Disclaimer: Don't own Phoenix Wright so don't sue me…
For Memories and Truth – Requiem to Turnabout
Chapter 1 – Investigation Part 1
"Come on. Don't give up me yet!" The man kept breathing in her mouth as the crowd of onlookers looked stunned as he tried to resuscitate her back. The sirens drew closer as he kept up his CPR. Eventually the crowd dispersed to allow the paramedics to help the victim. The man looked on helplessly as he saw the paramedics try all they could before shaking their heads.
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Phoenix sat in his office as he finished filing the last of the cases from last year. It was almost a month since the end of the Iris' case. He looked outside as he slowly pondered about many things. Feeling around in his pocket, he felt something and pulled it out. It was the magatama that Maya had given him. 'How long since it was when I last saw them together?'
It was rather ironic that the peace and quiet he wanted from all the antics that Maya and Pearl gave him was totally the opposite of what he expected. The quiet times almost made him lonely, especially with no cases to bring about. 'At least Charlie is having fun.' Looking at the fern that stood proudly next to his desk, he was smiled as he remembered all the usual training that Mia had made him do from remembering the court records to the important part of hearing a testimony. Even in death, he still had reminders of her, especially Charlie.
'Ah well. I might as well visit Iris in the detention centre seeing I've got nothing else to do.'
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Phoenix waited in the visiting room as he pondered on what he's going to say. The guard soon reappeared, indicating Iris to sit. Her eyes lit up as she saw Phoenix on the other side of the glass barrier.
"Feenie. You really didn't need to visit."
"Well, I didn't have anything else to do. Besides, business is rather slow since the end of your case." Iris smiled.
"I missed you though."
"I did visit you day before yesterday. That's hardly missing me there."
"I know but I just long for the day we can be together though."
Phoenix smiled at her. "Yeah. When you get out of here, I was thinking. Do you want to live with me until you get comfortable going back to the temple?" Iris was totally surprised but recovered with her sweet smile.
"Yes, I won't mind. But wouldn't that be a problem?"
"Not really. My apartment has a room spare and I really need some company after Maya and Pearls went back to the Kurain Village."
"I see. But I'm a shrine maiden and I really shouldn't upset the vows."
Phoenix frowned. "What vows?"
Iris looked back at him with the same determination he always admired from her. "The vows state that I can't leave the shrine unless I have to abandon my duties for another."
Phoenix looked solemn for a bit. "I see. Is there any other way?"
Iris thought about it for a second before nodding. "Yes, I could ask Sister Bikini to release me from my vows. That way, I won't have to come back if I have other duties. I want to be with you anyway."
Phoenix smiled back at her. "Okay, can I ask her for you?"
Iris blinked in surprise before nodding. "Yes."
"Alright. I'll tell her. I'll see you again in a few weeks time then." Iris nodded before placed her hand on the glass. Phoenix placed his hand on hers before she got up and escorted out. Phoenix sighed as he got up.
"I can't accept this case though. You already have enough evidence to go against you." Phoenix looked on at another visitation booth. Soon, someone got up and left. Phoenix saw a young man sitting there almost beside himself. He felt as if he was watched before looking up. Phoenix was about to go when the man sighed.
"Where am I going to get another defence attorney now?" Phoenix's ear pricked at this.
"Well, I'm one." The man seemed to brighten up almost immediately.
"Please, take my case as I really have no choice!" Phoenix looked at the young man before nodding his head.
"Alright. I have nothing to do anyway. So what is your name?"
"Oh. My name is Darren Wood. And who might you be?"
"I'm Phoenix Wright." The man seemed to be taken back with Phoenix's answer.
"You can't be serious. THE famous Phoenix Wright? The infamous lawyer who has the ability to turn cases around?" Phoenix nodded.
"That's me. So tell me about this case?" Darren looked solemn before continuing.
"Well, I work as a bartender at the local nightclub. You heard of the Digital Love nightclub?" Phoenix pondered about it.
"Oh, you mean this one?" With that, he pulled a newspaper out of his briefcase. Putting the paper down, he indicated the large and funky advertisement. On it, there were several photos of young adults mostly partying with a large bar in the background. The logo "Digital Love" was clearly seen on the bottom right.
"That's right. That's where I was working."
"Okay, tell me about the night it happened."
