Hey guys, I just want to thank you readers who either favourited or are following this fic. It means alot :)

Chapter 1:

[January 17th, 12.24pm
Prosecutors Building, Room 1106]

The two detectives had been joined by a whole team of professionals, all keen to discover the truth. Forensics were working their way through the crime scene, trying their best to preserve the area. Whilst they worked, Gumshoe and his colleague were deep in conversation. The crime was a sensitive incident for most involved. For prosecutors the loss of one of their own came as a shock and for the police it also carried a heavy impact. Prosecutor Payne was a person who helped bring criminals to justice and now he was the victim of one of the worst crimes a human can commit. Taking the life of another.

"Hopefully forensics will be able to give us some solid information," The shorter officer said to Gumshoe, who merely nodded in response. Before the officer could further the conversation a small noise sounded from under Paynes desk. Both officers turned to face the desk, unsure of what had made the noise. Forensics were still examining the body and hadn't made their way towards the desk yet. Gumshoe was the first to move and as he moved around the back of the desk his heart leapt in to his throat. His eyes immediately spotted another body. Only this time the body moved and groaned.

"There's another body, pal" Gumshoe called out to his colleague. His colleague ran over towards Gumshoe and gasped in shock.

"That's not just a body! That's a woman and she's hurt. Alive but hurt! Call a medic over quickly!" He cried out as he felt for her pulse. He quickly examined the woman and noted that she had a bullet wound in her abdomen. She was bleeding out quickly and they could only hope that they had found her in time.
Two paramedics rushed through the door and in no time the woman was on a stretcher. They lifted her up and removed her from the crime scene, two other detectives flanked the stretcher and escorted them out.

"Wonder who she is?" The short detective mused out loud. Gumshoe ran his finger over his collar as he pondered this question. Before either of them could give this any more thought, an all too familiar prosecutor strode in to the room taking in the scene that lay in front of him. He spotted Gumshoe and he made his way over.

"Gumshoe!" He barked. Gumshoe jumped in alarm, he spun round to face his addressee.

"Prosecutor Edgeworth, sir. What are you doing here?"

"I'm overseeing the investigation, what can you tell me? And please spare unnessecary details,"

Gumshoe stood up straight, puffing his chest out as far as it would go. The short detective raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Well sir, Prosecutor Payne was shot. It was a bullet to the head. Death was instant, sir," Gumshoe started to explain. Edgeworth nodded and waited for the detective to continue.

"At the moment we have no leads as to who murdered Payne" He added glumly.

"Who was the woman on the stretcher? I passed them on my way here," Edgeworth asked, Gumshoe shook his head.

"We don't know yet, sir. She was shot in the abdomen, but was alive when we found her. It looked like she was hiding under the desk," He told Edgeworth with a slight nod in the desks direction.

"I see. So she may be another witness," Edgeworth concluded.

"Another witness, sir?"

"Yes Gumshoe. The gunman also shot at others as he made his way to this very office, fortunately none of them were seriously hurt,"

"Sir, me and Detective Grimes were wondering why anyone would wish to kill Payne," The short detective known as Grimes nodded. Until this point he thought he had been forgotten in the conversation.

"It seems obvious that Payne was the target," Grimes said. Wanting to prove himself to be a good detective Gumshoe countered this claim.

"But sir, he shot at others, so maybe it was coincedence?"

"Gumshoe, only Payne was murdered. It was a shot to the head, I'm guessing that it was premeditated,"

"But, why?"

"If I knew that do you-"

"Will you two be quiet a moment and let me think" Edgeworth commanded. Both detectives mumbled apologies and ceased talking. During this time a young woman walked over to the three men, in her hand she held a piece of paper.

"Mr Edgeworth!" The young woman called out almost breathlessly, her pink glasses slipped off the top of her head and landed on her nose. Her cheeks were tinted with a slight blush. Edgeworth turned to look at the new comer.

"Detective Skye," He said with a nod. Her blush spread more prominently across her face.

"Mr Edgeworth, I think you should take a look at this," She said as she handed him the piece of paper. Edgeworth read it and frowned. He faced Gumshoe, Grimes and Skye and showed them the paper.

"I do believe Detective Skye has just handed me a vital piece of evidence,"

"The target is in Office 1106...? huh? But that's this office!" Gumshoe deduced with excitement. Edgeworth shook his head in disbelief.

