The sense of dread loomed over Alfred and Arthurs shoulders as they made their way towards the house, the bright red and blue flashing lights illuminating the dark street. The front of the house was blocked off by police tape, and Sadiq stood guard, when he saw Alfred and Arthur coming, he lifted the tap to allow Alfred and Arthur to pass underneath.
"I'm so sorry…" The Turk sighed as Arthur passed underneath, which only worsened the Englishman's anxiety.
As soon as Arthur passed through the front door, the overwhelming scent of blood struck him in the face, making his face tense. He could hear voices coming from the living room, which Arthur knew was further down the hall. Multiple officers were wandering around the house, collecting whatever evidence they could find, all wearing grim faces and silence.
The front entrance gave Alfred and Arthur a glimpse into what the rest of the house would look like: absolute chaos, pictures were pulled off the walls, the rug was adjacent, the front table was tipped over, and it looked like a massive fight had occurred in the house, and it had gotten ugly.
Arthur felt Alfred reach for his hand as they got closer to the living room, they could hear Gilbert's voice; sounding as distressed as he did on the phone.
And when they entered the living room, they knew why.
Kiku was sitting in the middle of the room, duct-taped to a dining chair by his arms and legs; he was hunched forward, revealing an ugly exit wound from a gunshot on the back of his head. His lap, head and hands were covered in blood, making Kiku look like a prop in a horror movie.
Gilbert was standing before the body, watching as another detective was inspecting the body. Arthur recognised the detective as Agent Lukas Bondevik, a forensics expert whom he had always seen whenever he visited the MI6 labs.
"Why?" Arthur grumbled, tightening his grip on Alfred's hand, as the American recoiled in shock.
"They staged it like a robbery." Gilbert explained, "His neighbour found him when she noticed that the front door was left open."
"The wounds are consistent with torture…" Lukas revealed as he rubbed a swab across Kiku's fingertips, revealing a thick Norwegian accent, "he's missing nearly a whole hands worth of fingernails. They were trying to make him talk…"
"What could have they wanted?" Alfred asked.
Immediately Gilbert's shoulders buckled as the German took a shark breath, his eyes widening with shock, "the case file…"
"But it's all computer based now: they wouldn't have to torture Kiku to get it, especially if they knew how to hack into our security cameras," Arthur pointed out.
"Not this one…" Gilbert whimpered as he gripped his bright hair with his hands, as though he was about to pull it out, "Kiku and I created a physical copy because we knew that the file would be vulnerable if one of us weren't physically protecting it."
"Where is it now?" Alfred asked.
Gilbert whimpered as he covered his eyes, trying to prevent the presence of persistent tears, "I have it…"
"Wait, then that means that…"
"They killed the wrong agent…" Gilbert crumbled as he fell to his knees and let out a cry, "he's dead because of me! Kiku's dead because of me! FUCK!"
"No, Gilbert, they—"
"They wanted the case file and they attacked Kiku because they believed that he had it!" Gilbert snapped.
"Do you think that he talked?" Alfred asked.
"It looks like he put up a fight," Lukas pointed out, "he was very brave. But we don't know whether they killed him because they got the answers, or because they knew that he wasn't going to give them. It all depends on the case file."
Arthur whimpered as his posture began to crumble as the reality finally hit him. Kiku was gone, the skilled agent whom he had spent years working alongside was gone, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Arthur's throat tightened as he began to cry, unable to stop looking at Kiku in his degraded and horrifying state.
"Agent Jones," Lukas said, "please escort Agent Beilschmidt and Agent Kirkland away from the body, it's clearly not good for them."
"No," Gilbert whimpered as he weakly rose from the floor, "we want to keep investigating, we're going to find out what they did to him: and make them suffer!"
As the Agents collected more pieces of the puzzle, the timeline of the story became clearer and clearer.
There were no signs of forced entry, meaning that Kiku let them in, intentionally or not.
The mess at the front entrance indicates that Kiku had opened the front door, and they forced themselves in. Kiku tried to fight them off, creating considerable damage. However, the lack of hair or fingerprints was concerning, and highlighted the attackers' knowledge of the forensic sciences.
It was clear that there was more than one attacker, as Kiku would have easily been able to fight off one attacker by using his training. Like Feliciano, Kiku may have been small: but was capable of using deadly force.
The tilted carpet and scratch marks on the wooden floor indicated that Kiku was dragged into the house by his legs, and was trying to grip to anything he could.