"Well, I was serving at the counter which wasn't too odd. Then a girl came over and decided she wanted a drink of water. At first, I complied given she was patron. But after a while, she kept coming over as she was continually thirsty. I didn't think it was that odd. After a while, I was cleaning up the empty glasses when I noticed her unconscious body near the table. I tried giving CPR on her only to have the medics declare her dead. The police came and arrested me when they found out she had taken ecstasy in one of the drinks I served her. Because of that, they charged me of murder for that. But I swear I didn't put that pill in." With that, the man fell silent.
Phoenix let the silence surround him as he began to take in the facts. 'Okay, Phoenix. The low-down is that a young girl is dead from what seemed like a drug overdose. But there are two things that don't fit in. One is the constant drinking Darren said. The other is how did the pill get in her in the first place.' With that, Phoenix looked at him.
"Where is the nightclub located? I might take a look there later."
"Sure, I'll give you the instructions on getting there from here." With that, he wrote it down on a spare piece of paper next to him. Sliding through the narrow gap in the window, Phoenix pocketed the paper.
"Okay, another thing. Does the nightclub know about the issue of drugs in the place?" Darren seemed crest-fallen before he replied.
"Not really. I mean, they may have but not to my knowledge." However, at that moment, Phoenix saw two Psyche Locks appear. 'Damn, looks like I've got to find the answers quick before the trial begins.'
"Well, thanks for that, Darren. I'll check out the Nightclub and see what I'll find there."
"Thanks, Mr Wright."
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Phoenix looked as he got off the bus. Bracing himself, he saw that the police were busy as always. The officer at the front stopped him.
"Do you have any official business here?"
"Is Detective Gumshoe here? I need to speak to him as a prosecutor." 'God, I hope this fool does take the bait. If not, I'm going to have a hard time getting in.'
"The detective is in there. I suppose I can let you in." With that, the officer moved aside for him.
"Thank you." With that, Phoenix stepped inside. Inside, the nightclub was rather opulent with the grey granite tiles on the floor and traditional Japanese paper lanterns over the lights making the atmosphere rather pleasant. Noticing the police was scouring the bar and as well as one of the tables which was fenced off with the usual police tape.
'No surprise that they don't want anyone there.'
"HEY!" Phoenix felt he had jumped three feet off the ground. Soon after, Detective Gumshoe appeared with the usually huff and puff from running round the place.
"Long time no see, Detective."
"Same for you, pal. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I'm here because of Darren Wood. I was just going to do some investigating here."
"Oh I see. Well, the usual rule applies. No touching without my say-so. It seems quite an open and shut case to me though."
"Why is that Detective?" The detective grinned at him.
"Well, we have a witness who stated that she saw the accused putting in the ecstasy pill in the victim's drink."
'Damn, that makes my case even harder. I've got to get some more info out of this.' "Okay, anything else?" Gumshoe scratched his head for a bit.
"Well, we managed to cross-reference all the patrons here and all do say something odd though."
"What do you mean?" Even Gumshoe looked puzzled which was rather odd to Phoenix's opinion.
"Well, most of the witness' here do say that she managed to consume a large amount of water though before she was found unconscious. That's the odd thing though."
"I see." 'Darren said the same thing. I wonder...' "Well, thanks for that Detective. I'll take a look round and notify you if I found anything."
"You've got it." With that, he shuffled over to another part of the club. Phoenix headed over to the fenced off area.
'Hmm, the victim was lying here with Darren desperately trying to revive her.' Looking at the table nearby, he saw a large amount of glasses there. 'Looks like the victim must have drunk at least 15 normal glasses of water and other drinks as well. It's kind of odd for a young woman to drink that much.' Glancing back at the floor, he crouched down to take another look. 'The floor here doesn't tell me anything...wait...' Reaching out, Phoenix found a wrapper which looked like one from a condom. 'A condom wrapper? Why would it be here though?'
Placing it in his pocket, he looked at the glasses again. 'Hmmm, looks like one did have the pill in it as I can see traces of the white powder in it. I wonder if I can use it as evidence though.' With that, he took a picture of it using his mobile phone. (A/N: I assume that the camera's on the mobile phones in Phoenix's time would have better quality that our current cameras...)
