Chapter 53:
Eventually the end of the day passed, then the evening and the night that William and Julia spent together again, unable to be away from each other any longer. They woke up as if it were a routine and Julia left the young man's room to return to close the window of the bathroom in her compartment.
Besides, the young man was worried. He still had not heard from Walid Champagne regarding the legislation and they were expected to arrive in Toronto tonight. It was appalling that it took so long when it was a murder.
As it was almost noon and Julia continued to read her famous book – which was not so good after all – her door almost flew open, and she jumped. She stood up and sighed in relief when she saw William looking bewildered.
"Julia! We got it! We got the warrant! We can search the passenger compartments."
"Oh! William! That's great. You will be able to find real proof…" replied the young woman enthusiastically.
"Yes. I went to Detective Brackenreid first and he's already starting to bust everyone out to meet in the main room while I search."
"Are you going to search my compartment too?" Julia asked seriously.
"That's the procedure…"
"It's that…"
"Yes?" asked the young man, a little worried about what she was going to say to him.
"I might be able to hide something in my bathroom, detective..." Julia assumed a false guilty look.
William laughed, immediately understanding where his companion was coming from.
"What are you hiding, Doctor Ogden?"
"A dead body?" she replied, a smile betraying her face.
The young detective laughed heartily then kissed his lover's cheek.
"I will ignore this little detail." William whispered playfully in the young woman's ear.
The first room William searched was that of the Savards, the main suspects. But he found nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The young man was deep in thought as he investigated Magnus Duval's bedroom, the bedroom closest to the Savards' - apart from his own, of course. He thought of the reaction of the passengers when Inspector Brackenreid and himself had begun to evacuate the compartments. The least we could say was that they had not really been happy about that. Nothing in Mr. Duval's room.
He even thought about the reaction of Zachary Lauzon whom he had come to see while driving the train to ask him what time they would arrive in Toronto. He had politely replied that they would arrive around 9:00 p.m. and had asked him why he was asking him this question. And finally, he told him that they were going to search the passenger compartments. He had the right to know. But what had amused William had been the reaction he had had. He had thought that when he said "passengers" he meant only customers. In addition, let us not forget that the passengers were considered as twenty-four including the two drivers. The young man, who still seemed so calm, had lost his temper. "And by what right, I beg you?" he yelled.
William laughed as he was in Marie Gosselin's room and found nothing, once again. Well, police law. Of the right of the law. Lazare Lamoureux had no right to defend himself. He had no right to decide not to die. His rights had been taken away by murder, so what? He would do whatever he wanted.
It was already after 3 p.m. when he entered Gildas Godin's room. He had already searched the compartments of Pierre Barton, the Novak brothers, Magnus Duval, the Champagnes, the Savards, as well as Elizabeth Hébert, Marie Gosselin, and Mathias Rojas. It was catastrophic. He had already searched the compartments of the main suspects and those who had no alibi, and he had found nothing… What would he do if he could not find anything? Luckily there was this handkerchief with the name "Nathan" on it. Even if, for him, this was not at all proof of Mr. Savard's involvement.
He still had the compartments of Zachary Lauzon, Hiram Lagacé, Amandine Wang and Colleen Forbes to search. He had gone through Julia's - for the form - but in other words he already knew it by heart. And he had obviously not passed through the two compartments of the Brackenreids. It would be ridiculous. In short, he was in a pickle. Finally, "they" were in trouble with Inspector Brackenreid.
He sighed as he opened the door to Zachary Lauzon's room. He looked around. Nothing as usual. He opened the wardrobe and saw three different uniforms. He opened another closet door and could see four pairs of shoes – which he thought were plenty for a few days of traveling on a train – and six different pairs of pants. He could see six jackets and six shirts. William raised his eyebrows. This man seemed to like dressing up. Yet he was always in uniform. This meant that he had taken all his clothes only for the three days spent in Alaska.
