Storm, Mystery, Mayhem and ... Murder

It was stormy on the mountain ....

we unlocked the door, went in to turn off the alarm ......

the dining room was unrecognizable, the floor strewn with

the rose petals of the bowl of potpourri, the board blocking the

fireplace on the Persian carpet, soot everywhere .... and

two charred bodies in the fireplace!

*

Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Morse, Inspector

Barnaby and Frost arrayed themselves behind me to solve this

mystery. I could have used Inspector Rex as well ...

I started rubbing the little grey cells together, discarding all

unnecessary information a la methode Holmes, put my nose to

the ground and my fingertips together.

*

The small sitting room opens from one of the three doors of the

diningroom. Near the open doorway, a number of antique books

had fallen from the high shelf over the doorway scattering across

the floor.

*

While the Prof toiled at restoring order, your trusty correspondent

deducted .... two dead possums in the fireplace, one brushtail, one

ringtail. The alarm people had rung us the day before that the alarm

in the dining room had gone off. We had been there less than 24

hours previously.

*

So, what had occurred?

*

Regarde mes amis! Only one sulution applies ... an act of God.

You do not believe me? But it is quite obvious. Lightning strikes the

chimney, the two possums are blocking the flue in an angle thereof,

the force of the lightningbolt propells the possums into the fireplace

and chars them and blasts out the board covering the fireplace. The

blast shakes the the wall so the books fall down.

*

The mystery is solved, the storm prevails, the rain comes

sheeting down.

*