Part II: Vash—The Evidence

It's the wrong night for drinking. Normally he doesn't drink but the situation in front of him calls for something stronger than the five cups of coffee he's already had today. So he mixes dark liqueur into the caffeinated drink, creating something like a Black Russian or maybe an Irish Car Bomb since there's cream in his coffee.

Vash is sure he's the only detective left in the building but the blinds to his office are shut and his door closed. The only audible noise is the buzzing sound that comes from his desk lamp. The light shines down on stacks upon stacks of papers.

He shoves them away, leans back in his chair and drinks all of his Black Russian Car Bomb concoction in one go. It burns going down. A hiss escapes his throat but he lets go as soon as the drink settles in his stomach.

It doesn't quite help him like he wants it to. Eventually he will have to open his eyes and when he does, this case will still be staring him in the face like it has been for the past months. He's no closer to solving it than he is to actually getting proper rest. All of the evidence is there, it all points to one person: Gilbert Beilschmidt. Yet, something about it doesn't feel right. Maybe it's because a certain Hungarian is dead set on proving his innocence. Maybe Vash is letting personal relationships get in the way of his work.

He shakes his head at the thought. Such a thing has never happened to him. He is a damn good detective and he is because he never lets personal feelings hinder his decisions. Family or not, his job is clear and comes first in these situations.

Green eyes open slowly and Vash sits his empty cup on the only clearly spot of his wooden desk. He scoots forward and rests his elbows on top of papers and lets out a weary sigh.

He needs to go home and sleep.

Three swift knocks makes him sit up straight, face slipping into his normal irritated mask, looking for all the world like he's well-rested and focused.

"What?" Vash calls and waits as the door slowly opens to reveal the janitor, pushing a mop and bucket.

"Do you want me to come clean up in here, Detective or what?" the man asks.

Vash waves one hand dismissively and picks up a piece of paper, documenting evidence. "No, it's fine. Come back in an hour or so."

He hears the man snort and then chuckle, "Two hours, then?"

The Swiss man looks up glaringly at the janitor who casually resting on the mop handle. The man doesn't seem fazed at all. In fact he smiles at him.

"What? I've worked here long enough to know your one-hour really means two. You practically live here," he explains and wheels his mop bucket back into the hall, "I'll keep the snack room unlocked for you, Detective."

He leaves shortly after and Vash is, once again, left to stare at the evidence in the Beilschmidt case. It's this evidence that is both helping and hurting him. The paper in his hands categorizes everything they have to warrant Gilbert's arrest.

Along with everything that was at the crime scene, there is the albino's sudden disappearance that's being held to his charge. It irks Vash to no end at the possibility of this case escaping his jurisdiction. They've had people searching for Gilbert since his disappearance and it's becoming increasingly obvious that the man is not in the city anymore. This possibility means the case can go to the Feds and he is not willing to let it fall into the hands of federal agents. He as never left a case unsolved or had one transferred to a different detective and he damn sure were not about to let it happen now.

"I still don't see why Eliza is fighting so hard for you," Vash mumbles and looks at the mug shot of his prime suspect, then back to the evidence catalog.

It doesn't add up. As far as Vash knows, Gilbert didn't have any real criminal record with the exception of a DUI from years ago. Nothing indicates him being violent in the past. In fact, the man hardly has any records at all, much like a certain mysterious Spaniard.

Vash puts the catalog down and picks up the only picture of this 'Antonio' that he has. It baffles him that he can't find anything on this man, not even a last name yet. Why would Elizaveta want to find him? What would he know about Gilbert that could help with this case? So far, the only connection he's found is that they went to the same university then dropped off the map at the same time. Gilbert and Antonio's trail goes cold after that up until the German opened a bank account a couple years ago. There are still no documents about Antonio, no phone records, bills, identification, nothing. As far as Vash is concerned, this man could very well be dead.

Except he's not dead, this picture is proof that he is alive somewhere. The fact that Gilbert has been able to drop off the map for a second time, just like Antonio, lets Vash know it is vital to find the connection between these two.

Then there is the case itself. The victim is a young woman and prodigy. In a way, she reminds Vash of Elizaveta. Tall brunette graduated at the top of her class in high school and recently graduated from the university as valedictorian. She was going to be a lawyer. Her death was most certainly a shock to the community, even more so because of how gruesome it was. Vash still can't bring himself to look at that those photos from the crime scene. He's seen stabbings before but the majority of her wounds were unnecessary. No part of her body was spared, she had wounds everywhere, and the slash across her throat and the loss of blood is what ultimately killed her.

