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Six

Damn, this place is swanky, I think stepping out of the lift and into the lobby on the top floor. Me and Maya head towards Roger's office to find it's very grand; incredibly intricate and ornate patterns grace the wallpaper and the rooms looks more like a library than an office.

"This place is beautiful." Maya says, her mouth hanging open slightly at the eagle statues either side of the large mahogany desk in the centre at the far end of the room. The windows at the side are upper class too, red velvet embroidered curtains hang across them and the other side of the wall is littered with full-up book cases, with mainly business themed books on it, but it's littered with classics too.

"It really is, but that white tape outline kinda ruins the view, don't you think?" I ask, walking towards it and noticing his desk, while polished and classy, is also rather messy. Not mess in the way in which my desk at the office was (accidentally messy due to me never cleaning it), but messy in the way it would be if someone had either been searching for something, or if someone had fallen on top of it. My mind raced with the different possibilities of what could have taken place.

There are only about five police men her, dusting for prints and carefully looking for anything that could be a clue. I consider removing my attorney's badge, not eager for anyone to realise I'm a lawyer.

"YOU!" I suddenly hear a shout from behind, a loud, deep but slow voice. "Phoenix Wright, ace lawyer!"

I turn on the spot slowly, looks like our covers blown, "Detective Gumshoe, fancy seeing you here."

He grins broadly and shakes my hand, "Well, I haven't seen you in a while, pal! Not since-" he looks down at Maya who's standing by my side, smiling back at him, "Well, since your last case. Hi Maya." he adds, obviously realising he hasn't greeted her yet.

She says hi back and I nod, "It's been a while, but I'm apparently on this case. I've somehow been shoe-horned into defending Richard Savage."

He looks a little sympathetic, "That's too bad, pal. Well, you won't be getting any information out of me. I'm a closed book as of now." he paused and looks around, "Though, to be honest, we don't know much anyway. We can only see one culprit and that's Mr. Savage's Brother.

"Yeah, apparently the evidence is kinda stacked up against him," Maya says before pausing, "Say, I don't suppose you know about all the evidence do you?" she asks.

Wow, smooth Maya. He's not gonna fall for that one-

"Actually, I do, Pal. Basically, the murder weapon's only got his prints on. So it must be him, right? And then there's also the fact we know he went here last night because it's on the CCTV and he rang the police. From what we gather, he came upstairs, murdered his brother and them called the police."

I consider what he's said for a moment, "Yeah, but why would he hand himself in like that and then plead not-guilty?"

Gumshoe shrugs, "We get this all the time. People murdering and then calling the police, full of guilt at what they've done, before changing their mind and deciding they don't want to go to death row, after all. It's not unusual. Another reason we think it was him is he has true strong motives . . . " he stops, clearly realising he's said too much.

"Well, I know there's one about the fact their business's were competitor's or something?" I say, hoping Gumshoe will absent-mindedly elaborate.

"Nice try, but everyone knows that one. We've uncovered an extra, super secret motive, but as I said, my lips are sealed."

I thought you said you were a closed book? Ah well, looks like he's really not talking this time. "Fair enough, well, we might take a look around anyway. See you in court tomorrow . . . say, I don't suppose you could let us see the autopsy report?"

He scratches his head and thinks about it for a second, "Go on then, it's over on that desk, but that's all you're getting from me today, all right, pal?"

"Fine, thanks anyway." I say.

"Yeah, thanks." Maya adds, mainly because she hasn't said anything in a while.

We walk over to it and an I pick it up, let's just see what happened then, I think.

Name: Roger Savage

Time of death: 11.03pm

Cause of death: Deep stab wound to the back which punctured the heart. Death would have been almost instantaneous due to the location of the wound.

Of course, it would have to have been instantaneous . . . I thought. We'd asked Richard more questions about that night and he'd told us that he'd arrived at around five past eleven that night, which I then realised must mean he arrived only minutes after Roger was killed.

Maya sighs, "This really isn't good. Look at the time of death, Nick. They're never going to believe he didn't do it."

Gumshoe had told us that Richard had been seen leaving on the CCTV, but he'd never mentioned anything about him arriving. I made a note to ask him about this later.

"You're right," I agreed passively with Maya, "Things sure seem to have mounted up about him. It doesn't help that they now have two motives . . . any ideas how on earth we're meant to find out what it is? Gumshoe doesn't seem to be budging on the matter, for once." I added.

She grimaces, "Nope, we usually kinda depend on his letting it slip while we talk to him, but I reckon it's so important that he's making a constant effort to remember it's a secret." She paused for thought, "Maybe if we have a look around there'll be some witness hanging about who we can badger? That usually works."

Maya certainly has a point. In fact, I think, If we're lucky and Mr. Savage actually is innocent, maybe the real murderer will turn up?

"We could ask that man over there?" Maya points to a important looking man standing near some police men.

"Nah," I reply, "I think he's with the police force and because he's in charge of those two police men thinks he's important.

Just then I see something in the corner of my eye. We're standing in the door-way and I see a woman walking away quickly towards the lift. With no time to consult Maya I dash after her, in a mad attempt to get information of any kind. "Hey you, wait, hang on, wait a second, err, excuse me Miss-"

The woman turns around and my jaw drops. She's beautiful and by that, I mean insanely beautiful. She's all dressed in black right down to her lacy detailed suit and silk evening gloves. But it's not her clothes that make her beautiful; her main feature is her hair. It's long and golden and goes way past her shoulders, almost reaching her slender waist, framing a delicate face, full of anguish. I look closely, struck mute momentarily and realise she's at least forty, if not older, but she's wearing fairly heavy black make-up which is slightly smudged by the tears in her eyes.

