Phoenix Wright: The Good Old Days
Chapter 3: Turnabout Sisters, Part 2: Trial
November 19, 5:58 PM
Wright Anything Agency
Phoenix and Iris met up at the agency where they agreed to talk about the former's second time in the courtroom. Earlier in the day, just about three hours ago, Apollo and Trucy were talking about their case that day in court. Apollo barely managed to avoid a guilty verdict but had to investigate for tomorrow's trial.
"So, tell me, Feenie," said Iris.
"Yes, Iris?" asked Phoenix.
"How did you make it through the first day of Mystic Maya's trial? Was Mr. Edgeworth really that bad?"
Phoenix took a short pause before answering. "You'll know soon enough."
September 7, 10:00 AM
District Court
Courtroom No. 1
The court gathered around to watch all the drama that would unfold that day.
"Court is now in session for the trial of Ms. Maya Fey," said the judge.
"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor," said the man right across the courtroom from me.
"The defense is ready, Your Honor," I said, as I looked at the man at the prosecutor's bench. Miles Edgeworth, the prosecutor who'd stop at nothing to get his verdict. I knew that I had to be on my toes, because if I had shown any weaknesses, he would be onto me in an instant.
"Mr. Edgeworth, please give the court your opening statement."
"Thank you, Your Honor. The defendant, Maya Fey, was at the scene of the crime. The prosecution has evidence that she comitted this murder... and we have a witness who saw her do it. The prosecution sees no reason to doubt the facts of this case."
The judge nodded and allowed Edgeworth to summon his first witness: Detective Gumshoe.
"Witness, please state your name and profession to the court."
"Sir! My name's Dick Gumshoe, sir! I'm a detective in chage of homicides at the precinct, sir!"
"Detective Gumshoe. Please describe for us the details of this murder."
"Very well, sir! Let me use this floor map of the office to explain." He said as he lay the map for the court to see. "The body was found by this window, here."
"And the cause of the death?"
"Loss of blood due to being struck by a blunt object, sir! The murder weapon was a statue of The Thinker found next to the body, sir! It was heavy enough to be a deadly weapon, even in a girl's hands, sir!"
I still couldn't believe that the clock was still being called a "statue," even though it was proven to be a clock in my first trial. Oh, well. Edgeworth looked just about ready to attack. "Now, Detective..."
"Y-Yes, sir?"
"You immediately arrested Ms. Maya Fey, who was found at the scene. Can you tell me why?"
"Yes sir! I had hard evidence she did it, sir!"
"Detective Gumshoe," said the judge. "Please testify to the court about this 'hard evidence.'"
"As soon as the phone call came in, I rushed to the scene! There were two people there already: the defendant, Ms. Maya Fey, and the lawyer, Mr. Phoenix Wright. I immediately arrested Ms. Maya Fey! Why? We had a witness account describing her! The witness saw Ms. Maya Fey at the very moment of the murder!"
"Hmm... The very moment, you say. Very well. Mr. Wright, you may begin your cross-examination."
"Y-Yes, Your Honor," I said, not knowing what to do until Maya threw a piece of paper at me. It said: "When my sister couldn't find any contradictions in a witness's testimony, she would bluff it and press the witness on every detail! The witness always slips up and says something wrong... It worked lots of times!"
"I should have known that Mystic Maya would know her sister's tricks!"
"That's what I thought."
"Something the matter?"
"No, Your Honor. I'd like to begin my cross-examination." And I did. I pressed the good detective on every detail.
"As soon as the phone call came in, I rushed to the scene!"
"HOLD IT!" I yelled. "Who did you say you got a call from?"
"Hey, pal, don't play dumb! You know who! The call was from a custom at the Gatewater Hotel, right across from the crime scene!"
"Right. Please continue."
"There were two people there already..."
"HOLD IT!" I shouted. "Detective Gumshoe, how long would you say it took between you receiving the call and your arrival at the scene of the crime?"
"Hmm, right..." he said. "I'd say it was about 3 minutes!"
"That's pretty fast!"
"Our motto this month is 'quick response!' That's how we got there before the killer got away!"
"Indeed," said Edgeworth. "So, tell us who the two people you found on the scene were."
"The defendant, Ms. Maya Fey, and the lawyer, Mr. Phoenix Wright."
"HOLD IT! Are you sure it was us?!"
"Listen, pal, your dumb act will only get you so far! With her funky hippie clothes and your spiky hair? You two stand out like... like suspicious people at a crime scene!"
