Can Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple or Auguste Dupin win this pizza?

The Mystery
of the Tiny Closet

(a True Story)

It was noon on a lovely sunny summer day in Vleeptron Gardens, a charming suburb of Ciudad Vleeptron.

µþÞ‰œ¥, The Greatest and Most Famous Detective in the whole Dwingeloo-2 Galaxy, chanced to be walking past the small cottage of Mr. and Mrs. Vleeptron.

The Great Detective could not hear what the couple was saying inside the cottage. But the picture-window curtains were open, and The Great Detective could see what was going on in the living room. The couple were both dressed in perfectly ordinary informal clothes.

And The Great Detective saw a Very Odd Thing.

There was a tiny closet in the corner of the living room.

The closet was stuffed full of clothes on hangers. First Mr. Vleeptron made room for himself by pushing aside the raincoats and other clothes on the hangers. Then he stepped into the tiny closet.

There was barely room for him, but then The Great Detective saw him invite Mrs. Vleeptron to squeeze herself into the tiny closet. It wasn't easy, but she did.

She wasn't angry or very reluctant about being pulled into the tiny closet -- but she wasn't thrilled or particularly happy, either. From her expression, it was clear that she did not regard this as Fun. She seemed to be just grudgingly cooperating with this strange task or duty or request.

Then The Great Detective saw the door to the closet close, with both Mr. and Mrs. Vleeptron inside.

About twenty seconds later, the door to the tiny closet opened again, and first Mrs. V., and then Mr. V. carefully stepped out of the closet. Mrs. V.'s index finger was pressed on to Mr. V.'s t-shirt, about where his lowest right rib was. His t-shirt had some sort of complicated but orderly and multi-colored pattern on it, but the t-shirt was too far away for The Great Detective to make out what the t-shirt design was or said.

At that point, Mrs. V. looked out the window and saw The Great Detective staring through the window at them. The Great Detective was embarrassed to be caught so shamelessly snooping, and so The Great Detective hurried away, and that is All the Great Detective saw.

Maybe this wasn't the most difficult case in µþÞ‰œ¥'s long, illustrious career, but The Great Detective certainly thought it had a uniquely puzzling character, and spent the rest of the day, and deep into the night, trying to figure out:

What were Mr. and Mrs. Vleeptron doing?

* * * * *

ATTENTION NEWCOMERS & WANNABE DETECTIVES: Cliquez Ici to read the COMMENTS. There's a CLUE down there, and also everybody's Guesses. So far All Wrong, but you know what Sherlock Holmes said to Watson:

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

-- "The Sign of Four"