Looking round, he headed towards the bar. It was neatly stocked with every single kind of liquor available. 'Interesting, there's a lot of drinks here so I...hang on...' Looking under the counter, Phoenix found the usual first aid, several figurines, a lot of placemats and a notepad. Picking up the notepad, he noted that the top page was torn off in a hurry. 'Hmmm, I wonder. If someone had written on it, they would have left something on this page. If I have a pencil, then I might be able to see what's here.'
"Detective, do you have a pencil of some sort?" Gumshoe looked at him.
"Sure, I have one. Why?"
"Just curious." With that, Phoenix began to slowly shade in the page. As he did, the faint marks begin to show something. It said "Trip 1. Deal done. Dar to choose."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know. But I'll find out." Return the pencil, Phoenix strode off to answer those questions.
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"Mr Wright, you're back. Did you find anything?"
"Well, I did find some information but firstly, I want to talk about the issue of drugs at your workplace." Darren instantly fell silent.
"I don't want to talk about it." With that, the two Psyche Locks reappeared.
"Okay, if I can't get you to talk about it, then maybe the evidence would show otherwise..." With that, he placed the Magatama onto the table. With that, the entire vision was only focused on Darren. "Alright Darren. Since you didn't want to talk about the drugs at your workplace, is there a reason why you don't want to talk?"
"I really don't know about it. Seriously, I had some idea but I just didn't know." Phoenix looked sceptically at him.
"I don't think so. There is evidence that proves that you did know of it." With that, he presented the notepad. "It says here 'Dar to choose.' I'm assuming that 'Dar' is you, Darren." Darren looked solemn for a bit.
"Okay, I did know of it and I didn't really want to admit it." With that, one of the Psyche Lock shattered.
"Alright. So you did know of the drug issue, but why are you in it then?"
"How am I supposed to know? I'm only there to serve drinks and make sure that they get it."
"They?"
"Well...I think I said too much..."
"I have a sneaking suspicion on what you're talking about. I'm assuming that what you are referring to 'they' are the young girls there." Darren looked shocked.
"Wh-what do you mean? I mean, they can mean anything."
"Yes, but the nightclub caters for a lot of young adults. So I would assume that." Darren looked solemn before looking back at him.
"So what? Do you have proof?" With that, Phoenix presented the empty condom wrapper. "This is..."
"That's a condom wrapper. I assume you can follow what I'm going to say here. You put the drug into their drinks which causes them to lose conscious. That way, the other guys there can...well..."
"Don't worry, Mr Wright. I understand." With that, the last of the locks shattered and the heavy chains disappeared.
"So, Darren? Could you tell me everything? I might need it in the trial tomorrow."
"Yes, yes. Of course. Well. The Digital Love also has another business there apart from the usual dance club. What happens is that there's also an organised drug business over there. Usually, these people would supply the guys with some sort of drug. I usually call it a date rape drug but the others call it a love potion. What happens is that the drug happens to just make the girl unconscious for the duration of the rape. This makes it hard for the woman to report the incident afterwards."
"But everyone said that it was ecstasy that caused her to keep drinking."
"That's odd. The date rape drugs are usually alcohol and as well as Rohypnol since both are almost easy to obtain. I haven't heard of anyone use ecstasy in the nightclub. You might want to check the staff area as that might be one place they can get it."
"Okay. It'll be okay, Darren. Just believe in me and I'll try my best."
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Back at the club, Phoenix walked past Gumshoe who was talking with some of the investigators. The staff area was filled with lockers.
'Hmmm, looks like the police haven't inspected this place yet. Maybe I can gather some clues before they get here.' With that, Phoenix began to inspect the lockers. 'Looks like these lockers are for the staff members. Here's Darren's locker. I wonder.' Expecting it to be locked, he was surprised that it was already unlocked. Peeking inside, he saw various clothes and as well as two novels inside. 'Well, nothing wrong here.' Moving along, Phoenix tested the other lockers and noticed one locker looked rather odd. It belonged to a Mickey Finn. 'What's with this locker?' Opening the locker, he noticed a very small bag of pills. 'This must be the Rohypnol. I'd better take this bag along as well.' Grabbing the small bag, he pocketed it. 'There must be more here.' Sifting through the various other items inside, there wasn't anything else that managed to bring his attention.
Phoenix looked satisfied at his handiwork. 'Well, the trial starts tomorrow. I should finish up and head back to the office."
To Be Continued
End of Chapter 1
