Disclaimer: I own only my own characters. The court system only applies to Phoenix Wright and does not reflect real world courts.

Cases of the Heart: episode two

Turnabout Wedding

"Do you Eliza take this man as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love honor and cherish, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health till death do you part?"

A hose was cut, a fluid leaked out.

"I do."

An Angel had a knife in her stomach.

"Do you Phoenix take this woman as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love honor and cherish, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health till death do you part?"

Keys were tapped on a computer.

"I do."

A car crashed against a concrete wall. The engine burst into flames.

"By the power invested in me I now pronounce you Husband and Wife."

Phoenix and Eliza gave each other a long kiss as all of the guests applauded.


September 23 5:22 PM

Paradise Found Chapel

Reception Room

"That was a great speech Larry." I said. We were both wearing tuxedos.

"Thanks for making me your best man." said Larry. "I mean since Edgey is out of town and all."

"Would you imagine Edgeworth giving a speech about Phoenix and Eliza?" asked Maya. She was wearing a pink formal dress.

"I guess not."

"Thank you all." said Eliza. She was wearing the most beautiful wedding dress I had ever seen. "It means so much to us that you were able to come to our wedding."

"You both looked so beautiful up there." said Harumi. She was wearing a party dress.

"I thought you wanted me to marry Maya." I asked.

"She forgot about that ever since she started having her own crush." said Maya.

"I-it's nothing!" Harumi said with a blush. "We just go to school together!"

"Hope we aren't interrupting." said Detective Gumshoe as he came up with Eliza's father Detective Thomas Ness.

Thomas Ness was a tall and well built man with black hair that was starting to grey and green eyes. "Oh, Detective Gumshoe, Detective Ness."

"Please, just call me Dad." said Thomas Ness.

"Uh, ok Dad."

"It's hard to believe that my little girl is all grown up and is starting a family of her own, if only your mother could have been able to see this."

"I wish she were here too." Eliza said. "I still can't believe it's been overten years."

"I know. Where has all the time gone?" he then turned to me. "Phoenix, Eliza chose to spend her life with you and I have never known her to choose poorly."

"Oh daddy…"

"You two are perfect together." said Detective Gumshoe. "Welcome to the family pal!"

"Hey how's the bride and groom!" said a man with brown hair and blue eyes.

"Just fine Uncle Eddie." said Eliza.

Eddie Hanson was the brother of Eliza's deceased mother. He worked as an auto mechanic and from what I could tell he and Detective Ness didn't always get along well.

"Ok I need the bride and groom to cut the cake!" said our wedding planner Sunny Dawn. She had blue and blonde hair and for all the world looked like a sixties sitcom mom. I'm not quite sure why she volunteered to plan our wedding for so cheep, she says it's because I'm such a famous attorney, still I don't know…

"Come on Nicky," said Eliza. "Everybody's waiting for us!"

"Coming." I said.

The reception party continued with a joyous atmosphere. After we cut the cake we danced, dined, sat through a show our parents put together with some tapes of us growing up and after we left… Well you can probably guess what happened.


September 24 7:14 AM

Hotel Cabal

Suite 507

I woke to see Eliza right next to me. Her eyes opened and met mine. "Good morning darling." She said.

"Good morning my love; Yesterday and last night was…"

"Heavenly, I know."

We gave each other a quick kiss and then I turned the TV to the morning news. "Local police detective Thomas Ness was killed in an automobile accident at 11:45 PM last night. Detective Ness was last seen at the wedding of his daughter Eliza to noted defense attorney Phoenix Wright."

"D-Daddy!" Eliza shuttered. "NOOO!"

Eliza started crying but before I could start comforting her…

"This just in!" said the Anchor. "Edward Hanson, the brother in law of Thomas Ness, was just arrested for murder. According to the police Hanson had sabotaged Detective Ness' car causing the accident. He is currently being held in the Detention Center."

"No," said Eliza still crying. "Uncle Eddie would never do anything like that."

"Eliza." I hugged her tightly. "Dearest, I do what ever it takes to get the answers to this whole mess."

"Nicky, you have to defend him. I know you're the only one who can prove him innocent."

"Don't worry, I'll call Maya and meet her down at the office. You go down to the Detention Center and talk to your uncle, we'll meet you there."

I rushed over to the office where Maya gave me the Magatama Jewel; she told me that I got a package from Ema Skye that had some "wedding gifts" Luminol testing fluid and Aluminum flake power.


September 24

Detention Center

Visitor's Room

"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God!" were the first words I heard as I came into the detention center. Eddie Hanson was wearing his auto mechanic's uniform.

"Uncle Eddie calm down!" said Eliza.

"I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm alive but I'm dead!"

"HOLD IT!" I yelled. "Get a grip! I'm going to defend you."

