A/N: Hey, everyone! It's been a relatively tame week this time round. I've been lounging at home now that I no longer have a reason to go outside. I can't believe it's only the 8th! It feels like so much more time has passed since I finished my exams, but it was only about two and a half weeks ago that I finished school forever. I mean, I have university, but my high school days have come to a close! I'm actually surprisingly relieved, and I've gotten some closure because my friend and I returned today to hand in books we didn't want to accidentally steal. It was the last day for everyone else today, so the school year has ended, meaning we're officially no longer attending that school. It's all done, but I'm glad to be moving on to the next stage of my life! My exam results arrive on the 18th of August, and I'll be able to see where life takes me from there. I'm looking forwards to it!
Oh, also, it was pointed out to me that on the previous chapter I wrote 'Thanks for your patience with Gakutalia' or something along the lines. As much as I love Gakutalia and appreciate everyone's patience for that Fic, I really need to move on! My phrases have become so generic in the closing A/N that, after 40 or so chapters of Gakutalia, I've become attuned to writing the same phrase. I may edit it out, or I may leave it just for the amusement of future readers. We'll see.
Without further ado, enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter 7
The drive back was a long, silent hour. Yao had decided he didn't want the music on, and after the malicious tone Edelstein had used to force his exit, neither Mei nor Yong Soo complained, both aware it hadn't gone completely to plan. The yellow folder Yao had been given laid in Mei's lap throughout the car journey, but she didn't dare open it. It had suddenly become dark, as it always did at six thirty onwards, their visit to Edelstein's stately manor having been a brief half hour until the bitter end. He yawned. The sudden increase in work was making him exhausted, and now he had to worry if he would still be getting the seven fifty after having offended the client so casually.
He came to stop outside the Honda ramen bar and locked the car once the three of them were out. He wandered into the bar and instantly spotted Lien sitting on one of the stools, eating a bowl of hot ramen. He slumped down in the seat beside her and ordered his own bowl of the usual pork ramen. Yong Soo dropped down in the seat beside him to dutifully order his one of everything ramen. Mei only went for a green tea, claiming she'd eat dinner later.
"How was work?" Kiku asked as he whipped up the two bowls of ramen ordered.
"Stressful," Yao groaned, putting his head in his hands, earning glances from both Lien and Kiku. "Edelstein now hates me, aru."
"Oh?" his friend didn't specifically ask the question – he was too polite like that – but Yao could see the curiosity in his eyes.
"I think I was closing in too hard on the possibility of Hédeváry being a suspect, aru," he muttered. "It's understandable he would get moody about that, but still... Didn't anyone else see the way she was acting today, aru?"
"She was a little quiet…" Yong Soo agreed.
"She was acting suspicious," Yao grunted. "She wasn't just quiet, but she was watching every move we made, aru."
"She still let you stay in the living room alone," Mei pointed out. "I don't think you could call that 'watching every move'."
"I'm not sure," he grumbled. "I spoke with Edelstein and he flared up about her whereabouts on Saturday night. He wasn't even with her the entire night, aru. Besides, whose side are you on? Have I never told you my favourite phrase that 'anyone can be a suspect'?"
She huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Maybe they acted as a duet?" Yong Soo suggested, grinning when a bowl of ramen was placed down before him.
"I don't know," Yao said. "Maybe. Is Lei back?"
Lien shook her head, focused on her food.
"But think about it, Aniki," Yong Soo leant over his bowl to peer at Yao closely. "The murders were muddled between rushed. What if it could actually be two people?"
"Maybe," Yao shrugged, and watched as Kiku placed a ramen bowl before him. "I found out that Niklas Edelstein wrote some of his own music. I believe that may have been what he was doing before he was murdered."
"Whoa, really?" Yong Soo's eyes widened. "And you're saying the killer- or killers- took the original work of Niklas Edelstein with them?"
"I'd imagine so, aru, considering it wasn't there," Yao said, and shot him a tired stare. "I think that may have been the motive, but don't quote me. Roderich also mentioned something about a pen his father owned. Did you find one on him?"
Once again, Lien shook her head, still busy eating her dinner.
"So, the killer was after Niklas Edelstein's music and they took his magical music writing pen?" Yong Soo guessed. "Sounds like something someone who likes music would do."
