"Wait, how would Betty have been able to surprise him then?" Pat asked. "The door was just opened enough to let a lil' light through, right? But if the door was opened enough for her to enter, the light would've gone up at least somewhat noticeably. She woulda just alerted Deid to her presence that way! I s'pose this applies regardless of who the killer is, but... Deid had to have been surprised by his killer. If he coulda sensed their presence through 'em openin' the door, then he wouldn't have died as easily as he is. The man hadta have been on edge too, given his purpose for bein' there!"

"Guess in this scenario, the one person who coulda surprised him was John, who could've approached Deid from the guest room side thanks to the passage in the basement without havin' to switch on the light."

---

"Um... Hm, that one I'm not sure of."


"The whole reason I used a camera to peek inside was that I didn't want to disrupt the light by moving in front of the crack."
"That might even be why Deid used such a method to 'light' the room in the first place?"
"So he'd realise if someone caught him in the act."

"Well, there ya have it!" Pat nodded. "Since there's nobody else who coulda approached the door from the guest room side, it coulda only been John who did it. Y'could suggest somebody hid in the library beforehand, but that seems unlikely considerin' they had no way t'know what Purson was gonna do that night. So here's my revised theory- John saw Deid snoopin' in the library that night and out of paranoia, stabbed 'im! Dunno why he had the knife prepared or whether he ran into him by accident, but it's the only possibility in this case! As for the dyin' message, I've already explained why the vic had it with 'im! He was lookin' for the list of the ambushed soldiers! Maybe it was the full list that was written in Deid's handwritin', but John coulda torn out just 'Keyesburgh' and put it in his hand to frame Betty along with a pen. Not like he coulda written it himself though, it just turned out convenient for 'im. With that, he ran out and went back to his room!"

"I don't have a full idea of how John was killed, but most likely his killer found out about him killin' Deid an' took him out for that reason. I've already pointed out that Phil knows more than he's lettin' on, if we wanna examine that further now."

---

"THERE IS SOMETHING INTERESTING HAPPENING IN THE OTHER TRIAL."
"DIRECT YOUR ATTENTIONS TO THE HOURGLASS."

---

"...and where have we seen the name 'Keyesbergh' before?"
"That's right! On that list of names!"
"Someone check it for fingerprints! I bet we'll find Deid's on there!"

The trial went into recess, despite Kerberos's objections, as a bailiff was sent off to organise the task. A little later, he returned with the results.


"What do you make of that, Kerberos?"
"Deid's fingerprints are right there on the document!"
"This is why he wrote down 'Keyesbergh' on that note paper!"
"This is the explanation behind that 'dying message' of yours!"

---

The perspective in the hourglass faded again.


"i'll update the record!"
"how exciting!

"Well now, ain't that interestin'..." Pat muttered. "Why on earth would a note with Deid's fingerprints be in that secret room? The way I see it, there's gotta be 2 explanations for this. The first is Deid knew of the secret room and copied the name from there... but that doesn't make sense, 'cause John woulda had to let him in there first. I can't see them collaborating like that just for John to murder 'im for snoopin' in the house. The other explanation is that the list was actually printed by Deid 'imself, and John stole it afterwards and hid it in that room. I think this is probably more likely- would explain why it wasn't secured like the rest of the stuff in the room was, right?"

"Anyhow, this strengthens the theory that only John coulda done it! He was the only one who coulda accessed that room and hidden the list in there after killin' Deid!"

---

"Now that you mention it..."
"I do remember John saying something about there being something in the library."
"It was just an off-hand comment at the time, I didn't think anything of it."
"But what if... it was bait?"
"Maybe John left that document in the library for Deid to find, and to distract him?"


"Ugh, you can't be serious..."
"Fine, yeah, we did the research already."
"Raphael Mann was Liev Mann's younger brother. He died in the ambush."
"We didn't think it was relevant, but... in light of this, that's probably why Deid was at the manor in the first place."
"If that document was bait, it would have been very effective in controlling Deid's actions."
"If John's the killer though, that's a real pain in the ass."
"No getting a confession out of a corpse."


"THIS EXPLANATION SEEMS SUFFICIENT TO ME."
"PERHAPS IT WOULD BE PRUDENT TO EXAMINE JOHN'S MURDER NEXT."
"THE SITUATION IS VERY DIFFERENT IN THE LIGHT OF THESE NEW FINDINGS."