"Take some deep cleansing breaths and tell us what happened." said Maya.

"Ok." said Mr. Hanson after he started breathing. "I got up this morning and got dressed to go to work. As I steeped out of my apartment the police were waiting for me. They said I murdered my brother in law by cutting the hydraulic line of his breaks."

"Hydraulic line?"

"Its part of the breaking system, when you step on the breaks an oil-like fluid in the line amplifies the force of your foot. This is one of the forces in the breaking system that causes the car to stop. If the line is cut no force can be transferred and the breaks don't work."

"Ok what exactly happened out there?"

"From what I heard Tom was heading home from the wedding and got on the highway. When his exit was coming up he tried to slow down but the brakes failed. He caused another car to hit a concrete wall then ran headlong into another one; he was killed instantly. "

"Oh, daddy." Eliza said. "It's ok go on."

"But shouldn't the air bag have saved him?"

"That's the weird part; they say he was going 90 MPH at the time and metal becomes very pliable at those speeds. He was driving a classic car and it was more ridged than today's cars this caused the dashboard to impale him. The cops say he was drunk and that was why he was going so fast. But he only had one glass of wine at the wedding and it was around three hours between that drink and when he left. That would have been plenty of time for him to sober up."

"I know this is painful for you but why did they arrest you Mr. Hanson?"

"The Prosecutor said I had the means, the motive and the opportunity. My automotive knowledge meant I could have known what to do; there was a period at the end of the reception that I could have used to do it; and we haven't gotten along that well since the incident that happened between us."

The Magatama jewel glowed and I saw a Psycho Lock. (It must be because of that incident he mentioned. I'll have to remember this for later.)

"Where did this accident take place?"

"Highway 101, exit 27. It' shouldn't take you that long to get there."

"OK all I need now is a letter of request."

"Sure. Um, Phoenix, can I win?"

"It doesn't look that good, but there must be something that the police overlooked and I will find it."

"Yeah so don't worry." said Maya. "Eliza why don't you head home for right now, I'll be sure to take good care of Nick."

"Sure, but my home or Nicky's?"

"Oh that's right." I said. "We still haven't found a new house. Wherever you feel most comfortable, we'll all have time to mourn later."


September 24

Highway 101

Exit 27

The police were directing traffic away from the accident site. A tall building was next to the highway. The car itself was crushed to near the midway point. A lot of debris was being labeled. "This is horrible." said Maya.

"It is quite a mess." I said.

"Hey there pal!" I heard Detective Gumshoe say. "I want that wreck examined top to bottom! If you find so much as a gum wrapper I want to know about it!"

"Y-Yes sir!" said a flustered officer.

"Detective Gumshoe sure is in a bad mood." said Maya.

"What would you expect?" I said. "His mentor was murdered."

"Oh hey Pal." said Detective Gumshoe. "I guess that you're defending Mr. Hanson then."

"I have his letter of request right here. So how is your investigation going?"

"To be perfectly honest I'm really just here to make sure all of this stuff gets labeled and cleared so we can keep traffic going."

"You're not investigating?" said Maya.

"Prosecutor Trojan said he prefers to do his own investigations."

"Trojan?"

"Prosecutor Lance Trojan, every one down at the precinct and the prosecutor's office call him the 'Magician of Prosecutors'."

"So he does magic tricks?"

"No, they call him that for the way he produces decisive evidence and witnesses seemingly out of thin air. A lot of the other prosecutors are jealous of him."

"Has he got anything right now?" I asked.

"Not sure, but I bet that right now he's questioning the witness."

"What witness?" Maya asked.

"Probably someone in the other car that was involved in the collision." I said.

"The driver, he's in pretty bad shape."

"So he's in the hospital?"

"Yeah, look I can give you the autopsy report, feel free to look around and you can talk to the witness at Pinecrest hospital."

"I thought you aren't allowed to tell us where the witness is?"

"Mr. Trojan told me to tell Mr. Hanson's lawyer. Even though it isn't always followed to the letter in the initial trail system these days he still believes in disclosure."

"Disclosure?" Maya asked.

"It means a prosecutor has to give me a list of all his evidence and witnesses in order to prevent a mistrial." I answered

"Well anyway here's the autopsy report." said Detective Gumshoe. "The cut hydraulic line was already been taken away though."

"Thanks, by the way Mr. Hanson mentioned an incident that caused him and Detective Ness to be at odds do you know anything about it?"

Gumshoe scratched head and sighed. "I'm sorry but I can't tell you. Detective Ness made me promise not to talk about the RL-13 incident to anyone."

(RL-13 incident? So it was a police case?) "We'll look around a little first then head for the hospital." The Autopsy Report said that death came from heart failure sometime between 10:30 and 11:45 PM; his blood alcohol level was .01. Most of what was at the accident scene was just mangled debris, but as I came to a chair with blood what was marked as the driver's seat and I did a Luminol test.

