The room became uncomfortably silent. Nicolo's face quickly turned towards Lucian from Ralph. "What?", Nicolo gasped.
Ralph smirked and looked towards Lucian too, expecting an explanation.
"Well. Obviously I'm joking. Even if I was 'The Ghost', why would I be admitting it?", Lucian giggled.
Nicolo was still confused.
"Oh yeah, a joke. I get it", Ralph said smiling, sitting on the sofa, beside Nicolo.
"So, Mr.Cole. Can you give me an explanation?", Ralph asked, leaning towards Lucian.
"I'm all ears. Ask me.", Lucian seemed chill.
"We saw the replicas you and your friends brought to the museum through the info we gathered. Why did only one of those replicas have the wooden button that is used to hide the trademarks?", Ralph asked with a curious look on his face, "I mean if you guys really did a personal competition as you told, how could any of you know about the hiding technique?"
"Well. You see, I went to that museum with Gary the previous day to see the paintings in person with the goal of observing them so I can make a better replica than my friends. Just as I was going through the 16th piece, I noticed this small detail under the painting and tried to do it. That's pretty much all.", Lucian answered in the most natural way someone can.
"Oh really? That sounds pretty believable! But how did you manage to create the same exact wooden mechanism inside the painting as well? Don't tell me you actually took the 16th piece and then opened it all to see it and then made a replica out of it.", Ralph smirked again.
"I-I didn't do any of that obviously!", Lucian stuttered while having a nervous smile on his face, "I just created the insides on my own and it just matched with the original somehow!"
"Right, right. A coincidence you say. Then how did you manage to make the wooden mechanism? It would be impossible to do so if you didn't analyze the insides beforehand. Let's just say that you are caught my guy!, Ralph raised his voice on the last line, as Nicolo stared at both Ralph and Lucian.
Lucian's face seemed more nervous than ever.
"What? G-Give me some time to say something!", Lucian said.
"Yeah sorry. Please go on explaining how you opened it then", Ralph made his face neutral.
"So-So when making the wooden button, I put the aluminium string into the iron bar and pushed it in the hole that matched the lock perfectly!", Lucian said rapidly and nervously.
"Wait", Nicolo finally spoke up, "Iron Bar and an aluminium string? Do you know that only the Eclipse museum has that type of wooden covered mechanism in the whole world? That's a patented lock!".
Ralph then turned towards Nicolo and said smiling, "Don't you see, Nicolo? He slipped up finally. People tend to slip up info they should be hiding while making up things on the spot. Seems like 'The Ghost' is not an exception either!"
Oh shit. I slipped up. The tech of the mechanism shouldn't be known by me to this specific point. I slipped up, I slipped up.
All of Lucian's internal thoughts were being read by Ralph at this point. His face sold every single emotion he was feeling at that moment.
The Ghost's legend finally became humanized reality, finally coming in front of investigators.
"I recorded everything you see, Lucian Cole!", Ralph laughed a little and then composed himself, "See this microphone? It has been sending audio signals to an actual recorder since we started talking. Interesting isn't it?", Ralph showed Lucian a microphone that was tucked in his collar all this time and then he finally stood up.
"Come on Nicolo. We should proceed then. No one has come this far, but see, we have. Take out those handcuffs and arrest this legend!", Ralph said, adjusting his glasses again, looking around the room.
"A-Ah yes sir!", Nicolo finally put his hands in his bags and took out the handcuffs.
"No, no, no!", Lucian suddenly became all furious and started screaming, "I can't get caught this quickly!".
Lucian started throwing things around him and screamed all over the place. The room was starting to become messy with all the things he was throwing around.
"Nicolo! Quickly handcuff him and stop all this!", Ralph said in a loud voice.
Nicolo couldn't even respond and quickly put his arms around Lucian and grabbed him tightly, stopping this mess. "You are under arrest Mr.Cole! You are now proven to be 'The Ghost'! There is no escape, please stop all this!", Nicolo quickly handcuffed Lucian and finally made him sit down again.
Damn, this Nicolo guy is really strong. I couldn't even move a little bit after he just barely grabbed me!
"Let's go Nicolo!", Ralph said just before saying, "Okay wait a minute. I kind of wanna talk with this guy. This is afterall 'The Ghost' we were talking about!", seeing Ralph sit down, Nicolo did too.
"Hmm. I really honor you, Mr.Cole! The way you managed to manage two personas at the same time while performing high stake heists, it's just something else.", Ralph said in an amazed, soft voice.
Lucian was looking down all this time, after getting handcuffed. He suddenly started to make his distorted face neutral, and even smiled very barely.
"Hey. Why are you smiling?", Ralph became super serious asking that question.
Lucian push his head upward and said with nervousness, "Me? No, why would I smile?".
Lucian continued, "I was just remembering all my good days. When I used to get away with heists, never getting caught. I never thought that I would mess up something this easily, Lucian sighed, "I guess it was luck all along, and now it has expired."
Ralph felt a little uneasy all of a sudden.
"This..is the 'Ghost' we are talking with here. I don't know why I didn't feel this before, but I've gotta be more careful. Talking about his heist stories all of a sudden huh? Seems like he has given up but his fate hasn't. There has to be something below the surface."
Lucian kept his eyes on the ceiling, just before his eyes suddenly went on his own shirt collar.
Wait, where is my microphone? No way, shit! How can I mess this up to this extent?
Lucian's face became distorted again and his scanning eyes rapidly went towards the floor where a microphone was laying.
Oh no, when I got out of my mind I started throwing things around and my, my mic got out of my collar as well. Truly, things can't get more unfair!
As Nicolo was staring at Lucian the whole time, he quickly noticed his eyes and positioned his own eyes at the point on the floor Lucian was looking at.
"Sir! That is a microphone! Seems like it flew out when Mr.Cole was throwing stuff around!", Nicolo said out loud.
"Right!", it seemed like Ralph's deductive eyes were already looking at the floor.
Lucian seemed devastated at this point.
"Tell us! What is this microphone for!", Nicolo grabbed Lucian tighter and asked him.
"Nicolo, can't you see it? This guy is not the actual Ghost", Ralph took the microphone from the floor to his hand. "It seems like, Mr.Cole is only a decoy who was set up to be the one we will investigate, this was indeed a long plan."
"What? Really?", Nicolo was shocked, and he slowly looked towards Lucian.
Lucian smiled again, this time it looked more devilish.
"You are sharp as hell, Ralph.", I guess I am caught now. But the info of this investigation has already been sent to the real Ghost."
Nicolo was as much as shocked as disappointed, same went with Ralph minus the shock.
"Tell us everything about the ghost you know then.", Ralph quickly rushed towards Lucian.
Nicolo simultaneously said, "Would this guy say anything?"
"He would. Wouldn't you? You wouldn't even if we don't arrest you?", Ralph offered.
"That's exactly what I thought. But unfortunately there's only a little I know about him.", Lucian said while shaking his handcuffs.
Noticing this Nicolo started unlocking the handcuffs.
"Such as?", Ralph asked curiously.
"He was always careful enough to not reveal anything to me. But I remember clearly, that one time he mentioned his homeland, that is the Barlow Street. So he might be any person living in that area."
"Why are you helping us in this case, if you were trying to help him even till the end?", Ralph asked curiously.
"At the end I was fighting for revenge, clearly. I didn't really want you guys to succeed. And…I'm pretty sure, you still can't..