Dinner With a Dead Man

Kagome Higurashi walked through the halls of her law firm, waist length hair swishing in the light wind. Sango ran up to her, handing her a case file.

"28 year old man accused of murdering his ex girlfriend, convicted and sentenced to the Death Penalty. Filing for an appeal, his older brother is a wealthy man and wanted to hire the best defense lawyer, you." Sango stated. "Oh, and his brother, is Sesshomaru."

Kagome stopped short and twirled toward Sango, "Seshomaru? As in Sesshomaru Takahashi- senpai?" She questioned, "HE is the best lawyer in all of Japan, not me."

"He's the best state attorney, but this is his brother so even if he was a defense attorney he couldn't take the case on principle. He said and I quote, 'Who else would I trust with my brother's life but my Kohai?' He was adamant on you taking the case, as a favor to him." She said.

"He realizes that if his brother is actually guilty I won't take the case right? Or for that matter I couldn't save him either even if I did." She raised an eyebrow.

"Sesshomaru sama says his brother is innocent, it may be his brother but you know Sesshomaru sama would never let his emotions blind him to the truth." She struggled to keep up with her best friend.

"Well, if Senpai believes him then I'll take the case as a favor to him." She smiled at the attorney beside her. "By the way, thanks for filling in for Ayame-chan while she's on her honeymoon."

"Well I know we're having some financial troubles, and it's easier than hiring a temp and having to train them."

"Well anyway, Sesshomaru-senpai's brother, what's his name?" She asked as they sat down at the table, they were going to have a meeting between the Lawyers at Higurashi and Higurashi Law firms, founded by Kagome and her older brother Miroku. Their younger brother Sota was also planning on become a lawyer and was currently enrolled in the legal program at Tokyo University. Soon Miroku would join them after his meeting with the Hitsugara client. Their fourth lawyer and Miroku's kohai, Kouga, was on his honeymoon with his wife and their secretary Ayame. It was a small law firm but it was only a few years old and already gaining some popularity. Kagome was one of the best, if not the best defense attorney in Tokyo, Miroku was top of his subset as a freelance corporate lawyer, Sango was the best family attorney, and Koga was the most sought after Environmental lawyer. In fact the only reason they all weren't working for big fancy corporations was because they'd decided that they wanted to make a name for themselves on their own terms.

"His name is Inuyasha Takahashi, he's only two years older than us but he's obviously led a hard life. Sesshomaru sama practically had to raise him when their parents died, and Inuyasha did three tours of Iraq recently after joining the American army. He became an FBI agent soon after but this whole ex girlfriend affair put an end to his outstanding career. The purple heart, more medals than an olympic champion, and a great four years at the bureau with almost every single case being a success. It appears he was at one point captured and tortured by insurgents. So it's not like he doesn't have the training, he was a sniper after all, so he obviously could have killed his ex, Kikyo was her name I believe, he had motive too, she left him for a rich business tycoon, Naraku. However, the circumstances and events surrounding her death are questionable, especially since Inuyasha was working on a case at the time and, since Kikyo's body suffered a great deal of decomposition so it was hard to pinpoint the exact hour of death. They narrowed it down to a time window of roughly six hours on friday night between 7 p.m. and 1 am. Inuyasha was last seen at 11 p.m. exiting his office by a fellow agent, which gives him a time frame of two hours to kill her. Since he lives alone at one of the family properties no one is sure when he got home. He claims he went straight home but he has no way of proving it." Sango listed off the facts from the case file.

"What about a security system? Cameras, key codes, an automated lock system maybe?" She asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Nope, it's a very old house, built by their father in the Feudal era. It was supposed to be for his wife and son, but during that time Sesshomaru-sama's mother was very much against having children and refused to even step into the house. However, it was where Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were raised by lord Inu Taisho's second wife and mother of Inuyasha, Izayoi. Anyway, Inuyasha moved back into that home after joining the bureau to be close to nature. It has modern electricity and plumbing but nothing fancy like security systems. You know how demons are, they can protect their families from anyone and anything." Sango laughed.

"What about neighbors?" She sat down, a slight frown on her face.

"No neighbors, it's a very large property, the house is basically right smack in the middle of the forest."

"Damn, does he happen to have GPS on his car or phone?" She bit her nail contemplatively.

