We have a new kind of "puzzle." These are short mysteries. I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested but finally decided to start a thread of them and just see what happens.

These take up only a couple of pages in a book. All the clues are there and you only have to solve it. (For those who have been doing the lateral thinking puzzles, these aren't yes/no question things. Just solve.)

I'm getting these from a book which is a good 40 years old. (Keep in mind that was a different era.) I was a bit concerned about copyright issues. If anyone thinks I shouldn't be posting these, let me know. In the meantime, I'll at least give credit. They come from a thing called Mini-Mysteries by Julia Remine Piggin.

I'll be trying to solve them as well, before I look at the answer, as I haven't read these for a gazillion years.

I'll put two up for now and see how it goes. All welcome to play.

1. Lady Out of the Rain

Detective Inspector Bill Tawson was glad that a search for a rare book had taken him to the town's main library the day before. He'd recognized the librarian on duty as his old high school classmate Sara Hull. But she'd changed in twenty years from a mousy little girl into a vivid, intelligent-looking woman -- "Yes, attractive," said Bill, surprised at his feelings after two years of widowerhood. Now the hazel eyes were sparkling with life and humor as Sara Hull faced Bill over coffee at the end of an excellent dinner in the dining room of the Crown Hotel.

"I've always thought I'd like to be a detective," Sara was saying, as a short man in a black suit rushed up to their table. "Oh, Inspector Tawson," he said in a breathless whisper, "I'm so glad you're here! There's been a murder in room 117. I'm the night manager-- it's Mrs. Bronwen de Pugh. She checked in last night -- " The man was babbling as Bill leaped up and followed him out of the dining room. Sara hesitated.

"I know I shouldn't," she thought. Then, impulsively, she walked quickly after the two men, into the elevator, down the corridor to room 117, where a horrified chambermaid cowered in the tiny vestibule.

A young woman in a gray pantsuit lay sprawled across the bed, blood trickling from a bullet wound near the line of her flaming red hair. Bill grabbed the phone and called for an ambulance and officers, then began his official investigation. As he leaned over the woman's body, Sara looked around the room. In a corner stood a stack of expensive-looking pink suitcases, each stamped in gold with the initials B. de P. The closet door was open, and in it hung a half dozen costly outfits: a rose-pink chiffon gown, a fuschia wood coat, a scarlet suit, a white raincoat with a hood, a beige dress with a bright pink flowered scarf. "Did you see Miss de Push when she registered last ight?" she asked the flustered manager.

"Oh, yes," he replied. "It was a rainy night and she was wearing one of those raincoats with a hood that hid half her face, but this is the luggage she brought, all right, and that's her purse on the dresser -- I remember it." Bill checked the identification cards in the pocketbook -- all were in the name of Bronwen de Pugh, but the wallet contained no cash.

Sara beckoned to him. "Bill, it's none of my business," she said. "I know I shouldn't interfere, and I could be wrong. But I don't think the luggage and the clothes in the closet belong to that girl on the bed." She moved closer and spoke even more quietly.

Next day a package arrived at the library. In it was a handsome pin engraved with Sara's initials. Bill's card read: "You were right. We caught Bronwen de Pugh at the state line. She confessed. The girl had been blackmailing her. She figured leaving everything behind would make us think she, herself, was the dead woman, and give her a head start while we checked. Thanks, Ms. Sherlock Holmes -- those initials are no coincidence."

What did Sara whisper to Bill?

2. The Boys Who Dropped Out

"Sara, have you heard of either Bob Sujet or Shandy Cumberbatch?"

Sara Hull nodded in answer to the Inspector's question.

"Yes, Bill, I do some volunteer work with high school dropouts, and I've met them both. Bob is one of those restless kids who's mad at the world and at himself. Not a bad student, but couldn't settle down to school -- candidate for drug abuse, I'd be afraid. Shandy had a different problem, even more frustrating. He isn't really a dropout at all, for he's never been to school. Grew up in Appalachia, never had shoes to wear, and was too proud to go to school barefoot. I tried to persuade him that it wasn't too late, but he couldn't face the idea of going back now, so I'm afraid he may go through life illiterate. Angry about it too. Why?"

