A/N: Welcome back, everyone, to Investigasians! It's been another quiet week, although my sister is returning from Norway today. She's been gone an entire month, so it'll be nice to see her again! Oh, I did get Pokémon Go recently, but unfortunately, I live in a quiet area. By that, I mean, there are no Pokéstops, and no Pokémon, so. I have a Squirtle, and I named him Squigs. That's, sadly, been the highlight of my week, and because of a lack of civilisation, it wasn't particularly long-lasting. Oh, well.

Also, Happy Birthday to Poland! I know he technically has two birthdays, but I'm aware this is one of them, so Happy Birthday. Shout out to the entire population of Poland.

On birthdays. It's mine next Wednesday, and I usually post an extra chapter for special events. My birthday is no different! However, I'm out on the actual day (27th), and I'm busy on the 25th and 26th, and I feel the 24th is a bit too early. If I have the time, I'll try and aim for posting on the 25th, but if not, expect the extra chapter on the 28th, plus the weekly chapter on the 29th. I'm finally going to be 18, in other words!

Also, I'd like to say thank you to totallyignorable, for helping me with language. They kindly pointed out that Chi'u is not actually a Korean name (as I intended), and that there was probably some confusion with the translation. Instead, the proper romanisation is 'Chiyu', and I will endeavour to change my previous errors. To all the readers who haven't previously read Scaretalia or Gakutalia: The First Term, you have the fortune to have not witnessed my awful French. Despite having studied it for 5-6 years, I still can't string out a full sentence. Therefore, thank you for pointing that out! I would hate to think I'm butchering someone's native tongue.

Without further ado: the next chapter of The Musical Massacre!

Chapter 9

The car smelt considerably better as Yao slid into the driver's seat, Mei quietly dipping into her spot in the passenger one. In the back of the car was a plastic bag containing the clothes he intended to wash, refusing to smell like garbage. Yong Soo hadn't been happy to have been left behind, but Yao respected Mrs Im's choice and firmly told him that Yong would just have to wait until tomorrow for the details. In the meantime, he and Mei were going to continue the investigation.

He started the engine and set off without Yong. There was a moment's silence, until Mei began to reach towards radio.

"Wait," he said, and her hand stilled as he turned out onto the main road.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You were going to tell her," Yao said, thinking back to Mrs Im's face and how Mei had fallen momentarily silent.

He watched her visibly stiffen in her chair, and thought filled her eyes.

"Don't lie to me – I know you were going to do it," he saw her purse her lips out of the corner of his eye. "If you told her someone had been murdered, Yong would never be allowed near me again. She'd think he'd be in danger."

She remained silent, but at least she didn't turn on the radio.

"It's out of respect to the client's personal life that we remain silent," Yao continued. "If you'd said something to her, I would've had to exclude you from this case."

"Yeah," she replied.

"Is that it?" Yao puffed out his cheeks. "Just a 'yeah'?"

"She just looked so desperate," Mei sighed. "I felt sorry for her."

"Will you still tell her?" he just needed to make sure.

"No," she replied. "Because you're right. Roderich Edelstein won't want everyone knowing about what happened. The client's privacy comes first."

He nodded, accepting her answer for what it was. He had worried Mei would tip over and admit everything they did to Mrs Im. It was bad enough her son came home late every night, and today he'd smelt of the dumpster. She was often highly strung about the smallest things they did. A murder investigation would be enough for her to conclude Yao needed to stay away from Yong. As stressful as he found the kid... Yao would notice his absence.

"Right, so we need to speak with Lei," Yao said, deeming it most sensible to change the subject. "He should be able to tell us what he saw on the footage."

"Lei is…?"

"You saw him in the café as well," Yao said. "The one who looks like a teen, but has actually been out of uni for a few years now."

"Right," she replied. "I'm not sure I remember him."

"Don't worry," Yao shrugged. "You'll recognise his face."

She nodded and turned on the radio, covering the quiet in a blanket of music. Yao endured a long drive of that and was relieved when he was finally able to park the Old Civic at the Honda ramen bar. The old, shabby building that constantly smelt of noodles was a home comfort for Yao.

He locked the car and, with Mei in tow, entered the ramen shop. As usual, Kiku was working hard to serve customers, hot bowls of ramen being served and placed down on the bar by the dozen, it seemed. He only briefly nodded towards them before putting his concentration to his work. Yao assumed he was too busy for light hearted banted, so moved past the bar and upstairs, Mei still following. Once out of the bar, there was a hushed silence as the general chatter of customers disappeared.

"It always smells so good here," Mei commented.

"I agree," Yao said. "I can't believe Mrs Im would doubt something she's never even tried before…"

"You never know," Mei shrugged. "She may have popped in and decided it wasn't her thing."