"'Funky hippie clothes?!'" said Iris.
"I immediately arrested Ms. Maya Fey!"
"HOLD IT! Why's that? What's your reason?"
"Why? We had a witness account describing her!"
"HOLD IT! Hold on just one second!"
"Y-Yeah?"
"If I heard correctly... You said you arrested her because you had 'hard evidence' that she did it, correct?"
"Huh? Did... did I say that? Me?"
I heard him say it, so did the judge, Edgeworth, and everyone else in the courtroom. I slammed my desk. "Exactly what about this suspicious woman in pink's claim was 'hard evidence'!?"
"Wh-what!? Miss May isn't suspicious! And she sure isn't pink, pal!"
I said IN pink, Detective. IN pink.
"That's enough, Detective Gumshoe. Do you have any more solid proof other than her claims?"
I guess pressing does have its advantages...
"Yes," he suddenly said, throwing me off guard. "Sorry, I got the order of things mixed up in my testimony, Your Honor sir! There was something I should have told you about first, Your Honor!"
"Hoo boy," said Iris. "Detective Gumshoe sounds like a scatterbrain."
"That he was, Iris," said Phoenix. "That he was. The judge asked him to testify again, concerning his hard evidence."
"After securing the suspect, I examined the scene of the crime with my own eyes. I found a memo written on a piece of paper next to the victim's body! On it, the word 'Maya' was written clearly in blood! Lab test results showed that the blood was the victim's! Also, there was blood found on the victim's finger! Before she died, the victim wrote her killer's name!" Gumshoe exclaimed, setting the crowd into chatter which the judge had to break up. "How do you like that? That's my 'hard evidence!'"
Before I started questioning, the judge angrily scolded the good detective for not testifying about the bloody note earlier. As for his testimony, there was one flaw I found in it: the very end when he said that Mia wrote the name before she died.
"Before she died, the victim wrote her killer's name!"
"OBJECTION!" I shouted, pointing my index finger in Gumshoe's face. "Detective Gumshoe! There's one thing I want you to clarify for me here. You say that the victim, Mia Fey, wrote this note. That she was accusing the defendant, Maya Fey? That's what you're saying?"
"What? This isn't one of those lawyer tricks, now is it? Of course she wrote it! Who else could have!?"
I shook my head in disagreement. "You have it backwards, Detective."
"B-backwards?"
I presented Mia's autopsy to explain the inconsistency. "The victim is the only person who absolutely could NOT have written it! This is a report from your department, Detective. 'Immediate death due to a blow from a blunt object.' She died immediately!"
Gumshoe flinched. "But...!"
"No 'but'ing your way out of this, Detective!"
The audience began to talk loudly again with the judge silencing them with his gavel and calling for order. "The defense has a point," he said. "Someone who died immediately wouldn't have the time to write anything down."
"OBJECTION!" came a voice. It was Edgeworth, looking rather calm and collected. "Mr. Wright, I beg your pardon, but when exactly did you obtain that autopsy report?"
"W-when...?" I wasn't sure what he was up to, but I answered anyway. "It was the day after the murder."
"The prosecution's point being?"
Edgeworth gave a cruel-looking smirk and tapped his finger on head, stating that the autopsy report I had was "outdated."
"A second autopsy was performed yesterday, at my request!" he said as he held a file in his hand: this "updated autopsy report." "'Death was almost immediate due to a blow from a blunt object... But there is a possibility that the victim lived for several minutes after the blow.' I received these results this morning."
"N-no way!" I yelled. That man requested another autopsy and deliberatley withheld that information until the right time!
"Your Honor! It's quite easy to imagine that the victim did have time to write 'Maya!' That is all," he said as he took an arrogant bow.
I glared right at Edgeworth's direction. I should have known that he had something up his sleeve! Edgeworth responded by shrugging and shaking his head side to side with that arrogant smirk on his face. "Why, Mr. Wright, you look shocked! Something you want to say?"
I had a lot to say about that guy and his tactics. "Mr. Edgeworth... I've heard there's nothing you won't do to get your verdict! What reason could you possibly have had to request a second autopsy report?!"
"M-Mr. Wright! The defense will refrain from personal attacks on the prosecution!"
Edgeworth's only reply was to laugh at me. "No matter, Your Honor. Mr. Wright, say what you will, the evidence in this report is undeniable. Your Honor, I submit this report to the court."
"U-understood, The court accepts the evidence."
