Cutpurse Manor Solution

MISSING: The Cutpurse Family of Bell-Brow Manor

Well, having read through all your amazing deductions emailed to us, and those published in our April issue, The Georgians, it’s fair to say you AQUILAnauts are absolutely excellent detectives. But did you spot all the clues? Here’s the full story – there is a lot to cover here, so let’s get cracking.

The Cutpurse family are not the upstanding members of the community they appear to be. They are involved in dealing stolen art. How do we know this? Cutpurse is a Tudor word for ‘thief’, and Bell-Brow once meant a place where stolen goods were traded.

Multiple witnesses mention Holbein’s painting: Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling. It’s in the collection of the National Gallery – the kind of very famous and valuable Tudor painting that should be hanging in a museum, not in a suburban manor house.

Father Borely admires the painting, and Lady Catherine changes the subject and covers it up. That’s suspicious. A few days later, Bothy sees a large, flat object exiting the property – that could be the Cutpurses hiding the painting somewhere safe in preparation for their escape.

The painting is gone by the time the fire is lit because Office Upright tells us it is missing.

Maid you look!

Then there is the maid, Jenny Yarn-Chopper. Did you know that Yarn-Chopper is an old word for a journalist? Jenny Yarn-Chopper is an anagram of Joany Renn Cherppy, meaning they are one and the same person. Clue 7 shows recording equipment found in the maid’s quarters. It’s likely that Joany is working undercover as a maid in the Cutpurse house in order to make her podcast about art thefts.

Are you feeling sleepy?

Has Joany been caught? From clues 4 and 5 we can deduce that someone has put someone else to sleep with hot chocolate. The cup has Jen’s lipstick on it. We are also told that Jen is a chocoholic, so it’s likely that someone in the Cutpurse family made Jen the hot chocolate to drug her so she would not wake up while the family got rid of evidence, torched the house and escaped down the smuggler’s tunnel to the beach, via the church.

The faithful lab

Beswick, a loyal and faithful dog, heroically woke Jenny up so she could escape from the house before either of them were consumed by the fumes from the fire. She opened the door and walked into the garden, where the shock and fresh air overwhelmed her and she fell unconscious.

A question of Blackmail

But what of Borely and Bothy, the concerned neighbours? It’s a bit odd that Father Borely is at the scene of the fire before the fire department even arrive, but it is a vicar’s job to comfort his flock. From clue 6 we can see that Father Borely has a criminal record for blackmail, suggesting that he might also be capable of blackmailing the Cutpurses about their Holbein painting. Clue 8 shows a blackmail note referencing a bird and a squirrel – a nod to the Holbein painting. It’s got Bothy’s fingerprint on it though, so we can conclude that either Bothy was the sender, or that she was at least involved in a plot.

Either way, we have more questions for these two about what exactly they were playing at. Catherine seems to have caught a whiff of something though, because before she disappeared, she gave Bothy a white catchfly plant. In old fashioned flower language, a white catchfly symbolises betrayal. Catherine must have figured out that Bothy and Borely conspired to blackmail the Cutpurse family. It’s possible

they’re the reason for Jen Yarn-Chopper’s presence at the manor. The Cutpurse family realised the jig was up, so they quickly stashed the posh painting, sedated the maid, torched the house and escaped using the smuggler’s tunnels. So, if you want to track them down, head to the beach! I hope you’re not too late!

So, what did you make of this month’s mystery? Did you spot all the clues? Let’s find out.

Timeline:

9.00pm Cutpurse family go to bed.

9.37pm Jenny Yarn-Chopper locks the doors from the inside.

10.05pm Jenny opens the door and exits the property with Beswick.

Suspected break in at the church prior to 10.14pm.

10.14pm Officer Upright arrives at the manor.

Borely already on the scene.

Jenny Yarn-Chopper is unconscious on the front lawn, guarded by Beswick.

11.30 the fire is out but the family has vanished and so has the Holbein painting.

Well done if you got it right! Look out for more mysteries in AQUILA magazine!