What was that horrible scream? Don't they know people are trying to sleep around here? Well, so much for a relaxing train ride, am I right? But don't worry, Apollo and Kristoph are on the case! Probably! If I decide to make them that is. (I have. It would be a boring chapter if I had them go back to sleep and let train security staff deal with it.)

Chapter 3 – Who Dunnit?

Apollo nearly fell out of his bed at the sound of the petrified scream. He just barely caught himself in time and sat up, instantly alert. He could hear Kristoph moving below him.

"Apollo? Are you awake?" his boss asked him.

"Y-Yeah," the boy responded a little nervously.

"Did you hear that sound just now? It sounded like someone screaming," Kristoph said. Apollo shivered slightly.

"I did. It's what woke me up." With great care, he made his way down the ladder and to the floor. "Do you think we should see who screamed? They might need our help."

"I was coming to that exact conclusion," Kristoph agreed. They both put their shoes on and Kristoph threw a heavier shirt on over his night one before they left their room.

Outside in the hallway, the lights had turned off for some reason. It was strange because they were supposed to be left on in case someone needed to leave their room during the night to use the restroom or for some other reason. It made it harder for Apollo to tell if something was out of place here or not.

Apollo tried to think of the moment he heard the scream. Where did it sound like it came from? The hallway or one of the rooms? His memory was a bit foggy since he was asleep at the time but he was pretty sure the scream had come from the room right next to theirs. With a nod from Kristoph, he went over and knocked on the door.

"Um, hello?" Apollo called, "We heard a scream coming from this room. Is everything all right?"

There was the sound of shuffling coming from inside the room. Then the older woman from the dining room stepped out. She looked quite upset and slightly afraid. When she spotted Apollo, she frowned further.

"You!" she screeched, startling the young attorney, "You've come back, have you? Trying to steal something from me again! Well, I won't let you, you cretin!"

"What!? What are you talking about?" Apollo wondered, "I was just checking to make sure you were ok! We heard a scream…"

"A likely story!" the woman scoffed, "The criminal always returns to scene of the crime!"

"Excuse me, madame," came Kristoph's smooth, calm voice, "Perhaps I can clear things up here." With relief, Apollo quickly ran to his mentor's side. Kristoph put an arm around his shoulders. "I can vouch for him. We were both asleep next door when your scream woke us up. We simply wanted to make sure you were unharmed."

The woman cast a suspicious look at him, still uncertain. A moment later, her elderly husband came out of the room. "My dear, surely you can see their intentions are pure?" he assured her.

"I don't know, Mr. Rockefeller," the woman hissed, "Look at them! They may have dressed nice earlier this evening but look at the way the taller one is holding the shorter one! It's obvious that they're, you know, one of those types!"

While Apollo had no idea what she was talking about, Kristoph obviously did, as he let out a deep sigh. "Madame, I assure you, nothing like that is going on. Apollo is simply my apprentice and he is traveling with me to New York for a business meeting."

Never mind the fact that I have a massive crush on you, Apollo thought to himself. But it was probably best to keep that to himself.

After a moment, Mrs. Rockefeller grumbled. "Fine. I'll trust you for now," she muttered.

"So, what happened?" Apollo asked them.

"We were robbed!" Mr. Rockefeller exclaimed, "We saw a thief in our room! I swear it! And my dear wife screamed for her very life when she saw the purloiner! She nearly fainted!"

Kristoph raised a hand to his chin. "Was anything stolen?" he wondered, "Anything important?"

Mrs. Rockefeller shifted uncomfortably. "Well, it's actually a little hard to tell, with all the lights out," she admitted, "For some reason none of our lights are working."

"Yes, there appears to be a blackout, at least in this section of the train," Kristoph observed, "We haven't checked the rest of the train."

"Wait, how could you see that there was someone in your cabin if it's dark?" Apollo questioned. Mr. Rockefeller gulped.