"Roderich did say the pen was a gift from the late Mrs Edelstein, and acted as Niklas' muse," Yao pondered. "So perhaps it did hold significance in his inspiration, aru. I honestly don't know why they'd want to take the pen, though…"
"It could be that they believed it had a lucky charm to it," Mei rolled her eyes. "Maybe they believed the pen would provide the same gift to them as it did to Niklas Edelstein, not knowing the pen had personal rather than general inspiration."
"Are you saying the killer wanted the pen for luck?" Yao asked.
"Maybe," Mei shrugged, and sipped her green tea. "Although, I'm not sure… It seems loose."
"We found a gun in Edelstein's living room," Yao said. "It was an ornamental one, but he'd taken it out of the case for a recent polish, or so he said, aru. I don't know; he could be lying, he could be telling the truth. We just need more evidence, aru. What we do have is the possibility of pinning down Niklas Edelstein's time of death."
This caught Lien's gaze. "Oh?"
"Niklas Edelstein had a sixtieth birthday party thrown by his son and daughter-in-law to be that lasted from midnight to three in the morningm aru," Yao laid out the scene. "Niklas left at around one thirty, according to Roderich, so must've been at the music theatre a little after that, depending on where this party was. He didn't say, and then we… fell out? Anyway, the janitor's body was present, and, according to Lien, he died after Niklas Edelstein, aru. Roderich said the janitor's shift lasted from ten to two in the morning. I would guess that, since he was in the backrooms underground, William James was finishing his shift, aru. That means his death probably occurred at just around two in the morning. Niklas Edelstein's happened before that, so occurred between one thirty and two."
"OK," Lien said, staring off into space with dark, troubles eyes as she considered this newfound information.
"I would guess Niklas Edelstein was killed closer to the one thirty mark, aru," Yao continued. "That would give the killer at most a half hour to perform that half-assed clean-up task of the murder scene, set up the piano trap, and then encounter William James, the late night shift janitor, aru. It was probably then that he was killed, at around just after two."
"So... maybe it wasn't two people..." Yong Soo dipped his head in frustration.
"That makes sense," Lien looked thoughtful, pushing her empty ramen bowl aside. "And it also confirms that, at Saturday morning, between one thirty to two in the morning, is the time we should look out for concerning people's alibis."
"Exactly, aru," Yao beamed.
"So, what leads have we got from your part of the search?" Lien asked.
"For starters, I'd like to speak with Elizabeta Hédeváry alone," Yao thought for a moment. "Which means we'll need to do some surveillance work to find out when she's home alone, aru. I'd also like to speak with Giuliano Zwingli about his whereabouts, since he was Niklas Edelstein's rival, and would be the cliché killer, if that's the case. Finally, it would be good to review Gilbert Beilschmidt's profile, track him down, and ask him some questions."
"Gilbert Beilschmidt?" Kiku asked.
"The other janitor," Yao said. "The morning shift guy."
"Our guilty janitor theory can be upheld?" Lien looked hopeful.
"Absolutely," Yao grinned. "It's also convenient that this same guy hasn't contacted Roderich Edelstein since him discovering Niklas Edelstein's body on Saturday morning, aru. After learning about William James' death, Roderich still hasn't heard from him. This could mean this Beilschmidt guy doesn't know, doesn't care or…"
"Did James and Edelstein the Elder in?" Yong Soo's eyes shone with a glimmer of hope.
"Precisely," Yao was pleased about how this was working out. "What about you, Lien? What did you find?"
"Well, as you asked, there wasn't a pen on the crime scene, not near Niklas's body, and not on his person, either," Lien rubbed her hands together and turned in her seat to look at him. "If this pen truly is of the value Roderich Edelstein made it sound like, and if Niklas Edelstein really was writing music on the night he died, then it should've been there. That confirms it's been taken and should be added to our items of consideration, alongside the gun and the now potential missing sheet music. His cause of death is in full certainty strangulation. There was skin underneath his fingernails, but that was only him trying to claw the piano wires away from his neck; he was too weak to properly fight back from his head wounds. If Niklas Edelstein survived the strangulation, then he would've bled to death anyway. The wounds on the back of his head would've killed him by the time it was seven. Whoever committed this crime had reasonable physical strength. Their weapon was probably strong, but it still takes a lot to subdue a fully grown adult male, regardless of his strength, as well as crack open a sturdy, reinforced piano lid."
