Maple Hour — Stolen Brushstrokes — MapleStack Detective

01

Stolen Brushstrokes

On a cold autumn night, a beloved painting vanishes from a gallery full of people — and not one face in the room tells the truth.

02

Five Minutes of Dark

At the Hewitt Mill Gallery in Riverbend, the oldest quarter of Maple City, a blackout lasts five minutes. When the lights return, Northern Light, Maple River is gone — lifted clean from a frame that still hangs, level and untouched.

03

Persons of interest

Margot Hewitt gallery director

Theo Sandoval head of security

Vivienne Ash art patron and collector

Daniel Okonkwo gallery intern, final-year art student

Edmund Garrow picture framer and conservator

Five people stood in that dark room, and every one of them wears a reason on the outside — which is exactly why you should not trust a single face.

04

Clue 1 — The frame left behind

The painting was lifted from its frame without a scratch or a hurried mark. Whoever took it knew exactly how that frame was built.

05

Clue 2 — The fuse box

The blackout was no accident. The mill's century-old breaker was thrown by hand — by someone who knew which switch to find in the dark.

06

Clue 3 — A gift, six weeks early

Six weeks before the fundraiser, Northern Light spent eight days alone in Edmund Garrow's workshop, reframed at no charge.

07

Clue 4 — Vivienne's refusal

Vivienne Ash tried twice to buy the painting and was refused twice — then said at dinner she would have it one way or another.

08

Clue 5 — The ledger

The gallery has recorded a loss for six straight years. Eight months ago, the insurance on the painting was quietly raised well above its value.

09

Clue 6 — The missing guard

Theo Sandoval, head of security, appears on no camera for the entire blackout — and will only say he stepped away for a personal call.

10

Clue 7 — The sketchbook

Daniel Okonkwo, the intern, carries a keycard and a floor plan — and, folded in his sketchbook, a half-finished copy of the stolen painting.

11

Clue 8 — The archive box

In the basement archive, an unsigned letter from November 1998 speaks of another painting divided into twelve parts — and a framer's discretion.

12

Your move

The motive you can see is rarely the one that matters. Read the clues, never the costume. Detective — who took Northern Light?