Chapter 5: We WILL Bring Him Home!

Two days after questioning Claus, Elise, and Ivan, and after looking at several related cases involving children being snatched from public places in broad daylight, Vash, Arthur, and Alfred were at the hospital. They stepped through the automatic doors and walked up to the receptionist's desk, where a woman looked like she was working. She was actually most likely playing Farmville on Facebook.

"Excuse me," Vash said to the woman. He heard her computer moo like a cow. Yup, she was on Farmville, alright. "Where can we find Ludwig Beilschmidt's room?"

"Are you family members?" the woman asked. Now the cluck of a chicken came from the computer, followed by the neigh of a horse.

"No, we're the police," said Alfred. He flashed his badge in the woman's face; Arthur and Vash did so as well.

The woman switched tabs on the open window and looked at another tab containing records. "He's in room 237, in the children's wing."

"Thanks," Arthur said. He and his colleagues took the elevator to the third floor. Once they got there, they started looking for room 237, when Vash spoke up.

"Hey, I'm getting hungry," Vash said. "Anyone else hungry?"

"Yes, Vash, I'm hungry, too, but we have a missing kid to find," Alfred said seriously. "Focus."

Arthur and Vash looked surprised; any other day, Alfred would get excited about food.

They were now at room 237. Vash, Arthur, and Alfred went up to the Beilschmidt family.

Claus and Elise looked up from their son and saw the detectives standing in the room.

"Oh, hi, detectives," said Elise. "Have you found our baby?"

"No, I'm sorry," said Arthur. "We haven't found him yet."

"Can we ask Lui a few questions?" Vash asked.

Claus looked at Ludwig, who was beside himself with grief. He hesitated as he looked back at the detectives. "Um…"

"No," said Elise. "Lui's been through enough. I'm not having you ask him anything! Got it?"

Ludwig sullenly looked up from the sheets on his bed to his parents and the detectives. He was very quiet when he spoke. "It's alright. I'll talk to you guys."

"Well…okay," Claus said, giving in to his son.

"No, they can't talk to him!" Elise said hysterically. Claus was so sure his wife was going to break down again at any given moment. "For crying out loud, he's having nightmares! I can't…I won't force Lui to relive—"

"Mom, I'll be okay," Ludwig tried reassuring his stepmother.

"No way in Hell," said Elise. "I won't force you to go through that again!"

"Ellie, let him talk to these guys," said Claus. "He might be able to—"

"No, Claus. Like I said before, Lui's been through enough. I can't, I just can't put him through what happened again!"

"I'll talk to you guys," Ludwig said.

"No!" Elise cried. "Lui, you don't have to do this!" She drew Ludwig into a hug, smothering him.

"Ma'am!" Arthur said. "I know you don't want to put your son through anymore trauma, but we might need his help if we're going to find Gilbert."

"Mom, I said I'll be fine," Ludwig said, his voice muffled due to being in Elise's arms. "Now can you let me go? I can't breathe!"

"Oh, sorry," said Elise. She let Ludwig go. "Okay. You can talk to them."

"Thank you," said Vash.

Alfred sat down by Ludwig's bed. "Hey, Lui. Mind if I call you LuLu?"

"Don't. Call. Me. LuLu!" Ludwig said through gritted teeth. "I hate that name! Viktor Krum from my school calls me that just to piss me off."

"Okay, okay," said Alfred. "Lui it is. Now, I need to ask you something."

"Go ahead," Ludwig replied. He held two 'I Miss You!' cards and one 'Get Well Soon' card in his hands and was looking at them. The 'I Miss You!' cards were made by his friend Feliciano and girlfriend Krysia, and the 'Get Well Soon' card was made by his other friend Kiku.

"The man who took Gilbert…" Alfred said. "Did you get a good look at him? What did he look like?"

Ludwig started shuddering at the mere memory of what had happened at the park, about the man who stole his baby brother. "He…he looked like some mob guy, I think. P-Probably R-Russian. He had some accent when he talked. And he kind of looked like Gilbo's real dad, except this guy was…he was cruel."

"Russian mob," said Alfred when he looked at Vash and Arthur. His face darkened. "Sounds like the same people who took my brother twelve years ago."

"What happened?" Arthur asked.

"We already told you what happened," said Elise. "When we were at the park, and you came and asked us! Why do you need to ask Lui what happened?"

"We need to get his version of events, too," said Vash.

Ludwig looked like he was going to cry. "I was just watching Gilbo on the sl-slide. The guy showed up, and I punched him in the gut…and used a bunch of karate moves on him." The tears started falling, and he dropped his cards. "I told Gilbo to run, and I started running, too. The guy tried to grab Gilbo, but got me instead! Then he b-beat me…that's when I passed out." He started crying more as he went on. "It's all my fault. I couldn't protect my own brother! I'm sorry."

Claus and Elise rushed over to their son and put their arms around him.

"It's okay," Claus said gently.

"Ssh, Lui, it's not your fault," said Elise.

Claus turned to the detective trio. "Maybe we should call it a day."

Alfred agreed. Then he put his hand on Ludwig's shoulder. "Thanks, Lui. You helped us a lot." He, Vash, and Arthur left the room.

Alfred, Vash, and Arthur walked out of the hospital, towards Vash's car.

"How did that description help?" Arthur asked. "There must be hundreds of guys who have some resemblance to Ivan, but they're most likely not part of the Russian mob."

"Iggy, the kid got a better look at the guy than his parents did," said Alfred.

"Yeah," said Vash.

"Oh," Arthur said.

"With Lui's help, we'll probably be able to find Gilbert sooner than we thought," said Alfred. "No, wait, scratch that. We will find the boy and bring him home. Even if it kills me!"

With that, the detectives got in Vash's car and drove back to the station. Little did they know they'd run into a potential lead.