The Case of the Telltale Tiles

Whodunnit?

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 glance in 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 an 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. "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 sniped the gems from their findings and hid them in the hod.

"Dianna nodded. "He didn't have time to be neat. A few 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 arranged 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 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 stroked his chin. "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. "Only Amelia derailed the entire scheme when she 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."