"Miss Rogers of the Star Employment Agency sent both boys over to the Riggs Office Building on Saturday afternoon. Nobody was around when they got there -- there's a man on duty, but he says he never saw them, and the outside door was open. Self-service elevators, of course. Boys were supposed to report to Arnold Golman, of Golman Insurance, on the seventeenth floor, to move some machines. Golman was there alone. He told Miss Rogers to give the boys identification, and to tell them to knock and say who they were, and he'd unlock the door. Well, he was found dead, wallet and watch gone, head bashed in. Office rifled.

"We've talked to both boys. They're prime suspects, for Golman wouldn't have opened to just anybody. Bob says he went up in the elevator, knocked on the door and called, received no answer, got mad, and left. Time checks -- it was after the lab says Golman was killed. Shandy admits he got there earlier, but says he only went as far as the lobby of the building, decided not to go up to the office. But he won't tell us why. He acts as if he's hiding something, Sara. Frankly, I suspect him."

"Mind if I call Miss Rogers?" Sara dialed the agency number, and asked the agent a question.

"Why, of course," Miss Rogers said. "That is, I told them the Golman Agency at the Riggs Building and wrote the rest on a slip of paper. What's that? Well, no, I don't think I did -- but -- " Sara hung up with thanks and gave Bill Miss Rogers' answer to her question.

"I guess that tells you which of the boys is a legitimate suspect, doesn't it?" she said, and the detective nodded.

What was the question Sara asked Miss Roges?

I'll take a guess at #1, in white so I don't influence others wanting to play:

I think it has to do with the color of the clothes. The lady on the bed is wearing a gray suit. Everything in the closet has some shade of pink or red in it, except for the coat which is white - still a more vibrant color.

For #2:

I think she was asked how they received their instructions about knocking on the door, etc. The lady indicates only the place was spoken, all else was written. Since Shandy is illiterate, he would not have known the instructions and Golman wouldn't have opened the door for him. Bob is the suspect.

I second the answers of JLo. I thought the same.

Attention was really directed at the colours in the first one, and in the second one, it was somewhat emphasized that Shandy was illiterate. And Bob, as Sara said, was a candidate for drug abuse, the perfect motive to rob Golman.

Both correct. Took you less time to solve than for me to type. LOL.

I've mostly discovered they aren't bad if you're paying attention to everything it says, which is sometimes hidden in the middle of long, boring paragraphs that sound unimportant. The first I got before it ended. The second I had to do a second read-thru to catch the important thing.

They also might get harder as the book goes.

Unky, you do know there's a new lateral thinking one? You haven't popped in there yet.

Yes, seen it but history is not my forte... :( I'm at a complete lost with that one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unknown008

Yes, seen it but history is not my forte... :( I'm at a complete lost with that one.

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You don't need to know history to answer it. It's based on history, but the answer doesn't have to address that. I really don't expect it to, just to figure out how he can lie and tell the truth at the same time. Unky, you are great with questions. I think you should give it a go. :)

3. The Galway Guitars

THE GALWAY GUITARS
LEADING ROCK GROUP OF IRELAND
IN FIRST AMERICAN CONCERT AT EIGHT TONIGHT
AT THE CENTRAL BRANCH OF THE LIBRARY

The city seemed plastered with posters, and by six o'clock young people had started to gather to be sure of getting good seats. Sara Hull beamed. "It's a wonderful ad for the library."

