Chapter 4
In which the killer is revealed and restrained in the wake of adultery.
No one found Ludwig's body for another ten minutes or so, and that was when Feliciano had decided it was a good time to call everyone back to the main car for dinner. It was well past nine o'clock at that point, and Feliciano himself was getting pretty hungry, and was sure that everyone else was too but was just not able to tell because of all the excitement of the day.
He and Gilbert agreed that serving dinner would calm everyone's nerves, and so Feliciano assigned the albino man to tell everyone about the meal that Feliciano would be preparing while Feliciano went to go and make it. On his way to the dining car, which was just ahead of the main car, he saw something sticking out between seats. He walked over to it cautiously, then screamed.
It was Ludwig.
At the sound of his shriek, everyone came running (except for old Mr. Vargas, of course, who was driving the train) and found Feliciano sitting by Ludwig's feet, crying to himself with his knees pulled up to hsi chest. "Dio, dio, dio, dio..."
"Feliciano? What is it?" asked Elisabeta urgently.
"L-L-L-Ludwig!" he cried, pointing at the body of his friend, which appeared to have been dragged and flipped over behind some seats.
"Ludwig?" Gilbert came closer, then stared down at his brother's body. "H-Hey...West? Wake up. C'mon, West...wake up!" he growled. "Wake up! Wake up! Please..."
Francis shot a sympathetic look at Gilbert before kneeling down next to Ludwig's body. His eyes narrowed upon something sticking out of the man's back pocket, which he pulled away and concealed in his jacket while no one was looking.
"Bloody hell," whispered Arthur, who had hobbled in from the main car. "That poor man."
Gilbert was not handling his brother's untimely demise very well. "Dammit, West! Get off the ground, you useless little...! Come on!"
"Gilbert," Elisabeta said calmly, "why don't we just calm down and try to-"
"Fuck that!" Gilbert screamed at her. "He's my brother, dammit! My stupid, awesome, pain in the ass little brother! Fuck!" Tears started to fall from his eyes. "Fuck, West, just wake up..."
Elisabeta put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Come on. Let's get you somewhere else. Francis and the others will take good care of Ludwig, I promise." When he didn't move, she took his hand softly and led him to the sleeping car.
"You just need to get some rest," she said soothingly, sitting him down on the first bed she finds. "There, there. It's all going to be all right."
"My brother just got killed. How is everything going to be all right?" He looked up at her, his eyes redder than normal from crying.
"I know it hurts now, but everything will right itself eventually. I've been through this too." She sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "So don't worry."
He gazed down at her comforting green eyes. "How can I not worry? Not only is there a killer on the loose, I have to deal with my stupid family." He sniffed. "I never even liked Ludwig, you know? Our mom died when he was born, and I hated him for it. He was always trying to prove himself to me, and he got better than me at everything, and I hated him for that too. But I still…"
"Shh. He doesn't blame you for anything. I'm sure he loved you."
"I was supposed to protect him! He's stronger than me, and all that, but he doesn't, didn't, know about the world outside our town. I was supposed to teach him and help him survive. And now he's dead. Great job I did of that, huh?"
"No one blames you, Gilbert. I don't, Francis doesn't, and I'm sure wherever he is, Ludwig doesn't either."
"But how can you know that?"
"I just do. Like I said, I've been through this too. No one blames you."
He stared at her for a few seconds, then leaned over and kissed her.
Elisabeta couldn't say she was surprised. She had seen this coming since she'd taken him to comfort him. And she couldn't say she was surprised about what happened next, either.
Just as he was about to pull away and apologize, she kissed him back, putting her arms around him. Gilbert, while slightly surprised, went with it, pulling her closer and tangling his fingers in her long, chestnut hair. She opened her mouth for him and he pushed her back down onto the bed.
Bugger Roderich. This man, right now, he needed her. Just like all the others had.
While Elisabeta was helping Gilbert, Francis was trying to help the last few living passengers. He paced back and forth in the dining car while he waited for water to boil. Feliciano had gone into shock from seeing Ludwig's body, and Francis had volunteered to cook. It helped him think. It wasn't Vash or Lovino, because Elisabeta and I were with them at the time of the murder. That leaves Feliciano, Gilbert, Arthur, and the conductor. But it couldn't have been Feliciano or Gilbert, judging by their reactions, and the conductor was driving the train. So it was obviously Arthur. Ha, I knew it all along! But how can I prove it?