"Oh!" he coughed, "Um, if I recall I remember seeing a silhouette of a strange person by the window. It was illuminated by the moon, so I could see their outline, but no features." He sighed. "I would have chased after the ne'er do well but I needed to attend to my missus first."

"All right then, we'll get to finding this thief later," Kristoph decided, "Apollo, do you have your phone on you?"

"Yes, sir," Apollo replied.

"Very good. You stay here with these two and make sure the thief doesn't come back," Kristoph instructed, "Maybe use your phone's light to help them see if anything has been stolen. I'm going to go find someone who works here and see if we can't get the lights turned back on and explain what happened."

"Yes, Mr. Gavin," Apollo said determinedly with a nod, "You can count on me!"

Kristoph gave him a small smile before leaving to find help. Apollo pulled out his phone and turned on its flashlight. "All right, I imagine you don't want to show me where you put your valuables," he said, "So why don't you take my phone and look around to see if everything is still in its proper place?"

Mrs. Rockefeller took the phone from him with some trepidation, as if she had never seen or held one before. "Yes, er, thank you dear boy," she replied, "We shall do that. Please give us a moment."

Apollo waited as the couple went back into their room. He watched as the light moved around the room as they searched. Then there was a startled gasp a moment later.

"My necklace!" Mrs. Rockefeller screeched, "My genuine pearl necklace was stolen! That thief! That bastard! I'll have him executed!"

"Whoa! Whoa! I think you're overreacting a little!" Apollo exclaimed, "Just calm down a little!"

"Don't tell me to be calm!" the woman screamed, "Do you know how much those pearls cost! A fortune! They're worth much more than you, you little wretch!"

You don't have to be so rude. I'm only trying to help, Apollo thought indignantly.

There was a sound of a door opening from the opposite end of the car and Apollo heard several people enter. At first he thought it was Kristoph, but he had went the other direction. Taking back his phone and shining his flashlight, he saw it was the other patrons they had dined with that evening.

"What is going on?" the portly man demanded, "What is with all the screaming? I've already been woken once tonight, I do not want it to happen throughout the whole trip!"

"Yeah, man," said one of the teens, "You interrupted our séance. It like, requires hard concentration and stuff."

"I just got Robbie to go back to sleep," the mother added, "He wakes very easily these days."

"Well I'm sorry that being robbed is such an inconvenience to you all!" Mrs. Rockefeller snarled at them, "In case you haven't noticed, the lights have gone out and a thievery has taken place!"

The others immediately started babbling excitedly until Apollo got their attention. "Everyone! Please remain calm! We're already working on getting the lights turned back on!" he informed them, "There's no need to panic!"

The portly man huffed. "And who are you?" he asked, "Who put you in charge?"

"My name is Apollo Justice and I'm a defense lawyer," he announced, sounding far more confident than he felt, "I'm just trying to help these people find their stolen item."

The mother wrung her hands nervously. "And just what was stolen?" she wondered.

"My priceless pearl necklace!" Mrs. Rockefeller exclaimed.

"Bummer," the guy teen said.

Mr. Rockefeller glared at him. "Yes, you would think it was a 'bummer,' wouldn't you?" he hissed, "You and your classless friend are probably the ones who stole it!"

"Whoa man!" the girl protested, "You can't just go around accusing people like that! Who do you think you are, old man?"

The Rockefellers made a bunch of indignant noises. Apollo quickly stepped in.

"Maybe we should establish where everyone was at the time of the theft first," he suggested, "For all we know, the thief isn't even here. They could be somewhere else on the train."

"Hmm… the little lawyer boy has a point," Mr. Rockefeller agreed, "We should do just that!"

Boy!? Apollo thought, annoyed. But he decided to ignore it as the portly man spoke.

"I am Boris Bassington-Bassington, and I assure you that I was asleep up until that woman screamed and woke me!" he said in a gruff voice, "I tried to go back to sleep until she screeched again! I ask you, how is a man supposed to get a wink of sleep with all of that noise?"