"Well, there ya have it!" Pat declared. "John wouldn't'a known Deid personally, but he mighta known about his association with Liev. Connectin' the dots between him and Raph, he coulda laid out a trap for him later on in the library- and then when the time came for that- BAM! He got 'im good. He probably hid out in the guest room the next mornin' so nobody would come for him and find out. Unfortunately, that didn't stop whoever his killer was from gettin' him..."

"In any case, there's proof that John did leave the guest room afterwards- that bein' the tunnel, which was open when the police found it but closed when we were lookin' at it before 10 AM. Only John coulda opened it while he was alive, and it had to be after 10 AM- meanin' that it was durin' his estimated time of death! He closed the basement entrance of the tunnel, but didn't do the same for the utility room- how come? I think it was because he died before he could've closed it..."

"Phil, I've already mentioned how your testimony is pretty fishy. Y'say you were in the utility room from 10 to 11, yet you never claimed to have seen John appear then at all, yet he had to have at some point during then. Isn't that strange? ...Heh, not t'worry though. I've seen through yer lie... and more importantly, I've already figured out how y'committed this murder!" He pointed accusingly at the butler-slash-scientist.

"So my guess is, John came through the secret entrance while y'were workin', which probably caught ya by surprise. Y'saw how he suspicious he looked, and then some fight between the two of ya transpired, endin' in John's death! He probably didn't expect to be discovered there, but it unfortunately resulted in his own murder! So now there ya are, a dead body on your hands, and you've got no idea what to do. You try goin' through the secret tunnel, but the other side's locked with no way of openin' it ever again with John dead! You go out to check if there's anybody outside and then spot the livin' room group down the stairs! This is what Rori heard, I reckon."

"In any case, y'were now trapped where you were, with no idea how to get rid of the body covertly! But then, a bright idea strikes ya. I know you're a smart man and all, you don't wear that lab coat for nothin'. And I figure there must be some useful devices in your room... So in a stroke of genius, you use one of those fancy schmancy devices to remove the floor from your room!" A few startled looks were most likely pointed his way after this, but that didn't stop Pat. "Yes, that's right! Notice how the utility room is directly above your room? You took advantage of that, making a hole to transport you and the body through to your room! That's how you got down to the first floor without the living room group noticing!"

"After that, it's all child's play. Y'take John's body to the guest room without anybody spottin' ya, makin' sure to be covert in the process. You find the knife he killed Deid with somewhere durin' all this and y'make sure to stab him with it to throw everybody off the trail. As for how the locked room was done, you just made a duplicate of the guest room key usin' some other device in the utility room! With that, you placed the original key in John's pocket, and voila! A locked room is created! After that, you make it back to the utility room from your room- probably with the help of some thingamajig that you own. And with another gizmo, you somehow managed to seal the floor up in your room like nothin' ever happened! With that, you'd successfully made it back to your room after disposin' the body, just in time for Betty to call ya downstairs! Truly, an almost perfect crime... But I've seen through ya, Phil! The gig is up!"

The atmosphere in the trial room was... awkward, to say the least. Pat probably did have half a point in there somewhere, but he seemed to have conflated it all somewhere, resulting in one of his patented Pat Theories™. Still, you had to commend the man, he was awfully confident in all of this, despite what he was even saying.

---

"Heh heh heh..."
"Ahahahahaha!"
"You're right, you've solved it!"
"Such a crime could only be committed by a man of my genius!"
"You're a little too narrow-minded there, though, so let me fill in the gaps."

"The device I created doesn't remove a floor."
"How mundane that would be!"
"A simple bomb could do that much."
"My device creates portals!"
"Yes, that's right! I had one end set up in my room already."
"After killing John, I opened another portal in the utility room."
"With that I was able to bring his body to the guest room unobserved."

"How small-minded of you to think I would need to duplicate the key, though."
"My portal gun solves all these problems!"
"I set up the scene, then locked myself in."
"Finally, I shot the correct portal at the wall to take me back to the utility room."
"From there I needed only to disable the portals again, and the 'closed room' was complete."
"Such a crime would only be possible for me! Philip Stone, genius inventor extraordinaire!"

There was a resounding silence at the declaration. Philip took a few bows, delighted to have an audience to explain his invention to.