He sighed irritably. He needed proof. He sat down on the counter and rubbed at his face, which still smelled slightly of blood from when he had taken the…whatever-it-was from Ludwig's pocket. Oh, of course!
He pulled out the small rectangle of stiff paper. It was a photograph. Of course! And there was a Chinese girl, who must have been Mei, and a baby with eyebrows just like…
Ah-ha. Now he had proof.
Still, rushing in to confront Arthur wouldn't work. They had all seen how that had gone for Ludwig. No, he must do it where others were likely to hear him and come to his aid, but not in front of everyone else because they could steal his thunder. Francis hated that.
Elisabeta often scolded him for letting pride come before safety, but he would be safe. He would declare Arthur the murderer right in front of the sleeping compartment where Elisabeta would be "comforting" Gilbert right then. Silly girl. She was far too predictable.
Still, he did want to save her dignity a bit, so he'd have to do it while she might still be partially dressed. It would have to be now. "Lovino!" he barked. "Get in here! I need you to take care of dinner. I have something to do." He waited impatiently for the previously incarcerated Italian to arrive.
"What?"
"Take care of the pasta. I have something important to do." He rushed off before Lovino could object.
When he burst into the main car where Vash was brooding, Feliciano was wrapped in a fluffy blanket and sobbing quietly, and Arthur was doing a crossword, no one seemed to notice him. He walked confidently up to the Englishman and tapped him on the shoulder. "A word, please?"
Arthur grumbled quite a bit as he struggled with his cane-obviously an act, perhaps the weapon? Francis thought to himself-but he finally managed to follow Francis to where he wanted to go.
"What is it you want with me?" Arthur asked, leaning against the wall.
"I want to know how you killed Yao Wang, Alfred Jones, Lilli Zwingli, and Ludwig Beilschmidt, and why." Francis smiled serenely. Arthur did not mirror the expression.
"You've found me out?"
"It was this. I found it on Ludwig's person." He showed the photograph of Mei and her baby. "But why kill over it?"
"You might as well know. Very well. About fifteen years ago, I was in China, doing business. With Mr. Wang, in fact." Francis nodded. "I was wealthy at the time, though I am much wealthier now. Mr. Wang and I were actually good friends, although I sold him opium which he claimed was poisoning China, though he was the distributor."
"Continue."
"He took me to his home for dinner one night. It was there that I met his sister. Her name was Mei, and she was beautiful." His eyes glazed over with wistful nostalgia. "Barely eighteen at the time, but I was taken with her, and her with me. She was soon pregnant, and Yao demanded we marry. I held off the wedding until after the baby was born, but I was called over to England by my father before we could marry. I left her with the baby, who I had named Lee, just after that photo was taken. When I returned to England, my father told me I was to be married. And I was, within the month, before I could tell my father of the bastard I had fathered in China.
"I loved my wife, truly, but I still could not forget Mei. Especially after my wife grew pregnant. We named him Peter. Just after he was born, though, I received mail from Yao, with the photo in your hands reminding me of the child back in China. It was telling me to come back and marry his sister. I wrote back saying I was married and that the child was simply a bastard and Mei would never marry me. I thought that was the end.
"My wife died two years ago. My son still lives, and stands to inherit my estate. I am no simple trader, you see, my father was a lord before me, and I am now. My son will become one as well, unless it comes to light that I fathered a child before him. Lee may want to claim what he believes is rightfully his.
"I never dreamed I would see Yao or Mei or Lee again, but when Alfred and I boarded the train in Berlin and I saw Yao, I knew that he would try to force me to claim his nephew as my legal son. I had to kill him, to protect my family."
"So why Alfred and Lilli and Ludwig?" Francis asked softly.
"Alfred knew. He promised not to tell anyone, but I could tell his sense of justice was about to overpower him. I had to take care of him before he alerted any authorities. Lilli was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for Ludwig, well, you said you got that picture off of his corpse. He had found me out."
