3 bar menu

The Christmas Truce Murder – Part 02

William hung his head and dropped his voice lower. “We were ambushed several times by the enemy, and our unit quickly dwindled to two-thirds of its original size. I saw the arms of young men I befriended on the ship get torn off and blown away. I saw the head of a person I was just talking to explode like a balloon right in front of me. While hiding in the trenches, I listened to the groans of fallen comrades outside growing fainter and fainter until they finally fell silent forever. I will never forget that silence.”

“There was nothing we could do. We were at war. But the enemy terrified us like demons from a nightmare. The season shifted from cool autumn to freezing winter. And then…”

William suddenly stopped speaking. He tilted his head, listening closely. Victorique looked up, her eyes widening.

Loud footsteps echoed from the first floor of the Carousel. Someone was climbing the spiral staircase. Kazuya exchanged glances with Victorique.

A gnarled hand gripped the railing, then the tanned face of a young man appeared. It was Mitch, the Southern man they had met at the NYPD.

Mitch looked around restlessly. He saw Victorique, then Kazuya.

“Oh, thank goodness!” he said cheerfully. “When I went to the address you gave me, your sister told me you were here. I wanted to thank you. Also, I have tickets for tonight’s match if you’d like…”

He gave a start the moment he noticed William Trayton. “William Trayton!” he bellowed, shaking all over. “You traitorous Pilgrim Father! What the hell are you doing here?!”

He lunged at William, and William snapped back in return.

“You’re wrong. I didn’t kill Luke! How many times do I have to tell you that?!”

“You cowardly murderer! Killer!”

“Luke was my friend. I would never do such a thing!”

“Oh yeah? Maybe you were just jealous because he was much cooler!”

“Who the fuck kills someone out of jealousy? Stop talking nonsense, you hick!”

“What did you say? You stuck-up…”

Mitch started mocking him. “I’m a proud descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers!’”

“You little shit.” William shook with anger, turning red.

Mitch pressed on, “Eddie said he saw it. He saw you kill Luke with his own eyes… he thinks!”

“Th-Thinks? Are you kidding me? You’re not sure about a grave accusation? Get your story straight!”

“But Eddie said…”

“I know. Eddie is lying because he’s the real killer!”

“Mind your words, you bastard!”

Mitch tried to punch William, but Kazuya quickly jumped in between to stop him. With both their fists pressing on his cheeks, he mumbled, “Um… Stop. Hey, Victorique, maybe we should… hear both sides. It sounds… like a complicated case.”

Victorique, fiddling with her pipe, pulled her eyes away from the red-faced men grappling with each other. “Knock yourself out,” she said wearily.

Mitch finally calmed down and said, “Wait a minute. What’s William even doing here? This young lady is a detective? He came to look into the truth? Huh? Truth about what?” He cocked his head in confusion.

William rubbed his neck where Mitch had grabbed him and coughed.

“Ah, that’s right.” Mitch clapped his hands in realization. “Eddie was talking about the young lady too, and he was so animated. He mentioned a small young lady in the neighboring cell.”

William coughed. “A cell?” he asked dubiously, but no one answered.

“He said her way of speaking was similar to the late lady of the house that he used to work for, old-fashioned and dignified. It brought back memories that he ended up chatting with her for a while. He said, ‘Mitchie, that young lady was so kind to talk to someone like me. She’s a gentle soul. That young lady is the quirkiest person of this generation, but she’s incredibly smart. So smart, in fact, that she’s troubled by her own intelligence. Have you ever seen someone so unfortunate yet so lovely?’ He tried his best to describe how peculiar you are.”

“Hmm?” Victorique frowned slightly.

Doubtful, William said, “Is she really that smart?”

Mitch nodded, whispering, “So smart that it troubles her. She’s an adult, but cried in the cell like a child! She’s really odd!”

“What exactly is this cell you keep mentioning?”

Kazuya turned to Victorique. “Is that true, Victorique?”

Victorique turned red up to her ears. “I did not cry!” she snarled. “And that’s not relevant at the moment. Just continue your account. You two blockheads and, um, Kujou!”

“What did I do?”

“Hey, William. Where did you leave off again? You moron.”

“We crossed to the Old World on a warship, lost two-thirds of our unit, and reached winter. You Southern dolt.”

William looked down. Mitch’s expression also turned grim.

“In short, right before the Christmas Truce.”

“I see.”

“Hurry up and talk about the Christmas Truce,” Victorique urged. “If you don’t start talking soon, the boxing match will start.”

The two nodded, adopting grave looks. Kazuya also straightened up.

“When winter came,” William began, “the situation grew even more tense. We were camped at the foot of a bridge near the German border.”