Kiku must have been held into a chair that was taken from his own dining room, and tied down with duct tape, indicating that this was a premeditated attack.
One attacker would have interrogated Kiku for the case file, whilst the other ran around the house, trashing his study, bedroom and bathroom, trying to find the case file, or anything of importance to the case.
When Kiku refused to talk, they pried off his fingernails with some kind of surgical tool; indicating the attackers access to devices and knowledge. Other injuries on Kiku's body told stories of cigarette burns, strategic cutting, even strangulation: all of his injuries confirmed that despite the pain he was going through: he refused to talk.
Kiku was brave until the attacker decided to end it all, with a gunshot to the head.
The attackers left through the front door and left it open, inviting anyone curious enough to come inside and see the horror that they left behind.
Alfred walked up the staircase to go to the bathroom, and also see if any other evidence had been left upstairs, after seeing the evidence of searching in Kiku's bedroom and study; Alfred made his way to the bathroom to do his business.
It was obvious that Kiku's entire house had been searched, every drawer was open, book and clothes had been scattered throughout the floor, however, despite how thoroughly everyone dusted there was still no fingerprints.
Alfred frowned as a sudden surge of dizziness overcame the American, and was powerful enough to nearly make him fall over. His brain pulsed as though it had a heartbeat, making Alfred grunt in pain as he made his way to the sink to wash his hands. Alfred glanced up and looked in the mirror and froze as he watched a line of blood run from his nostril and across his lips.
"Shit!" Alfred hissed, as he wiped his wet hand across his nostril, smearing the blood across his hand, however the torrent of blood did not end. Alfred's dizziness became worse, preventing him from running to the toilet to grab some paper. Alfred wheezed as he leant against the sink, watching as drops off his blood dripped into the sink, and makes a mess of his chin and lips. Alfred's vision became blurry as he looked in the mirror again, only to see his blurred face smeared in vibrant blood. Alfred's knees buckled and finally gave up on him as the American fell to the floor, feeling his entire body go numb as he began to shake uncontrollably, smearing blood over the tiled bathroom floor as Alfred attempted to rise, only to fall back down to the floor, until Alfred succumbed to the darkness.
Meanwhile downstairs, Arthur watched as Lukas took more photos of the crime scene, noting down any of the Norwegians observations, unaware of the danger Alfred was in upstairs.
"I'd say that there would have been at least two to three people here," Lukas explained.
"That matches the people who kidnapped Agent Vargas, and those who conducted the attack and the Globe," Arthur pointed out, "It's a trio."
"Have any of you spoken to Braginski's sisters?" Lukas asked.
"I interviewed them over skype," Gilbert pointed out from the other end of the room, as he looked though Kiku's personal computer, checking if it offered anything. "They live in Ukraine, haven't spoken to him in nearly a decade and they barely speak English: they have nothing to do with this."
"And so… the other suspect…?" Arthur asked, glancing at Gilbert.
"We have to act soon," Gilbert sighed, "We can't keep going like this, screw everything!"
"But we need to be smart about it, we need to form a plan so they don't become suspicious of us and run off," Arthur pointed out.
"Go and get Alfred, we'll plan something together," Gilbert ordered.
Arthur nodded as he placed the notebook on the coffee table before jogging into the entrance hall before walking up the stairs.
"Alfred!" Arthur yelled as he climbed up the stairs, and frowned when he heard no response, not even from the other investigators. Arthur made it to the top of the stairs and made his way towards the bathroom, pressing his ear against the door and knocking lightly, "Alfred? Are you in there?" Despite the silence, Arthur felt the urge to investigate and open the door.
The sight before him made Arthur recoil in shock as he watched Alfred lie on the floor, his shirt stained with the vibrant blood that poured from his nose and the violent twitching of his hands and legs.
"ALFRED!" Arthur screamed as he ran to Alfred's side, falling to the floor beside him, desperately grabbing at his hands and face, "SOMEBODY CALL AN AMBULANCE!"
Arthur began to hyperventilate as he watched Alfred seizure helplessly, his anxiety and panic raging beyond his control, he couldn't take it, Arthur shook violently and screamed. He couldn't take the sight of someone else he cared about falling through his fingers, it was like he was failing to save Allistor and Matthew, he remembered Allistor gunshot wound and Matthew's eyes as he said goodbye… Arthur hadn't realised that Alfred's blood covered his hands as he desperately begged Alfred to come back to him, only to watch Alfred cough violently, spraying spats of blood out of his lips.
Arthur's worst nightmare was coming true all over again and he was powerless to stop it.