BIG SHOCKING REVEAL TIME as Apollo solves the case! Then more train shenanigans. Then maybe they'll get to New York. Maybe. Who knows? It's not like I'm the author or anything.

BTW, I have a Twitter if you want to look me up and send art my way. Or just bother me a lot. Look me up at White Thunder ThunderingWhite. Look for the picture of the horse.

Chapter 4 – So… Who Dunnit?

As everyone stared at Apollo with anticipation, he started to doubt himself. What if he was completely wrong and he made a fool of himself and Mr. Gavin? He couldn't do this. He should just back down and pretend he didn't say anything-

Before he could spiral into a panic attack, a strong but gentle hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Kristoph smiling gently down at him, his eyes full of warmth.

Apollo took a deep breath. Right. Kristoph believed in him, so he had to believe in himself. He was Apollo Justice and he was fine. He took another breath.

"I believe the one who stole Mrs. Rockefeller's pearl necklace…" pause for dramatic effect, "was him." He pointed to the culprit and everyone gasped.

Mr. Rockefeller looked absolutely outraged as Apollo pointed straight at him. "This is absurd!" he exclaimed, "Why would I steal my own wife's pearls?"

"Well, it wasn't just you," Apollo explained, "It was you and your wife. You both 'stole' them. But to be honest, I don't think they were ever missing to begin with."

Both Rockefellers looked like they wanted to murder Apollo right there. "You're spouting lies, you heathen!" Mrs. Rockefeller snarled, "You have no proof! No facts! You're just making things up to get attention like the little queer you are!"

Apollo flinched and was about to back down, but then he felt Kristoph press up behind him. "Please refrain from insulting my associate," he advised, "I think once you hear what he has to say you'll be less inclined to take that high and mighty tone with us."

He gave Apollo's shoulder a gentle and encouraging squeeze. Apollo leaned back into him slightly before taking a breath.

"When you told me about the silhouette of the supposed thief in your room, you hesitated and were kind of vague about what the perp looked like," Apollo explained, unconsciously rubbing his wrist with his bracelet on it, "It made me think that maybe you were hiding something."

Mr. Rockefeller was practically red in the face from rage. His wife wasn't much better. But Apollo wasn't done yet.

"In fact, when I asked how you could see a figure in the dark you seemed rather panicked," he pointed out, "Like you hadn't thought of that."

Rockefeller gulped. "Y-You have no proof!" he hissed, "This is pure conjecture! Lunacy! You can't prove anything!"

Apollo narrowed his eyes slightly at Mr. Rockefeller's pajama pocket. And he noticed something odd about it. "Well, if you're not the thief then you wouldn't mind showing us what's in your pants pocket?" he requested.

The Rockefellers paled. The mister gulped and shook. "Um, why would you p-possibly want that?" he asked, "It can't be relevant."

"Then there's no problem," Kristoph pointed out, "Besides, there does seem to be something in your pants pocket. Mind showing us what it is?"

Mr. Rockefeller moved like he was going to try to run away, but the train worker quickly grabbed and restrained him. Kristoph strode over to him and reached into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful pearl necklace. Everyone gasped.

"Well, well, look what we have here," Kristoph said smoothly, holding them out for all to see. Mrs. Rockefeller quickly grew furious, but as she did so, Apollo rubbed his wrist, his bracelet feeling tight all of a sudden.

"Harold! How could you!" she screeched. Mr. Rockefeller turned on her.

"What are you talking about, woman?" he scowled, "It was your idea to fake losing the pearls so we could commit insurance fraud!"

"What the hell, man? And you punks were planning on blaming this us?" Ash growled, "That's real low!"

The rest of the guests started heading back to their rooms as the train worker called for backup and started questioning the Rockefellers. Satisfied, Apollo and Kristoph headed back to their own room, the elderly couple's glare at their backs.

"Good job, Apollo," Kristoph praised once they were safely back in their room, "You have very fine intuition. I would have never guessed they stole their own pearls. I'm glad I brought you along on this trip."

Apollo blushed at his mentor's words. "Er, w-well I wouldn't have managed it if you hadn't backed me up, sir," he pointed out, "I was so nervous."

Kristoph gave him a small smile. "Either way you must be exhausted now," he pointed out, "Let's get back to bed and hope the rest of the trip isn't like this."

"We can only hope," Apollo replied, smiling back.

…

Kristoph and Apollo slept until almost noon the next day. They probably would've slept longer if both their cell phones hadn't started ringing at almost the exact same time, startling them awake. They both scrambled to answer them.

"Hey, Clay," Apollo greeted, yawning loudly as he did so.

"Apollo! You didn't call me this morning!" Clay accused him. Apollo blinked sleepily.

"Was I supposed to?" he wondered.

"Yes!" Clay replied, "I want to hear all about your first day on the train! Did you just wake up?" Apollo yawned again.

"Yeah," he answered, "Mr. Gavin and I were woken in the middle of the night by screaming." He told Clay all about the previous night and the events leading up to it.

"Man! Sounds like you had an eventful night! I just got drunk and watched old black and white movies on television!" Clay told him. Apollo chuckled.

"What a fun time," he commented. He could see Clay rolling his eyes in his mind.

"Whatever," he sighed, "At least you're having fun."

"I am," Apollo agreed, "Mr. Gavin has been really good company. And I can't wait to see the city. It'll be so much fun."

"I bet it will be," said Clay, "Well, I won't keep you any longer. Have fun and talk to you later! Bye Apollo!"

"Bye Clay." Apollo hung up and closed his phone. He got down from his bunk and noticed that Kristoph was still talking to whoever called him, which was probably Mr. Wright.

