Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia: Axis Powers, all rights go to its creators.

Content Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death

Summary: Mathiew Williams is dead, murdered in cold blood in Ivan's home. Detective Ludwig Beilschimidt is called in to his hometown to solve the case. It seems easy; they already have the witness, and the suspect is in custody. But of course everything isn't as it seems.

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Natalia's arrest gives her a sense of false security. She can't hurt anyone anymore while in jail and believes she avoided the future set by her cards.

Part 2: Cliffdover: The Investigation

Chapter 1: The Second Night

It had gotten pretty bad; the total number of murders had risen to 12 including Mathiew Williams; Chief Lien Nguyen felt that she had no other choice but to call a detective down from Srafbridge to solve the case.

Detective Ludwig Beilschimidt didn't come into town often because he was busy, and work often piled up. He was one of 6 detectives for the city of Srafbridge. But he and his brother Gilbert grew up in Cliffdover so he wasn't completely in the dark about the people who lived here.

Ludwig could be described as a buff man; he kept in shape, and kept his blonde hair gelled. He was a man who took his job seriously despite being on the younger side, 31 to be exact, and worked efficiently to get the cases assigned to him solved.

Ludwig walked into the police station and was greeted by a young man at the front desk. The young man with light brown hair, smiled at him with his big blue eyes. "Name please?"

"Ludwig Beilschimidt, Chief Nguyen sent in a request for a detective."

"Oh, right. Let me let her know that you're here." The young man picked up the black phone on his desk, and pushed a bright red button. The young man's smile did not waver, but he cast his eyes downward as the phone rang.

"Chief, the detective you sent for is here."

Ludwig watched as the man squinted his eyes, with a brighter smile.

"What is this button here for if you don't want me to use it?"

The man glanced up at Ludwig before placing the receiver down on his shoulder, "She'll be out in a moment."

Ludwig nodded and soon a woman emerged from a room further back in the station. Strapped to her hip was a gun. A badge with Cliffdover Police Department was on her chest and a name tag just below it read, Chief Nguyen. Ludwig met the steely gaze of the Vietnamese woman. She was shorter than Ludwig but her aura commanded respect.

A small smile tugged at Ludwig's lips, Chief Nguyen was different from his easygoing commanding officer, Chief Lisboa-Carriedo.

When Chief Nguyen looked Ludwig over, her expression did not change.

"I didn't expect they'd send someone so young." She said to which Ludwig raised an eyebrow.

"No matter." Chief Nguyen turned to the young man at the desk, "Janssens, did you get out the Williams file?"

Officer Henri Janssens produced a manilla folder and handed it to Chief Nguyen, "Here you go." He said, voice raised an inflection, a small smile on his face before he continued typing.

Chief Nguyen gave him a nod before regarding Ludwig again. Ludwig flipped through the contents of the folder.

"We have one suspect so far, Natalia Braginski, she's been in a holding cell since last night. I previously had Officer Jones question her, but she wouldn't talk to him. I wanted to have another officer work on this case, but Jones insisted because Williams was his step- brother." Chief Nguyen pinched the bridge of her nose, "Jones is stubborn and we don't have enough staff as is to just give him a pink slip. So you'll be working with him. Try to calm him down if he gets too heated."

Ludwig's expression turned into a grimace briefly, Chief Nguyen did not see it however, and when she looked at him it was the same stoic expression he had when he'd come in.

"I will do what I can."

"Also, there have been a string of murders that I think are connected. If you finish William's case and want to have a look-"

"I wasn't assigned another case besides this one. You didn't put in a request for-."

"I know." Chief Nguyen looked into Ludwig's eyes, her steely gaze becoming filled with worry. "I knew they wouldn't send someone down if I had a large case. I know Srafbridge is busy...but please just look into it.

Ludwig let out a heavy sigh, "I'll take a look."

Chief Nguyen nodded before she turned towards a room adjacent to them, "Jones! Show Detective Beilschimidt to Braginiski's holding cell."

Ludwig raised his eyebrows, looking over into the adjacent room to see the young blonde haired blue-eyed man rise from his desk. He stumbled out of the room, dark circles under his eyes, hat plopped precariously onto his head.

"Yes ma'am!" He said, giving her a salute.

Ludwig was much older than Alfred but used to see him around when Alfred was growing up. Alfred, his brother Mathiew,Tolys and Felicciano would play outside together on hot summer days. That was at least until Feliciano started highschool and then it was just the two brothers.

Ludwig couldn't have predicted that Alfred would join the police force.