"Much to my dismay," said Phoenix. "The 'second autopsy' said exactly what Edgeworth said: Mia died ALMOST immediately."
Iris just sat there with a look of disbelief on her face. "T-this is the same man who defended me on the first day of my trial? I-I can't believe this!"
"Sorry, Iris, but that's what he was then. Not as he is now. You may not look at him the same way anymore, but please give it some time."
"O-okay... So anyway, it didn't look good for you, huh?"
"It certainly didn't. Detective Gumshoe left the stand for Edgeworth's next witness: April May, who he described as a 'poor, innocent girl' who saw the murder with her own eyes."
"Exactly, what part about that woman was 'innocent,' Phoenix?"
"Nothing, at all... Believe me."
As soon as Miss May took the stand, every man in the courtroom fell under her influence, much to my chagrin as well as the chagrin of their girlfriends, wives, et cetera.
"Please state your name."
"April May! At your service!" she said, winking, making the whole male half of the audience chatter endlessly. The judge called for order and told the witness to "refrain from wanton winking."
"Tell us, where were you on the night of September 5, when the murder occurred?"
"Um, gee... I was, like, in my hotel room! Tee hee. I checked in right after lunch."
"And this hotel is directly across from the Fey & Co. Law Offices?"
"Mmm... that's right, big boy!"
With that, the judge instructed May to give her testimony.
"It was, like, 9:00 at night. I looked out the window, y'know? And then, ooh! I saw a woman with long hair being attacked! The one attacking her was the mousey girl sitting in the defendant's chair! Then the woman, like, dodged to one side and ran away! But that girl, she caught up to her and... and... She hit her! Then the woman with the long hair... She kinda... slumped. The end. That's all I saw. Every little bitsy witsy!" She winked as she concluded her testimony.
"M-Miss May... manipulated every man in court... with her cute looks?" said Iris. "She sounds just like... her..."
"Only less extreme..." said Phoenix. "And before my cross-examination, it looked like they were going to let her leave the stand."
"It's a good thing you stopped them before she did, because if you didn't..."
"Maya would have been found guilty right then and there. Her testimony seemed bulletproof, but I had a feeling that she had some form of weakness, something Edgeworth didn't want me to find."
"But you did anyway, by pressing her on a certain detail."
"Exactly."
"Miss May, I'm willing to bet that you're lying! Are you telling the truth? Did you really see the defendant!?"
"Urp!"
"Mr. Wright! What's the meaning of this?" the judge asked.
"If you had really witnessed my client, Maya Fey, you would've noticed her clothes before her physique!"
"No one wears clothes like this on a daily basis! Except her! I'm no expert on fashion, but her hairdo looks far from normal to me! However, the witness's testimony mentions neither of these facts! Your testimony is bogus!" Miss May was struggling to think up an excuse.
"Still, we don't know if she was dressed that way on the night of the murder."
"She was, Your Honor. I saw her. And so did Detective Gumshoe! What do you say to that,, Miss May?!"
"What are you trying to say, you mean lawyer?! I-I saw what I saw. I... just didn't think all the trifling little details were necessary, darling."
T-Trifling!? You left them out on purpose, you little skank!
"Miss May, the court would like to remind you to please omit nothing in your testimony."
Miss May went back to flirt mode, promising she'd "be a good girl," and began her new testimony.
Damn! I almost had her.
"I did see everything! I did! The victim-the woman-dodged the first attack and ran off to the right. Then the girl in the hippie clothes ran after her... And she hit her with that weapon! I saw it! I did! That... that clock! Uh... the kinda statue-y clock? The Thinker, I think! Well? Does the accuracy of my report not startle you? Tee hee!"
"I... see. I wish you had been so detailed from the beginning."
"'Detailed?' Or 'truthful?'" asked Iris.
"He did say 'detailed,' Iris," said Phoenix. "He said 'detailed.'"
"This 'Miss May' must have been a real slippery character to have neglected mentioning Mystic Maya's clothes the first time."
"She was."
When questioning her on her account, I pointed out the very obvious inconsistency.
"OBJECTION!" I shouted. "Miss May. What you said just now was quite... revealing."
"Revealing?" May said in fake surprise. "Oooh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Naughty Mr. Lawyer..."
Ignoring her innuendos, I continued. "You just said that this 'statue' of The Thinker was a clock. But there's no way of knowing that just by looking at it!" Upon hearing this, Miss May flinched; she got caught in her own lie. "Another person in the same position as you called this a 'clock,' too. And he was found guilty... of murder!" That did it. I brought April May's testimony into question with one fact: how did she know the murder weapon was a clock?