"He does have GPS on his car and phone but, since he is a half demon he usually just runs back and forth between his office, he likes the feel of it and it's not uncommon for demons to do so, he keeps his car mostly for times when he really needs it. Like grocery shopping, when he has company over, or for when he decides to go for a nice drive. As for the phone, he leaves it in the office along with his gun and laptop. He says he doesn't like to be disturbed at home and if they really need him, they can come get him."

"Ok, but all this evidence is circumstantial, certainly not enough to convict him and give him the death penalty." Kagome turned and nodded at her brother when he walked in the door. "Where's the hard evidence?"

"Well, the only hard evidence they have against Inuyasha is claw marks going down Kikyo's shoulder, and some silver hair found on her person." Sango smiled at her boyfriend when he kissed her cheek.

"Did the DNA match Inuyasha?" Kagome smiled at her brother and best friend's clear happiness.

"It was never run through a DNA test, apparently due to the composition of demon's genetics, a DNA test would be impossible. However, the prosecution moved that since it was a visible match it should remain as evidence."

"Still, even with that I can't understand why someone as decorated as this man would be found guilty so easily. Maybe if he were a repeat offender I could understand, or if there had been reports of domestic violence between the two."

"Well, there is one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Kikyo was carrying something very valuable with her, it's a very expensive jewel known as the Shikon no tama, or jewel or four souls. It's not the actual fabled jewel but it's a very large pearl that was given that name as it resembled the fabled jewel so much. The actual jewel is of course in custody of the priestesses at Midoriko's shrine, but Kikyo was given this pearl as an engagement present from Inuyasha, aside from the ring of course. Now both the ring and the pearl are currently missing. Furthermore the ring was found in a pawn shop near where Kikyo's body was found. The owner was an old man with bad vision, but he said he distinctly remembered a man with long silver hair on that night. He couldn't say for sure that the silver haired man was the one who brought in the ring, but it was around 1:30 am. This was very bad for Inuyasha. He of course said he wasn't anywhere near that area."

"Are there any surveillance tapes?"

"There are but the quality is bad, and it's all in black and white. So while a man about Inuyasha's height with long hair is discernible, it's impossible to get a positive ID, so it was stricken from the record officially, but of course before it was the prosecution made a very compelling argument which obviously had some sway with the Jury's thinking."

"I see. This case is delicate. If we file for an appeal on record, we'd have to come up with something to prove the case ruling was unfit. In that case we'd have to find some new evidence or overturn the old evidence. If we're lucky we might at least get them to reconsider the death penalty. However, if we ask for De Novo* then we'd simply have to treat this as a first time trail for this case. As though it had never been brought to trail before. This is going to be really hard. We have two options: to really prove the client innocent is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not there, or to prove his innocence by finding the true guilty party." She chewed on her nail.

"You'll be having dinner with him tonight so you can discuss this at length with him." Sango chimed in.

"Kagome? Having dinner with Yasha? That ought to be a sight." Miroku chuckled to himself, Inuyasha had been a childhood friend of Inuyasha's since they were the same age.

"Woah what? What do you mean dinner? The man is in jail." Kagome frowned.

"He's rich and an FBI agent, they bent the rules a little. You'll be having dinner at the Blue Sakura." Sango smiled, "Sesshomaru sent over a dress, heels, and a town car will pick you up at 8 sharp."

"Wait! Blue Sakura? That place is crazy expensive!" Kagome protested. "And there's no way I could accept a dress and heels!"

"What part of rich FBI agent did you not understand? Even if both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had decided to be lazy and blow their money like stupid rich boys, it would have taken them a couple centuries to get through their vast wealth. Furthermore they just keep adding to it with their own paychecks. Inuyasha pays his own bills and on payday when he gets his next check he sends whatever money he has left over to the family estate. Sesshomaru makes lots of money too, and since he makes so much money he bought a condo and pays for everything. Just like Inuyasha he also adds his extra money to the estate. Although honestly even together their monthly deposits are like a drop in the ocean. It's ok! Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are both incredibly grateful to you."

"Sango! It's not like we won the case or anything! Heck I'm not even sure we will win!"

"Don't talk like that Kagome, and they're just grateful for this chance. Sesshomaru will be assisting you in any way and Inuyasha is willing to comply with anything to prove his innocence."

"...Fine.."

"Excellent! Now let's get on with the meeting!"

They three discussed other projects and upcoming cases at length, the occasional chuckle chorused at Miroku's lame joke, a slap across Miroku's face every so often from his girlfriend, and Kagome's groans about having to go to some fancy dinner every time Sango or Miroku teased her about it.

*De Novo means the case will be retried without any regards to the previous ruling.