Thanks to everyone who joined in for last week’s mystery about Uncle Rupert. There was some great sleuthing going on, and that means there were some very plausible solutions. Let’s begin with the weapon that was in the puzzle but not the story. Indeed, it was a gun. And, by the way, there was a candlestick missing, so kudos to those of you who noticed that. And now, the clues.
Sarah, Rupert’s observant niece, noticed inconsistencies. The carving knife buried in the turkey as if it had been stabbed, Rupert’s face looked peaceful—not agonized. His glucose meter showed a dangerously low reading. An insulin pen sat on the dining table, while Rupert’s own pen lay amid spilled cranberry sauce on the kitchen floor.
Most telling were the reddish-purple footprints leading out the kitchen’s back door…
“Tom,” Sarah said gently, “you found him first, didn’t you?”
Tom nodded miserably. “He was already dead. I panicked and ran.”
Sarah held up the insulin pen from the table. “But you couldn’t have killed him. These footprints only go out—yet the killer must have placed that knife in the turkey.”
She turned to Linda and Margaret. “The knife was just theater to hide the real murder method. And Margaret has only one vice—gambling, and her only chance of Uncle Rupert bailing her out is if he’s alive. You, however, would benefit the most from him being dead.”
“What? Me? No! You can’t prove that.”
“Don’t be so sure of that. You swapped his insulin with a lethal dose this morning. Your fingerprints are bound to be on both the knife and the insulin pen.”
“I’m glad he’s dead,” Linda shot back. Her smile confirmed the truth.
I hope you enjoyed the mystery. Let me know if you’d like me to do more of these!
Let’s talk about last week’s puzzle. The average time was 7 minutes 56 seconds, and the fastest was a speedy 4 minutes 52 seconds. As for me, I zoomed in (okay, moseyed in) at 13 minutes 14 seconds. Thanks again to everyone who joined in! Have fun with this week’s puzzle!