"Oh, my..." said Iris. "Another witness who knew the weapon was a table clock. Did she...?"
"No, Iris," said Phoenix. "She didn't kill Mia. But I didn't know it at the time and assumed the same thing as I did with Sahwit."
"I see... How did everyone react to this?"
"The whole court was chattering, and what followed was the first of several back-and-forth arguments between me and Edgeworth."
"Order! Order!" said the judge.
"Miss May. Can you expalin how you knew this item was a clock?"
"Oooh... urp!"
"OBJECTION!" Edgeworth shouted. "The witness saw the murder with her own eyes! That's all that's important here!" He slammed his bench with just one palm and made his argument. "The defense is trying to confuse the issue with trivial concerns!"
"Yes... yes, of course. You will withdraw your question, Mr. Wright."
"OBJECTION!" I yelled. "But questions are all I have, Your Honor! As you may recall, I've caught murderes with these questions before!" Well, only once...
His Honor thought a bit more and hit his gavel, sustaining my objection, and allowing me to resume. And a good thing, too, for if he stopped me, he'd have declared Maya guilty!
Now, back to our "lovely" witness, Miss May who looked absolutely perplexed. "So... what happens now?"
"What happens now is you answer my question!" I said, pointing my finger at her. "How did you know it was a clock?"
"Th-that... Because... I heard it? Yes! I heard it say the time!"
I slammed my desk with both palms and pointed at her again. "So, you've been to the Fey & Co. Law Offices!"
"N-N-NO! I didn't say that! I didn't go there! I heard it from my hotel room. Hee hee!" The last "hee hee" definitely sounded fake. She was, without a doubt, putting on an innocent act to back up her story.
"The law offices of Fey & Co., where the murder took place, is very close to the hotel," said Edgeworth. "She could have easily heard the clock!"
"Well, Mr. Wright? Are you satisfied?"
I shook my head in disagreement. I was NOT satisfied with her explanation because the clock could not have rung at the time of the murder. After all, the clock was missing its clockwork! I asked the judge to take a good look at the inside of the murder weapon, and sure enough, the clock was empty of its clockwork! Miss May was looking quite unnerved; the more I revealed to the court about the clock, the less credible her testimony was looking.
"Wow, Feenie! You did so well for your second trial!" said Iris.
"You sure... I was just doing my job," said Phoenix.
"Like I said, you did well. How did Mystic Maya feel?"
"To be honest, I was focusing on tearing Miss May's testimony apart; I didn't know what she was thinking, but I can just imagine her praising me mentally."
"Hee hee... I can definitely see that. How did Mr. Edgeworth take it?"
"That's what shocked me next."
"Quite a show you've put on for us, Mr. Wright," said the prosecutor clad in maroon.
He knew... Somehow Edgeworth knew that the clock was empty. He was toying with me again!
"I'm afraid you've forgotten one thing, however. Indeed, the clock is empty. As you say... it can't ring. However, I must ask: when was the clockwork removed? If it was after the witness heard the clock, then there is no contradiction! Proof is everything, Mr. Wright." He said as he smirked evilly at me. Without a doubt, he was challenging me to prove that the clock was empty at the time of the murder.
"Well, Mr. Wright?" asked the judge. "Can you prove when the clockwork was removed?"
Edgeworth shrugged, saying that it was impossible... until I confidently said that I did have proof! "W-what!?" The prosecutor was suddenly taken aback, not expecting me to have any evidence to counter him.
"Wasn't it you who told me 'proof is everything'?" I said. "Well, I was listening. And now I'll show you the 'proof' you like so much! TAKE THAT!"
For evidence, I presented Maya's cell phone. After all, there was a recorded conversation between her and Mia on the day of the murder! When I pointed this out, Edgeworth was livid, for this was the first time he heard about this. Good thing Detective Gumshoe somehow overlooked this important information!
"Let's hear the conversation." I played the conversation at a certain part: the part where Mia asked her sister to hold evidence for her. In this section, she told Maya that the clock wasn't working because she herself took out the clockwork. "Your Honor... I think this recording makes it clear that the clockwork was already gone... and this recorded in the morning, before the witness even arrived at her hotel!"
Miss May was at a loss for words. She did NOT hear the clock ring at all.
"Well, Miss May? Would you care to explain this to the court? Just how did you know that the weapon was a clock!?"
