The Easter Moulds

Bruges, Holy Saturday night · a chocolate workshop by the canal · eggs for the bells, one master missing · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 8×8

Bruges, the night before Easter. They worked late in the chocolate workshop by the canal. Valentijn found out that his cocoa bean supplier was selling him a cheap blend labelled “single plantation” and wanted to cancel the contract. Around midnight the tempering stopped and nobody answered. Valentijn was found dead. Seven others were still in the house. The contract stayed in force.

Rules

Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the water, the counter, the shelf, the potted plant, the bookcase, the desk, the grandfather clock, the tables, the cauldron, the sink, the conveyor belt, the scales, the trolley, the fridge, the coat rack, the bicycle, the tree and the crate) cannot be occupied; the boat, the chairs, the stool and the bench can.
Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “north of Ferre” = in any row above Ferre’s row, in any column.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – his square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

Axelle (his wife, runs the shop): She was alone in her area. She was in a corner of her area.
Bavo (his son, the bookkeeper): He was the only one beside a chair. The bookcase was somewhere in his area.
Caro (his niece, the decorator): She was the only one beside the tree.
Dries (the apprentice): A table was somewhere in his column.
Eline (the packer): She was in the Cocoa Store.
Ferre (the cocoa importer): There was another man in his area. The bench was somewhere in his column.
Griet (a food writer): She was north of Ferre. A chair was somewhere in her column.
Valentijn (the master chocolatier): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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