Chapter 7
'Knock knock knock' came a pounding at Vash's front door.
"I'll get it." said Peter, "Maybe it's the people who want to adopt me." he said as he ran over to the door.
"Hello." greeted a cheerful, blonde woman with a Finnish accent.
She was accompanied by a tall man whose stare burned a hole through Peter.
"Is this the home of Vash Zwingli?" the Finn continued.
"Yes." Peter replied.
"Then, are you Peter Kirkland?"
"Yes I am."
"Well then, allow me to introduce myself. I am Tina Väinämöinen."
"Hello."
"And I," said the taller man, "am Berwald Oxenstierna."
"Pleasure to meet you. Please, come in." Peter gestured his hand showing them into the house.
"Thank you." said Tina as she and Berwald walked in.
"So, you want to adopt me?" Peter asked.
"Kyllä," Tina replied, "we always wanted a kid."
"Are you two..."
"A couple?" Berwald interrupted, "Yes, we are boyfriend and girlfriend. We live together in our shared apartment."
"Yah," Tina agreed, "There's also our friends Mathias, Niklas, and Emil, Niklas's little brother."
"I think you'll like Emil." Berwald commented, "He's about your age."
"That's nice." said Peter.
Lili walked into the room. "Where would Peter live?" she asked.
"Who are you?" Tina asked politely.
"Lili Zwingli." she replied, holding out her arm.
"I'm Tina, and this is Berwald."
"And about your question," Berwald started, "we don't live far away at all."
"In fact," said Tina, "we only live a couple blocks away from here."
"That's good, now I know I won't have to travel far to see Peter."
"Oh yes, you're very welcome to visit, anytime."
"And what about the others?" asked Peter, "What are they like?"
"Well," Tina started, "Mathias is sort of loud..."
"And obnoxious." Berwald interjected.
"Niklas is very quiet and pretty much the opposite of Mathias."
"And Emil is serious and intelligent but very fun around his friends."
"Well I hope they all like me." Peter hoped.
"Of course they'll like you." said Tina.
"They actually encouraged us to adopt you." Berwald assured.
"Well that's good news." Peter replied.
"Well now that we're all comfortable," said Berwald, "I guess we should pass the time until Mr. Zwingli arrives."
"Hey Gil." said Ludwig back at the police station.
"Yes Ludwig?"
"I think there may be a way for us to get evidential proof of Matthew's guilt."
"Really?"
"Ja, we just need to run a DNA test on body we found in Matthew's basement, or Alfred's, I don't even know anymore. The one that was supposed to be Matthew's until we had this whole identity difficulty."
"Of course."
"If the test results in Alfred's DNA, then Matthew wasn't lying...to a point."
"But if the test results in Matthew's DNA..."
"Than that son of a bitch was lying about his identity."
"Perfect."
"Just ask Elizaveta to run some tests."
"I think you should ask her."
"Why?"
"Because she's already mad at me."
"Fine." Ludwig said in an annoyed tone as he walked over to Elizaveta's desk.
"Elizaveta?" he asked.
"Yes?"
"Could you please run a DNA test on the body we found in Matthew's basement?"
"Of course." she replied as she got up and walked over to the morgue.
Ludwig walked over to Vash's station. "Hey Vash." he said.
"Hello Ludwig." Vash replied. He was typing on his computer.
"What are you doing?" Ludwig asked.
"I'm coming up with a list of possible places Matthew could be hiding out at."
"What have you come up with so far?"
"Well, considering that he's wounded, he could have gone to a hospital."
"No, he wouldn't do that on the run."
"I was expecting that, so I typed out some more possible hideouts."
"Read some, please."
"His home; Alfred's home; Arthur's home; Francis's home; Gilbert's home..."
"What!"
"Not to scare you Ludwig, but Matthew might be in your house."
"Why?"
"Well, he might've back-tracked after he saw Gilbert drive to the police station."
"So I should definitely check my house when Gil and I get home."
"Yes, you should."
"Thank you for the tip."
"Anytime."
Ludwig walked back over to Gil.
"So," Gil started, "what did Vash say?"
"He made a list of possible places we could find Matthew." Ludwig replied, dare not telling his brother about their home being a possible place.
"And Elizaveta is doing a DNA test?"
"That's correct."
"Well, while she's doing that, I think we should try to find Matthew."