"W-well..." In a desperate attempt to strengthen her testimony, May claimed that she saw the clock before while "shopping."
"So, the witness had seen it before. That would make sense," said the judge.
How gullible is this guy?
"Does the defense have any objections, Mr. Wright?" I did.
"The witness claims she had 'seen it before.' But this directly contradicts a piece of evidence already submitted to this court!"
"Well then, let's see it. Please produce evidence that will prove the witness has not seen the clock before."
"TAKE THAT!" My evidence was the murder weapon itself, The Thinker! "This clock was never in any store, ever! A friend of mine made this clock; only two exist in the world. And the one that isn't here is in police custody!"
"I-impossible!" Miss May exclaimed. "Everything is sold in stores!"
"Miss May, I think it's high time you went shopping for a better excuse...?" I said, taunting her. "Oh? Excuses not on sale today?"
Iris couldn't help but giggle. "Now, Feenie. You know it's not nice to pick on little girls."
"H-hey! I'll let you know she was 23 at the time! ...Not that I'm defending her," said Phoenix.
"I know, Feenie. I know. How did she respond, though?"
"That, my dear, is when April May... snapped."
Now backed into a corner, our "beautiful" Miss May screamed in utter rage and took on a different appearnce: the heart-shaped buttons on her blouse turned upside down, and her eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of the sockets. She even lost her temper and yelled at me, calling me porcupine-head and saying the clock didn't matter. "She did it! And she should die for it! DIE!"
Everyone in the courtroom was shocked! The cute, little Miss May the men fell in love with was completely gone, and in her place was this temperamental witch!
The judge asked for her to calm down, which she did, if only for a minute or so, going back to "cute girl" mode. S-Scary... I thought.
"Miss May, let me ask. Tell me, how did you know the weapon was a clock?"
"Miss May" didn't answer.
"Hmm... oh dear. Does the defense have an opinion on this... behavior?"
Okay, this is it! I thought. I felt close to bringing this trial to an end. "Yes, Your Honor. Allow me to explain how I see the truth of the matter. Miss April May, you knew the weapon was a clock because you heard about it, despite never holding the clock in your hand!"
"She 'heard'...?"
"That is correct, Your Honor. There is no other way she could have known The Thinker was a clock! And I can show you the proof!" It was time to play my trump card: the evidence which would cast doubt on Miss May's character once and for all!
"Well, this is interesting. Let's see it, then. Show me evidence that proves the witness had 'heard' the murder weapon was a clock."
"TAKE THAT!" I yelled as I presented the wiretap I found the day before.
May made that "What are you doing with that?!" face.
"I found this in Miss May's room." Now the whole court was in an uproar.
"Miss April May! You were tapping the victim, Ms. Mia Fey's phone, were you not?!"
"OBJECTION!" Edgeworth yelled. I had almost forgotten he was there. "Your Honor, this is irrelevant!"
"I'm not entirely sure that it is. Objection overruled. It troubles me that our witness was in possession of a wiretap."
"This is outrageous! Does the defense truly claim that the witness was tapping the victim's phone?"
"Absolutely!"
"Even if that's the case (which it's not), you still have to prove one thing: did the victim ever say that the weapon was a clock on the phone? Can you prove it? I THINK NOT!"
"Oh yeah? I THINK I CAN! It's simple!"
"WHAAAAT!?"
The evidence proving that the victim said the murder weapon was a clock happened to be the conversation on Maya's phone. On the very first section, Mia told her sister that she wanted her to hold on to a certain piece of evidence: a clock shaped like The Thinker! That did it. April May was tapping Mia's phone.
Despite Edgeworth's objections, Miss May was trapped. The judge wanted confirmation on the matter of wiretapping.
"MISS MAY!" the judge shouted, for once displeased with the witness.
"Shut up! All of you! What gives you the right to talk to ME like that!? You... you LAWYER!"
That last outburst showed the real April May to the world: angry, arrogant, temperamental, and manipulative. "I-it's no fair! All of you g-ganging up on me like that... Oh, so I'm the bad girl, is that it? Is that it?!" With her wiretapping activities exposed, the one thing Miss May did was cry like a big baby.
"Wow. That must have been something," said Iris.
"It was," said Phoenix. "And I thought I'd won, until she said that she had an alibi: ordering ice coffee from her hotel room at the time of murder."
"Oh, my!"
"Edgeworth made it worse by saying that the wiretapping was irrelevant and that her testimony against Maya stood!"
"Oh, no. What did you do?"
