Brush Up On Our New Featured Detective
The Dear Holmes “Featured Detective” Program honors one detective per mystery for their clever and well-thought-out solution to the case. To learn how to send in your own solution, visit Dearholmes.com/solve.
Dear Detectives,
Your work has helped undo a most clever disappearing act, and The Vanishing Vermeer has been returned to its rightful owners. Now, whether Lady Neuheisel decides to part with the heirloom or not, she can at least be sure of the fact that it’s the same authentic masterpiece she once inherited.
When Lady Neuheisel reached out to Holmes, investigators raced to answer the first of many questions her case presented: Was her family’s current painting the very same one she entrusted to Mr. Dover— and was that painting truly an original work of Johannes Vermeer? The consensus was largely that the painting was (at least once upon a time,) authentic, however, many detectives disagreed about what occurred to the piece while it was in Mr. Dover’s hands.
Some sleuths believed in a conspiracy involving not only Mr. Dover, but also his assistant, and Mr. Leahy; there were others who scrutinized Malcolm le Grand as a suspect, and even those who were certain that Sir Neuheisel had duped his wife long ago. Yet, as more evidence came forth, two things became clearer: 1) Mr. Dover had likely done something to the Neuheisels’ family heirloom, and 2) some other person, or persons, had also attempted to steal it for themselves. Once Lady Neuheisel described the young Sarah’s odd departure, many detectives honed in on her and Mr. Dover’s assistant as the sneaky pair who’d tried to rob the Neuheisels. Still, few realized that this plot was separate from Mr. Dover’s own plans to pilfer the painting.
Detective Ray O. of Islip Terrace, NY, sent in a straightforward solution to this mystery well ahead of Holmes’s own explanation, and in it, he expounded every element of Lady Neuheisel’s case. (Special shoutout to Detective Beckett D., who was just off the mark.) While some investigators were thrown off by Jennings’s proximity to Mr. Dover, Detective Ray was quick to see that the assistant was exploiting what he knew of his employer’s own plot, and further, that he’d fled with his beloved Sarah after failing. Of course, this Featured Detective also uncovered the truth of the “Vanishing Vermeer”, or rather, Dover’s clever ploy involving varnish!
Congratulations from the Dear Holmes Team to Detective Ray O. — a special reward will soon be on its way!
Want to be next month’s Featured Detective? Mail your solution to 1101 14th St NW, Suite 910, Washington DC 20005, or submit online at Dearholmes.com/solve.