Mystery of the Guillotine Killer (FrUK)

Chapter six

I watched closely, but no one came, so I decided to trek toward the alley. I started to slow my breath quietly as I held my hand on my gun on my side and walked slower. Taking a deep breath, I turned the corner, holding my gun up. "Hold it! Don't shoot!" The voice said. I looked closer to him, seeing it was none other than Francis. "What on earth?" I asked, confused. I placed my gun down and looked at him curiously. I took a step back from him as he smiled at me. "What are you doing here?"

If it was him here, does that mean he is the killer? But that does not make any sense. "Why does it matter?" He asked, confused. "I need to search you; put your hands up," I said strictly. He looked at me nervously as he slowly held his hands up. I started to feel up his legs and torso, soon feeling to his back. There was nothing....maybe he was just here at the wrong time. "Have you seen anyone by here?" I asked, and he shook his head. "No, I was here because my sister asked me to deliver this equipment from my shop to this address..."

He looked over to a bag and rushed over to look inside. "What shop do you own?" I asked, horrified. "Besides from my morgue, I have another shop, a butcher shop. I don't work there, my family owns it, but I deliver the equipment for my sister." He explained. I closed the bag that was filled with butcher knives and hooks. This felt so wrong, but so many new things are added to this story. "Where is this place?" I asked. "Oh, well, it says it is the butcher shop."

He looked at a piece of paper as confused as I was. The butcher shop that had a crime scene by it, there was to be another tonight, on this alleyway, or maybe on the other one? God, this sense of mapping was starting to confuse me. "Hey, are you hitting your head?" Francis asked. I took a deep breath out and looked at him with a sarcastic smile. "There was to be a murder here by this shop tonight, I assumed it would take place here, but it is just you," I said, looking around.

He was carrying the knives to this shop for delivery. "Tell me, why did the shop need the equipment?" I asked. "Well, a lot of the butchery shops here in Paris have been getting robbed, so my sister has been letting other shops rent the knives we had until their new knives came in," he explained, and my eyes widened. The killer was robbing the shops where he would commit a crime by. But why would they do that? Is it clues? Does the killer want to be caught? "I am just trying to think about something; I feel like I am so close to finding out who the killer is," I spoke.

Francis nodded in realization. "Oh, I forgot that was a thing," he laughed. "How many times have the shops been robbed?" I asked. He lifted the bag on his shoulder and looked at me seriously. "Oh, well, at least three times," he said. His sister knew the situation at hand; why on earth would she send him to deliver more knives when they keep getting stolen? His sister is the last person I think to be a mastermind behind an entire series of murders here in Paris, some of the most gruesome.

I suddenly heard a noise that made me grab Francis and pull him to a hiding spot behind a garbage can. "Wow, Arthur, if you wanted to make a move on me, you could have at least given me a heads up," he laughed. I was above him as he sat down on the floor beneath me. "Now is not the time for flirting, Francis; I think the killer is near," I said, looking him in his eyes. He looked back at me with a nervous smile before nodding. "If you say so-."

I covered his mouth with my hand as I watched two people wearing cloaks stop at the side of the building. They looked at the bag we left confused, picking it up. "Mhm mhm.." Francis tried to say. "Sorry, what was that?" I whispered. I looked at him but still kept my eyes on those two people. "You....are too much," he said, laughing in a whisper. I looked at him, confused, as he pointed downwards. He was in a position where he was sitting on the floor, and I had unknowingly had my legs spread around his waist.

I felt embarrassed about the situation, so I stood up slowly. "Too bad..." he said sadly. I ignored him and watched those people enter the building with the bag. Once they came back out, one of them held onto a butcher knife tightly. I continued to cover Francis's mouth, so he didn't give away our cover. Those two....there is more than one killer? That would make sense, I suppose, but Lucile only mentioned one person. Was she perhaps hallucinating the whole time and got her story mixed up? That would be the second time, though.

The second person stood to the side and watched as the first person waited patiently. They were waiting for another victim. "I am going to take out my gun, do not freak out," I closed the gap between my lips and Francis's ear, whispering to him. Feeling the shivers go down his body as I separated slowly. He nodded at me, and I reached for my gun slowly. An innocent woman walking by was grabbed and pulled into an alleyway. "Let me go!" She cried, and I stood up quickly. "Police!!! Do not move!!" I yelled. The two people looked at me, holding the woman by the neck.

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