Yao gave her an incredulous look. "Both you and I know that that's not the case, having tasted the ramen here."

"OK, maybe," she replied. "But try not to be so hard on the woman? She's only trying to defend her son from something she's unaware about."

Yao sighed. "She hates me unnecessarily."

"No, she hates you because she thinks you're a bad influence on Yong," Mei explained patiently as they wandered down the corridor. "If you could only realise that she's only looking out for her son, then maybe things would be easier between you two…"

"She needs to realise I would lay my life down for that boy if anything came at him," Yao warned. "I'm not about to get sued for his idiocy. Why are you siding with her anyway? You only just met her."

"I feel sorry for her," Mei said. "I bet my mum wouldn't have been happy about me joining in with this stuff. My parents are extremely overprotective."

"Then I am glad they don't know me anymore, aru," Yao admitted. "Because I'm not about to fire you. You've proven to be a little too useful so far, especially when it comes to manipulating men."

"What?" she pulled a face.

"You work some kind of puppet magic on Officer Arsehole," Yao sniggered. "I quite like Yong's nickname of 'Harlot Mei'. I think I'll make it stick, aru."

"The only arsehole around here is you," she grumbled as he pushed open the door to Lei's abode.

The room was dark, but the TV screens shone blue and white and grey in the room. Lei sat at the computer, eyes fixed on the screens, dressed in his usual scrappy hoodie and jeans. He didn't move as the door opened to let Yao and Mei in. Yao was sure he hadn't moved in a full day.

"Lei," Yao said, and the young man raised his eyes to look at him. "You got anything from the footage?"

"Yeah, they let me have a copy of the pieces I needed most," he replied, beckoning him closer. "This is interesting, Yao. I think we have our killer."

"What?" Yao scuttled closer and leant in close to see what was so interesting.

"Just watch," Lei said as Mei's heels clicked on the floor across the room.

Yao stared at the screen, watching the video footage of the hallways flicker and waver. Suddenly, out of the corner of the camera, a figure shuffled into plain view. They had a long bag strapped to their back, but the clothes they wore were undeniably those of a janitor.

"Is that James?" Yao asked.

"That's what I wondered at first, but then…" Lei tapped the screen. "Check the timing."

Yao looked at the screen, which read 01:47. "What about it, aru?"

"Now watch this," Lei drew his attention to a different screen he had up of the strange corridor underneath the music theatre.

The time read 01:47. Whistling and walking around jovially was William James, perfectly alive.

"Niklas Edelstein has already been murdered, and the killer is disposing of the evidence," Lei tapped the screen once again. "I'll bet the murder weapon is sitting comfortably in that bag he has."

"Wow…" Yao frowned. "So, it really is Gilbert Beilschmidt?"

"You need to find him," Lei ordered. "He's the one we want."

"What about the photos from the second crime?" Yao asked.

"Nothing," Lei shrugged, flicking to them. "I scoured each image grain by grain, but this killing is so messy there's no hidden evidence at all."

"Don't worry about it, then," Yao said. "We'll find Beilschmidt, aru."

Lei nodded and turned to his laptop. Yao looked beside him, only to find Mei wasn't there. Rather than watch the footage, Mei had disappeared to the other side of the room, where she hovered over a desk, her body completely still.

"Mei?" he watched her animate suddenly, pulling herself back into reality, and turn towards him with an extremely wide smile.

"Hmm?"

"Are you OK?" he asked.

"Yeah, I was just wondering who drew this…?" she commented, holding up the picture of the Target.

"That?" he looked at the grisly mask, the face he hadn't deemed relevant enough to mention to Mei. "Kiku drew that."

"It's really cool," she set it back down. "He's a really good drawer."

"Yeah, he is, aru," Yao replied vacantly. "We need to make a call. Come with."

He left Lei to his own technological devices and led Mei to his office. He pushed open the door and threw himself down at his desk. Automatically, she sat across from him, her gaze level as she watched him lift the phone from its hook. From the top drawer, he pulled out the mustard coloured folder and dropped it onto the desk with a satisfactory flop. He opened it to Gilbert Beilschmidt's page and placed a finger to the paper. One by one, he punched a number into the phone, then held it up to his ear.

There was a moment's pause. Very soon, he could be on the phone to a man who had murdered two men in cold blood. Swallowing, he met Mei's gaze as the two of them sat in complete silence. There was a long wait, and then-

"The person you are calling is not available," the phone said. "Please try again later."

"Wow," Yao set the phone back on its hook. "It doesn't even go to voicemail…"

"What does that mean?" Mei asked.

"Either that the phone is turned off, we have no signal, or the phone no longer exists, aru," Yao said.

"Do we have signal?" she asked.

"Every house phone has signal," he scoffed. "So, yes, we do, aru."

"It's his phone, then," Mei frowned.

