The Canadian Connection

Ch. 11 Apartments and Bars

Recap.

"This blows. Why the hell did bruder have to go play with his god damn boy toy and leave the apartment locked like that? Dick." Gilbert muttered as his red eyed swam to the broken window he had used to enter the apartment. In his defence, Ludwig had taken the key he always hid underneath the doormat which was totally not awesome. Sure Gilbert may not live in the apartment anymore after being kicked out but still, it was just rude to hide the key.

With a sigh Gilbert heaved himself off the couch and wandered into the kitchen to see if there was any microwaveable popcorn left since it was fast to prepare, filling and fast to make for the awesome Prussian on the go. Digging through various cupboards whose contents had been mostly emptied earlier yielded nothing and with a growl of annoyance and hunger Gilbert knocked several containers on the ground, one of them falling open and several bills falling from within.

"Score!" Gilbert enthusiastically declared as he scooped up the money and stuffed it into his pocket. "I'm gonna get so wasted tonight. It's going to be awesome." Gilbert crowed as he vaulted out of the window which was fortunately on the first floor of the building. "Beeeeeeer!" He bellowed as he ran down the street.

All was silent in Ludwig's apartment. The residence revelled in the quiet, the lack of noise reminiscent of the time in which a battlefield remained empty following the combat leaving only the devastation before the survivors returned to rebuild.

This silence was shattered as the doorknob jiggled for a moment. There was a pause followed by a scratching sound and a click. The door knob turned at last with the lock picked and the door eased open slowly until it was fully open revealing a bespectacled green uniformed man with blonde hair and a tall beige coat wearing figure with a childish smile.

"Th-this is the place Mister I-Ivan." Eduard nervously told his boss as he cautiously led the way into the apartment with Ivan following closely after. However, as soon as the Russian saw the room he lost his smile and glowered at the destroyed apartment darkly.

"Eduard, it would appear we are too late to interview the late Mister Beilschmidt." Ivan coldly stated as he looked around the destroyed room.

"Good lord." Eduard gasped as he noticed the dried red splashes on the walls. "What happened here?" Eduard asked in awestruck horror at the obvious signs of struggle in the apartment and the blood on the walls. Ivan tsked at the Estonian lightly as he took a step into the apartment and flipped a book on the floor to the side with the toe of his boot.

"Really now Eduard I thought it obvious." Ivan admonished the blonde lightly.

"I-it is?" Eduard asked as he squatted before a smashed coffee table and brushed some of the wooden splinters off of the carpet. Ivan chuckled and Eduard paused to cringe but no blows came.

"Of course Eduard. It would appear that this 'Matthew' and 'Yong-soo' are truly ruthless and cut throat. They must have located Ludwig the first day they were here and came to the apartment. They confronted him for the key but when Ludwig did not give it to them they killed him so that he could not tell anyone about them or hand over the key. After which they disposed of the body to ensure that there would be no evidence left from his corpse." Ivan explained as he examined the red stains on the walls.

"B-but how could they know? It took us three days after arriving here to actually find this place. H-how did they accomplish that s-so quickly?" Eduard stuttered noting that the blood stains on the walls were dry.

"It would be child's play for agents of their calibre to accomplish a feat like this Eduard. Remember that they have hidden their identities all their lives. Search the apartment, perhaps they made an error and left a clue somewhere." Ivan ordered Eduard, putting action to words as he flipped over a destroyed kitchen table.