"Well I'll allow it for now seeing as we are friends, but I want you to know that's kind of creepy," Kristoph was saying. He paused to listen then sighed slightly. "Yeah, I know. I love you too. See you in a week." Then he hung up and looked at Apollo.

"Apparently Phoenix slept in my bed last night because he missed me," he informed his associate, "It's kind of sweet but also a little creepy."

Apollo tried to hold in a laugh. "Well, at least he cares about you," he snickered. Kristoph rolled his eyes but smiled.

"Come on, let's go find somewhere to sit," he suggested, "Maybe grab something to eat. I still need to read over these stupid papers."

The two made their way towards one of the forward train cars and found an empty booth to sit at. Kristoph pulled out his files while Apollo took out a game system. Not ten seconds went by before Kristoph set the files down.

"You know, we accidentally skipped breakfast," he pointed out, "Why don't I get us something to eat for lunch, eh?"

"I have a better idea," Apollo said, giving him a snide grin because he knew exactly what he was doing, "Why don't I get us something to eat and you can continue reading those files?"

Kristoph gave his apprentice a light glare as he stood up and started heading towards the dining car. Apollo carefully made his way forward, trying not to fall over on anyone. Thankfully the dining car wasn't too far away from where he and Kristoph had chosen to sit.

There was no one in the dining car today which was just fine with Apollo. He bought himself a turkey and ham sandwich and Kristoph a salad. He also ordered them a couple of ice teas to drink. Then he carefully made his way back to his boss.

When he got back, Kristoph was slumped down in his seat slightly and he had fallen asleep. Smiling to himself, Apollo set the salad and one of the teas down in front of him before sitting down opposite of him.

"SIR! WAKE UP!" he shouted, startling Kristoph awake.

"I'm awake!" he exclaimed, jumping slightly. It took a few seconds for his breathing to return to normal and he glared lightly at Apollo. "Was that really necessary?" he asked.

"I felt it was," Apollo replied with a smile, "I got you a salad, by the way."

"Thank you." Kristoph silently started digging into his salad as Apollo munched on his sandwich. They ate in silence for the most part, only speaking occasionally to ask if their meal was good.

"So, how far along did you get before you fell asleep, sir?" Apollo wondered. Kristoph gave him an annoyed look.

"These documents are unbearable!" he complained, "My colleagues could not be more boring! They are the most dull people on the planet! I know we have to write everything professionally, but they could embellish at least a little!"

"Oh come on, sir, it can't be that bad!" Apollo insisted. Kristoph looked at him.

"Do you want to read through these for me?" he asked, "Go on and tell me they can't be that bad!" Apollo snickered slightly.

"No, thank you," he said.

Kristoph sighed and opened the files again, trying to read them. Apollo smiled and went back to playing his game system. It was quiet again for quite some time. Eventually Apollo put his game away and pulled out his book to read instead. Kristoph looked up at him.

"Want to swap reading materials?" he asked.

"No thank you, sir," Apollo replied. Kristoph frowned.

"It was worth a try," he muttered. They fell silent again until Apollo put his book down and took out his phone.

"I'm going to go take some pictures of the train to send to Clay," he informed his boss, "I'll be back in a bit."

"Don't get lost," Kristoph said off-handedly, and Apollo couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

Apollo started wandering the train towards his and Kristoph's sleeper car, deciding to take a picture of that first. He made sure to get a good wide shot of everything to get as much as he could in the frame. After the room he made his way to the dining car took a few pics of that. Then he took pictures of the cars and scenes that flashed by the train. By the time he went back to Kristoph he taken close to thirty pictures.

"I'm back," Apollo announced as he sat down. Kristoph looked up from his files.

"You were gone for longer than I expected," he noted, "Did you get lost? I told you not to."

"No. I just took a lot of pics," Apollo told him. He gave his boss a smile. "How's that reading going?" Kristoph gave him a murderous look.

"This is torture, I swear," he growled, "I give up on this. I can't read anymore of this today or my eyes will fall out or something."

Apollo giggled slightly. "Is it really that important that read all of those?" he wondered, "Are they going to test you on the material and they'll know if you didn't read it?"

"No, but I have to speak and give a presentation at this thing," Kristoph sighed, "And I'm expected to know what my colleagues thought on the matter. But it's so boring!"

"Well, maybe next time don't put it off until the last minute," Apollo advised.

"Don't patronize me, boy," Kristoph grumbled.

Not wanting to antagonize his beloved mentor anymore, Apollo decided to switch topics.

"So, um, you booked three days in New York, right?" he asked.

"Yes."

"But the conference thing is only one day."

"That's right."

"So, uh, did you have something special planned for the other two days?" Apollo questioned. Kristoph smiled pleasantly at him.

"Well, let me tell you our schedule," he said, "On the third day of the train ride, we'll get to New York City around the early afternoon. The day after that is the conference, which is in the early evening, so I figured we could check into the hotel and spend the free time exploring New York and all it has to offer. After all, this trip doesn't have to be all business."

Apollo felt his excitement jump. He had looked up all the fun places to go in New York City and he had been hoping to coax Kristoph into checking some of them out. He would never have guessed that Mr. Gavin already planned something out.

"We're going to the M&M's store, right?" Apollo asked.

"Of course we're going there!" Kristoph laughed, "Phoenix would kill me if I didn't bring him back a bunch of small candy coated chocolates that he can easily fall asleep while eating and choke on." He sighed. "I worry about him sometimes."

Apollo held back a laugh and tried not to smile too much.

Ok, ok, I promise the next chapter will have them get to New York! I just felt like if I did it here it would either stretch the chapter or feel rushed. But for now, please leave a comment and maybe check me out on twitter!