Blog Point Challenge- Who-Dun-It

It’s been a while since we’ve done a little who-dun-it blog point challenge, so I thought I’d throw one out there. You know the drill, first person to get it right wins! This challenge is worth 1,000 blog points.

Sergeant Dennis Morelli and Officer Agnes Young of the Thetford Police were seated Wednesday morning at the Davis kitchen table. Donald Herbert Davis, professor emeritus of history at Dartmouth, finished pouring coffee and sat down.

“Perhaps, professor, you could describe the letter again,” said the burly Morelli.

“As I have told you, sergeant,” Davis replied, frowning, “the letter was written and signed by President Lincoln in 1863. Its recipient was John Hacker, a Shakespearean authority of the day with whom Lincoln conducted a brief correspondence. You will find the text in Basler’s Collected Works of Lincoln. A writer from Americana magazine visited my home last year and profiled the letter, including its location.

“As you know, my basement is nicely fixed up,” he continued. “Until last week, the framed letter hung on my basement wall, just outside the door to the small bathroom. When I went down last Friday morning, I discovered that someone had removed the back of the frame, taken the letter, and inserted as a laughable substitute a wrinkled copy of the handwritten Gettysburg Address.”

“And you owned the letter for how long?” asked Morelli.

“Nine years. I finally decided to donate it to Baker Library at Dartmouth, and was going to hand it over in three weeks. I never got around to having it insured.”

Morelli glanced at Young, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

“Your basement had three visitors last week, professor,” said Young. “John Healy of Carney Furnaces came on Tuesday afternoon to clean your furnace. He has been with the company about five months. Ken Cantwell, who has been with the town water department for many years, stopped by on Wednesday afternoon to read your meter, as he does every four months. On Thursday morning, the tank of the toilet down there overflowed, and your wife called in Russell McNutt, a local plumber.”

“That’s right. I was away at a conference all day Thursday.”

“McNutt was tried for petty theft six years ago, but acquitted,” noted Morelli. “Were any prints were found on the frame, Agnes?”

“No, sarge. And no one has tried to sell the letter.”

“It couldn’t be sold!” exclaimed Davis. “It was too well known. The theft must have been arranged by a private collector. My pending donation to the library was common knowledge in Dartmouth and Lincoln circles.”

“I see.” Morelli frowned in thought. “Well, there were no signs of forced entry. You always keep your house locked, professor? And you and Mrs. Davis had no other visitors last week?”

“Correct on both points,” Davis replied sadly.

“Does anyone else have a key to your house?”

“No.”

“Any particular reason why you had your furnace cleaned now?”

“Well, I’ve had it done every two to three years, whenever it occurs to me. There are eight or nine companies around here that clean furnaces. I can never remember which one I last used, so I just picked one at random. We made the appointment about two weeks ago.”

“Professor,” said Young, “I understand that these men did their work downstairs without supervision. Is that right?”

“Yes. Doris or I just showed them the stairs and let them do their jobs. I didn’t have occasion to go down there from Tuesday morning until Friday.”

Morelli smiled.

“Agnes, have any of the three shown a previous interest in historical documents or artifacts?” he asked.

Young smiled too. “Not a trace, sarge.”

“Very well.” Morelli pushed back his chair and stood up. “Thank you, professor. I think I know whom we need to question further to get this resolved.”

Who-dun-it? You must also explain how you came to your conclusion. Post your answers in the comment section. Good luck!