Uncle Ted’s Puzzles (Thursday Doors Writing Challenge 2025)

I put two more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle in place and then got ready for the appointment at the police station.

A new detective, Mark, was on the case and for the third time I had to update an investigator. Not complaining because some fresh eyes will be good here. Mark’s secretary, Lucy, told me to bring in all my files and she also chatted my ear off about her recent trip to the San Juan mountains in Colorado. She knew our family had ties to that area and I did my best to listen, but my mind was mostly on the case.

Packing the files in the car, I felt hopeful that after four years we might finally get answers. The medical examiner ruled Ted’s cause of death as undetermined and we assumed natural causes until the first set of detectives found a note in Ted’s iPhone, which took a while to get into, that said, “If anything happens to me, check my puzzles.”

Sitting down in the detective’s office, with gray walls, painted pipes, and old desks looking like they could have been from a Kojak episode, we went over details.

“Have you found anything with the puzzles?” Mark asked.

I shared about putting together all 30 jigsaw puzzles.

“Most were 1,000 pieces, medium challenge level, and consisted of landscapes. I had a lab test the puzzles for hidden notes, DNA, etc. but nothing turned up.”

I left out the part about my nieces visiting last weekend and knocking over the purple puzzle, which I am almost done putting back together.

Mark stood up, “Thanks for coming today, Lisa. I’ll follow up next Tuesday. Call my cellphone anytime.”

“Thank you. I appreciate you taking on this case,” I replied as he walked me to the exit doors.

Back at home, I thought about how my cousins, especially Eddy, encouraged me to toss Ted’s stuff. Well after they took what they thought was worth money they wanted to toss everything else.

 I am glad I decided to keep most of the items for a little while because one of his metal art pieces is now at a museum. And now the 30 puzzles might help us figure out what happened to him. 

I scanned the puzzles.

“What is it, Ted?” I asked out loud.

“Why the puzzles?” Ugh.

“Come on God, please show me something here. I know there is something.” I whispered as I paced the room.

Later that night, my husband helped me finish reassembling the purple puzzle as we ate dinner.

We chatted about how much we learned about doing puzzles. Like how some pieces “sort of” fit together, but then later you discover that it was not an exact fit and a better match was coming.

We talked about how much time it takes to complete a puzzle and that led to a brief discussion about hourly worth and how one might define time wasted or time well spent. At first doing the puzzles felt like a waste of time, but then I realized it was good for the brain. A little researching revealed that doing puzzles can enhance visual-spatial reasoning, strengthen neural connections, and generate neural pathways.

Sometimes life analogies came our way. For example, we learned that coming back to a jigsaw puzzle the next day, with fresh eyes, sometimes enabled the mind to see patterns from a new angle.

We had quiet times of placing places and then shared some silly moments of excitement, like celebrating if we found a hard-to-find piece. We felt some joy as we finished this purple puzzle, for the second time, so we shared a quick high-five and called it a day.

Early the next morning, while sipping coffee, I was drawn back to the purple puzzle.

This was my least favorite because it had flimsy pieces, puzzle dust, and the image was dull. The other puzzles had sure-lock pieces, glossy finishes, and were newer, higher quality.

I wondered why Ted kept this one.

Picking up the box, I read the words at the bottom: San Juan Valley.

I read that before but now it stood out. Maybe because Lucy had just gotten back from that area and pieces of her trip were going through my mind.

“We stopped in Durango,” she rattled, “and then had lunch in the old mining town of Silverton.” 

That was it.

Lucy’s sharing yesterday planted seeds that led to an insight.

I realized the door was similar to the one at my cousin’s cabin in Silverton, in the San Juan valley area.

I called Mark and told him about the purple puzzle possibly depicting a photo of the cabin door. He encouraged me to follow up.

The next day, I made the drive to Mancos, where cousin Gayle lives. Together we took her jeep to the cabin.

*

“The cabin is in great condition,” I said, as we arrived.

“We haven’t done updates but we do keep it real clean,” she said.

Going around back, I reached the door, the one from the puzzle. I tapped on the two bottom panels, which had white paint on the edges. There was a hallow sound. Tapping a little harder, the panels moved.

Gayle looked at me and said, “Do what you gotta do, we can put the door back together if needed.”

Gayle’s casual approach was nice. Some people are critical and such a drain while others, like Gayle, are encouraging.

She began helping remove the lower panels from the door.

Looking inside, we saw an envelope and inside of that we found business documents and a short letter about cousin Eddy.

In sum, Uncle Ted caught Eddy stealing money from a business and Eddy threatened to kill him if he told anyone. Ted stashed these documents just in case something happened to him.

We were stunned.

“I am going back tonight, even if that means driving late,” I told Gayle.

With a serious look she said, “Maybe we should not do anything with the letter. I mean, the business is shut down. Closed for years… and Eddy’s retired.    Let sleeping dogs lie.”

“Gayle, are you serious?

We can’t just leave well enough alone here because Eddy might have played a part in Uncle Ted’s death.”

The music in the jeep buffered the silence on the ride back to my car. I realized that understanding people is similar to doing a puzzle, we have to uncover and integrate different aspects of their personality and perspective.

Gayle is only seeing this from a limited angle. She’s protecting a family member and her lack of objectivity is because she doesn’t see the bigger picture. This was not the time for me to fill her in on everything, but I would later. I know she has integrity and would want to do the right thing.

Right now, I had to get back so we could try to solve this real-life puzzle about what happened to Uncle Ted. 

 

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Thanks for reading.

• Can you understand where Gayle is coming from?
• Do you think Eddy will be interviewed and share what happened to Ted?
• Do you make time to put puzzles together?
• Please share your thoughts below.

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If you want to read the other stories about Uncle Ted, here are the links:

1. Uncle Ted’s Assets, @Story Chat, 1/18/2024, HERE
2. Fortunately Late @Friday Fictioneers, 4/29/2025, HERE
3. Speechless, @Friday Fictioneers, 5/15/25, HERE

This story is an entry for the 2025 Thursday Doors Writing Challenge (#TDWC), hosted by Dan Antion.

If you want to join in or would like to read the 2025 entries, go to the challenge home page here.

Thanks to Busboy for the use of his”old weathered door” photo. 

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