"What kind of strength are we talking about?" Yao asked.
"Don't rule out Hédeváry," Lien said. "But I doubt someone like Mei would've been able to do quite so much damage to the back of the head."
"OK," Yao glanced at Mei, who suddenly looked indignant, and nodded in confirmation.
"There were no other external wounds to indicate a cause of death," Lien said. "His time of death certainly didn't differ much from William James'. I think the point of interest was from the photo Lei took. When I went to investigate Niklas Edelstein's body, it made me rethink things. He had nothing in his pockets. What kind of man doesn't have anything in his pockets? There was no phone, no money, no handkerchief. Someone's been through his pockets, and I'd assume that's because they wanted his pen or something else. After removing the jacket, I saw the mark on Edelstein's shirt."
"What is it?" Yao asked eagerly.
"A handprint," she replied.
"A handprint?" his hopes shot up. "As in, we have proper finger print evidence as to who may have killed Niklas Edelstein, aru?"
"No, it's definitely the markings of a glove, and it's patchy," she shook her head, much to his disappointment. "But I'd assume it's when their weapon got bloodied from hitting Edelstein over the back of the head. Since they needed to put their weapon down, I'd imagine they placed it methodically on the edge of something, to prevent a bloodied mark being left. However, they put their weapon down, and dragged a half conscious Edelstein to his eventual death at the hands of the piano chords. That's how this hand print got in place. The blood is more prominent for the person's right hand, though, indicating they're right handed."
"That rules down our search by most people," Yong Soo commented sarcastically.
"It's a start, aru," Yao snapped. "Be grateful that Lien has done all this stuff for us. I can't see you getting into forensic analysis with this kind of ingratitude, aru."
Yong Soo hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry, Aniki..."
"Anything more, Lien?" Yao asked, ignoring the sullen teenager.
"The bleach samples matched," she said. "That product was used to attempt to clean away Niklas Edelstein's blood. There should be a missing bottle in the trash."
"So, we may need to go the music theatre another time, aru?" Yao asked grimly, and she nodded in response, much to his dismay. "What else?"
"I had a look at the second crime scene," she said, unaffected by Yong Soo's arrogance. "The mop may have been used to clean the floors down there, but it wasn't used to bludgeon Niklas Edelstein to his untimely death. The blood had dried between then, making a half hour distance between the murders perfectly plausible. The victim, William Jones, died from multiple stab wounds from clippers that probably came from the underground floor, as they weren't used for Niklas Edelstein's murder. He died fairly quickly due to bleeding from those wounds. He was probably incapacitated from the pain of his wounds. He wasn't killed in there, as there wasn't a blood splatter to indicate that. He died elsewhere.
"The sample in the water was purely a mixture of some cleaning agent and William James' blood," she continued. "Niklas Edelstein's murder isn't technically connected to James', apart from the killer having a near certain chance of being the same person. From the way events seem to have planned out, William James wasn't supposed to die. He was merely at the wrong place at the wrong time. The killer had the purpose of killing Niklas Edelstein, and the janitor joined in for the ride, just because of his work hours. There was nothing intended against William James."
"Niklas Edelstein truly was targeted by a malicious force, then…" Yao mused. "Well, we've definitely made progress, aru. We just need to confirm William James' exact moment of death in order to trace the killer's movements. His death was rushed and sloppy, so probably happened in the moment, aru."
"Are we going back to the theatre?" Yong Soo asked excitedly.
"Should be," Yao said. "We also need confirmed data from Lei about the photos and footage, aru."
"And if we track down Gilbert Beilschmidt, we can potentially find our killer," Mei added, brightening and sitting up.
"I don't like jumping to conclusions but, yes, very possibly, aru," Yao said proudly. "How about we take a look at that folder and we'll start tracking him soon enough?"
Mei opened the folder and flipped through. She paused at 'B', until she found the very name 'Gilbert Beilschmidt'. Yao looked over her shoulder to see a young albino man, with a harsh expression of smug arrogance. His address and phone number were listed, as well as the year he began working at the music theatre. Folding the top corner of the page, Yao made an internal promise to find Gilbert Beilschmidt.
A/N: Thank you for reading Investigasians, and thank you for the patience! It's much appreciated! Have a good weekend, everyone, and until next time!