The Case of the Parrot Who Fell Off His Perch
Can you solve this month's case? The closest solution to the correct answer will win a Marmalade and Toast Mug! We are also awarding a mug for the most creative wrong answer!! You have until 30th November to get your answers in!
Joyce Chuff's parrot, Montague, was one of the most famous residents of Chandlers Ford.
The magnificent bird occupied pride of place in a polished brass cage beside the sitting-room window and possessed an extraordinary talent. Unlike most parrots, Montague did not simply repeat the occasional amusing phrase.
Montague repeated everything.
Visitors soon learned that whatever was said in Mrs Chuff's house was almost guaranteed to be repeated, frequently at inconvenient moments and usually before an unfortunate audience.
One memorable afternoon, Montague informed the entire Women's Institute that Doris Butterworth's famous lemon drizzle cake was "a touch on the dry side."
The resulting dispute lasted three weeks.
Then tragedy struck.
One frosty November morning, Joyce descended the stairs to discover Montague lying motionless at the bottom of his cage.
Sadly, she assumed that old age had finally caught up with her feathered friend.
But later that afternoon, while tidying the cage, she noticed something peculiar in Montague's water dish.
A strange blue residue.
Suspecting foul play, she immediately summoned Toast and Marmalade.
"Dead parrots are serious business," said Marmalade.
"Especially when they've fallen off their perch," agreed Toast.
Within the hour, the investigation was underway.
There were four suspects.
Peter "The Pipe" Parker, the village plumber, had spent the previous afternoon repairing Mrs Chuff's kitchen sink.
Jimmy Chuff, Joyce's mischievous grandson, had long regarded Montague as a nuisance and had once attempted to teach him several words entirely unsuitable for polite company.
Lady Toast frequently visited Mrs Chuff and never failed to admire Montague's magnificent plumage. She had often declared that the feathers would look "simply marvellous" on a hat.
And finally there was Mr Tony Kettle, a teacher at the local primary school and an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist whose admiration for rare birds was well known throughout the village.
Toast and Marmalade began interviewing the suspects.
Peter Parker admitted that he had spent most of the afternoon discussing his personal finances with Mrs Chuff whilst replacing several pipes beneath the sink.
Jimmy Chuff cheerfully admitted that he disliked Montague.
"He grassed me up whenever I pinched biscuits," he complained.
Lady Toast made no secret of her admiration for the bird.
"I adored his feathers," she admitted. "Though I generally prefer my hats occupied."
Mr Kettle confessed that he had often wished he owned such an intelligent bird.
"From an educational perspective, of course," he added quickly.
Every suspect seemed to have a motive.
And clues were everywhere.
A plumbing invoice was discovered beneath a chair.
A brochure for seaside holidays in Ramsgate protruded from Peter Parker's tool bag.
A packet of slingshot ammunition was found in Jimmy's coat pocket.
One of Lady Toast's millinery catalogues lay open at a page entitled Exotic Feathers Through the Ages.
A notebook belonging to Mr Kettle contained several pages of detailed observations about parrots.
Most curious of all was a half-finished sentence repeatedly scribbled across a scrap of paper:
"Peter says he can't afford..."
The scrap had apparently been copied down after one of Montague's many recitals.
Near the kitchen sink, Marmalade also discovered an almost empty bottle of industrial drain unclogger.
The deeper Toast and Marmalade investigated, the stranger the mystery became.
Some clues pointed towards Jimmy.
Others suggested a hat-related conspiracy.
Several hinted at an academic obsession with birds.
One seemed determined to implicate the village plumber.
Yet no clue quite explained why anybody would wish to silence poor Montague.
The answer, Marmalade suspected, lay not in what the parrot had already said...
...but in what he was about to say.
Can You Solve the Mystery?
You must determine:
- Who poisoned Montague?
B. What was their motive?
ðĶ The cage is quiet, the clues are scattered... and the mystery is brewing! ðâðŠķ