In Plain Sight: A Minnie Ming Mystery

Borrowed Words, New Worlds Challenge –
our hosts Sarah & Rohini invite us to write a
piece of our choosing incorporating the
following quote by Arthur Conan Doyle:
“The world is full of obvious things which
nobody by any chance ever observes.”

The teacup had not moved in hours, and that was the first thing Inspector Minnie Ming noticed when she stepped into Edgar Blackstone’s study.

The old man lay slumped in his chair, a letter opener still in his hand, though the wound in his chest suggested it was not self-inflicted. Around him, five houseguests stood in various postures of grief. Most still wore their dressing gowns, roused from bed by the commotion …. except for the nephew, buttoned into a traveling suit with no bags in sight, and the beautiful blonde housekeeper, Lucy Walsh, who had traded her apron for a coat of her own.

“He was alone when we found him,” said the nephew, Curtis Carruthers, dabbing at dry eyes. “The window was open. Anyone could have climbed in from the garden.”

Inspector Ming walked to the window and looked down at the flowerbed two stories below, the soil smooth and undisturbed.

“Anyone who does not mind broken ankles,” she quipped.

The daughter, Priscilla Blackstone, stepped forward. “Then it was one of the gardeners or the servants. They come and go as they please.”

“They do,” Ming said. She had not moved from the window. Her eyes had drifted, instead, to the mantel clock, to the teacup on the desk, and then to the small brass calendar still turned to yesterday’s date. “Tell me. Which of you visited Mr. Blackstone yesterday evening?”

A silence settled over the room, the silence of people calculating how much they could safely admit.

“I did,” Curtis said finally. “Briefly. He was fine when I left.”

“He gave you tea?”

“He always did.”

Ming nodded slowly, then turned to face them all …. the nephew, the daughter, the cousin standing by the bookcase, the lawyer feigning concern from the doorway, and the housekeeper, nervously fingering a button on her coat.

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes,” Ming said. “The clock on the mantel stopped at half past nine …. I noticed it the moment I walked in, though none of you have looked at it once, which tells me you already know what time it stopped. The tea is poured to the very brim and untouched, which means the victim was interrupted before he could drink it …. not this morning, but last night, when it was still hot enough to steam. And his calendar was never turned to today; obviously, he did not live to change the date.”

She let that settle before she continued.

“Which means Mr. Blackstone has been dead since last night, not this morning, as you stated, Mr. Carruthers, when you ‘discovered’ him an hour ago …. though two of you, I notice, were already dressed to depart before anyone thought to call for the police.”

Inspector Ming looked at the five people in the room, deliberately pausing to examine each face as she spoke.

“The obvious things are the ones we walk past every day,” she said, “which is precisely why they make the best hiding places. Now. Who poured the tea Mr. Blackstone never got to drink?”

No one answered. But Curtis’ eyes went, involuntarily, to the housekeeper …. and hers, just as quickly, to him.

Ming smiled, faintly. “Ah,” she said. “And there it is. Tell me, Miss Walsh …. was the murder plot hatched before or after your affair with Mr. Carruthers had begun?”

Priscilla gasped, the cousin snickered, the lawyer coughed, Curtis paled, and Lucy Walsh burst into tears.

NAR©2026

This is “Chop Chop Charlie Chan” by Cab Calloway & his Orchestra

Great Minds Think – Borrowed Words, New Worlds

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}