"There was only one option available to me: call the hotel bellboy as a witness to corroborate her story, under one condition, as proposed by Edgeworth."
"What was the condition, Phoenix?"
"If the witness's alibi was not called into question after cross-examination, April May would not be recognized by the court as the murderer, and Maya Fey would be found guilty."
"Oh, no! What a horrible situation you've been through. Either find a single ray of hope in the bellboy's testimony or Mystic Maya would be convicted of her sister's murder!"
"As well as losing my chances of finding Mia's real killer. I had no choice but to accept. After all, Maya's freedom was at steak."
Several minutes later, the bellboy took the stand, with a heavy tea set in hand.
"I received your summons in the middle of work, sir. I'm happy to be of service." said the bellboy.
"That tea set looks rather heavy," said the judge. "So without further ado, the witness may begin his testimony."
"Very well, sir!"
Here it comes, I thought. The moment of truth!
"I am the head bellboy at the fine Gatewater Hotel, in business for four generations! I believe I received a call after 8:00 in the evening from our guest, Miss May. She asked for an ice coffee to be brought to her at 9:00 on the dot, sir. I brought it to her at precisely the requested time, of course. And I delivered the ice coffee to our guest, Miss May herself."
"I see," said the judge. "The defense may begin its cross-examination."
"R-right! I'm ready." If I couldn't find anything tying that woman to murder, Maya would be sent to prison.
"I believe I received a call after 8:00 in the evening from our guest, Miss May."
"HOLD IT! Are you sure it was Miss May on the phone?"
"Absolutely, sir."
"H-how can you be so certain!?"
"I checked Miss May in personally, sir. Not only did I see her in all her stunning raidance, but I also heard her voice. And then I saw THEM, and I..." The bellboy suddenly blushed, but he chose to continue his story.
"She asked for an ice coffee to be brought to her at 9:00 on the dot, sir."
"HOLD IT! 9:00 'on the dot,' you say?"
"Yes. I confirmed that detail several times. She was watching a program on the TV, and wished to drink after she finished, sir."
9:00... The time of the murder!
"I brought it to her at precisely the requested time, of course."
"HOLD IT! 'Precisely' 9:00, then?"
"Precisely, exactly, and most definitely, sir. 9:00 PM."
"How can you be so sure!?"
"Miss May was quite insistent that it be brought then. 'Oh, bellboy? Tee hee! I'd like, like, ice coffee at exactly 9:00!' Something like that, sir. Therefore, I knocked on her door at the crack of 9:00, sir."
I thought, Why would she be so particular about the time?
"And I delivered the ice coffee to our guest, Miss May herself."
"HOLD IT! You are sure it was Miss April May herself?"
"Ab-SO-lutely, sir."
"'Ab-SO-lutely'...?"
"Yes, sir. As in, 'so very absolutely,' sir. It's an endearing mannerism of mine."
"How come you're so very certain!?"
"Well, when I brought the room service, sir... S-She... the guest, sir, favored me w-wtih an, uh, an 'embrasser,' sir."
"'Embrasser!?' Is that French for 'embrace'?"
"It's French for 'kiss,' sir. But not a French kiss, sir! More of a peck on the cheek."
"Wh-why would she have done that?"
"I believe, perhaps, she was momentarily swayed by my prim demeanor, sir. It was a moment I shall never, ever forget, sir."
Sounds pretty fishy to me, I thought. I think our Miss May was up to something and wanted the bellboy to remember her!
"That's what happened," said Phoenix. "That woman definitely wanted the bellboy to remember her, and he did!"
"That doesn't sound good, Feenie," said Iris. "That just made the situation look worse for Mystic Maya."
"Yes, it looked pretty hopeless... But I wasn't giving up. If I did, I'd also give up the reason I became a lawyer in the first place: to help people!"
Before the bellboy left, I asked him and the court to wait. I couldn't let him go yet.
"One last question... let me ask one last question!" I begged.
"OBJECTION!" Edgeworth exclaimed. "Your Honor, I must object. This charade of justice has gone on long enough!"
So says the man who deliberately withheld information from the court!
"Now, now, Mr. Edgeworth. Alright, Mr. Wright. I'll give you one more question, that's all."
This was it: my last chance. I had been backed into a corner. "T-Tell me about check-in! Tell me about when you checked in Miss May."
"Oh, alright. Very well, sir," said the bellboy. "My first thought was that she was a beautiful person. She's just my type of girl, so it was a disappointment, really."