"As our good Detective has correctly surmised, this is indeed the office. This tells us that Detective Grimes was correct in saying that the murder was premeditated. What we need to know is who ordered the hit on Mr Payne. Grimes, I need you to look in to Mr Paynes court records and see if there was anyone who is possibly connected to this incident,"

Grimes nodded in understanding on this request, with no further word he left the crime scene and headed for the Criminal Affairs Department.
"Detective Skye, I need you to do something for me," Edgeworth said, looking at the eager detective.

"Anything Mr Edgeworth,"

"I need you do some scientific analysis on this piece of paper, I want it testing for prints. It might give us a clue as to either who wrote it or who was entrusted with its message,"

Detective Skye beamed with delight. The famous prosecutor Edgeworth had personally asked for her to do some scientific research. After practically snatching the paper from his hand, the Detective enthusiastically ran out of the office. Edgeworth smirked. Gumshoe watched his colleagues leave one after another and looked towards Edgeworth with his puppy dog eyes.

"What about me, sir?"

"Ah yes, I have another question for you. Have we been able to locate the murder weapon?"

"No sir, the assailant appears to have run off with it," Gumshoe said with a sad shake of the head.

"Very well, so what other information can you give me?"

"Well sir, it seems like it was a straight forward murder. The assailant came in, shot Payne in the head,"

Edgeworth frowned and looked at the desk.

"The woman? Where would she fit in?" He of course thought he could guess the answer but sometimes it was fun to watch the good detective try to figure stuff out for himself.

"Well, I'd have to guess that she, umm, was tying her shoe laces?" Gumshoe said somewhat lamely. Edgeworth shook his head, so much for anything intelligent coming from Gumshoe.

"I think it's more likely they heard the gunshot and she hid," Gumshoe nodded as he understood Edgeworths theory.

"What do we do now sir?"

"We shall go over to the Police Department and see if we can gather more info there,"

[January 17th 6.03pm
Wright Anything Agency]

'..Beep...Beep..' The sound of a cellphone ringing echoed through the office. A girl danced her way over to the phone and picked it up. Glancing at the caller I.D she grinned.

"Daddy! Your phones ringing!' She called out, her father was in another room and upon hearing his daughters call he poked his head through the door.

"Who is it Truce?" He asked as he walked over to her. Trucys grin never faltered.

"It's Uncle Larry!" She passed the phone to her father and reluctantly he answered it.

"Hey Larry, what's up?"

"Yo Nick! You heard from Edgey today?" Came a loud panicked voice on the other end of the phone. Phoenix ran his fingers through his hair and frowned.

"No, why? What have you done now?" He asked, dreading the answer. His best friend Larry was no stranger to trouble.

"Nick dude! Your words hurt me!" Larry whined, Phoenix sighed.

"Sorry, force of habit I guess. What's the matter?"

"Turn on the news dude! Something going on big style!"

"O...k. Truce, turn on the telly and switch over to the news," Phoenix asked his daughter. She walked over to the telly, flicked the switch on and grabbed the remote. She stopped when a cartoon came on and momentarily forgot to put the news on. Phoenix coughed and she was brought back to this world. Switching the news on, Phoenix almost dropped his phone in shock when he read the headline.

'Gunman shoots prosecutor dead'

"Larry, I have to go..." He said as his eyes watched the screen.

"But Nick! Edgey-"

"I'll let you know whats going on as soon as I know. Call you later," Phoenix put the phone down on his friend and asked Trucy to turn the volume up. He couldn't believe what he was seeing and he immediately feared for his other best friend. It was so hard to comprehend what the news reporter was saying, Trucy kept firing questions at him but he motioned for her to be quiet.

'...At approximately twelve o'clock today a lone gunman entered the prosecutors building and started firing at the people inside the building. We have had confirmation that one prosecutor has been shot dead and a couple more people have been injured. We cannot confirm at this time who the victim is, though we can confirm that it is not renowned prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. Mr Edgeworth is said to be overseeing he investigation for the time being-'

"Thank goodness Edgeworths alright," Phoenix said, a feeling of relief washing over him.