It was so methodical and the worse form of torture because he purposely missed stabbing vital organs until the end. Gilbert must have known the other wounds wouldn't be enough to kill her and the poor girl had no drugs in her system. She felt everything. It was the work of a psychotic monster.

Vash shivers and closes his eyes again. He needs to keep a clear head and think. As gruesome a crime it is, it doesn't fit Gilbert. Or, rather, the evidence and depicted killer doesn't fit the track record of their prime suspect.

This man who killed this girl is no stranger to the human body, yet Gilbert took up engineering in university. Furthermore, this man is too careful to have left something so critical behind. When the police arrived at the crime scene, there was no forced entry, no fingerprints or blood other than the victims. Not even other bodily fluid samples, which to me honest, Vash was expecting to find. The only thing linking Gilbert Beilschmidt to the crime scene is surveillance tape and a hair sample. That's it.

Vash swivels around in his chair to the left and picks up the remote to the TV that sits in the corner of his office that teeters on the edge of his desk. The black and white apartment surveillance video is already set to the point he needs it to be on.

Vash has seen this video maybe one hundred times now. The time at the bottom of the scene reads 6:45 pm; a man walks down the hall that the young woman lives on. The man in the video is wearing a hood and gloves; face down so the camera can't see him. It's almost too precise, Vash thinks, the way he avoids the camera. It's almost as if he's been in the apartment before but no surveillance videos show Gilbert's face. He stops at her door and pulls out a key or something similar then lets himself in. At first, Vash assumes it's the girl's boyfriend but her friends confirm that her boyfriend was visiting his parents in another state during this time.

Nothing interesting happens in the video for the next few hours except the girl's neighbor leaving his apartment. Shortly after, the woman gets home at 9:45 pm and the man doesn't leave her apartment until almost midnight. Vash pauses the video when the neighbor returns an hour later.

Naturally, they questioned the neighbor to see if he's seen anyone suspicious snooping around the apartment. The neighbor, a Turk who couldn't speak much English, claimed he'd only moved in the apartments a few months ago and didn't mingle much with people because of the language barrier. But they did talk once, he told Vash and she'd even invited him over when some of her friends came to visit. Other than that, the Turkish man said he didn't notice anything odd.

Vash did make a note that the man moved out shortly after the murder. When he found him, the man said he didn't feel safe there if such an innocent girl could get killed for no reason. Vash thinks its strange, the man was really tall and looked like he could hold his own in a situation like that. But, considering his new immigration status, he supposes it's a feasible excuse. It's not like he can really suspect the man anyway. The video clearly shows his whereabouts during the murder and his alibi checks out. He was at the university in the library.

He's not the man that entered the woman's apartment. According to the hair sample, that man is Gilbert Beilschmidt. Yet, she and Gilbert have had no contact up until this point. Even the girl's friends say they have never seen Gilbert before in their life. So why would he do it? Was he acting in a spur of the moment thing? No, it's far too calculated to be spur of the moment. The timing, having a key, the constant avoidance of any camera in the building, even the one's outside all point to a person who knows the area, who knows her. There is always the chance that there was something happening between them that the woman kept secret.

Sighing for what seems like the millionth time that day, Vash turns off the TV set. He rubs his tired eyes and pushes blond hair from his face. Maybe he's not thinking clearly. Alfred says he's thinking too much and that DNA doesn't lie. It doesn't but neither does common sense and Vash's common sense is screaming at him to look underneath the underneath. Something is not right here. Something is not right with this evidence and he is hellbent on finding out just what he's missing.


A/N: Alright! Part II is going to be from Vash P.O.V! I can tell you now that this part will be shorter than Part I. It's won't be sixteen chapters, maybe five, six at the most before we get to Part III. So, I know a lot of people have been wondering about the case, so here are the gruesome and juicy details. What do you think? Is Vash on to something? Can you find any clues that might give away what's really going on? Who killed this lady? What are your thoughts? Also, can anyone spot the phrase that I borrowed from another awesome anime? I'll give you hint, it's closer to the end of this chapter and the anime involves a certain blond boy! :D

-CeCe ^^