But Detective Inspector Bill Tawson was all business. "We've had a tip that one of the Galway Guitars is from Galway, but can't even play a guitar," he confided to Sara. "According to our source, Wishy O'Mara, the young IRA leader, has slipped out of Ireland in place of one of the real singers. He's related to the boy and looks a lot like him--and the trouble is, he's played it so smart he's never been arrested, so there are no fingerprints. He's supposed to be planning to go to New York where the Guitars are scheduled to appear next, and plant a bomb in the British Empassy. We'd pick up all five of 'em, but one boy is the son of a diplomat and there's likely to be a sticky incident if we do. However, Officer Patner there--" he indicated a long-haired young man who looked like a confirmed hippie" -- is a good guitar player on the side. He's going to watch carefully, and point out the guy who's faking-- they say this Wishy doesn't know one end of a musical instrument from the other."

The Galway Guitars, however, had anticipated this police approach. They arrived at the library ruddy and cheerful-- and all with heavily bandaged left hands. "We'll have a bit of a time accompanying ourselves tonight--we all got caught in the same swinging door," the leader explained as the audience roared with laughter. "However, our brave Irish voices will more than make up for our wee difficulty--a one-handed Irishman is as good as a three-handed Englishman, after all."

"Okay, Sherlock," Bill said to Sara after exchanging an exasperated glance with Patner. "Which one do you think it is? And if you don't know, how do you propose we find out?"

"Simple," said Sara. "Fingerprint them all."

"Sherlock, you're usually a good listener. I told you, we don't have O'Mara's prints -- what would we compare them with?"

"Nothing," said Sara. "Now you listen." And, very quietly, she explained how fingerprinting the Galway Guitars would trap the elusive Wishy O'Mara.

Two hours later, O'Mara was behind bars waiting for a deportation order. The other Guitars, blustering and ranting, but basically resigned at the thought of the thousands of dollars waiting for them, were on their way to New York with eight unbandaged hands.

What did Sara tell Bill?

(I hope they aren't all this easy. I seem to recall them being harder when I did them years ago, but either they get harder as they go, or the other book of them - which I can't find - were harder.)

Sara told Bill that all of the guitars would have caluses on their fingertips except for the fake Guitar.

Hm...

They look for the fingerprints left by the Guitars and the one not appearing is the one of Wishy, since his finger prints will not appear on any instrument.

Yup to J.

No to Unky.

Now what is caluses :confused:

Google, now, where are you...

EDIT:

Okay, my guess seemed okay to me because Wishy never left fingerprints... so the others should leave fingerprints. Taking all their fingerprints, the ones of wishy won't appear and hence, he'll be the culprit.

But caluses would settle it definitely.

Calluses are thickened layers of skin caused by repeated pressure or friction.

Thanks, I looked it up and saw it. I play the guitar, but apparently, not often enough to get caluses :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unknown008

Okay, my guess seemed okay to me because Wishy never left fingerprints...

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Wishy doesn't have to play the guitar to leave fingerprints. All he has to do is carry it or touch it just once and voilà! Fingerprints!

Quote:

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so there are no fingerprints

---

I think I misunderstood this part and threw me off the line :o

I guess J beat me to explaining that. Yes, there would be his on the guitar. It was the police which had no record of his fingerprints.

And I play a bit of guitar too, and used to play enough to get calluses - bad ones in fact. Even when I don't play a lot, I still get a little bit of a slight thickness. (Since I've had the calluses, I had this figured out before I even finished typing it.)

4. The Picasso Thief

"Help! Help! Stop, thief! I've been robbed!"

Sara Hull dropped the dinner roll she was eating and rushed into the hall outside her apartment. Other doors opened, and neighbors came out to see Miss Nella Parsony rushing up and down the corridor, shouting and wringing her hands. Miss Parsony's graying hair was damp, and her bare ankles showed under a blue terry cloth bathrobe that showed damp stains. Sara ran to her.

"Please! Tell us what happened, Miss Parsony."