"And how did you kill them?" Francis asked.
Arthur grinned and stood up straight, holding his cane horizontally in front of him. With a jolt, Francis realized he did not require its assistance to walk. "Many conceal weapons in interesting places, Detective Bonnefois. Watch closely." He slowly unscrewed the end of his cane, and a spike slid out softly. "Useful, isn't it? And no one suspected I could be the killer because of it, either. After all, how could an old man with a cane kill a man?" Quick as a snake, he used his cane to press Francis against the wall. "Well, sometimes things are not as they appear to be." He smiled. "And now it is time for you to die."
"E-Elisabeta!" Francis shouted. Damn, she should have heard while Arthur was confessing! What was taking her so long? "Elisabeta!" he shouted louder.
"Oh, shut up, your little whore isn't going to hear you," Arthur said with a sneer. "Give it up, Frenchman."
"ELISABETA!"
"I said shut up!" Arthur jerked the cane up to Francis' throat, cutting off his air. "Any last words, frog?"
"Just a few," Francis choked. "Elisabeta, he called you a whore."
Arthur crinkled his huge eyebrows in confusion just as Elisabeta brought a large frying pan down onto his head, knocking him out cold. His fingers slipped off the cane, which slid down to the floor. Francis gasped and fell to his knees. "Thank you," he said hoarsely.
"How did you know I would hear?" she asked.
"I knew…you and Gilbert…"
She snorted. "Of course you did."
Francis smiled. "You know…this is the second time…you've come to me…with only your smallclothes on…"
She blushed. "Yes, but this time I'm saving you."
"Too…right…"
Gilbert appeared from the sleeping compartment behind Elisabeta. "What the hell?" He was buttoning his pants back up and Francis laughed. Elisabeta went even redder.
"We've caught a killer. I'm going to go put my clothes back on." She stalked around the albino and slammed the sleeping compartment door shut behind her. Francis laughed some more.
Approximately ten hours later, the train arrived in Paris, and Arthur was handed over to the authorities. Francis preened and told his heroic story of how he confronted the dangerous maniac all by himself, until Arthur added that he was saved by a woman. The French police got quite the laugh out of that, especially considering their already strained relationship with the detective.
Gilbert got on a train straight back to Germany as soon as they arrived, leaving Elisabeta with a kiss and a promise to finish what they had started. "You did finish! And I'm married, you know!" she told him when the conductor called for the all aboard.
"That didn't stop you before!" he replied with a laugh just as the train was pulling away. She didn't have the chance to retort in time.
The Vargas Express left soon after, deciding to take Vash and Lilli's body back to Switzerland with them. Yao, Alfred, and Ludwig were all buried in Paris.
Francis and Elisabeta stayed in the city in Francis' large apartment. Separate rooms, of course. She sent a telegram to her husband telling him of her adventure (leaving out the part with Gilbert and her service to him), and several days later, just after lunch in a café with Francis, she received a reply.
HOW EXCITING STOP SPEAKING OF MURDER I NEED YOUR HELP STOP I HAVE BEEN ACCUSED STOP I KNOW IT IS COMPLETE STUPIDITY TO THINK I WOULD DO SUCH A THING BUT THERE IS A PILE OF EVIDENCE AGAINST ME STOP YOU MUST BELIEVE I DID NOT KILL ANYONE STOP PLEASE BRING YOUR DETECTIVE FRIEND HERE TO HELP PROVE ME INNOCENT STOP ALL MY LOVE RODERICH STOP
Elisabeta showed the telegram to Francis. He smiled at her. "It seems we have a case!"
AN: This was originally two or three chapters longer with an epilogue! But chapter four and chapter five got melded together and the epilogue was less than a page long, as you can see, and it fit better here.
I'm probably going to call the sequel A Study in Roderich. Because "Roderich" and "Scarlet" sound sort of similar. (No they don't. I'm just crazy.) But I don't think the plots will be similar at all. It won't be like this one, where someone was killed on a train like in Murder on the Orient Express. It's just because they almost sound similar.
I'll post a note when that's up on this story. So until then, I hope you enjoyed!
