by Peche, Alec
“I'm going to do more research into friends and family. I still can't believe she has no family. I'm also going to see if I can find any medical records of prior allergic reaction episodes. I want to figure out what the police know about how she carried out these heists. Most of all, you know how I love chocolate,” Marie remarked with great enthusiasm. “I'm going to follow the chocolate route.”
With their assignments laid out, they toasted to a successful resolution of the mystery of Laura Peeters, aka Julie DuPont.
Chapter 5
They left the pub and headed toward Saint Jacob’s Church. Besides being the burial place of Rubens, it was over six hundred years old and full of side chapels and beautiful stained glass. From there they headed to the port, catching the Slaughterhouse Museum on the way.
They ended up at the restaurant from their first night. The manager remembered them and wanted to know what had happened to Laura. Angela took over the conversation gaining the manager's approval for her to talk to the staff. She’d had the opportunity while at the port, to view the pictures from the previous night at the restaurant. She thought two of the people captured in her pictures looked suspicious. She started with the manager.
“Did Ms. Peeters make a reservation or walk in from the street?”
“She arrived without a reservation. She had eaten here before and I recognized her.”
“Was she expecting someone to join her?”
“Yes, she said she was meeting a friend.”
“Male or female?”
“She did not say. She just used the word ‘friend’”.
“Did you know she was allergic to nuts?”
“Yes. She questioned me about our food, making sure that what she ordered excluded nuts and it was prepared not in contact with nuts, but I didn’t realized she was having an allergic reaction yesterday”
“Did she usually dine alone or with someone?”
“A little of each. Sometimes she dined alone, sometimes with friends.”
“Friends as in more than one?”
He paused and considered the question.
“Mostly she dined with just a one friend – a male.”
“Did they seem like friends, or more like boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“Hmm. More like a friend. They were very close, but nothing romantic.”
“When she was here yesterday, had she been served any food?”
He paused and looked very uncomfortable.
“She had the bread we normally serve all customers. There was butter, water, and wine on the table. I did not notice what she ate or drank while she was waiting for her friend to arrive.”
“Did anyone arrive to the restaurant looking for her?”
“I don't believe so, but let me check with my staff. As you can imagine, that night was full of confusion, yet I have vivid memories of what occurred.”
“One final question – do you recognize this person in the picture?” asked Angela, showing the manager the images saved on her camera.
“No, madam, I don't recall seating that person that night. In fact, he doesn't look familiar at all.”
“Thank you for your time. You've been very helpful. How would you like me to question the other staff? I don't want to interfere with the restaurant operation. I could wait until I finish my dinner and then question the staff back in your kitchen. It shouldn't take me more than two to three minutes with each staff person. Does that work for you?”
He looked around the restaurant, studying how the staff was moving and how the food was flowing from the kitchen. After doing some mental calculations, he nodded in agreement with Angela's plan. She joined the rest of her girlfriends to dine. She wrote some notes down, and told them what she found. They discussed any additional questions for the rest of the staff.
“When you go into the kitchen, ask them what dishes have nuts in them and have them show you where the nuts are stored,” suggested Jill. “See if there is a back door and judge if someone could sneak in and add nuts to a dish.”
“Ask if any of the wait staff noticed her relationship with the man she dined frequently with – if they’d overheard any conversations,” suggested Marie.
“See if you can find out if she paid with cash or credit card and if they have any receipts from her prior meals,” added Jo.
“I feel like we’re having an adventure on the Orient Express with all of us trying to solve this case,” said Angela with a smile while she took notes on their suggested questions. “It is a new aspect to vacation!”
A waiter came over to take their orders. For Jill and Marie it was easy; they just ordered what they had chosen on their previous visit to the restaurant. Angela and Jo were looking for something new. Angela tried chicken braised in beer, and Jo settled on soup that sounded delicious. Angela feared ordering seafood in Europe as she had once been unpleasantly surprised by getting the whole fish head, eyes included.
Marie and Jo settled on wine while Angela and Jill stayed with beer. It never worked for Jill's head if she mixed beer and wine within a few hours of each other. With drinks in hand, they talked about the day.
“I think it is safe to say, that this has been our most unusual day on vacation ever,” mused Jo.
“It's not spoiling your vacation?” asked Jill.
“No, it's just unusual. Besides, how could I complain when we hit three museums, two major churches, and a few chocolate shops? The stop at the lecture hall was an interesting break. We got to watch every day citizens at work. I'm having a good time; you don't need to worry.”
“Whew! You know me -I like to multitask,” Jill said. “So solving the mystery of Laura Peeters while touring famous museums and churches is my idea of a great vacation. Of course, being with you guys is a minimum requirement.”
“It's a shame we can’t give them more research time,” noted Marie. “We are limited both by our vacation and our access to the Internet. Maybe if we do happen to solve this case while we’re here, we will establish a reputation in Europe. Then we could get more cases here and travel often to Europe!”
“Huh! And you guys complain about me multitasking.”
