Hans was definitely missing, they'd looked everywhere. At first Kowalski had assumed that Hans had set the fire, and Skipper had miscounted either the prisoners or lobsters. However in a second count they found nobody else was missing, so Doris had tearfully concluded that it had been Hans in there. When the ashes had cooled enough to do a proper investigation, they had found some skeletal remains, but they couldn't tell much from them. Finally, Kowalski had confirmed the fact that Hans had been the one in the building after finding the remains of Hans' gun and some of the metal parts of a uniform that didn't belong to anyone else in the camp.
"Were you storing any gasoline or any other kinds of fuel in there?" Kowalski asked seriously, looking down at the ashes.
"No, I wasn't," Blowhole replied. "Actually, that building was empty aside from some equipment I confiscated from Skipper – tunnel supports, makeshift shovels, a radio. Why, what did you find?"
"Well, first of all, the floor and walls were clearly drenched in gasoline before the fire was lit," Kowalski reported. "I was right about it burning too fast." He beckoned to Blowhole and the team to follow him. The team had grudgingly been asked to take a look at the scene, since Skipper was known for having some pretty good hunches, Private was the nephew of a master spy, Rico had been an NYPD officer before the war and Kowalski's knowledge of chemistry made him a good arson investigator. Kowalski pointed to a collection of metal objects near what had been the centre of the building, where they'd found the remains.
"Wonderful you've found more personal effects to identify him some more with." Blowhole commented sarcastically. Kowalski removed the irrelevant objects, leaving behind the item he wanted to draw their attentions to. "Anyway, Kazoo might have been storing flammable substances in there, between the court martial and Skipper's sudden increase in escape attempts, he's really been running things. It still could have been an accident." He added hopefully.
"I highly doubt it." Kowalski replied, "Firstly, if fuel was being stored in here, there would have been evidence of its containers, and secondly, I found this." He pointed at the piece of metal, but Blowhole seemed to see nothing more than some pieces of twisted metal half buried in ashes, "By the way, the radio wasn't a radio, it was my tape recorder."
"So where's the radio…?" Kowalski seriously regretted bringing that topic up. "Don't think I'm going to forget, there's going to be a surprise inspection…" Kowalski made a mental note to clear out the barracks while Blowhole cursed himself for making the surprise inspection not a surprise. Maurice immediately set off to move the radio.
"Anyway," Kowalski pointed to a larger piece of twisted and blackened metal partially twisted around around half of a charred wooden beam. Kowalski moved the wood aside, and pointed to the distinctive metal object, "I found this."
"Looks like handcuffs or something." Skipper spoke, frowning. "So someone chained him inside. Sorry, Blowhole, but that's not an accident."
"'oo's a' they?" Rico asked, hoping someone wasn't about to reply that the distorted metal had once belonged to him.
"No way to identify them," Kowalski replied, "But the fact that he was chained down…"
"So you came to that conclusion too." McSlade spoke. Kowalski hadn't noticed he was there. "Whoever killed him wanted him conscious the whole time – why chain him down if they thought he was dead or unconscious? Then everything but the centre of the room was set up to burn first, according to Private he was amazingly alive and conscious till the roof collapsed." Private grimaced.
"That is pretty horrible, even for someone like him." Private spoke quietly, "I suppose that tells us our killer is a very disturbed individual, who apparently knew what he was doing."
"Do you think it could be suicide?" Blowhole asked hopefully. Suicides, while more paperwork than accidents, were still less than murder, "A sudden attack of guilt?" It was fairly unanimous that that was a very unlikely theory.
"I think what it tells us is that the person who did this had a very strong revenge motive, probably connected with Skipper and the events last year. That would explain the timing: Hans was just about to walk free, and the killer probably couldn't stand that." McSlade continued. He looked directly at Skipper, "Considering the fact Marlene was seen by at least twenty witnesses preforming with the cabaret in town, that person is you."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Skipper protested as two lobsters began to move towards him, "I've got an alibi! Blowhole, tell him!" Unsurprisingly, Blowhole didn't seem inclined to provide any alibis for his nemesis, "My alibi is your alibi, and you've got plenty of motive too."
"Skipper tried another one of his ridiculous escape attempts last night, barely hours after he tried to sneak out as Hans." Blowhole finally reported grudgingly, after realising Skipper was right about the alibi, "Between when one of the Red Ones tripped over a partially collapsed escape tunnel and found Skipper and when we saw the fire, I was interrogating Skipper. I wanted to know if there were any other tunnels and where he'd gotten a shovel from this time."
"So who here hated Hans enough to kill him?" McSlade asked.
"I think it might be faster to ask who didn't." Skipper replied. "I can only think of three we can rule out: I think we can all agree Private wouldn't be capable of something like this, same as Doris since she's still in denial about what happened last year, and Blue since a reliable source told me she liked Hans. Romantically, apparently."
"Unless she'd found out he'd only been using her to get a stay of execution." Kowalski countered, but then added that while he'd look in to that, there seemed to be no evidence of it. "What about you, McSlade?"
"Well!" McSlade huffed, then realized that being indignant wasn't going to get him off the suspect list, "Yes, I hated him, but I was on a call at the time. They'll confirm I wasn't killing anyone."
"Grea'." Rico grumbled, "Ah guess we fin' out 'oo go' alibis an' star' from 'ere."
"Skippah, I really need to talk to you." Private spoke the moment he and Skipper were reasonably alone. "Now, if it's convenient." He added politely, though it was clear something was eating at him.
"If you're beating yourself up about the fire, it isn't our problem." Skipper spoke without looking up from where he was reorganizing his personal effects which Hans had irritatingly rearranged, "None of us did it – my men would never do something like that, even if Hans deserved everything he got. Y'know, I still find it hard to believe someone finally got him." Private considered pointing out that Skipper ought to remember that an eye for an eye is not justification for violence, but that was a pointless debate with Skipper. Private made a mental note to bring that up later.
"Skippah, I think I was the last one to see Hans alive." Private spoke. Skipper looked up.
"Well why didn't you say that earlier?!" Skipper exclaimed, "When did you see him? What was he doing? Was there anyone else with him?" Skipper demanded, before he noticed Private was looking at him strangely.
"But I thought you said this isn't our problem?" the youngest member of the team asked.
"I think I said it didn't have to be our problem." He hadn't, but Private assumed that must have been what Skipper had meant, "Sure, I might have hated the guy, but I am not going to have the character of my men in question while this investigation is going on, if there's something I can do about it."
"It was about midnight." Private replied, "And he wasn't alone. He was talking to Doris." Private added.
"Great," Skipper started towards the door, "let's find out from her where he went after…"
"Skippah, they were arguing." Private interrupted before Skipper could go anywhere, "It was a very heated argument." He added.
"'S about time she stood up to him." Skipper shrugged.
"She…" Private winced, "She said she wished they'd shot him, she wished he was dead, and that even then that wouldn't be enough to pay for the things he'd done." Private heard the sound of shattering glass and turned around to see Kowalski stood in the doorway, a shattered beaker at his feet.
"I'd say you're lying if the probability of you ever telling an outright lie was less than 0.001243%." Kowalski choked when he finally found his voice.
"It couldn't be Doris!" Blowhole protested, poking his head in through the window through which he had clearly been listening the entire time.
"You heard what the kid said." McSlade countered from the same position on the opposite side of the building. Private winced, glancing from one to the next of the three parties he specifically hadn't wanted to hear that.
"You couldn't possibly have picked a worse time to say that?" Skipper scolded.
"Sorry Skippah." Private winced, "I didn't realize they were all listening." Skipper rolled his eyes. "Sorry."