"Yes?" she says reluctantly, clearly waiting for me to say something.

"Ah, erm, well, I wanted to ask you something," I say, stalling for time as Maya comes over and like me, does a double take at the woman, "I was just wondering-" If you know anything about the murder? I think, before realising that's too straight to the point, "If you're okay, you look like you've been crying."

She looks down and pulls out a black silk hanker-chief, dabbing at her eyes lightly and sniffing, "No, it's nothing really, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine." Maya says kindly, putting her arm around the woman who breaks down into quiet sobs.

I suddenly feel decidedly awkward and while I've become rather good at dealing with Maya's random crying fits, this one throws me and I feel incredibly grateful that Maya's here to comfort her instead. Then a thought hits me;

"Excuse me, but are you Roger Savage's wife?" It's a bit of a stab in the dark, but it's still worth asking.

Shaking uncontrollably and looking up from Maya's shoulder she looks at me alarmingly quickly, "N-no, why would you think- I mean, no, not at all, I-I'm R-Richard Savage's wife."

"But you knew the victim?" I press her anyway.

"Y-yes, how could I not? I'm married to his Brother." She sobs slightly exaggeratedly and then looks up again, some of her mascara has now run down past her nose and yet it somehow doesn't seem to detract from her beauty. "God, this is so horrible. I c-can't believe they think that R-Richard would do that. H-he and Roger were so close, they were best friends. I can't believe this-"

And then she just trails off and goes back into her sobbing fit. I feel awful for her and I can tell Maya does too, and yet I'm also pretty glad we found her. If anyone will know about this, surely she will. She's the perfect character reference for both of them.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Savage," Maya says, stroking her blonde hair. I'm still surprised by how well Maya's handling the situation, "Is that why you're in Black? Are you in mourning?"

She shakes her head, "No, I'm Julie Savage, but I'm know to the public as Julie Dylan . . . I design clothes . . . you might have heard of me?"

I shake my head and assume Maya will too, but she's nodding enthusiastically. "I know you! Yes, I used to see your magazines round at my sister's house. I actually own a few of your clothes-"

Of course, this is all news to me. I didn't even know she owned any clothes other than her spirit medium outfit. I've certainly never seen her wear anything else, other than her cheerful, pink pyjamas when we watch TV in the evenings.

Julie smiles at Maya, looking ever so slightly more cheerful, "I'm wearing black because it's ever so in season . . . though, I must say, your outfit's really interesting- I wonder if there's some way I can adapt it for a new range-"

I roll my eyes discretely. We've somehow gone from discussing her dead Brother-in-law to fashion in under a minute.

"So the outfit, the gloves and the make-up are just fashion related?" I butt in, eager to change the subject, "That's fine . . . I have a question; did you see your husband last night?"

Looking down at the floor she sniffs, "Kind of. I saw him at around seven . . . we had an argument and I didn't see him again after that."

"An argument?" I ask, quick to question, "What about?"

She grimaces slightly and looks down, "J-just something tiny . . . I can't even remember what it was now . . . " She's playing with a strand of her long golden hair, tying it into a knot and then letting it fall out naturally. I don't believe what she says for a second, but I know there's no use in pressing. Blatantly, she doesn't want to say.

"I see," I remark, "and have you seen Richard since he got taken into custody?"

Julie pauses and I notice Maya squint at her, clearly scrutinizing everything she says.

"Yes, of course I have, just this morning."

I nod, "What did he say to you?"

She shrugs, "That he's innocent."

"And do you believe him?"

"Yes." she looks at me like I'm mad. "What kind of wife do you think I am?" and then she looks sad. I actually feel pretty sorry for her.

"Were you close to Roger?"

Then she looks angry. I can only reason this women is extremely temperamental as she's gone from incredulous, to sad, to angry in a matter under half a minute. "What is this? Twenty questions?" and then she paused and looks at me with her startlingly blue eyes and I can tell she's trying to figure me out. "What is is exactly you're after, Mr?"

"Wright." I reply, "I'm a lawyer and this is my assistant, Maya."

The look Julie gives me is bordering on disgust, "Oh, you're one of those? Just how do you plan on twisting my words then, Mr. Wright?"

"I don't plan on doing that at all, Mrs. Savage. I'm just trying to get an idea of what happened. You shouldn't be too angry with me. I'm defending your husband."

Her eyes widen, "Well, that's . . . .good. That's . . . excellent, I suppose." and then she looks at Maya and back at me. "Good luck, I really hope you prove he's innocent." but she sound so disjointed and strange that it barely sounds sincere. Maybe it's just me being a lawyer and twisting things, though?

"Thanks." I say, "And thanks for answering my questions. You can go now if you want?"

Nodding and turning away she sweeps her hair round one shoulder and tries to smile. "It's fine, bye." and with that she heads gets into the elevator and leaves me and Maya alone.

I turn to her, ready to discuss what we've found out, but she still has a deeply scrutinizing look on her face and I can practically see the cogs in her brain turning. "What is it?" I ask her, quickly.

"Julie Savage is a downright liar, that's what."