, Bobby. Chase made her plans widely known. Hardly the actions of someone trying to escape with stolen jewels. But her plans may have provided an opportunity for someone else to commit the robbery and pin it on her.”
“If not her, then who?” Peeler asked.
“Before we get to that, how about if I return the diamonds to you?” Dianna smirked.
“Return the diamonds? You know where they are?”
“I think I do, Bobby. If I’m right, the criminal planned to hide the gems temporarily, so he picked a place that, even if someone were to look there, they wouldn’t see the stones.” She knelt beside a Victorian coal scuttle and, lifting the lid, carefully extracted several natural black diamonds.
She held one up to the light. “Black diamonds absorb most of the light that falls onto their surface. That’s why conventional grading standards used for white diamonds don’t apply to black ones. That’s also why, if someone looked in here, without knowing what they were looking for, they would never see these beauties.” She dumped the diamonds into Peeler’s hand.
“Amazing!” Peeler scratched his balding forehead. “How did you know?”
“The criminal told me. The same way he intended to tell his accomplice where to look for the diamonds.”
“His accomplice?” Peeler winced.
Dianna stood and waltzed around the gaming table to the side without chairs. “Chifforobe both lied and told the truth when he said he didn’t have another word to play. He couldn’t play the word, but he had one that he never intended to play. A word he had been saving the entire game, so he could leave it on the tile rack for someone to find.”
“Word? What word?” Peeler asked. “All he had is a O, D, and H.”
“Hod,” Dianna explained. “It’s a Victorian English word for a fancy coal scuttle. You’ll find them in many of the original buildings throughout Dickens Station.”
“So, Chifforobe leaves the letters for the word Hod on his rack . . .”
“Keep going,” Dianna prodded.
“Then he leaves the garden doors unlocked while he and the others go off to dinner with Amelia. It was their last night and his last chance. His accomplice enters through the garden door, sees the clue, retrieves the diamonds from the hod, and goes back out with no one being the wiser.” Peeler paused and rubbed his forehead. “Of course, the three professors were always in the room together except when Chifforobe sent them to the parlor to select games for the evening. While they’re in the parlor, Chifforobe snips the gems from their findings, and hides them in the hod.”
Dianna nodded. “He didn’t have time to be neat. A couple of the clipped prongs went flying and ended up on the floor for Amelia to spot.”
Peeler pressed his palms to the floor. “Okay, but if neither of the professors was Chifforobe’s accomplice, who was?”
Dianna shrugged. “Who is the one person who would know enough about Victorian furniture to understand the clue?”
“Chifforobe’s intern,” Peeler concluded and his face brightened. “But, once the research team arrived, Chifforobe’s only communication with his intern was by phone or Internet, both of which leave a trail of evidence.”
“That’s why he had to leave the clue,” Dianna added. “He didn’t know beforehand exactly which gems he would steal or where he would hide them. So, he arranges with his intern, again before they arrive, to leave a door or window unlocked on the last night of their assignment . . .”
Peeler paced while he finished Dianna’s point for her. “Chifforobe knew from past experience that the word game was Chase’s favorite. Odds were good she would challenge him one last game for old time’s sake before they went their separate ways. If not, he could have easily suggested it, and the lettered tiles made it easy for Chifforobe to leave the clue.”
Peeler paused and ran his hand through his thinning hair. “Imagine Chifforobe’s delight when he noticed Chase examining mourning jewelry with black diamonds and then realizing there was a hod in the room with coal fuel for the fireplace. The perfect hiding place.”
Dianna stepped over to the garden doors. “In the end, only the whole scheme was derailed when Amelia locked the garden doors and called you. Your men sealed off the room while the professors were eating dinner, and they probably intercepted the intern before he had time to leave the Inn and walk over here to get the stones. That would explain why there were no tracks in the garden. Which gave me the idea the stones were still here.”
Dianna continued as they walked to the Library door and ducked back under the crime scene tape. “If their plan had worked, it would have been brilliant. Amelia wouldn’t have discovered the stones missing until months later. Everyone would have suspected Professor Chase, but couldn’t get to her because of her retirement plans in the Maldives. Meanwhile, Chifforobe and his intern get away with black diamonds.”
Closing Comments ...
Well, there you have it. Did you solve The Case of the Telltale Tiles?
If you enjoyed this puzzling little diversion, please rate your experience below, and do let me know if you were successful. Please don’t leave any spoilers in the comments, but please do comment. Your input helps me plan our next adventure.
Thanks for reading and exercising your “little grey cells.”
Another great cozy mystery! No, I didn’t guess it.
Thanks, Lori!
Hmmmm, I did try but . . . nope not even close to figuring it out. What a fun read!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for leaving a comment. 🙂
Flower didn’t guess this one, but I got half of it. Tell you which half next time we go fishing.
Great, Spike! Thanks for reading, and my best to Flower.