“So what was your favorite thing you viewed today?” queried Angela.
“Good question,” exclaimed Jo. “I just enjoyed looking around the street thinking that I might be related to half of the people that we passed. I was soaking up my heritage.”
“I liked the flash of the diamond district. There was a lot of ugly stuff in the windows, but at the same time, someone must buy it. I have never been around so many expensive diamonds in my life. I also liked the little pub we stopped at for beer,” observed Jill.
“Personally, I could stop in a chocolate shop about every forty-five minutes on this vacation,” Marie responded with a laugh. “The chocolate shop near Ruben’s House was my favorite.”
“I would have to say, I liked the cathedral and the square around it. I got some really great pictures of people in the square and the angles of the church,” said Angela.
Just then, their waiter brought the entrees to the table. The conversation for the next several minutes was about the food. Jill and Marie loved their Flemish stew. Both Jo and Angela were happy with their choices as well. It really was a great restaurant.
They had an uneventful dinner with no one collapsing in the restaurant. After they finished eating, Jill, Jo, and Marie savored their beverages while Angela went to work on the restaurant staff. The manager had filled her in on all of their various roles in the restaurant. She opened the conversation with each staff member by confirming what he or she did for the restaurant; it was a way to put them at their ease.
“Were you the waiter of the woman that collapsed here two days ago?”
“Yes I was.”
“Did you know her, had you served her before?”
“I might have, but I don't think so as I don't remember a conversation about nuts in the food and I think I would've remembered that.”
“I'm sur
prised she asked you about nuts in the food as she’d dined here before, so I would've thought she knew your menu well.”
“We change our menu seasonally to account for the availability of game on the menu. While we serve Flemish stew year-round, we only serve pheasant seasonally. She was considering ordering something from our fall menu, so the questions made sense.”
“Okay. It looked to me like she had not eaten a main course. Had she ordered? Or was she waiting for someone to arrive?”
“I was told when she was seated that she was waiting on someone. I think she might've gotten an email or a text to say the person was running very late, because about five minutes later she said her friend was going to be late and to eat dinner without her. So she ordered and then, as usual, I brought bread and butter over to the table. Her order of food had not been delivered to the table.”
“What kind of bread and butter? Did you notice if she ate any of it?”
“Yes, she did eat some of it as there were crumbs on her plate. It's just our house bread-and-butter that we make in the kitchen.”
“Did you notice if she put butter on the bread?”
“She did.”
“What would you guess was the time between when she ate the bread and when she looked ill?”
The waiter looked very uneasy about that question as Angela was trying to establish a link between the food and the onset of Laura's allergic reaction.
“Ten minutes.”
“That is all the questions I have. Thank you so much for giving me a few minutes of your time,” said Angela with a warm smile.
Angela spent another fifteen minutes questioning other staff in the restaurant. None of the waiters remembered her as a repeat customer. For the most part, they were college students working part-time so no surprise there. Her last interview was with the chef.
“I loved my chicken braised in beer tonight; thank you for creating such a delightful dish. As you know, there was a woman in the restaurant two days ago with a nut allergy. She had safely eaten here before, so clearly you're able to provide entrees without nuts. We don't know if she was exposed to nuts in the bread and butter at this restaurant, or if she had eaten something before she walked in. Can you show me where your nuts are stored in the kitchen?”
“We are conscious of nut allergies. She was not the only customer who was worried about nuts. We store almonds, pine nuts, peanuts, walnuts, and macadamia nuts for use in our recipes in airtight canisters on a separate shelf in our food storage area.”
“If you have to grind or chop the nuts, where you do that?”
“We generally use small quantities of nuts. We keep a small food processor that changes the whole nuts to shaved, chopped, or nearly powdered nuts. The food processor is stored next to the canisters. Food moves from the canister to the processor to the mixing bowl or cooking pan. It does not touch any surface in the kitchen, nor do we use any knives to cut nuts.”
Angela’s mom, who was a renowned chef in her own right, would have loved to chat with this chef about food. She could see their conversation in her head, before she re-focused on the chef. “You seem to take a lot of nut allergy precautions.”
“Several years ago someone worked at this restaurant that had a child with nut allergies. It permanently changed how we stored and prepared nuts at this restaurant. The child nearly died from eating in a restaurant that didn't pay attention to the separation of nuts from all other foods. It was a lifelong lesson for me, so we take precautions. I don't think it was something from this kitchen.”
“Yes it seems very unlikely that the woman would have been exposed to nuts here.”
“As I recall from conversations with the father of the child with nut allergies, he said that the allergy took one to two hours to show up after the child ate the wrong thing. She wasn't here that long.”
“You've been very helpful; let me get out of your way so you can return to cooking.”
Angela had one final question for the manager. She wanted to know if he remembered how Laura usually paid for her meals. She obviously had not had time to pay the other evening.
“Would you remember if Laura paid her bill with cash or a credit card on her previous visits to your restaurant?”