Mrs. Rockefeller huffed and threw her nose in the air.

"Um, I'm Rosie," the timid mom told them, "I was putting my boy Robbie to bed. He gets very fussy at night, so sometimes it takes a while to get him to go to bed. And this being his first time on a train, I couldn't get him down until well after midnight."

Apollo nodded, deep in thought. He turned to the goth teens. "And you two?"

"We prefer to go by Ash and Cinder," the boy replied, "We were performing a séance in our room, trying to talk to spirits when we heard the scream. We tried to ignore it and continue, but then there was another scream so we had to find out what was causing it."

"Yeah, we thought someone was being haunted," the girl, Cinder added.

Apollo thought for a moment. They all claimed they were in their rooms at the first scream, which was when the theft occurred. There wasn't really much of a way to prove it, though, but then again there was nothing that told him any of them were the thief.

"Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller you said you saw a silhouette of the thief," he said to the old couple, "Do you remember what that silhouette looked like?"

"Hmm… I think so," Mr. Rockefeller muttered, "If I think really hard. It was really quite traumatic. The fellow was quite tall with an intimidating figure. I'd never seen anything like it!"

Could you be anymore vague? Apollo thought in annoyance. He cleared his throat. "Um, is there anything else you can describe?" he asked.

"Well, um…" Rockefeller paused, thinking, "I think the person was big? I think? It was hard to say. It all happened so quickly."

Thanks, sir. You've been no help. "What about you, Mrs. Rockefeller? Did you see anything?" he decided to ask the wife.

"Of course I did!" she insisted, "I saw the whole thing! The thief looming over me, ready to silence me and steal all of my valuables!"

"R-Really?" Rosie stuttered nervously.

"Indeed!" Mrs. Rockefeller declared, "And I know that it was one of those two!" She pointed at Ash and Cinder.

"Uh, what the H man?" Ash cursed, "You don't have any proof it was either of us! You're just accusing us because you're some old-fashioned ninnies who don't like that we don't fit in with your views!"

"Well! I never!" Mrs. Rockefeller huffed resentfully.

Apollo found himself agreeing with Ash, though he probably would've put it a bit nicer. He was about to say something, when all of a sudden the hall lights flickered back on, causing some of them to groan at the abrupt brightness. A moment later, Kristoph and someone from the train staff came through the door at the end of the car.

"Mr. Gavin! Did you get the lights turned back on?" Apollo asked him excitedly, rushing over to his boss.

"I did, Apollo," Kristoph replied, "I promised you I would. Have you made any progress with the thief?" Apollo looked back over at the others.

"Well, Mrs. Rockefeller discovered her pearls went missing," he explained, "She screamed when she discovered this and that's when all these people showed up." He lowered his voice and leaned up to whisper to Kristoph. "I think one of them might be the thief."

"Oh?" Kristoph cocked his head slightly. "And why do you think that?"

Apollo gestured for him to lean down and when he did, he whispered in his ear. Kristoph's eyes widened. "Really? That's quite a theory, Apollo! Are you sure?"

"Positive." Apollo paused. "You trust me, right?"

Kristoph smiled warmly. "Of course I trust you," he replied. He straightened and approached the group, he associate by his side. "Excuse me, everyone, I would like your attention, please."

Bassington-Bassington puffed up his chest and glared at Kristoph. "And who might you be?" he demanded.

"My name is Kristoph Gavin, attorney at law," he introduced, "And my associate here may have just solved the case."

The others broke out into murmurs as Apollo tried not to look nervous. He cleared his throat. "Granted, it's just a theory, and I don't have any solid proof," he explained, "But I think I know who did it. And the guilty party is here among us."

I shouldn't end the chapter here, but I'm going to anyway! Nyeh! Anyway, Apollo's going to reveal the culprit and the fact that I suck at writing mysteries! Also, the train is going to last another chapter, obviously. Anyway, please leave a comment and maybe guess who you think did it!