He closed the door and looked at the bed. He frowned. It was strange, it looked like both pillows had been used, each placed on one side of the bed. He looked carefully around him. There was something strange. He opened the bathroom and saw that two damp white towels were rolled up in a basket. He could see two toothbrushes in a glass placed on the sink.
He walked back into the living room and looked at it. He walked to the compartment desk and looked at the various papers there. He found an identity card in the name of Zachary Lauzon, and he also found two birth certificates in the name of Zachary Lauzon. He took both in his hand and could easily determine that one of them was a copy. The other being original. What was all that?
He looked at all the papers on the desk, but he saw nothing more. Until he came across a closed drawer. But it was not locked, there was no lock. It looked like it had been locked up "just in case". William crouched down in front of this drawer and tried to peer into the doorway. He thought he saw something blocking the drawer. He unbuttoned his detective badge and slipped it between the top of the drawer and the bottom of the desk. He played it for what seemed like more than five minutes and thought he would give up and ask the young man directly to open it for him. Then he heard a small "click" and he pulled the drawer which finally opened. He smiled and stood up. He reached out and picked up two different papers.
He raised his eyebrows when he came across what appeared to be a police report whose handwriting had almost faded, making it half legible.
"1888… her brothers indicate that Kelly Lauzon had never had a…. Zachary Lauzon claimed that the kidnapper… Mr. Lazare Lamoureux… while his brother…. Lauzon…. Came home from work... suicide but... No incarceration." William tried to read his eyebrows almost touching his hair.
So that was it! Zachary Lauzon had killed Lazare because his sister had been assaulted by him in 1888 and she had committed suicide afterwards... Incredible! Revenge then… But how had he done it? Something was wrong with this letter. But above all, Mr. Lauzon had an alibi. He had spent more than an hour in the dining car with the Champagnes. He had seen him himself. Unless Julia was completely wrong in her conclusions about the dating of the death... But he did not believe a word of it. It was impossible.
William scanned the letter again, then looked at the second piece of paper in his hand. It was an information sheet on Lazare Lamoureux. His age, his height, his weight, the names, and surnames of his family members, how much his fortune was estimated and the number of regular trips he made by train in the Winter Mist. He did have family in Sitka…
He looked at the police report again and tried to re-read the first few sentences.
"Her brothers…Her brothers?!" William suddenly exclaimed.
He suddenly rushed to the cupboard which he opened again. He looked at the shoes and took them in his hands. It was exactly what he thought. There were two pairs in 11 and two more in 11,5. It was not a big difference, but that was it. That was the reason there were so many clothes, two towels and two toothbrushes. There were not twenty-four passengers on this train, but twenty-five.
Still, he could not understand how no one had noticed him if he was on that train. William then ran his hand through every pocket of clothing, pants and jacket and he finally found what he was looking for. He smiled. He took out of the inside pocket of a jacket, a small card. An identity card. He turned it around to look at it and opened his mouth in shock.
"Twin brothers! Almost perfectly identical twins!" wondered William aloud.
That was how Zachary – or the brother – got his alibi. It was also how he got on the train unnoticed. The brother posed as Zachary so they could both be on the train unnoticed. All that… It was a story of revenge, but nothing went as planned… The plan could have been perfect if they had decided to look at the professions of all the passengers and not only those of the men. They would have seen that there was a doctor on board, and it was clearly not good for their plan.
He looked at the card again.
"Nathanael Lauzon…" William muttered, nodding in understanding. "Nathan…"
Suddenly he remembered something. In Alaska, on the day of departure, he had met Zachary Lauzon twice, who had twice said hello to him. He had even been annoyed by it, wondering if he was that invincible. In reality, he had first crossed one of the brothers, then he had crossed the other, hence this strange scene which had annoyed the detective.
All that remained was to confront them. It looked like one of the brothers was hiding somewhere while the other was in the dining car.
Note: Then, then? What do you think? Did you expect that? I hope you like it :)