“It was really tough,” Mitch said.

“It was,” William agreed. “As you can imagine, the bridge was crucial to the war. Troops needed to cross it, supplies had to be transported, and refugees pulling carts made their way across. It was strategically vital. On the other side were German and British allied forces, and we’d been staring each other down for days. We were already low on numbers then and had already requested reinforcements before starting any combat. They might have been doing the same. It was a tense, silent standoff, and as night fell, it started to snow.”

Mitch exclaimed, “It was Christmas Eve!”

“Hey, don’t steal the important parts! Yes, it was Christmas Eve. Though on the battlefield, that hardly mattered.”

William folded his arms, and Mitch shook his head. They both fell silent.

The wind stirred the palm leaves with a chill reminiscent of a long-forgotten Christmas Eve. Kazuya narrowed his eyes for a moment.

“The sun set and the snow began to fall,” William continued softly. “It looked like it would pile up by morning. Suddenly, Luke turned on the radio. He was always a cheerful guy, probably couldn’t stand the tense atmosphere. That’s just how he was, right, Mitch? Music started playing in the night air, and the captain shouted, ‘Luke Jackson! What are you doing?!'”

“From the radio came the aria of the New World’s greatest opera singer, Madam Wheafley. Her voice was beautiful! Right, William? Or was it because we heard it on the battlefield?”

William nodded wistfully. “The first song was ‘When the Cranberries Bloom.’ When the cranberries bloom, I’ll go home. I’ll go home. Because you are waiting for me. It hit us hard. Some even cried, thinking of their families.”

“That was you, William.”

“Ugh. Well, yes.”

“And Eddie cried too.”

“He did. Then came the hymn ‘Silent Night.’ Everyone grew somber. Even the captain forgot that he was yelling at Luke and just listened.”

“And then we heard the Germans and Brits singing along across the bridge.”

“Yes, unbelievable as it was.”

“But it really happened. Silent night, holy night.”

“All is calm.”

“All is bright.”

“Round yon virgin.”

“Mother and child.”

After finishing the song, they held each other’s gaze in silence. Victorique listened quietly with her pipe in hand. Kazuya, too, was fully engrossed in the story.

Finally, William spoke, “By the time the song ended, I realized that the enemy, whom I had feared like they were demons, were just ordinary young men too. I sat there, lost in thought, when Luke stood up.”

Recalling what happened, Mitch said wearily, “Despite the captain’s orders and our worries, he cheerfully started crossing the bridge.”

“And then, turns out there was someone just like Luke on the enemy’s side. He came over too.”

“They knew each other. They were stunned at first, then started shaking hands and hugging in the middle of the bridge.”

“Remember how I said Luke was a student boxing champion? Well, the other guy, Dragline, was a German student champion. They had faced each other before the war. And apparently, this German guy was stronger than our NYU star, Luke.”

“Well, anyway. We, and the young guys on the other side, followed along, setting down our weapons and stepping onto the bridge. It was Christmas, after all. We shared cigarettes, joked around. We gathered around Luke’s radio and sang along to Madam Wheafley’s beautiful voice.”

“On the other side of the bridge, there were these beautiful white winter flowers blooming on the ground. While I was admiring them, a German soldier about my age placed one in my chest pocket. He told me he was an art student, planning to study in Paris once the war was over. I shared my dreams of a transport business in the New World. We talked, sang. It felt like a dream.”

“And then Luke and Dragline started giving us boxing lessons. You and Eddie were having the time of your lives.”

“That we did.” William laughed heartily. “An impromptu boxing lesson was held in the middle of the bridge. Both Luke and Dragline spoke highly of Eddie and me, saying we had potential and should take it seriously. They taught us techniques like jabs and hooks. We even started sparring. It was a fun night. For a moment, it felt like the war was over. A peaceful dream.”

“That’s right!”

“I remember there was a young British priest-in-training. He held a mass, and we all sang hymns together, and then…” William bit his lip hard. “He prayed for those who had died in the war—comrades, enemy soldiers, civilians, and then…”

“Don’t cry, William.”

“He prayed for those who would lose their lives in the coming battles, for us, for our comrades, for enemy soldiers, and for civilians.”

“And as the night wore on…”

“The dream finally ended.”

“Indeed.”

“The peaceful dream came to an end.”

“Our reinforcements arrived,” William explained. “If they’d found out we were playing like kids in the middle of the bridge, even on Christmas, we’d have faced serious consequences.”

“Worse, we had befriended the enemy soldiers. We sang, boxed, shared our stories.”

“And we prayed for the enemy too. We were terrible soldiers. Weak men.”

“Indeed. We were in the middle of a war.”

William and Mitch exchanged sad looks.