"Oh, it was horrible -- that dreadful face! He took my Picasso -- maybe other things, I haven't had time to check!" The neighbors gasped. :eek: Miss Parsony had invested a fortune in her art collection. "Oh, if only I hadn't left my bedroom window open. I never do, but this time -- oh, his face! I was in the bathroom taking a hot shower -- that's why I didn't hear him -- had the door shut and the window too. I turned off the shower and stepped out and had just put on my robe -- this one. I was standing at the basin, just about to brush my teeth, when the door was flung open and there he was! I was too terrified to turn around but I saw his face in the mirror! A big, red, crude face, and he grinned -- he only had a few teeth, an awful smile -- I thought he was going to kill me! And then he laughed and slammed the door so hard I couldn't get it open for a minute or two. When I got out I looked at the wall and my Picasso was gone. Oh, I'll have to see what else he took, I suppose -- oh, somebody call the police." She collapsed hysterically in a heap on the bottom step of the stairs leading to the next floor.

"Sara, hadn't you better call your friend, that detective?" Mr. Smith looked concerned. "Maybe if we act right away, they could catch this man."

"Miss Parsony, come into my apartment, and we'll see what we can do," Sara said, taking the crying woman by the arm and steering her through the door. Inside, she pushed Miss Parsony into a chair. "Now, pull yourself together and tell me something. If you needed money, couldn't you have sold the painting? Or did you and your accomplice plan to do that, too, after you collected the insurance money?"

Why didn't Sara believe Miss Parsony?

(Are these getting too easy?)

This was a good one... took me a minute, hopefully I got it.

Sara didn't believe Mrs. Parsony because Mrs. Parsony's apartment was not on the first floor.

I thnk she didn't believe her because:

With the door and window shut in the bathroom, the mirror would have been covered in steam. I don't think she would have been able to see a face.

Sorry but I have to ask, how do you do white writing and how does the person who made the puzzle read it to know it's correct? - that's driving me more barmy than the actual games.

Edit - Oh I worked it out lol.

J - nope. :p

J-Lo - yup.

QLP - Been a while. What happened to you over on our other puzzles? (We could use another participant.)

It's Encyclopedia Brown puzzles! I LOVE these!

Encyclopedia Brown?

Well, if you love 'em, I've got plenty more. Although I should find some online so I can paste them instead of typing them.

Yes, I skipped 5. But it was so easy a baboon could've solved it. Now this one, I am ashamed to say, took me way longer than it should have.

6. Sherlock Holmes Reincarnated?

"I'll miss you, Owen," Sara said as she handed her young assistant his final paycheck. "And I'm sorry you're not going on to college. But I guess finding yourself is important too. Maybe later."

"Oh, I'm not dropping out to find myself," Owen laughed. "I've already found myself. That's the reason I'm getting a full-time job-- so I can pay for classes with Gandalfa at night until I uncover all the knowledge inside me. You see, Gandalfa has the gift of telling you who you were in a past life. He can do that right away, just by watching you for half an hour or so. But after that he knows how to guide you to all the hidden talent and know-how, and, well, like everything that maybe made you a big wheel in some other time. I guess I shouldn't tell you, but I was Henry Ford. And I still really know how to invent stuff, and make money, and all. I just have to be able to get in touch with it. After I've gone to Gandalfa for a while, it'll only be a couple of years before I'm just as rich and important as I was before!"

"Oh, no, Owen," Sara protested. "Even if you could find out for sure who you were in a previous incarnation, the knowledge wouldn't be given to you to make you rich and famous. It would be given to help you grow spiritually -- everything I've ever studied about rebirth teaches that, Owen, this Gandalfa--"

"He knows his stuff, Miss Hull! He did it with you! He didn't know anything about you at all-- nothing about how you can solve mysteries and all. And he came into the library one day and sat over there and watched you. And he knew right away. He said, "That woman is the reincarnation of the great detective Sherlock Holmes.' See? How could he come up with that? That's why you're so good at figuring things out. You did it before. You were the greatest!"

Sara looked amazed. "Owen," she said. "Don't you realize you've just proved the Gandalfa is nothing but a money-hungry fake? I don't know who I may have been in an earlier life-- but I know it wasn't Sherlock Holmes!"

Could Sara really know?

Well...