"I'm glad Mr Edgeworths okay, but they never said if Mr Gavin was ok," Trucy said with a sad look on her face. Phoenix pulled his daughter in to a tight hug and stroked her head.

"I'm sure he's fine, there are loads of prosecutors that work in that building, chances are it's no one we know" He told her, hoping that his words were of some comfort.

The front door to the office slowly opened, Phoenix and Trucy spun round and smiled. Trucy let go of her father and launched herself at the newcomer. The young man, who was dressed in red trousers and waistcoat held his hands out to stop the incoming Trucy.

"Trucy, slow down!" He cried as the girl virtually landed on him. Managing to push Trucy off him, Apollo looked over at Phoenix.

"Have you heard the news?" He asked, Phoenix nodded.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Apollo blushed at his question, Phoenix chuckled. He could guess the response. The truth had been simple, Ema Skye had phoned him on his cell and told him everything that was going on. It wasn't supposed to be common knowledge, however the young attorney had stuck up a very friendly relationship with the snack munching detective.

"So, do you know who the prosecutor was?" Phoenix asked, Trucy looked up and paid great attention to what Apollo was about to say.

"Yes, it was Prosecutor Payne," His expression was glum. Trucy sighed in relief which failed to go unnoticed by both Apollo and Phoenix.

"Don't worry, Mr Rock and Roll is fine, though I have no idea where he is," Apollo told her, Trucy smiled.

"Payne? That's awful. I remember going up against him,"

"Yeah, looks like he was targetted according to Ema,"

"But why?" Phoenix pondered. Apollo shrugged, that was something even Ema didn't know.

[January 18th 8.54am,
Prosecutors Building, Room 1202]

One question was really getting to Miles Edgeworth and nothing seemed to be helping in his quest in finding the answer. Yesterday had been a really long and tiring day, along with Detective Gumshoe and the forensics team they had more or less pieced together the events that had led to prosecutor Paynes murder. The only things they hadn't been successful in findings either the murderer or the motive.

Detective Grimes had been sent to the Criminal Affairs Department to try to determine if there was anyone in particular who had a grudge against the prosecutor. His searched yielded no conclusive results so the investigation was back to square one.

Edgeworth was sat at his desk deep in thought when a sharp knock on the door brought him back from his meditation. After gaining his composure, he summoned the visitor in to his office. The door creaked open and in walked an exuberant looking Detective Skye.

"Good morning Detective," He said, adding a little bow in to his welcome. Detective Skye beamed at him.

"Good morning Mr Edgeworth! I ran tests on the paper and we have a match," She said with proud delight. Edgeworth nodded, maybe they would be able to get somewhere with this investigation.

"Good job Detective Skye, who is our match?"

"It would be a Mr Laron Green, he's on our files because he was once a petty thief," Detective Skye explained. She handed Edgeworth a stack of files filled with various details on Mr Green. Edgeworth gave a small laugh.

"What's funny Mr Edgeworth?" Detective Skye asked with confusion.

"Just his name, Laron means theif in French,"

"Oh right! Anyway, I need to get off, I hope you find the information you're looking for sir,"

"Very well, thank you. This will be most useful,"

Detective Skye smiled and bid Edgeworth farewell. As she was about to leave Edgeworth had one more question to ask.

"Detective? Do we have a status report on the young woman that Gumshoe found in Paynes office?"

Detective Skye gave Edgeworth a sad smile.

"Yes, she's in a stable condition. She'll live. Though, I'm surprised no ones told you," Edgeworth frowned.

"Told me what?" He asked her.

"The woman, her names Ruth Barker. Winston Paynes niece. She studied law and was an attorney abroad. She was visiting Payne, they hadn't seen each other for a few years. This was supposed to be a reunion,"

"Some Reunion," Edgeworth responded as Detective Skye left his office.

Sitting back down at his desk, he idly flicked though the files. A picture fell out on to his desk, picking it up he glanced at it. It was a mug shot of the assailant. He had dark brown hair that looked as though it hadn't seen a hair brush in years, brown eyes that sunk in to his head and his mouth twisted in to an ugly smile. Yes, this man fit the description that the witnesses had given them. According to the files, Mr Green had been released from the detention centre three months ago. Edgeworth picked up his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Gumshoe, meet me in the lobby of the prosecutors building in half an hour. We need to pay a certain thief a visit,"