"I think we should call at a different time, maybe tomorrow morning?" Yao suggested. "If we still don't get anything at a completely different time, we'll have to assume his behaviour is suspicious."

"I feel like the janitor was the obvious option," Mei admitted.

"Sometimes the obvious is right," Yao shrugged. "Besides, Roderich himself said he'd had no contact from this Gilbert character since the body was found, aru. It wouldn't have been that hard to kill two men, leave it all in place, return home, wash up, sleep a little, then return to work and put on an act by the time seven o'clock arrived, aru."

"What was it your friend said…?" Mei pondered. "A motive. What could his motive be?"

"Enraged worker?" Yao said. "Roderich and Elizabeta both confirmed that Niklas wasn't the most personable of people. He made enemies with a lot of the staff. Gilbert Beilschmidt is probably the best bet we have to find our murderer."

Mei nodded with a tight frown. Yao questioned her reluctance to believe the janitor was involved. Perhaps her imagination had crafted something far more advanced? Perhaps the real world was beginning to appear as a disappointment to her? Yao couldn't be sure, but perhaps there was a part of Mei who had joined in the investigation for the thrill of a difficult chase. If that was the case, all he needed to do was tell her that the Target was not a fictional character, but a real human being, living out there, committing crimes. However, he kept his mouth shut. He wanted Mei focused on this case, and if he could keep her out of something as dangerous as the Target's world, then that was good enough for him. He didn't know why, but he felt minimal involvement should be made with anything that concerned the Target.

"We'll meet up again tomorrow, aru," he decided. "You can have the rest of the day off."

She looked a little relieved. He had thought she looked slightly worn down.

"Honestly, don't worry about Yong's mother," he said as she neared the door. "She's made of sterner stuff than you may think. That's why I do exactly what she requests, aru."

"OK," she sighed. "I won't worry about it."

Her eyes were dark as she closed the door behind her. Was something about the case upsetting Mei? Yao thought he should keep a close eye on his colleague, should there be something bothering her.

The following morning, Yao attempted to call Gilbert Beilschmidt once again. However, he received no answer. It was the same, vacant phone response. His suspicions rose beyond the roof. He checked the man's file once again, but found nothing strange or out of place on his records. It seemed his attack had been an on the spur bout of hatred that William James had lost his life to.

Roderich had already spoken to him about Gilbert Beilschmidt, but he knew someone else related to the music theatre who would've known the employees. It was time to speak to Giuliano Zwingli and see what he had to say about the rogue janitor.

Since he had neither Yong or Mei with him, it would be a solo mission today. Yao jumped into the Old Civic and set off moderately early. He hoped to catch Mr Zwingli before he left for important business or a concert of his own. It had been easy getting his address – one glance at the internet and a local review showed his fine looking house. Yao knew it would be harder to gain access to the Zwingli household, but it was worth a try. He needed to know as much about Gilbert Beilschmidt as he could, and even he knew his presence wouldn't be quite welcome at the Edelstein household.

He pulled the Old Civic to a halt before imposing gates. Rolling down the window, he reached out and pressed a buzzer, patiently waiting for it to bring him to someone.

"Hello?" a gentle female voice asked. "Who is this?"

"Um, this is Detective Wang, investigating the murder of Niklas Edelstein, aru," he explained. "Is Giuliano Zwingli currently inside?"

"Indeed he is," the voice said. "I shall just open the gates for you now."

Surprised at how easy access had proven to be, Yao watched as the gates robotically slid open. Rolling the car through, he glanced over his shoulder to see the gates close behind him. Pressing the car forward, he passed through a row of trees that stood sentinel like soldiers. The house was hidden behind them, a beautiful masterpiece of modern and old, bricks and stone painted pure white, with two short pillars holding a balcony over the entrance. Someone had opened the door to greet him.

Stepping out the car, Yao approached a girl standing shyly in the doorway. She was very small, even smaller than Mei, with a halo of short, golden blonde hair. Her green eyes were large and docile, and her overall appearance was angelic. She allowed him entrance, for which he thanked her, and closed the door once he was inside.

"My father is just this way," the girl explained, gesturing down a hallway.

"Thank you," Yao said, and followed her through the house.

Wherever Yao looked, he saw money. Even the girl was dressed in an expensive pink dress, a silky ribbon tied through her hair. Yao could assume her ribbon alone cost more than his entire lifestyle.

She stepped out the back door onto a cleanly swept patio where, in the distance, Yao could see the figure of Giuliano Zwingli holding a golf club, another person standing beside him.

"I won't be interrupting anything, will I?" he asked.

"He's only playing with my bruder," she said, then turned to call out across the grounds in a voice that still couldn't be considered loud. "Father?"

