Dan Blather (Tom Maher), the reporter who broke the story of the mysterious, suspicious death of haughty Meadow Croft socialite Clare D. Seaver’s (Jennifer Economos) first husband, sat in the audience. Seaver was about to marry the snobby Ninth Earl of Egginham (Frank Giebfried), and Blather asked Linda Tabachnik, whose family she was related to.

“Neither,” she said.

Blather tried probing her friend, Jean Fleischman, but was chased out by an indignant household maid (Leanne Berg), who labeled him a pesky reporter. After exiting the music room, he was done in.

“Murder at Meadow Croft,” a “Clue”-inspired performance by 20 board members and other volunteers of the Bayport-Blue Point Heritage Association, took place at the mansion this past weekend. Dressed in 1910 clothing, with well-timed special effects, including blood-curdling screams, police sirens and whistles, the group performed sassy, humorous dialogue for two hours in an imaginative storyline.

Hostess Beth LaMarca challenged the group to figure out the killer, how he was killed, where he was killed, the suspects, potential weapons and possible rooms.

Was it Clare or The Earl? Clarence Narrow the attorney (Mike Dawidziak)? Dusty Flors (Pam Greene), the dedicated Irish parlor maid? Cook Bessie Dean (Shannon Voyack), rumored to have canoodled with Blather? Governess Nanny Villin (Jayne Magdalen Traver), in a possible secret love triangle herself with Blather? Or the Estate Gardener, Henry Hedges (Pete McNeill)?

Each group of four or five had a Clue Leader, urging participants to various rooms. Querying suspects themselves, they encouraged their group to ask questions.

Tabachnik, Fleishman and Bill Bailey followed leader Sandra Iden to the kitchen first. Tabachnik asked Cook Bessie Dean where she was when the murder occurred (in the kitchen) and was anything missing from the kitchen. (No.) Fleishman asked about her bloody rag. “Do you wash your rags?”

An indignant Bessie said she did; sometimes the stains don’t come out. She also wasn’t so keen on her mistress.

“I think she did it with a knife,” Fleishman said in a low voice after.

A whistle was blown and Inspector 21214 from Brooklyn 67 (Tim Ryan), who had been on a case in the neighborhood, bellowed his decision: Bessie was not a suspect. Go to the next room for clues.

Characters were tongue-in-cheek funny. In the Songbird Bedroom, Clare Seaver (Economos), flipping through a fashion magazine, played a great disdainful socialite (she sniffed with an eyeroll when a group came in looking them over, chastising anyone who went near her perfume bottles.)

Clarence Narrow (Dawidziak), who represented the Seaver family and was glad of Blather’s demise, worked at the New York City law firm of Narrow, Shyster, Van Drivel & Belch. (He always works within the law, but the Lord’s law, perhaps not.)

The Ninth Earl of Egginham (Giebfried), dressed in nifty tennis whites, who just played a game with Freddie Bourne (of the Bourne Mansion), was dismissive of the Bayard Cuttings (new money).  Dusty Flors (Greene), with her Irish brogue, wielded her feather duster for emphasis.

She’d been with the family for 40 years; they helped her, and she would do anything for Clare.

“Did you ever have a child?” she was asked.

“What a bold question,” she hurled back.

“These are bold times,” replied Bill Bailey.

Governess Nanny Villin (Traver) played the upstairs family employee with the stiff-upper-lip English persona of someone who doesn’t mingle with the downstairs staff.

Henry Hedges (McNeill) was the prickly Irish head gardener from the same area as Dusty, who casts suspicions on her. (Not a gentlemanly comment. Really, now!) He also fingers Clarence Narrow.

Details were of the “Masterpiece Mystery” caliber: a full-page New York Herald newspaper article heralding Widow Seaver to Wed English Nobleman; A “Clue” “Murder at Meadow Croft” booklet with the premise, actors and volunteers; A “Mystery Solved” sheet, with story background; a “Clue” sheet for notes. There were also clues on a mystery table written in invisible ink as well as beautiful signage, including the Welcome Betrothal sign.

Prizes were bestowed for those who got the right answer; “Meadow Croft Murder Mystery” pinot noir and Agatha Christie books.

The finale ended in the main entry room as groups converged with their decisions.

(No spoiler alert. “We’ll do another one,” said BBHA president Mary Bailey. “With the same story line but a different outcome.” Both shows on Saturday night, one at 6 p.m. and another at 8:30 p.m., sold out; 50 people attended.)

The Meadow Croft Mystery Players, as they call themselves, started meeting in January and had at least a dozen meetings. While Hostess Beth LaMarca credited the production to everyone involved in it, contributing ideas, she was witnessed in rehearsal directing scenes and adding reminders. Several performers pointed to her expertise in pulling the production together.

Did LaMarca ever do theater directing?

“No,” she said. “But I grew up in a large family and we were always doing plays and talent shows. We still do. We’re doing one for July 4th.”