"Okay bro, I'm gonna get the list with the possible hideouts." Ludwig said as he walked over to Vash. "Vash?" he asked.
"Yes?"
"Could you please hand me a list of all Matthew's possible hiding places?"
"Absolutely." Vash handed Ludwig a sheet of paper with the information on it.
"Thank you."
"Anytime." Vash replied, "But out of curiosity, why do you need it?"
"Well," Ludwig started, "Gil and I are going to investigate some of the places on the list."
Vash looked at Ludwig in a worried sort of way. "Are you sure Gil's up for it?" he asked.
"Of course he is."
"But what if he's still traumatized by the whole incident?"
"I assure you, he can handle it."
"Well, I'm tagging along, just in case."
"Okay, I guess we can use some extra backup."
"So than its okay that I can come?"
"Yes."
"Thank you so much! I'm so bored here!"
"I can't even imagine. You haven't seen much action during this case."
"No, I did most of the computer work."
"Okay, let's go." Ludwig walked over to Gil, followed by Vash.
"Did you get the list?" Gil asked.
"Yes I did." Ludwig answered, "And Vash is coming too."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't get to do much during this case."
"That's true."
There was a long silence. As if no one knew what to say.
"So," Vash broke the silence, "where should we go first?"
"Well, I think we should check his victim's homes."
"We could split up." Gil suggested, "You know, three houses, three of us."
"I would normally agree with you, but I think it's too dangerous." Vash commented.
"I agree with Vash." said Ludwig, "If Matthew went into hiding, he could have healed himself."
"He might also have some sort of weapon-stash in his hideout. He could be armed to the teeth."
"I understand how that can turn out badly." Gil realized.
"I think we should go to Alfred's house, or Matthew's, or whoever the hells house we found Alfred's body in."
"Why there?"
"Alfred was his first victim."
"I guess that makes sense."
"So he might be there for sentimental reasons." Vash explained.
"Pretty much." Ludwig answered.
"That's sick." Gil said.
"It may be sick," said Vash, "but we'll never find Matthew, or Alfred."
"Are you sure your attacker was Matthew?" Ludwig asked.
"Of course I'm sure. He told me before he tried to kill me."
"But how do we know it's not just a case of identity crisis."
"Because I saw his eyes and they were violet."
"No," Vash disagreed, "last time I saw him his eyes were blue."
"He disguised his eye color."
"Are you absolutely sure about this?"
"Yes, can we please go now?"
"Of course we can."
Ludwig proceeded to the squad car followed by Gil and Vash. Ludwig started the ignition.
"Maple Lane, right?" he asked.
"Yes." Vash answered.
"Okay." Ludwig said as he drove out of the parking lot.
"So Vash," Gil started, "I hear that you're taking care of Peter now."
"Well, actually he's up for adoption."
"Oh, is anyone interested in adopting him yet?"
"I actually set up an appointment with a couple who would love to adopt him."
"When are they supposed to meet you?"
"They should be there already; they were scheduled for 2:30 this afternoon."
"So you mean that for almost half an hour, your precious Lili has been alone with two strangers?" Gil asked as if he's trying to annoy Vash.
"First of all, I trained her self-defense."
"Of course you did."
"And secondly, she's not alone with them."
"Oh that's right! Her little boyfriend is with her."
"She doesn't have a 'little boyfriend'" Vash replied, mimicking Gil's voice.
"You need to embrace the fact that she's growing up." Gil said in a sarcastic tone mocking true affection.
"I think you need to grow up."
"Little baby Lili is growing up."
"She's only twelve years old. I'm sure you weren't too fond of watching Ludwig grow up."
"Ludwig and I are closer together in age."
"So, he's still your little brother."
"Ja, but I let him grow up."
"Stop talking about my sister!"
"Okay I'll stop talking about precious little Lili."
BAM
"Owww..." Gil said holding his arm.
"You deserved it."
"You punched me." Gil said, almost whining.
"Stop acting like children!" Ludwig shouted.
"He started it!" Vash pointed to Gil.
"I don't care."
"Ha!" Gil laughed.
"And you, I expect more from you Gil."
"I'm sorry bro."
There was silence throughout the rest of the car ride.
"Here we are." Ludwig said as he pulled into the driveway of Matthew's house.
"Well Matthew, here we come." Gil said as he stepped out of the car.
They all walked up to the front door. Vash kicked it in.
"After you." he said, showing Gil in.
"Thanks."