Giuliano paused mid-swing, lowered his club and turned to face the two of them standing on the patio. He flashed a white toothed smile and waved. The young man beside him did not. He wore a sallow expression, almost hostile, and held his golf club tightly in his hand. Yao was glad it was the daughter rather than the son who had answered the door.

"Detective Wang!" Giuliano approached and shook his hand. "What are the honours of seeing you here?"

"Actually, I'd like to ask if you know anything about the employees at the music theatre?" Yao asked.

"The employees? Have a seat," Giuliano gestured towards a table and chairs with an umbrella hanging over them. Although cold outside, Yao complied. "I'm just enjoying the last bits of golfing before the snow comes."

"Of course," Yao nodded.

"Employees, did you say?" Giuliano raised a hand to his chin in thought as his son sat beside him, and his daughter wandered back into the house. "If there's anyone to ask about employees, I'd say it was Edelstein the Younger…"

"Hmm, well, yes," Yao rubbed the back of his head. "I wanted to hear a variety of opinions, aru. Since you're very involved with the music theatre, I figured you might have an idea about his character."

"He's very annoying," Giuliano instantly muttered. "But he did a very efficient job. He left everything spotless. Much better than the night shift guy. Yes… If there's one thing about that janitor's personality, then it was that he was extremely loud and was always talking to people who came close enough to him. Even people who didn't come near him."

"What was his conversation about?" Yao asked.

Giuliano cast him an odd glance. "Hmm, well… Mainly himself. He was extremely narcissistic. He hated being talked down to."

"And what was his relationship with Niklas Edelstein?" Yao questioned, jotting everything Giuliano said into his little notebook.

"Oh, well, this is interesting," a smile curved onto Zwingli's lips. "Gilbert Beilschmidt disliked Niklas Edelstein, but the feeling was mutual. It was mainly caused by Edelstein's superiority complex. Those two were like oil and water. It's the same with Roderich…"

"Roderich dislikes Gilbert as well?" Yao thought he had hidden that impressively when he'd spoken to him.

"Well, as you can imagine, the Edelstein family kept more contact with their employees than I ever would," Giuliano graciously touched his chest whilst wearing the same, thoughtful smile. "Yes, Roderich dislikes him, as does that fiancée of his. He and Gilbert are two very different people, and their personalities have always clashed whenever they've spoken to one another. I'm surprised Edelstein the Younger never mentioned this to you?"

"His mind was elsewhere, aru," Yao lied.

"Perhaps it's Gilbert Beilschmidt who did Niklas in, then?" Giuliano mused. "I don't mean to sound like I'm enjoying this – I'm not. However, it would be good to see justice happen…"

"I agree," Yao's pen hovered over his notebook. "Is Gilbert Beilschmidt the type of person to start and finish a job, rather than collect several?"

"Hmm, let me think," Giuliano's brow furrowed. "It really depends on the situation. Gilbert Beilschmidt is an easily distracted soul, so if he's doing a task that hasn't caught his full enthusiasm, his attention will wander elsewhere. As for a task he does enjoy? I would say he would be able to take it to the end."

"Did he enjoy cleaning?" Yao lowered his pen to paper, ready to write.

"He loved cleaning," Giuliano answered and Yao scribbled that down.

"Would you say he was attentive?" Yao asked. "Is he the type of person to answer his phone?"

"He wasn't a paranoid, if that's what you mean," Giuliano replied. "I think he would answer his phone. He's a very fast paced person, so he tends to live in the moment and doesn't focus on what happens around him."

"Thank you," Yao snapped his book shut. "You've been a great help."

Giuliano stood and shook Yao's hand. "Anything for the Private Investigator. I wouldn't want to get in the way of your case, would I?"

Yao smiled just as Giuliano flashed him another white toothed grin. "Of course. I hope you enjoy the rest of your golfing session."

"I will, I will," Giuliano lifted his golf club from the table. "Basch, see Detective Wang to the door."

Without a word, the young man stood and walked towards the door. Yao hurriedly ran after him, lifting a hand to Giuliano as he did so. There was no sign of the daughter, but the son was already opening the door before Yao had a proper chance to look around.

"Bye," Zwingli's son muttered. "I'll have the gates opened for you."

"Thanks," Yao wasn't sure why he was receiving a curt tone, but could only assume the young man lacked his father's charisma – it was usually the case.

The conversation ended there, because Yao, with his newfound evidence and information, strode from the house. The door slammed shut behind him, and the gates were already opening by the time he reached the Old Civic. Yao drove away from the Zwingli household with a new purpose: find Gilbert Beilschmidt.

A/N: Who would've known that Gilbert, one of the most noticeable people ever, would be so difficult to find? As it happens, he is. I actually really liked writing this chapter! I think it may have something to do with the small steps of progress Yao's making... What do you guys think? Leave a review! I love to hear everyone's thoughts!

Until next time!