Chapter Six
Kay unlocked the door to her office at eight o'clock sharp. She wanted to get as much done as possible before the girl showed up.
"Morning, Kay!"
The investigator turned around, only to find Trucy sitting behind her desk. She was unusually happy for someone caught breaking and entering.
"How did you get in?" Was the lock broken? Had she forgotten to lock it when she left last night? She had been pretty tired...
"That lock is old. Even non-magicians know how to get into those things."
So do great thieves, Kay thought to herself. On one hand, she was upset. If a teenage girl could break in, what about a real burglar?
But on the other... She'd always thought lock-picking was really cool. Even if she'd never been good at it. And she hadn't done anything else to her office, so...
"So, ready to get to work?" Trucy chirped, jumping up and letting Kay have her seat back. "I have my Daddy's permission... With two conditions."
What dad let his daughter run around investigating with strangers? Kay had only met Phoenix Wright once (two days ago), but he'd seemed more responsible than that.
"What are the conditions?"
"Condition number one: I'm not allowed inside the prison. He thinks I'll make friends with a bunch of murderers or something."
"Fair enough. I saw the crime scene yesterday, after all." Kay picked up Little Thief 2.0 and put him in her travel bag. Just in case. "What's the second thing?"
"I have to follow your orders at all times, even if I disagree. He also said if something bad happens to me, he's putting the blame on you. No pressure!"
Kay snorted. That sounded like the lawyer she met recently. "No worries. We're not doing anything dangerous or illegal today."
"Awwwwwww... What are we doing, then?" Trucy sighed. "No crime scene and no dangerous stuff? What kind of investigation is this?"
"Not a murder investigation, that's for sure," Kay replied. They'd actually be doing both, but Kay wasn't allowed to tell Trucy that. Her authority to investigate was shaky at best. Trucy's? Nonexistent.
"What?!"
"I have my own work, too," Kay grumbled, then perked up. "Don't worry. I'm investigating a blackmailing case today!"
"Blackmail? I've investigated a blackmail before. Maybe it'll lead to a murder!" And with that, the magician was back to being excited. Was murder the only thing that excited her? That... sounded exactly like Kay's younger self. The whole reason Kay agreed to bring her.
"We'll leave in a few minutes. Let me grab some things first," Kay gazed out among the papers on her desk. She hadn't bothered cleaning them up, so everything was laid out within easy reach. She grabbed the blackmail letters, the key and address to the Block residence, and (after a thought) the list of names Klavier had given her. She could find a way to multitask, right?
There weren't that many names anyway. Just three that Klavier hadn't been able to find in public records. He suspected criminals, Ema suspected pseudonyms or typos. Either way, those three were the only ones Kay got to see the dates and times of correspondence on. The rest were the police's problem.
"Ready to go, Trucy?"
"Yep!" was the ever peppy reply.
"If anyone asks, you're my new assistant." Kay instructed. "We're taking the train to Crystal Hills. It's an upscale apartment complex near Hollywood."
"Why are we going there?"
"I'll tell you on the way."
"So, this guy walks into your office, tells you his wife is being blackmailed, then hands you a key to his apartment with no trouble?" Trucy summarized. They hadn't gotten onto the public train without incident. Since most people were at work already, the girls' train car was only half full.
"Essentially. He wants me to identify the blackmailer in three days. He also told me there would be a new one arriving every other day. The most recent letter is dated December 31st. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
The brunette nodded. "There should be another one arriving today!"
Kay nodded. "I want to see them be delivered, and study it before anyone has the chance to interfere. Sometimes, clients alter the evidence." Well, actually it had only happened once, in Kay's experience. But she was still paranoid.
"Okay, so we go to the apartment and wait for the mail to be delivered?" Trucy questioned, confused.
"Not just that. We also need to inspect the house and make sure there aren't any more letters. For all we know, the husband missed a few."
"Can I see the letters?"
"Wear-oh, you already have gloves on. Good on you," Kay handed Trucy every letter except the most recent one.
Trucy took to inspecting them, looking the exact same places Kay had yesterday.
This could be interesting. If she found all the things Kay had, she was a good investigation partner. If she found anything new, she was a great one. It could be a test, of sorts.