"I see..." Then I noticed something wrong. "Excuse me... what exactly was a 'disappointment?'"
"Well, I am not without charm, sir, but even I'd have little chance with her lover there."
...! What did he say!?
I slammed the bench and asked the bellboy what he said.
"Ah! Oh... er... rather, quite!"
"Bellboy! Tell us the truth now... Did Miss May check in with another person?!"
"OBJECTION!" Edgeworth yelled. "I object! That was... objectionable!" Judging by his reaction, I've finally found the flaw in his case.
"Objection overruled," the judge declared. "The witness will answer the question."
The bellboy was blushing and sweating at the same time.
"Why did you not mention this in your testimony!?"
"W-well, sir, you er... didn't ask!"
"That's the sort of thing you're normally supposed to mention!"
"Ah, yes, quite. Indeed... It was the, er, good barrister there, Mr. Edgeworth, who..."
E-Edgeworth...!
"He asked me not to mention it if I wasn't specifically asked, sir."
With that, Edgeworth flinched, looking like he'd been hit in the stomach. I had done it! Maya was safe... for now.
"I-I don't believe it! Mr. Edgeworth withheld such an important fact just so he could win!?" Iris yelled.
"Yes..." said Phoenix. "But it's kind of ironic, don't you think?"
"That Mr. Edgeworth wanted the bellboy to be called to confirm Miss May's alibi and have Maya convictied, only for the former to be true and the latter not happening?"
"Yes. By letting me call the bellboy to the stand, Edgeworth unknowingly blew a hole in his own case. Oh, how I loved to see him squirm."
"Miss April May checked into a twin room... with a man. Correct?"
"Yes, sir," the bellboy confirmed.
"Then, when you brought them room service, you didn't see that man in the room...?"
"That's right, sir."
"Hmm..."
"Your Honor! We have just learned of another person involved who may have been the murderer! In this new light, I hold that it's impossible to judge the defendant. You agree, Mr. Edgeworth?"
"Who?! Who is this this 'other person!?'"
"Simple, it was the man who checked in with Miss May!" Edgeworth cringed again.
"As has been previously revealed, April May was tapping the victim's phone. Yet Miss May herself has an alibi at the time of the murder. However, that does not clear the man that was with her! The bellboy saw no one else in the room at the time of the murder!"
"M-my, what a convenient little set-up... but it's too late..." said Edgeworth.
"'Too late?' I suppose you'd like it if it was too late, wouldn't you...? After all, you were the one who hid the presence of the other man from this court!"
"Oof!" Edgeworth took damage once more and was visibly angry. Just when victory was within the prosecutor's grasp, his trump card gave a slip of the tounge which delayed another win for his precious record. "Upstart... amateur...! Th-these accusations are... ludicrous...!"
With this new information, the judge agreed to prolong the trial for another day, asking both me and Edgeworth to investigate the matter fully and adjourned the court.
"Oh, thank goodness," said Iris.
"Yeah," said Phoenix. "I've learned a lot of things from the trial that day."
"Like what, Feenie?"
"Like the fact that not every witness I cross-examine is guilty of a crime, and whether or not they actually had some part to play."
"Oh. What about Mr. Edgeworth?"
"The man I faced in court that day was not the Miles Edgeworth I knew from my 4th grade year in school. The Miles who would often talk about his father, Defense Attorney Gregory Edgeworth."
"'D-d-defense attorney?!'"
"Yeah, that's right. He even wanted to become a defense attorney himself."
"W-wow... I had no idea..."
"But that all changed when his father died..."
"O-oh... I see. What happened?"
"I'll tell you more later, OK?"
"O-okay, Feenie."
In Defendant Lobby No. 1, Maya was praising me for defending her, right to the point where she called herself my "newest fan."
"So, what happens with me?" She asked. "Do I get to go home now?"
"Well, no." I said. "I don't think so. Not yet."
"Oh. I see," she said, looking sad again.
"But I got a great lead in today's trial!"
"A 'lead?'"
"That man with Miss May! He's the key!"
"Oh! I get it," she said with a thoughtful expression. It quickly turned to anger when she asked this to me: "What happened to Miss May after that, anyway?"
"I heard they arrested her. I guess she's learning her charms won't work everywhere. She's probably at the detention center now. I may have to go down there later.
"Anyway. This case is far from closed."
"Yes sir!" Maya said, pumping her fists in the air.
"I'm going to find out more about this man."
"Do you think he was the one who...?"
"Maybe so."
"Sis..."