"Well, that's what I'd be saying if... my portal gun worked yet."
"Unfortunately I've hit a few snags. By my recent prototype shows a lot of promise!"
"That's why I left the utility room, in fact."
"There was an actual reporter there, in the building!"
"I wanted to get an interview, have my invention presented to the world."
"I'm not the one who killed John. I was occupied at the time, and didn't have a way to get downstairs anyhow."


"Oh, that sounds interesting!"
"But... you never asked me anything about that."
"No-one spoke to me during that time period, there was no interview."


"Pft! Ahahaha!"
"I can explain that one!"
"An 'interview', really? Was that your excuse, Philip?"
"This dork didn't want an 'interview' about his latest invention. He just wanted to talk with Rori."
"He's had a crush on them for a little while now! I noticed right away, of course."


"W-what? Don't go around making stu-"


"That's why he never actually contacted you."
"He was probably pacing around in front of your door, too shy to knock."


"Oh, that would explain what I heard outside my door..."


"L-look, I was just nervous because I've never done an interview before!"
"It would be my big break, when the public would first become aware of my ground-breaking research."
"So, yes, I had to gather the courage to knock. I was just about ready to when Betty called up to us all."
"That's all it was! Really!"


"Ahaha, well, setting that aside for now, I think I can corroborate that story."
"Whoever was pacing around outside was making some weird noises on a machine of some kind."
"I did wonder what that was."


"I may have... caused a few disturbances, yes."
"My invention is only a prototype, as I said."
"While waiting for my courage to arrive, I practised how I'd demonstrate it."
"It got pretty noisy sometimes."
"For what it's worth, I can confirm Rori never left their room."
"Loreley never stopped listening to music either, I could hear it all the while."
"She even skipped a song I like! Typical."

"I-interestin'..." Pat stammered, a little caught off guard by the recent development. "So durin' that entire time, y'never saw anybody come out from the utility room..? Nobody coulda come out from there without you noticin', right? Did John silence you or anything..?" He was clearly grasping at straws here. "H-hey, maybe we should give the utility room a re-examination! Somethin' in there could be relevant, since John clearly was there at some point! It could be worthwhile!"

---

"Someone could have gone through the passage after I left, if that's what you're asking."
"I didn't spend much time in the utility room. I only went to pick up my prototype."
"If they were cautious and tried to sneak past while I was in the corridor, they could have managed it."

"Well uh, lessee... John coulda possibly made it out of the utility room... If he was covert, maybe he coulda snuck out onto the corridor, and, er..." Pat paused, struggling to form a theory at this point. "I guess he couldn't'a gone many places, so... it had to have been his office!"

"Come t'think of it, we still don't know what John was strangled with, right? Or what caused the wounds on half his body from head t'toe... Was there anythin' that coulda caused that in the utility room? Or his office/bedroom?"

---

"Hold on," Mai objected, finally able to actually add something. "So the only proof Phil was in the corridor was Rori hearing some noises out there? How do we know he didn't just leave something out there to make noise while he was in the utility room?"

---

"I heard someone pacing about in the corridor for most of the hour."
"There were quite a variety of sounds, too..."


"I can testify about what music I heard playing from Loreley's room, if you'd like?"
"She can verify it for me!"

"Uh, well... m-maybe the invention can walk around... and has microphones on it! What does that thing you're working on even do, anyway?"

---

"I told you, it's a portal gun!"
"Or at least, it will be."
"When I can get it to work."
"Which I'm getting closer to every day!"
"But right now... Well, in layman's terms, it makes a lot of noise but doesn't do anything."
"You wouldn't understand the complex quantum interactions it controls, after all."

Mai rolled her eyes and looked over the map of the house again with a frown. "...Hey, can these windows be opened enough for someone to go through them?"

---

"Most of them, sure."
"Not the ones in the guest room, though."

"So, uh... nobody actually saw Loreley between 10 and 11, right? Is there some reason why she couldn't have just turned some music on and left through her bedroom window?"

---

"What? Don't be ridiculous! I wouldn't leave through the window, not in this dress."
"I was in my room the whole time."


"If that's the case, you should be able to describe the noises Philip's invention made, right?"


"Hmph! I wouldn't hear any silly noises over my music."


"Some were pretty loud. You'd have heard."


"Well... I..."


