Ch 8 Part 2: Cloe Gets to the Bottom of It

Written by Kavya and Concept by Sidhant First go to previous blogs if you have not already....

Within minutes, Cloe was on her way to room 607. Alex was packing his bags when she arrived, and without hesitation, she arrested him and took him to the bureau. The interrogation was far from easy—Alex was tight-lipped, deflecting every question. It was only when Cloe mentioned his father, Alexander, and accused him of involvement, that Alex's composure cracked. His eyes flashed with rage, and he finally spoke.

"About five months ago, I received an unknown call. The voice on the other end offered me a fortune for the formula to my father’s discovery, Rendel. It wasn’t the money that intrigued me—it was the chance to finally show the world my father’s genius. He had been wronged, and I wanted everyone to realize just how capable he was. The caller promised that together, we could bring down one of the richest countries in the world. Two weeks ago, I received tickets to Finland along with a voucher for Hotel Pelican. I flew here and stayed in the hotel. One week ago, I got another message from an unknown number. It was a video of my father, thanking me for bringing him justice. He seemed... pleased."

Alex paused, his voice trembling slightly. "He told me to deliver an egg from one address to another. An egg. It was strange, but I trusted my father. I had always believed he had special powers. So, I went to a grocery shop, gave my name, collected the egg, and delivered it to Mrs. Forny."

Cloe’s mind raced. Mrs. Forny was Mrs. Handa’s cook—this all made sense now. She asked Alex where he had delivered the egg, and he gave her an address. Cloe immediately headed there, but this time, she was not alone. She brought with her the full weight of the investigation.

At Mrs. Forny’s residence, Cloe met Sandra, Mrs. Forny’s daughter. Cloe’s first question was about the phone that Mrs. Forny had used. Sandra explained that the phone had been in police custody but had been returned to them, wiped clean. There were no traces of data left on it, and Cloe knew this could not be a coincidence.

This led Cloe back to the crime scene: Mrs. Handa’s house. Unfortunately, Mr. Handa had already left for Japan with Soto. The police had secured the scene, and Cloe was able to inspect the kitchen, where she noticed the familiar remnants of an omelette—the ingredients for which had been used earlier that morning.

As she pondered the situation, Cloe’s thoughts began to align. An egg, Mrs. Forny, and the presence of the poison—Rendel—in the air. She called Mr. Finley, the scientist at the bureau, to confirm a theory she had been toying with.

"Mr. Finley, is it possible to inject Rendel into an egg or its replica?" she asked.

"It’s possible," came the reply. "A replica, certainly. The shell can be hollowed out and filled with almost anything."

It was all beginning to fall into place. Mrs. Forny had cracked open the egg, only to unleash the deadly chemical. The cook had perished alongside Mrs. Handa, but whether or not she had been complicit remained a mystery. Her phone was empty—perhaps a deliberate act of concealment.

With everything in place, Cloe called for an emergency meeting. Soto joined the conference call, and in the same conference room where they had all sat together days earlier, Cloe began to outline her findings:

"An egg was delivered to Mrs. Forny, the cook of Mrs. Handa. Alex, the son of Alexander, inventor of Rendel, was the one who delivered it. Alexander had invented Rendel in 1996 as part of a Russian military chemical program. But international pressure led to the invention being banned. His son, Alex, eager to restore his father’s name, sold the formula. The mysterious caller instructed Alex to deliver an egg filled with Rendel to Mrs. Forny. When the cook cracked the egg, she unknowingly released the poison, killing both her and Mrs. Handa."

The room was silent for a moment as the officials absorbed the information. Soto, too, seemed impressed but reminded Cloe that this may not be the end of the story.

"You’ve solved this case, Cloe, but remember—something bigger might be out there," Soto warned.

Cloe nodded grimly. She knew he was right. Finland might be safe for now, but the rest of the world—especially Britain—was still vulnerable. As she completed the final report and sent it off to Mr. Put, she prepared herself for the next challenge. The message from Mr. Put had already arrived, as it always did: India.

With that, Cloe knew her next journey had already begun.

And my dear readers yours too...