"What is that stuff?" asked Maya.

"Luminol testing fluid, it allows you to see unseen blood stains, it seems as if there more blood here than is visible."

I showed the stains to Maya with the special glasses. "That's weird. Wouldn't most of the blood be on the dash board?"

"Yeah better make a note of it."

"Ouch! I hit something with my foot."

I took a closer look at the metallic box Maya hit. "Looks like a radio receiver, what's this doing here?"

"Maybe it was evidence in a case the Detective was working on."

"I think we should take this with us." I hid the Receiver in my briefcase. "Let's have a chat with that witness."


September 24

Pinecrest Hospital

Room 202

"The Nurse said this was the room." said Maya.

"Who's there!" said a man who was in an almost full body cast.

"We're lawyers."

"You're too late; I already have an attorney who will force a settlement with the guy responsible for that accident."

"Uh, no; we're Mr. Hanson's lawyers." I said.

"I don't care if you're the Queen of Sheba! I found out that my insurance company won't touch my medical bills until they finished moving to New Delhi; the only way I can get my bills paid is to sue the murder!"

"Ok, let's start with your name."

"Carl Parker, I bet that you want me to tell you what happened last night, well no dice!"

"Ok how about this; if our client is found guilty then we'll convince him to settle in your favor."

"Nick, you sure is this a good idea?" whispered Maya.

"Yeah, Eliza says he's innocent and that's good enough for me."

"Ok we have a deal." said Carl.

"Alright tell us what happened."

"It was late last night; I was coming back from a convention in another town when this guy sideswiped me."

"So the sides of each of your cars collided then what?"

"We were next to each other for a second then I veered off and ran into a wall after braking. My seatbelt kept me alive, but the other guy wasn't so lucky."

"And made you think that it was murder?"

"He didn't slow down; at first I thought that it was because he was just trying to show off that sports car but since the prosecutor told me that the hydraulic line was cut it makes sense. It wasn't that he didn't stop, it's that he couldn't stop."

"And why does he think Eddie Hanson was the one who sabotaged the brakes?"

"He said he found a knife with the guy's fingerprints at the wedding chapel in a trash can right next to where the Detective parked."

"This looks bad." Maya whispered. "All of the evidence is pointing in Mr. Hanson's direction!"

"I think we better have another talk with him." I told Maya. "Thank you Mr. Parker I guess we'll see you in court."


September 24

Detention Center

Visitor's Room

"Well how does it look?" asked Mr. Hanson.

"They found a knife with your fingerprints at the scene."

"I didn't kill him!"

"I'm not saying you did, but can you explain the knife. It may be crucial to our case."

"I found it in some bushes by the chapel; it was so rusted I threw it away."

"There's one more thing." I asked Mr. Hanson while holding the Magatama Jewel. "I was talking with Detective Gumshoe to see if I could find out about the incident that happened between you and Detective Ness and he mentioned a police case called RL-13. Nothing happened between the two of you, you were fighting over this case."

"Well you're a member of the family now; I guess I can tell you about RL-13." Mr. Hanson's Psycho lock was undone.

"Ok, tell us about RL-13!" said Maya.

"RL-13 was the case where Eliza's mother Gloria died."

"You mean it was a murder case?" I asked.

"Yes."

"But Thomas Ness was with Criminal Intelligence, not Homicide."

"He was allowed to investigate because the Shikabane Group suspected of involvement in the murder."

(The Shikabane Group, I haven't dealt with them since the Tres Bien case last year. Urami Shikabane, the granddaughter of their boss Gonta, was convicted of murder for helping Zenitora kill Takao Oka. She's now awaiting execution, I bet Gonta isn't too happy about that.)

"How were they involved?"

"It happened during a bank robbery and it seemed like the guys robbing the bank were working for the Shikabane Group. And while they were able to convict the killer, there was no direct evidence that the Shikabane Group was involved and the robbers would have rather gone to prison than squeal, they enjoyed breathing."

"But how did that cause the two of you to fight?"

"He was outside the bank the whole time and I blamed him for not saving my sister. After that he made it his mission to put an end to the Shikabane group once and for all, but I guess he'll never get the chance now."

"Thanks, I better get going to prepare for the trail."

"Wait, before you go take this."

"A note?" asked Maya.

"Tom gave this to me the last time I saw him. It didn't make any sense to me but maybe you could figure it out."

The note consisted of one word, Dusk. I don't know what this means but I have to figure it out. Tomorrow I go up against the Magician of Prosecutors, Lance Trojan. I heard that he's like me in a way, he was able to pull out a few miracles to convict criminals that would have otherwise gotten away. A title was used to describe both off us and by the end of this trial only one of us can be the Turnabout King.

To be continued