Alfred looked at Ludwig, giving him a boyish smile, "I'm Alfred F. Jones. I suppose you're Detective Beilschimidt right? Follow me, my dude!"

Alfred walked past him, no mention of knowing him previously. But that was to be expected, like mentioned before, Ludwig was much older than Alfred. Ludwig gave him a nod and followed him to Natalia's holding cell.

Inside, Natalia was curled up on the small twin sized mattress, staring listlessly at the adjacent cell wall. Alfred took out his nightstick and tapped the metal bars of the cell. "Up and at 'em sleepy head!" He yelled to the woman.

Natalia shifted her midnight blue eyes to the pair outside the cell. The woman's expression did not change, but she sat upright and approached the bars.

Alfred unlocked the cell, handcuffed the woman and then led them to a separate room. An interrogation room more specifically.

Ludwig sat across from Natalia Braginski, the dirty blonde who did not have the best reputation. She was known notoriously as the girl who'd killed her own family's cat without a shred of remorse. To see her on suspicion of murder, albiet a little late, was not out of the realm of possibility for what was expected of the woman.

Ludwig introduced himself to her and set up his recorder for the interrogation.

"I was hoping I'd get Janssens." The woman muttered, a frown on her face, shoulders a little sunken.

"I'd take it, you don't like Officer Jones?"

"The little bastard has always hated me. He really has it out for my brother Ivan. We didn't do shit to him but I guess his dad told him that Communists are evil and that Russians are communists."

"Is it safe to assume that this extends to his step-brother as well?"

Natalia raised her eyebrows before frowning and furrowing them. "Hey, don't try to turn this into something it's not. No, I don't have a vendetta against the Jones-Williams household. Mathiew was a little annoying at times but I didn't hate him. It was as if the brothers were apples and oranges, Mathiew was sweet and Alfred was an asshole."

"Could I assume you killed him to anger Officer Jones?"

"No. I didn't kill anyone. I swear. I know it looks bad, and I don't know who did, but it wasn't me." Natalia's voice raised just a bit.

"Would you mind explaining to me how you found yourself 'covered in copious amounts of the victim's blood?' Ludwig read from Ivan Braginski's eyewitness statement.

Ludwig listened as Natalia told him about how she was preparing to leave the next day and just wanted to ask Ivan to see her off one more time. She'd seen that the door was ajar and felt something was off. When she approached the kitchen, Mathiew was still alive and had warned her that the murderer was still in the house. She was knocked out by the murderer and woke up next to Mathiew who was now dead.

"And may I ask, Miss Braginski, why were you preparing to leave town?"

"If I tell you, I'm going to be in deeper shit than I am now."

"Your odds aren't great as is, Miss Braginski."

"I was trying to prevent something like this from happening. I've been having dreams of murdering my friends and family. So I thought by getting out of town, I could stop that from happening."

Ludwig let out a disgruntled breath. "Say if I did believe you, do you know of anyone who would have something against Mathiew?"

"Fuck! I don't." Natalia looked away from him, pounding her fist onto the table. Natalia looked into his baby blue eyes, stare intense, "But he worked for Tolys, he might know."

Ludwig's expression did not change. The odds were not in Natalia's favor. She continued, eyes widened, "Detective, there is a serial killer in this town. Did you see the women who've been killed? They're all blondes with blue eyes. They must have framed me!"

"You believe the murders are connected?"

"They have to be! I didn't kill Mathiew, who else could have?"

Ludwig sighed, "Thank you Miss Braginski for the information that you have given me. You still haven't been cleared of suspicion. They'll have to keep you here at least another night."

Natalia nodded before Ludwig gathered his folder and recorder and walked out of the room.

Ludwig talked to Chief Nguyen as Alfred took Natalia back to her cell. "Braginski thinks that the murders are connected to Williams's case and that she is being framed."

"Do you believe her?"

"I want to believe that this case is that easy, and that she murdered Williams in cold blood as revenge against Officer Jones, but that's probably not true."

"If you want to look at the other murders, I have them in a crate dating from about a year ago."

"Hold off on that. I want to speak with Ivan. Did Officer Jones question him as well?"

Chief Nguyen nodded, "He wouldn't give specifics on why he was with Williams and would only stick to the information surrounding Braginski."

"Alright, I would like more information from him. I'll call him down to the station for tomorrow."

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Directly after the events in Part 1: Chapter 9

Elise Vogel was at home. It was late, around 2 o'clock in the morning if she was being precise. She was sitting in her kitchen at the table, biting her nails and craning her ear towards the door, listening.

