Well, we had a good visit with Eloise, complete with coffee and muffins. I shouldn’t have eaten breakfast. Oh well. Eloise is quite talkative today, but not much of what she said was helpful. She did show us a lot of photos of her daughter and Marcel. She kept saying how nice Marcel was, he was always so helpful and the 3 of them often went on picnics and out for lunch once a week.

Jennifer and I kept trying to sound positive, but more and more we were thinking there was not going to be a good outcome to this case. Finally we had to say goodbye and off we went, first to the flat that Marcel had bought and was living in. It was very strange that Clarisse’s phone was left in the flat, but not Marcel’s, and Clarisse would never go anywhere without her phone apparently.

“No need to drive so fast Sherry,” I said, “we are not in a race.” “Oops, sorry boss,” she said. “Sherry, I’m the boss,” Jennifer reminded her. “Oops, sorry boss,” she said again. We had Sherry, Astrid, Milena and Akila with us today. Akila is actually from Sky’s team, but I wanted her along today to check out Marcel’s laptop and Clarisse’s phone, which we picked up this morning.

Eloise didn’t think to bring her daughter’s phone yesterday because it was locked so we wouldn’t be able to check it. The police had tried to unlock it, they said, but were unable to do so. Akila is good at these things, excellent actually. She had the phone unlocked and was checking it out before we arrived at Marcel’s flat. “That was quick,” I said to her.

“It was just a simple 4 digit pin number,” she responded, “Marcel’s name.” Now, I’m not great with math, but even I know that Marcel is 6 letters, not 4. Then she added, “Marc.” Of course, it’s simple, even I could think of that one. “No you couldn’t,” said Jennifer. I looked at her. She did it again.

We soon came to the building where Marcel had his flat, which was on the third floor. We went up and inside quickly before anyone saw us. Everyone was to keep quiet while looking around. Akila went to work on the laptop right away while Sherry, Astrid and Milena looked around. Jennifer and I got the cats together to find out what they had learned.

Meow, meow.= It about time we get to say something. Meowy.= Yep, me agree, we have important news. Meowy mew= Yep, me agree, really important news. “Sorry, but I wanted to get here first,” I said, “then relax while you give us the news.” Meow, meow.= Okay, me start, Meowser, that his name, he tell us that human Marcel come home for lunch when human Clarisse is unpacking stuff.

Meowy.= Yep, he ask why mother not come with and human Clarisse say she not feel good. Meowy mew.= Yep, and human Marcel say that is good thing she not come that day. Meow, meow.= Yep, and human Clarisse ask him why so. Human Marcel say that some friends coming to visit for lunch. Meowy.= Yep, so human Clarisse ask if she should make food for them, but he say no, just make some coffee. So that what she do.

Meowy mew.= Yep, then she ask if friends are from bank, but he say no and not to ask questions about friends, just go to bedroom when they come. Meow, meow.= Yep, she not like that sound, so ask why she need to hide if they are friends. Meowy.= Yep, human Marcel getting nervous like and tell her to go back home until later, then he tell her what is all about.

Meowy mew.= Yep, so she leave out door but come back inside with 4 men, friends of human Marcel. Meow, meow.= Yep, human Marcel tell them to let her go back home, she need to look after sick mother, but they say she not go. Meowy.= Yep, then human Marcel hit one man, but other man use knife and kill human Marcel.

Meowy mew.= Yep, and that get other man angry and say they need human Marcel for job, now not work. Meow, meow.= Yep, one man have hand over human Clarisse mouth so she not can scream. One big man carry out human Marcel body to van. Meowy.= Yep, other man hit human Clarisse and she go to sleep, so he carry her out to van too.

Meowy mew.= Yep, nother man ask what about blood on chair and rug, but other man say forget about it, they just go, so they leave. That all until human Eloise come and take him to her home. The blood was supposed to be on the chair in the corner and on the carpet in front of the chair. The chair was fabric covered, in a light gray. The carpet is basically a pure white.

“There is no way anyone got that blood stain out of the chair, or the carpet,” said Jennifer, “before Eloise got here. And she certainly would have noticed it when she came in here later that day.” “I agree with that,” I said, “and Meowser would have noticed if anyone had come in before Eloise, but he said no one did.”

I called Eloise and asked if any changes had been made to the flat since the young couple disappeared, such as any cleaning done or new carpet put in, but she said everything is still the same and wondered why I would ask. I told her we always like to ask such questions, just in case something has been changed which could then remove a clue.

I just forgot to ask this question when we were talking earlier. She understood and it made sense to her, she then excused herself because her friend was at the door, she was coming over for coffee. I hope she remembers not to talk about us to her friend. Oh well. Akila said there didn’t appear to be anything interesting on Clarisse’s phone, but Marcel’s laptop was different.

“There are some odd things on there,” she said, “that will require a bit of work to analyze. Aurora and Cynthia will be a great help with this too.” I told her to bring it along with us. The cats were now looking around too and Snow got excited when she found something…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.