Turnabout Charity Part 3
Press-Statement 1
"Were their relationship strictly business?"
"Mostly, yes...Heh. Strictly."
"I knew this would happen someday." I sighed.
"Eh?"
"It's finally happened."
"What?" Relisa asked, worried.
"Aissla's gone insane."
"...You are lucky they took away my gun." Aissla said, hiding her anger behind her smile.
"Then explain why you laughed at 'Strictly'"
Press-Statement 2
"How often?"
"Every time he did it."
"And how often was that?"
"All the time."
Press-Statement 3
"Close?" I asked, "How close?"
"...I'm not going by my words or opinion here...but almost romantically close."
"Romantically?" Relisa's eyes lit up.
"Yeah. If I remember correctly, she even made Mal a lunch and fed him it on the roof."
"Detective Aissla." Artas smiled ominously, "Kindly tell me who gave you that last titbit of information."
"O-Officer Melvin..."
"I see. If you ever see Officer Melvin again, please tell him that his pay's been cut."
"Y-Yes madam."
"As for you, I'll only be lowering your salery."
"T-Thank you madam."
Everyone in the courtroom gave a small shudder.
Press-Statement 4
"If it's unlikely, then can you name anyone else that could possibly hold a grudge towards Mal?"
"Mal was...disliked among fellow members."
"All of them?"
"The majority of them."
"You included?"
"I plead the 5th."
"You're just doing that to annoy me aren't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Aissla smiled.
"So Artas had a romantic relationship towards Mal." I mused.
"And there goes your point." Renee smiled, "If they were lovers then Mal wouldn't threaten her or her friends."
"OBJECTION!
That only proves the idea that she wouldn't fire at Mal. They were lovers!"
"Easy. Perhaps she got frustrated with having to reprimand him all the time. Is that possible, Aissla?"
"...Maybe."
"Why do you decide to talk now?" I frowned.
"Shut up." Aissla snapped, turning to glare at me, "Besides the police works with Prosecutors not Attorneys."
"..."
Relisa looked at me, worried.
"In any case." Renee clapped his hand to call attention to himself, "A motive has been established for the murder as well as physical evidence along with testimony. I believe this case is well over. Judge?"
"Of course. The court finds the defendant-"
"OBJECTION!"
"Still struggling?" Renee smiled, "What else do you have?"
"...This."
Present-Coin
"One chance." I muttered, "What statement should I press?"
-Statement 5
Court Open
"Aissla."
"Yes?"
"Did you find anything...strange near the corpse?"
"...Yes."
"What could it be?"
"OBJECTION!
This is taking too long. Fey, if you have something you want to say then say it."
"...Fine. What I wanted to talk about is...this..."
Present-Corpse Picture
"Where did you get that?"
"My sources." I said, "Don't worry. I had it ran through the police so this is entirely legal."
"...That's not a forged evidence is it?" Renee smiled.
The Judge looked at me grimly.
"What's wrong?" I asked, looking directly at The Judge, "My answer is, of course, No and that is the complete truth."
"How do I know that?" The Judge asked.
"Where do you think you are?"
"Huh?"
"I am subject to the rules of this realm. For example, next I'll try to say I'm a bright purple elephant. I am a man."
"A demonstration wasn't necessary." Aissla said.
"And completely unreliable." Renee added.
"Does the Prosecution have any problem with the evidence then?" The Judge asked.
"...No."
"Okay then." I said, "Then I'd like the court to examine this."
Present-Card near the corpse
"...I don't know how to tell you this but...that's a card." The Judge said.
"Yes. Yes it is."
The Judge looked around, at me, Aissla and Renee. The only one who shared his confusion was Relisa.
"Alright." He sighed, "I'll ask. So what?"
"Can you see the symbol on the card?"
"No."
"Well, you're old."
"I resent that remark." The Judge said, banging his gavel sadly .
"Let's ask the one person who's still confused." I said, handing it over to Relisa, "What do you see?"
Relisa squinted at the card in the picture, "I...I don't know."
"Really?"
"It's pink." She shrugged, "That's all I can see."
"It's a shell." Aissla sighed, "It's a pink...shell."
"Alright." The Judge said, banging his gravel, "I demand everyone get off their airs and explain this to the confused onlookers!"
"I don't know about everyone else, but I thought that you'd get smarter if you figure it out yourself."
"Mana..."
"It's the calling card for an assassin." Renee explained, "A certain...dangerous assassin."
"Shelly De Killer."
"S-Shelly?" The Judge cried.
"An assassin?" Relisa echoed.
"Moving past that." Aissla sighed, "We come to the question of why he would have the card."
"You said it was a calling card right?" Relisa asked, shivering a bit, "So...that'll mean he hired him?"