"No point hiding it anymore, huh?"

Philip had a gleeful expression. Perhaps he was paying Loreley back for exposing his feelings in front of everyone.


"She wasn't in her room. I know because I saw her outside, through a window."
"She was heading to the old shed round the back."
"It's like her secret base!"


"How do you know about that?!"


"I've known for a while, now."
"It's where she does her hobby, without John knowing."
"She's... a livestreamer!"


"How do you know about that?!"


"Look her up on Witch, you'll find her easily."
"Her Witch username is 'Belle Fleur'."

There was an awkward moment where people tried and failed to access the internet from the afterlife, before Death brought up a view of a computer on the massive hourglass. Sure enough, a Witch streamer called Belle Fleur was giving a makeup tutorial. It was unmistakeably Loreley.


"..."
"Okay, fine! I'm a Witch streamer, happy?!"
"My beauty needs to be shared with the world, not kept locked up in a cage!"
"I considered becoming an actress, but really, this seemed the next best thing."
"That shed's where I keep my setup."
"I have a system. I control the music player in my room with a phone app, while livestreaming in secret."
"Dad never knew. He wouldn't have understood, so I had to resort to all that subterfuge."

"After finding a... dead body in the library, I needed to take my mind off things."
"I did the usual trick, and headed for the shed."
"Of course, the internet had been disconnected... I had to settle for recording a vlog."
"Some time later I headed back. As if the day wasn't already going bad enough, I found my precious rose bush had been crushed!"
"When I peeked inside I saw everyone running to the library, and found a chance to slip in and follow after them."
"That's when I found dad... The perfect awful end to an awful day."

"The rose bush had been crushed, y'say?" Pat raised an eyebrow. "Hang on... could it be that the body landed there? That'd mean... the killer dropped the body from there onto the rose bush along with possibly themselves, an' then took and hid the body through the main entrance! That'd avoid the livin' room group altogether!"

"Hey, where was this rose bush located again..? If we can figure that out, then we'll know where John coulda been dropped from!"

---

"Oh, it's... Well, in those terms, it's below the window to Mallow's playroom."
"I thought it was just the harsh winds that had damaged it..."
"You're telling me someone dropped by own dad's corpse onto it?"
"How dare they!"


"Why didn't you tell us this sooner?"
"By the time we'd gotten there, the hurricane-force winds had already torn apart most of the garden."
"That was a vital clue!"


"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, detective!"
"I just didn't think to."
"As I said, I thought the wind had just battered it."
"I didn't want anyone to find out I'd been outside, anyway."


"*sigh* Sure, sure."
"Well, before anyone asks, yes, John's injuries could be consistent with a fall."
"A fall of two stories, to be exact. He'd have been dropped from a bedroom window."
"Though I can't for the life of me figure out why he'd have even been up there."


"About that..."
"I've been thinking about it, and I find it strange that he still had the knife on him."
"We're saying he killed Deid for some reason or other, yes?"
"If so, why did he keep the murder weapon on his person?"
"It would have been rudimentary to dispose of."
"He could hide it in the hidden room, or throw it off the bridge, for instance."

"I don't mean to tarnish my friend's legacy, but... I think it's likely he planned to kill again."
"The only reason he'd keep a weapon, if he didn't need to hide it, was to use it."
"After all, why would he lock himself inside a room 'to protect himself from the killer' if he himself was that killer?"
"It was a diversion, an attempt to create an alibi, I believe."
"Once the coast was clear, perhaps he went upstairs, intending to kill someone."


"That... seems reasonable."
"It would make his murder a case of self defence."
"Though, given that John was strangled, it might be tough to swing it."

"The window in Mallow's playroom, huh..." Pat mused over the new info they'd just been given. "Well, that's a strang 'un. Other than the cat, all the other rooms in that corner belonged to the livin' room group. Even if he did want to attack one of 'em, there wouldn't'a been anybody to attack 'em, right? I can't see the killer bein' Loreley, she was busy in her shed and she wouldn't mention the rose bushes if she were the killer. Could Phil have pushed him off without Rori noticin'? Seems tough... but we're runnin' out of options here. At the very least though! By this logic, we now have one witness. One solitary character who can tell us the truth of the case!"

He pointed dramatically. "The defense demands that Mallow testify!"

---

"...the cat, really?" Mai folded her arms and sighed. "How exactly is a cat supposed to testify?"