She drummed her fingers against the tabletop and tapped her feet on the floor of her kitchen, glancing at the clock as the seconds ticked by.

And then she heard it, the trudge of heavy footsteps coming down the hallway from outside.

Elise got up from the kitchen table and looked out of the peephole, seeing a mop of blond hair.

Elise fumbled with the lock before opening the door.

"Mister Kirkland!" She said to the blond, who from the jingling sounds that followed her shouting his name, dropped his keys.

"Shite." Arthur Kirkland, Elise's neighbor hissed, having to bend down and pick them up again.

"Oh, sorry." The smaller woman said, bringing a hand up to her mouth, blinking her large emerald doe eyes.

He picked them back up and gave her a glare before his features softened, "No harm done. You want to know what's become of Natalia, yeah?"

Elise nodded her head rapidly.

"Come in, have a spot of tea, won't you?" Arthur said, opening his door and turning on the light to his apartment.

Elise followed him in and took a seat at the island as he shrugged out of his trench coat before placing it on a nearby hook. Elise had never formally been over to Arthur's apartment before. They had been neighbors for almost a year now, but didn't interact much, and he hadn't called in that favor to use her computer yet. But here she was in the wee hours of the morning about to have tea with him.

Arthur walked over and put on the kettle before turning to her. "I just came from the station. The officer that brought her in said they had to keep her for questioning and possibly overnight if her suspicion isn't cleared."

Elise looked down at her lap and twiddled her thumbs, "You don't think she murdered Mathiew, right?"

"No! Of course not...well…" Elise looked back up at him to see his gaze elsewhere, before settling back onto herself.

Elise furrowed her eyebrows, "Mister Kirkland! How could you think that Natalia is capable of murdering someone? I thought you of all people would be on her side."

"Oh excuse me," Arthur said, placing a hand on his heart, green eyes wide. "I'm sorry that I'm having a hard time believing that someone who tried to kill me twice isn't capable of murder." Arthur frowned, crossing his arms and pursing his lips.

"She was trying to change that by leaving; she cared. You know that don't you?"

"You told me that. And you thought I could convince her to stay. But you see how well that worked out." His tone was acidic, and his gaze was unwelcoming and sour. He then brought out the tea cups and Earl Grey tea for them to drink.

"I did, but I'm sure she was trying to do what she thought was best. I don't think she wanted to hurt you anymore."

"Well it's too late for that." He said turning off the kettle which had started boiling. Elise looked into his eyes as he poured their tea, but his gaze was focused on the cups.

Elise looked down into the brown liquid, before looking at him again. "We have to find out who did it."

"No, absolutely not. Let the police handle it." Arthur waved her off, "I'm done meddling in Natalia's affairs." He brought the tea cup to his lips.

Elise frowned as she sipped her tea, drumming her fingers against the countertop.

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Ivan Braginski came into work the next day. He had to wipe his tears and act like everything was normal. No one knew that Ivan and Mathiew had been seeing each other for two years up until that point. The last thing he needed was Gilbert treating him even worse for being a homosexual.

Gilbert Beilschimidt, Ivan's boss, squinted his eyes as he looked over at Ivan. Gilbert didn't see Ivan smiling that day, he could see the listless look in his eyes as he replaced the tire on the local bar owner's car. Gilbert pursed his lips. It was usually his job to make Ivan's work day miserable, but it appeared that it had already been made that way beforehand by some outside force.

Gilbert shrugged and left Ivan alone. It was less work for him, in his opinion.

Ivan returned to his home after work, purposefully avoiding the kitchen. Ivan would still see blood in there, although the forensics team had cleaned it up once they took their samples. He did not fix himself dinner. He shrugged off his coat, slipped off his shoes, and went straight into his bedroom. He then changed into his pajamas.

Ivan curled up into his bed. He turned off his bedside lamp, and once surrounded by darkness he let the tears flow from his eyes.

In the darkness of the night, sniffles could be heard. Tiredness overcame Ivan at some point in the night because his sniffles were then replaced by soft snores.

And no, his older sister had not called him. No one did, except for the police, but they had to leave him a message.

Beep. "Mr. Braginski, this is detective Ludwig Beilschimidt on behalf of Cliffdover PD. Would you mind coming back to the station to answer a few questions? I'm sorry if this is a bad time, goodbye."

A/N: Hello! Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I'm trying something different, writing in a third person objective sort of way, like a movie.

Thank you for reading!

Criticism welcome.