Chapter Five: Red Card

Kiku and Ludwig were at the Zwingli house with Vash and Eduard, who were watching a video of Lili. She and Vash were having a war with water guns.

Vash sighed, "I lost a beautiful, precious angel."

"Yes, sir. Good-looking woman." Kiku replied, "I'm jumping right in, if you don't mind, Vash. You missed the tournament cut on Friday, yes? But you didn't come home until Sunday. What did you do with the rest of your time in Fresno?"

Vash glared, "I get this. You guys can't catch the real killer, so you want to lay this one on me?"

"No, sir." Ludwig said, stepping between Kiku and Vash, "If we have confirmation of where you were, it lets us exclude you from the investigation."

Vash was still glaring as he said, "I was with a massage therapist."

"Name?" Kiku asked.

"It had Lady in there somewhere." said Vash, not really trying to remember.

Eduard groaned, "It'll be on his credit card bill."

Vash nodded gratefully to his brother before saying rudely, "There you go. Pleasure meeting you."

Kirkland and Jones were in Dr. Vainamoinen's office. Dr. Vainamoinen is looking up records on his computer. Jones is prowling around the office, which has a lot of African decor.

"…we're a full service private practice. We deliver primary care, cosmetic surgery, psychotherapy, sports medicine, you name it."

"What's the African connection?" Alfred asked.

"It's what this place is all about. Half of our profits go to build and staff basic health clinics in poor African communities. Well, here we are. It's a thin file. Lili was a healthy young woman."

Kirkland sighed mentally, "Psychiatric history?"

"She didn't have one."

"STDs? Abortions? Unexplained injuries?"

"No." Tino replied, "Aside from routine check-ups with me, it's all Feliks. All aesthetic work."

"Did Feliks keep a diary?" Arthur was contemplating punching the consultant in the face as Alfred said, "Our last case was solved because the victim kept a diary."

"A diary?" Tino contemplated, "I don't think so."

"Getting back to Lili Zwingli." Arthur said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, "How was her marriage do you think? Happy? Unhappy?"

"About six months ago, Dr. Lukasiewicz asked my advice. Lili had asked him to get her a year's supply of birth control pills off the books, which is strictly against AMA code. I said sure, do it. I mean, better us than some Tijuana drugstore." as if that answered the question.

Kirkland hoped he didn't look as interested as he felt, "Why the secrecy?"

Tino just smirked as he said, "Vash Zwingli had a vasectomy. April of '02."

Jones chuckled and Arthur resisted the urge to smack him across the face.

"If there's anything else I can do…" Tino let the sentence drop.

Kirkland gave a strained smile, "We appreciate that."

"Actually, there is." said Alfred, "I'm out of sleeping pills. Can you fix me up? Anything strong will do."

"Sure." Tino replied, "Come in for a consultation. We'll squeeze you in this afternoon."

"Oh. No. I was hoping to get something now. Trying to avoid the chit chat." Alfred said.

"I'm sorry." said the doctor, "I wouldn't be comfortable prescribing without some sort of chit chat."

"I understand. No problem. I'll call you, maybe." said Alfred.