---

"YES, THAT SEEMS PRUDENT."
"THIS IS THE AFTERLIFE. ALL CAN SPEAK EQUALLY HERE."
"IT IS WHY YOU ALL UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER, DESPITE SPEAKING DIFFERENT LANGUAGES."
"I SHALL SUMMON HIM NOW."

Once more, light shot out of the hourglass, and a mangy old cat appeared on the witness stand.


"STATE YOUR NAME AND OCCUPATION FOR THE COURT."

Mallow opened his mouth... and spoke. He had an uncannily deep, manly, old man's voice.


"Deathshredder. But they call me Mallow for some reason."
"I'm a cat."


"YOU ARE TO TESTIFY ABOUT WHAT YOU SAW ON THE DAY OF THE MURDER, BETWEEN 10:00 AND 11:00."
"IN PARTICULAR, REGARDING ANYONE'S PRESENCE IN YOUR ROOM."


"I was sleeping the whole time."
"Fuck off."

"...well, that was about the result I expected, even if it's not the way I expected to get it." Mai took a moment to wipe the lenses of her sunglasses while she got over her surprise at the talking cat, then slid them back on her head and cleared her throat. "I have a more important question anyway."

She pointed at Phil overdramatically. "You said you saw Loreley 'outside, through a window'? Which window was that, and when?"

---

"Always comes back to me, huh?"
"It was the utility room window. I'm not sure when exactly."
"I don't think she had time to get back before the living room was occupied, if that's what you're asking."

"It always comes back to you because you're the only one who could have pushed the victim out the window. After Loreley left to do her recording, there were only two of you on the second floor, and one couldn't go in Mallow's room to drop the body due to allergies."

---

TV-Head laughs bitterly, “Do you really think two floors only exist in the house?”

“That’s moronic. As long as the world is tall, someone can be dropped from a height that’s two stories tall. I think my point speaks for itself.” TV-Head winks to their team except it’s behind the tv so nobody knows.

"Um....... could you elaborate??"

Lady laughed hysterically at Mallow's "testimony".

"Now this is my kind of cat!" She said loudly. "It almost makes up for him attacking me! Almost." It seems she still held a grudge against Deathshredder.

“I say that the defendant used a funny method to drop the body! There’s a window on the third floor right above Mallow’s! It’s possible the killer had one of those extendo claw arms! And held the body slightly lower out the window before it was dropped! And it confused all you losers! That said, I reserve my right to walk back this theoryif it makes me sound stupid later.”

"Ohmygod.......... Now that you mentioned it, you may be RIGHT....!!" GUNS seemed to be convinced by this.

"Um, but it was not Betty, obvi. Where would she get one of those claw thingies???"

"I don't think this theory is completely unreasonable... 'n fact, I was thinkin' the same thing myself", Pat nodded. "The thing is, what would the killer've used to drop the body? I don' think there's been any mention of somethin' that could've done it anywhere... Though somethin' like a fancy claw machine sounds right up Phil's alley!

Readying himself, he continued. "Though I think they used a cable to do it instead of that... the same thin' they used to strangle John. Then the body hit the rose bushes on one side, probably explainin' all the wounds it received on one side of the body. The thing is to me, how'd the killer go and retrieve the body from there? Jumpin' down with the body- especially if it was done from the third floor- would've led to them gettin' injuries themselves, and would've just been plain inconvenient. And of course, the living room group prevented 'em from going down normally. Did they have an accomplice on the lower floor, perhaps?"

"...Or perhaps, they had a mode of transportation from the top to bottom all along. The helicopter, of course!" Pat snapped, in more ways than one probably. "Phil used it to covertly get down from the mansion to the garden, then went n' hid the body in the room! Finally, he went back up with the helicopter and hid back in the corridor. Either he made a machine to simulate all those fancy noises Rori was hearing outside the corridor, or Rori was also in on it as his lover! It all adds up perfectly!" He declared, with a straight face. How does he keep doing this.

---

"...Hey, has anyone actually searched the cat's room?" Mai wondered.

---

"Sure, I did!"


"We searched all the rooms. Nothing in particular stood out to us."
"Look, let me try and get this straight."
"Your running theory is that the killer didn't enter John's guest room to kill him. Instead, John left it himself."
"He went upstairs, and then someone killed him."
"The killer then dropped his body out of the window, damaging Loreley's roses, and followed after."
"After that, they carried the body back to the guest room."