Sherlock Holmes never really existed. He's only a fiction character, right?

Right you are, Unky. And it went right over my head the first time. LOL. :o

Yes, I had some doubt, then I remembered the cartoons about it, plus the recent film about it. If that was really like this... :eek:

He's good at his work yes, but... :eek:

Cartoons? They made a cartoon out of Sherlock Holmes? That just seems... sacrilege or something. :)

It's a Wiki link, but it gives a good enough description of the Encyclopedia Brown books

Encyclopedia Brown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ah, actually my other book of these that I can't find is the Two-Minute Mysteries, I assume by that same guy. (I think they are probably a bit better, if memory serves.)

Seem to be permanently busy atm. Keep popping on for a quick nosey but not enough to get my teeth into anything. Enjoying following your little myseries though.

7. Betty's Cousin

"What, taking out books on American history? And on Saturday morning? I thought Central High's most famous actress would sleep till noon on weekends!"

"Betty Goldstein laughed at Sara Hull's teasing.

"They're not for me, they're for my cousin Esther. Maybe you read the story about her in the paper--she's from Israel, spending the summer here. I dropped by to see her this morning, and she was saying she wanted to know all about America, so I thought I'd take these books over to her tomorrow."

"She's not staying with your family?"

"Oh, no. She was supposed to, and then she found out that we weren't Orthodox Jews. She's very strict and religious, and she moved to a rooming house where they serve kosher meals and all that."

Betty turned to leave, almost colliding at the library door with a slim, sandy-haired young man who stopped and called her by name. In the library quiet, Sara could pick up most of what he said.

"Your cousin Esther... she said you might be here... walking on the street, mugger grabbed her purse, knocked her down... I live near there... all upset... I'll drive you over if you like... "

"Yes, of course... "

Sara's voice was sharp as she called, "Betty, come over here! You didn't fill out these request slips properly -- come back and do it right!"

Startled, with a "Be right back" to the young man, Betty ran to the far end of the long, hollow-oval library desk, where Sara was waving a blank request slip. "Miss Hull, I don't understand. I've got to go to my cousin-- she's been hurt--"

"Betty," Sara said, "nothing has happened to your cousin. That young man is lying. Now, you're an actress-- start a loud argument with me over these request slips to drown me out while I call the police."

Later, Bill Tawson patted Sara's shoulder admiringly.

"Sherlock," he said, "I say it again. I wish I had you on my detective squad. You probably saved that girl's life. That guy is wanted for questioning in three rape-murder cases-- got pretty girls like Betty to get in his car on some pretext and then-- but there's one thing I don't understand. Why were you so positive Esther Goldstein hadn't been mugged?"

What was Sara's answer?

Because Esther is strict Orthodox and their religious day begins at sundown on Friday and ends at Sundown on Saturday. So, Esther wouldn't be walking the streets on Saturday.

That's the same guess I made and it isn't correct. Right idea...

Well, I wouldn't have got that answer because I don't know their culture, but I am thinking about those lines:

Esther wanted to know more about America and Betty never told her that she was getting books for her to read (not that is mentioned). However, the man claimed that Esther knew where Betty was, that is in the library.

If that doesn't work, maybe it's about the culture... which I'll need to Google to find out more about it.

Because Esther was an Orthodox Jew, and there are prohibitions about being able to CARRY things on the Sabbath, because it's seen as "work", and no work can be done on the Sabbath. Not sure if purses fall under that heading, but I think that pushing a stroller counts, so I'm guessing that purses do too. So if Esther had been out walking, she would not have been carrying anything.

Unky, that's a good thought, but it does say:
"Your cousin Esther ... she said you might be here..."
Not to mention that in wanting to cause Betty harm, he still had to have some legitimate way of knowing who Esther was, which obviously he found out by some means or other.

Synn, you're close.

It's about the purse, but not for that reason. (Theoretically, I don't know that there's anything wrong with carrying the purse itself, but something more to it.)

Cool, we finally have one that is stumping everyone. :p