"Don't worry, Maya. I'll find him by tomorrow. I promise."
"I'm counting on you!"
I asked for a full record of April May's testimony. I thought it would come in handy during the trial on the next day. But now that I had, I wasn't so sure. Most of her testimony was all lies... In fact, there was only one part that stood on the record. Anyway, it was time to investigate once more. Maya didn't belong in that detention center, and it was up to me to get her out of there! And to make sure of that, I had to find the real culprit!
November 19, 7:30 PM
Wright Anything Agency
"And that's the end of my second trial's first day," said Phoenix.
"Wow, that was amazing, Phoenix!" said an excited Iris. "Let's go to your apartment. Shall we?"
"We shall, Iris." Phoenix proceeded to lead her by the hand as they left the agency.
November 19, 7:55 PM
Phoenix Wright's Apartment
They went back to Phoenix's apartment and sat on his bed.
"Feenie, shall we go over the case again?"
"Like always."
Recap Time
1.) "September 7, 2016. I went to court to defend my mentor's sister Maya Fey against the cunning prosecutor and my childhood friend, Miles Edgeworth. His case went like this: Maya was at the scene of the murder. He had both evidence and a witness to try and prove she was the perpetrator of the crime in question. His first witness of the day was..."
a. Detective Gumshoe
b. April May
c. The hotel bellboy
"Detective Gumshoe."
"That's right. Gumshoe was called forth to describe the incident to the court and tell them why he and his team arrested my client."
2.) "The hard evidence Gumshoe stated was the piece of paper with the name 'Maya' on it, saying that the victim wrote her killer's name before she died. I presented the autopsy report he handed me the other day to contradict him. But Edgeworth, the dirty rat that he was, presented something to nullify the contradiction. What was it again?"
a. An updated autopsy report
b. The murder weapon
c. A new witness
"It was an 'updated autopsy report.'"
"Yes, that's it. His report said that Mia did not die immediately and lived for some time. He used this report to make it look like she had the time to write Maya's name."
3.) "The next witness, April May, took the stand and accused Maya of the murder, like I thought she would. But there was one thing that stood out in her testimony that got to me. What was it again?"
a. She didn't mention Maya's clothes.
b. She said the murder weapon was a clock.
c. She had a bad temper.
"She knew that the weapon was a clock."
"Yeah, that's right. We had a long argument about the clock, what with her making up several excuses like hearing it ring, and seeing it in a store, until she snapped."
4.) "I backed Miss May into a corner with each contradiction until finally I presented my trump card: the wiretap and Maya's cell phone with the conversation saying that The Thinker was indeed a clock. But what Miss May along with Edgeworth said startled me, for the witness..."
a. Was there, but didn't kill Mia.
b. Had an alibi.
c. Did not place the wiretap.
"Had an alibi at the time of the incident."
"Correct. She was in her hotel room at the time of Mia's death or so she claimed. To determine wheter this was true or not, I asked for the hotel bellboy to take the stand."
5.) "I knew that Maya was in deep trouble now, because if I didn't find a flaw in the bellboy's testimony, she'd been wrongly convicted for own sister's murder. So, I pressed the bellboy on every statement and was unable to find the crack in Miss May's alibi, but I didn't give up yet. My last question for him was when he checked in Miss May herself. That's where he slipped up and said something that poked a huge hole in the prosecution's case: there was..."
a. A new time frame
b. An escape route
c. A man staying with Miss May.
"Another person staying with her, a man."
"Correct. There was a man who checked into the hotel with Miss May on the night of the murder. The one responsible for telling the bellboy not to divulge the other customer's existence was Edgeworth, which cemented how low he would go to get his verdict."
"With no verdict given, I had another chance to investigate," Phoenix stated. "After all, the man who checked in with April May was left unaccounted for."
"Feenie?"
"Yes, Iris?"
"What did you see in Edgeworth that day? I-I mean... some sort of emotion he's bottled up?"
"I saw that somewhere deep in that cynical shell of his, was the Edgeworth I knew from grade school. Despite the arrogant exterior he displayed, he was actually in pain."
"Pain? Like something happened to him?"
"Yeah... Let's go to bed now."
"Okay. Good night, Feenie," said Iris, kissing him goodnight.
"Good night, Iris," he said, kissing her back.
So ends the first day of Phoenix Wright's first battle against Miles Edgeworth. In the next chapter, Phoenix investigates further and uncovers a sinister blackmail scheme which dates back to the DL-6 Incident.