Suddenly, the magician frowned. "What did you find?"
"Someone altered the addresses on all the letters. I don't know all of these, but this one," she held up the first letter, dated December 8th, "claims to be from Sunshine Coliseum. They don't even have a mailbox there!"
Kay nodded. "All these addresses are public places in the city. They must have been altered to hide the blackmailer's identity."
"Also, there's something else."
"What is it?" Trucy hadn't even opened the letters. She couldn't have noticed the oddities of the letters themselves.
"The blackmailer sent one letter December 16th, and the next one the 17th. They threw off their own pattern," Trucy shrugged. "I'm not sure it means anything, but it's kinda weird."
"Yeah, for sure." How had Kay not noticed that?
Before she could say more, the train stopped. She looked up, and began to shove all the letters back into her bag, making sure she had them all. "This is our stop. Let's go."
They got off right before the car doors closed. It was a four block walk from the apartment complex. When they got there, the gate was locked.
"Huh. Do you know what the code is, Kay?"
"Hold on," Kay fished around for a minute, pulling out Mr. Block's apartment key. She took another look at the gate, noticing a small scanner below the keypad. Kay scanned the digital key, and the gate began to open.
"Nice! I wish my apartment was as fancy as this." Trucy commented. Silently, Kay agreed.
They had to walk out to the back of the complex and up three flights of stairs to reach the Blocks' apartment: 312b. Kay checked to make sure she had the right apartment, looked at the time (eight forty-six, shouldn't be an issue), and scanned the key-card.
"Woah!"
The apartment was huge, with marble counters, ceiling-to-floor windows, and plenty of wide open space. Kay could fit three of her apartment into theirs!
It was mostly clean, save for a few toddler toys scattered about. Kay shoved the key back into her pocket, and pulled up her dark purple trench coat. Where to start?
"Kay? Are you sure we have permission to be here?" Trucy asked hesitantly from behind.
"Of course I am. My client said it was okay so long as I looked between the hours eight and five."
"This feels wrong. We're investigating the victim."
"It's not like we're going to steal anything," Kay rationalized. "And we just need to see if there are any more letters, or signs of correspondence with the blackmailer. Once we get the new letter, we can get out of here."
"Okay. I'll watch for the mail delivery."
And with that, Kay began her search of the house, programming all the details into Little Thief in case she needed to revisit later. She also allowed Little Theif to scan the areas so it would pick up on any details she missed.
After glancing over the counters, the table, and the work desk, Kay found nothing even close to resembling a blackmail letter.
She sifted through the papers to be shredded, the trash, and the filing cabinet. Still nothing. This would have been so much easier if Kay knew what stuff was Allan's and what belonged to his wife.
The last place on Kay's list to check was the master bedroom. After passing Ethan's nursery, she found the door partially open.
Trucy was right. It did feel like an invasion of privacy. But I have to be sure there isn't more to the story. And I have permission to do this.
The bedroom was just as clean as the rest of the house. The open closet revealed Mrs. Block to be an office worker of some sort, filled to the brim with pine green pantsuits and painfully high heels. She was a tall, semi-thin woman with medium curves (as the bras revealed) and-
Did Kay need to know all this? She ran out the closet in haste. She peeked inside every drawer, under every pillow. And nothing.
There was only one place left to check. Kay adjusted her gloves, reached under the mattress, and-
"Kay! Kay!"
Trucy ran into the room. "The mail truck just left the mailboxes. Let's go down and check it out!"
"Can you go, actually?" Kay handed the teenager the apartment key. "I'm almost done in here."
"Sure," Trucy took the card and skipped out the door, begging any passerby to notice and remember the girl with the blue magician's clothes. Kay should've told her to dress casually.
Back to what she was doing. Kay reached under the mattress, and-
Ha! A paper of some kind! She pulled it out quickly, unfolding it with haste.
It was a letter. From the Meraktis Clinic, apparently. Curious, Kay began to read:
"Dear Mr. Gavin,
Your false autopsy report was picked up by your partner this morning. According to it, the victim died of strangulation, not the puncture wound to the abdomen. I have instead stated the wound had been received postmortem. It's surprising the police left that vague, or even allowed you to request another autopsy.