“I would not remember. After the restaurant closes, I can easily look at our credit receipts for say, the past two years, to see if her name comes up.”
“That would be great. She also goes by the name Julie DuPont, so if you could look up that name as well. We're not looking for her credit card number, but if you could tell us if she used a MasterCard, Visa, or some other card. Here is my email address, if you wouldn't mind dropping a note to me,” said Angela handing him a piece of paper with her information on it.
“I hope you find where she ate nuts unknowingly. I believe that it did not occur inside this restaurant. Have a nice evening, madam.”
They left the restaurant, weaving their way through the streets of Antwerp. Once they were a few blocks away, Angela relayed her conversations with the restaurant staff. It was very unlikely that nuts could be in the bread as it had been baked that morning. She had looked at the doors in the kitchen, and perhaps someone could have entered and added nut powder to the butter, but it didn't feel right. A perpetrator would have to add nuts to all the bread and butter as he or she wouldn't know which slices and butter dishes would be delivered to Laura’s table.
“Jill, the chef sounded well informed about nut allergies because a former employee had a child with a severe allergy. He made the comment that food allergies take one to two hours to impact someone. Is that true?”
“Yes, that is generally true and it would point to her consumption of nuts having occurred before she reached the restaurant.”
“Jo, the manager could not remember if she paid by cash or credit. He will, however, access his credit card charges database to see if her name has appeared over the last two years. The big question is what name – Laura Peeters, Julie DuPont, or another name we haven’t discovered yet. In theory, Laura is dead, so the credit card isn’t likely in her name unless it is a popular name and she felt safe reverting to it in time. I gave him both names to look for in his database.”
“I don't know if this tells us anything given that we don't think she ate nuts at the restaurant. We’ll see what this investigation turns up over the next few days,” Jo replied.
They headed over to a bar that had nice music and friendly conversation coming from it. Finding a table, they sat down and a waitress came over to take their order. People were enjoying the music and dancing to the beat. It was the perfect atmosphere to relax in.
Marie pulled her iPad out of her purse and checked to see if the bar had Wi-Fi so she could begin their beer mystery search in a very pleasant setting. Luckily, free Wi-Fi was available. She had organized the information she had learned in her earlier search. Marie had not had the time to finish that search and she needed to add the new information that Angela obtained earlier at the restaurant. She had a few things she wanted to explore, and then she would hand it over to Jo.
Marie was tapping her foot to the music and looking through her usual sources for mention of Laura's nut allergy. Jo was on the dance floor with Angela and a small group of dancing people. Jill was sitting next to Marie, looking at what she was finding on the Internet.
There were a few mentions of the allergy in such places as Facebook and Pinterest, but nothing significant. A few more minutes of exploration and they called it quits on the research for the night. All of the women spent a little more time on the dance floor before heading back to their hotel suite.
It was dark when they left the bar. The streets became darker and quieter as they left the main thoroughfare. Cars were parked bumper-to-bumper in this residential area. Jill felt uneasy even though the neighborhood looked deserted. There was an apartment with flowers up ahead. She nonchalantly drew her friends in to admire the flowers.
“Hey guys come over here and look at these beautiful flowers,” s
aid Jill. Then she lowered her voice and added, “I think someone is following us.”
The other three looked down the street, but all they saw was a quiet residential section.
“Call me paranoid, but let's test if someone is out there. Let's slow our pace down as we approach the end of this street and the moment we get around the corner, let's sprint and hide in one of these front entrance alcoves. They look dark enough for us to hide in the shadows. If we see someone looking for us, then my feelings were spot-on. If we don't, my paranoia will get you all a drink at the bar when we return to the hotel. Deal?” asked Jill.
“I don't see anyone on the street, but you haven't been wrong up to this point about sensing strangers’ intent on doing us harm. So I'm in agreement with your plan,” replied Marie.
The others nodded in agreement and they set off at a slower pace to the end of the street. When they reached the corner, they sprinted to the first alcove and heaved a sigh of relief to see the gate was open. They ducked into the shadows, while Angela quickly closed the gate. Jill looked at her watch and decided to give it five minutes to see if anyone sinister-looking walked by. She wasn't sure what a sinister look was, but, she thought she would know when she saw it.
The seconds ticked by and Jill began to feel like an idiot. Her watch dial indicated that a minute had passed. Her knees were starting to feel uncomfortable against the cold concrete surface. Then she heard a sound. She looked at her three friends - they had heard it too.
From their place in the shadows, they watched a figure jog by in a dark coat. It appeared to be a man. The figure was carrying something metallic in his hand. It wasn’t clear whether it was a gun or knife.
“What should we do now?” whispered Jo.
Jill shrugged “I don’t know, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
They listened a while longer and heard no other sounds.
“I think we should stay hidden in the shadows for another ten minutes. I would think our stranger would move beyond this street by then. What if we call for a taxi for pick-up here at the end of those ten minutes? I have no idea how fast service will be, but we can stay hidden until then,” suggested Marie.