"You think Mal hired Shelly?" I asked.
"W-Well..."
"Mal was the victim." Renee sneered, "You're saying he assassinated himself?"
"M-Maybe he got in the path of the bullet by accident." Relisa huffed.
"'by accident'?" Aissla gave a pitying smile, "I can't decide if he had the world's best luck or worst luck."
"Uuuu...Mana, they're picking on me..."
"Clearly, Mal couldn't have hired Shelly."
"Et tu Mana?"
"If the card wasn't because he hired him-" I ignored Relisa's crying, "Then that means the opposite."
"Eh?" Relisa stopped crying to listen.
"Shelly leaves his card at his kills to ascertain that HE killed the victim and the one hiring him had no part in it." The Judge said grimly.
"Which is utter bull in a court of law." Aissla scoffed.
"Ahem. So if the victim didn't hire Shelly, then the card is his signature. He's claiming his own kill." The Judge reasoned.
"Which is also utter bull-"
"Mr. Hyde, please!" The Judge pleaded.
Renee ignored him, "No one suspicious was found at the scene of the crime and no one suspicious was found leaving the scene of the crime SAVE FOR the defense."
"The defense was at the event?" The Judge looked at me.
"I figured I'd dust off my badge and give my support for the great people who protect this city from-"
"But you're an attorney."
"At the moment yes."
"Attorneys aren't allowed in without donating. Did you donate?"
"We have a case at hand." I quickly changed the subject, "And I believe Prosecutor Hyde was explaining how the assassin couldn't be found in the building."
"That's right." Renee smiled, "Which only leaves us back at the fact, that the defendant, Artas Blood, killed Mal."
"OBJECTION!
If the murder couldn't be carried out inside, then the murder must've come from the outside." I insisted.
"Mana!" Renee laughed, "If we're to be sane about this, then that means the bullet must've come from the entrance. As the remaining walls were completely thick, the only way a bullet can get in would be smashing through the glass entrance. However, not a shard of glass was left at the crime scene. Unless you insist that the bullet flew in while the door was open for an instant."
"...Detective Aissla."
"Yes?"
"Do you have a picture of the Crime scene?"
"Yes."
Crime Scene Photo added to Court Record.
"There doesn't seem to be any glass." Relisa bit her lip.
"Of course not."
"So what do we do?"
"We take a closer look."
Examine-Open Panel atop the door.
"Here." I said, pointing to the aforementioned spot, "There's something off-putting about this panel."
"The fact that it's open?" Relisa guessed.
"It was probably open for ventilation." Aissla shrugged.
"Are you saying the assassin curved his bullet up and over the open panel?" Renee asked gleefully.
"Everyone in this courtroom's a jerk." I muttered, "No, I mean the fact that there's no light reflection."
"...What?"
"L-Light Reflection?" I asked, "Th-That...bar of light that moves whenever you change position?"
"We know what it is." The Judge said, "We just want to know what the significance of that is."
"Really? Because I don't." Renee said.
"Me neither." Aissla said.
"This courtroom IS full of jerks." The Judge sniffed.
"There's no light reflection. Even though there's similar reflection on surrounding panels." I explained, "That means there's nothing THERE to cause light reflection. Ergo, that means there's no glass there to cause that reflection. Ergo..."
"THE ASSASSIN COULD'VE BEEN CARRIED OUT!" Relisa and the Judge cried.
"OBJECTION!
How do we know the defendant wasn't the one who hired Shelly?" Renee cried, "After all, we've already got motive enough for her to commit murder!"
"But Mal has a lot of enemies." I objected.
"How many of them hated him enough to kill him?"
Present-List of Possibilities
"You want a list? Because I got one right here."
"Y-You...Where did you get that?"
"My sources." I explained vaguely, "As you can see, Mal had a lot of enemies. This list doesn't cover all of them. Just the ones that want to kill him."
"Thank god it's only one page." The Judge said, looking at the list, "Very well. The Prosecution should look into the people on this list and determine if any of them have anything to contribute to this case. Until then, the Court shall adjourn."
Court Close
October 27 12:00 P.M
District Court
Defendant's lobby #7
"I must still be a bit rusty." I sighed as I left the courtroom.
"Hey." Relisa frowned, "Is Artas free now?"
"What? Of course not."
"B-But we have a whole list of other possible killers."
"And what if none of them are related? Then the blame falls back on Artas. And since he's already managed to secure weapon and motive, the case would be over quite quickly."
"O-Oh. T-Then what do we do?" Relisa asked, worried.
"Whatever we can."
"R-Right." Relisa said, pumping herself up, "Alright. I'm ready."
"Why are you so excited?" I frowned.
"I don't want to be in a courtroom full of jerks for much longer."
"Nice motive."