This is the last favor I'm doing for you and your partner, understand? She might be in the dark, but we both know this is gonna get us locked up one day. You and that pretty little liar are everything wrong with our court system nowadays, you hear? Don't ever contact me again!
Sincerely,
Pal Meraktis
Signed, December 4th, 2025"
Mrs. Block was Mr. Gavin's law partner?! And she assisted in evidence forgery? Kay gasped, reaching back into her bag. She pulled out the most recent letter.
"To Mrs. Ingrid Block,
Your lack of cooperation is... disappointing, to say the least. I have been nothing if not persistent, and have tried to remain friendly, but to no avail. It seems you don't care about your current life at all.
I know the truth, Ingrid. The truth that tears you apart at night from the inside, threatening to crawl out your filthy lips. If you don't assist me, I will take my knowledge and destroy everything you hold dear. If you don't deliver the requested items to the locations I specified, I will deliver the sword of justice you claim to love, straight into your heart.
The truth won't set you free. Should you continue to defy me, I'm going to bury you with it."
There was a paragraph missing, the one she had cut out to give to Ema. And, as always, the letter was unsigned.
Kay compared the letters, side by side. Could this be the "truth" the blackmailer had been alluding to? Kay couldn't think of anything else. Forged evidence could ruin a lawyer's career, after all.
Suddenly, the apartment door burst open, and in skipped a sixteen year old girl.
"I got the mail! You didn't tell me we were at the Blocks' place!"
"You know them?"
"I met our victim yesterday! She's a lawyer, and she was trying to get information about Kristoph Gavin's murder." Trucy plowed on. "She and Daddy got into a bit of a fight, and then she said the murder case was hers, walking out the detention center with her head held high! I can't believe her nerve!"
"Well, her husband's really nice," Kay commented, considering Trucy's assessment of the woman. It was all starting to make sense to her. "Did you find a blackmail letter?"
"Nope!" Trucy was entirely too happy to be saying that. But Kay was fine with it.
"Huh. If anything, that just makes my hunch stronger... But I still don't have proof."
"What? You know who the blackmailer might be?"
"I've got an idea," Kay replied. "I'm waiting on Detective Skye for confirmation. I asked her to analyze the handwriting yesterday."
"Cool! Who do you think it is?" Trucy asked.
"Let's get out of here first," Kay avoided the question, snapping a photo of Mr. Meraktis's letter before putting it back where she found it.
She locked the apartment door behind her and Trucy. Trucy had left the mail on their kitchen counter, and neither one of them had taken their gloves off. They shouldn't be detected.
They were halfway down the stairs when Kay's phone began to ring. It was Ema!
"Hold on a minute, Trucy," Kay pulled the cell phone out. "Kay Faraday, Ace Investigator. How can I help you?"
"Kay! I've got the results of that handwriting analysis you asked for! Where did you find this letter?"
"Why? Who does the handwriting belong to?"
"The victim: Kristoph Gavin."
"I knew it!" Kay cried, almost tripping on a stair. "Thanks, Ema."
"Wait! Where did you-"
Kay hung up and looked over at Trucy. Their eyes broadcasted equal levels of excitement.
"The blackmailer is Kristoph Gavin."
Trucy screamed, jumping up and down on the second floor landing. "This is connected to the murder after all!"
"Maybe," Kay warned.
"We have to call Klavier, give him an update!"
"No, first we have to call our client," Kay argued. "My official job comes first."
Trucy sighed. "Fine," she fist pumped the air. "This is just like being out with Polly again!"
I won't ask.
A/N's: Whoo hoo! I pumped this one out quickly. That's what you get when inspiration bugs you until you cave.
So Ingrid found out about Kristoph's evidence forging. Worse, she might have helped him do it. I may change this detail later, but I also might keep it. It was this or Kristoph is Ethan's real father. The latter was too cliche. Both are enough for blackmail, but are they enough for anything more? Find out in the next chapter, when Trucy takes matters into her own hands for a little bit! Then Chapter Eight will be Kay tracking down the mystery names, and then court will begin Chapter Nine! Or Chapter Ten. I may want to expand on a few subplots I have taking shape in my head. We'll see.
As always, feel free to leave any comments, constructive criticism, or plot ideas you want to happen in your review. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the far side!