"Cute theory, but it won't fly. There was no way to lock John back inside the room with the only key also inside."
"Unless, of course, as I've said from the beginning, you have the master key."

"Well, uh... what if someone made a copy of John's key after he came out? What then?"

---

“I doubt I need to point this out, but…that helicopter’d be way too loud to use without someone hearing. Even if Phil could fly it in that wind.”



“If the answer is something as dull as that, I’ll claw my heart out right here,” Akari replied dully. “Besides, how would they have done that? I don’t recall seeing any, uh…key duplication machines around.”

---

"No technology could do that quick enough."
"Especially when you consider no-one could have planned this in advance."
"Not if John was the aggressor, as the defence are implying."
"I can go one step further:"
"If you want to say someone other than Betty killed John, then they can't have used any pre-prepared device."

“While we’re on the subject of John committing murder. You know, as one does,” Akari continued. “Who better for him to go after than Betty? If we suppose John killed Deid due to his connection to Raphael Mann, I mean. We know he was paranoid. Maybe he saw the note in Deid’s hand and remembered Betty’s last name. He might have surmised she was out to get him as well. Or even thought Deid has arranged some meeting with her.”

“Either way, whether he knew Betty and Tommy were the same person or not, I think he decided to use the opportunity to get rid of her. Of course, Betty would have fought back and killed him. As for how that happened, not sure yet. But it probably makes more sense than whatever the defense is going on about.”

---

"Alright, here's an idea", Pat spoke up. "The guest rooms are all identical for the most part, right? What's the one thing that separates 'em all in the end? The keys. But where are these keys normally? In their locks, danglin' right there for anybody to take. See, with just these, I think the killer coulda improvised a lil' somethin' on their own without needin' any of 'em fancy gizmos."

"So, here's what we know. John was stayin' in the third guest room the whole time. He took the key that was normally sittin' in its lock and locked himself in. None of the other guest rooms were occupied durin' that time, and were all probably locked. So let's say you weren't told which room John was in, there's another way for ya to have figured out which room John was in- the first, and only, guest room without the key in its lock! This was what the killer used to trick Betty. They hid the body in an adjacent guest room- let's say #4- and locked it, removin' the key to #4 from the lock. What did they do with the key to #4? Place it in the lock for guest room #3! This'd give the illusion that #4 was #3, the room John was staying in, since it was the only guest room in the hallway without a key in the lock!"

"This is what tricked Betty. When she went to check on John, she made the elementary mistake of skippin' #3 because it had a key in it. After all, why knock on what she thought was an empty room? So she went to #4 and knocked on it since it was the only one with no key in the lock, and when John didn't respond, she had to open it with her master key. There she found poor John dead, knife n'all. She also found that the key to #3 was still in his pocket, renderin' this a perfect locked room in her eyes! This is what strengthened the illusion that this was room #3 she'd found him in the entire time. The key in the room could have only belonged to room #3- yet she failed to consider that she wasn't even in room #3 in the first place!"

"Then she left to tell the others about all this. This gave the killer enough time to enact the rest of their plan. They were probably hidin' in a nearby guest room, keeping an ear out for Betty discoverin' the body. Of course, the reason Betty didn't notice them was because she was fixated on the room she found John in instead, but the killer also probably kept their door unlocked, with the key still in the lock to make sure Betty would think it was locked! Once they heard Betty leavin', they came over to #4 and moved the body to #3, lockin' #4 in the process! They set up the body and knife and everythin' perfectly so it'd look practically identical to what Betty had discovered. Because the knife was stabbed in John post-mortem, there was minimal bleedin' so there were probably very little traces of anythin' left in #4. Finally, they left the door to #3 open in the process, furthering the impression that it was the "true" crime scene Betty had found, and all they had to do afterwards was try n' blend in with the group as they came to find the body. That's how this locked room, or at least an illusion of one, was created!"

"As for who this killer is... my guess is Phil, still", Pat added. "He's the only person who coulda dropped the body from Mallow's room, I reckon. Even if y'say the body was dropped from the office, it'd still have been easier for the killer to drop themselves from one floor lower, and of course Rori was too allergic to the cat to have gone there."

---