DISCLAIMER: Phoenix Wright/Gyakuten Saiban is the property of Capcom. This is a non-profit tribute to the games we've come to love.
A/N: In this chapter, Apollo Justice discovers it's not so fun being an attorney in Phoenix Wright's world… at least not anymore. We will see Ned Munny's murder case take a clearer shape this time too.
Also, a rather shocking situation develops that may just make Nick's other problems pale in comparison. Oh, you don't believe me? Read on and tell me your thoughts!
Please review and enjoy. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
This ain't no place for no hero,
This ain't no place for no better man.
This ain't no place for no hero
to call home.
No Place For A Hero
Chapter 9 – The Cadaverini Connection
May 5th, 12:30 PM
Cadaverini Turf
Outside the Tender Lender
Trucy Wright and Apollo Justice rode down the streets in search of their crime scene, rarely turning to see each other along the way. At least the latter tried not to face Trucy while pedaling; otherwise, she would give him a hard time about getting lost. Thankfully, the attorney didn't quite feel that way, not when he kept hearing a crowd from the direction the Tender Lender purportedly was. The closer he got, the louder and clearer the ruckus of the crowd became.
Apollo put the brakes on and ran a hand over his two long spikes of hair.
"Hahaha! Come on, Apollo! Ride, wretched slave!" Trucy joked, pretending to whip her friend. "Just kidding! But I'm sure we'll get there if we continue following the racket those people are making."
"Aw, crap…" Apollo nervously drummed his fingers on the handlebar. "See, that's kinda what I'm most afraid of right now."
It was pretty commonplace to have people gather around a crime scene, from reporters to morbidly curious bystanders to just about anyone who believed they had business with a dead body. But if Apollo's ears didn't betray him, this was a far worse than a couple of old ladies swinging their rolling pins and passing out from shock.
Trucy couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean, Apollo? It can't be that bad."
"It can't be that bad." mumbled Apollo, doing a bad impression of Trucy on purpose. "Hang on tight! I'll show you bad, you!"
Needless to say, the hot-blooded attorney hit the pedals like a freak out of hell, the speed and the wind almost knocking Trucy's silk hat clean off.
A couple sharp turns, two near-collisions and one dangerous skid later, they had the crowd, the source of all this nearby racket, right in front of them. They were clearly in sight. Trucy had no business looking ahead however; white-faced to the point her veins showed through her skin, she twisted Apollo's ears until they became blood red.
"Polly, you stupid, stupid dummy! What's the matter with you!" she screeched, twisting that much harder. "Do you want to kill me! Just say it!"
Apollo started hollering, tears almost coming out of the corners of his eyes as he pawed at Trucy's hands in a futile attempt to break her painful hold.
"Owowowowowowow! Leggo! Leggo!"
"First you gotta say you eat poop!"
"Agggh! –what! O-Okay, I do! I eat poop!"
Then revenge became torture.
"Who eats poop?" Trucy asked, squeezing those ears firmly and getting ready to twist again at a moment's notice.
"Awgawd—Apollo does! Forever!"
Trucy huffed triumphantly and finally let go, dusting her hands off in victory. When she opened her eyes again, she finally saw what Apollo intended to show her. A nervous smirk took control of her lips. Moreover, what little color she had recovered disappeared just as fast.
No more than three blocks away, not a crowd but a mob of men clad in track suits, sport jackets, Hawaiian shirts and tanktops appeared to be tangled in a brawl with the police, their superior numbers getting the best of the boys in blue. At this rate, it seemed like they'd have to call the riot police if they wanted to return order to the streets. The mob couldn't be allowed to enter the building, not now.
The worst omen of all was that this building was in fact the Tender Lender office, and that the people trying to break in were gangsters speaking with thick Brooklyn accents.
"Come 'ere, all of youse! I take ya on, ya hear! I take yous on!"
"What is dat? You dink youse better than me!"
"Beat it, ya rotten oinker! Or I'mma sue ya for police brutality!"
"This is an infamia, ya pigs!"
Trucy nibbled at her finger through her glove.
"Wow. It's like three dozen Joe Pescis and Robert DeNiros are all trying to have a bar fight with the cops."
Apollo rubbed at his still throbbing red ears, half-closing his eyes and shooting a cold stare at his magician assistant.
"I bet you'd rather eat that poop yourself now."
Trucy curled one of her forelocks with her finger, stuck her tongue out and adorably looked away.
"Ehehe…"
May 5th, 12:48 PM
The Tender Lender
Foyer
Close to ten minutes later, the front door of the Tender Lender exploded open and one young spike-haired attorney came rolling in. His pants were full of dirt and the entirety of his clothes completely wrinkled. Even the buttons of his vest had come completely loose, as well as the knot on his tie.
"Oh jeez…" he panted, lying completely flat on his back. "Don't make me go through that ever again."
Going through a mob of dangerous, mean and foul-mouthed gangsters was just as bad as trying to break through a line of scrimmage. Apollo remembered why he never played football in college.
He sat up, took a look around and let his jaw hit the cold floor. There was Trucy, standing by one of the windows, without so much as a scratch or a bruise on her.
"Oh, hi Polly! Took you long enough."
"W-What do you mean?"
"The people outside the building let me through just fine. They are really nice!" the magician tip-toed and leaned over a nearby window frame, looking to the outside. "Aren't you, guys?"
"Blow me a kiss, doll!"
"Hee. You heard that?" Trucy struck a playful pose and pretended to swoon. "No one's ever called me that! Not even Mr. Klavier and he's like, one cool customer."
"Show us your—"
She immediately slammed the window shut. A big grin appeared on her face.
"Okay! I don't like them anymore."
Apollo had gotten up by then. He had just finished straightening his clothes and thus could only look at Trucy in bafflement, wondering just what planet this strange girl had come from. Certainly it wasn't Earth.
May 5th, 12:54 PM
The Tender Lender
Viola Cadaverini's Office
Trucy and Apollo were upstairs minutes later. They were greeted by the sight of an office that carried a veritable amount of gloom, not because of the crime therein committed, but rather as a natural consequence of its design. The walls were painted a dark purple, with a cutesy grim reaper figurine on the big mahogany desk and the severed heads of several plush dolls lined up on a shelf behind it.
The police investigation team sure didn't seem to mind all of this. They were here to do their job and find the truth, not to do any sight seeing or offer interior decoration advice. The two youngsters, on the other hand…
"Wow." Apollo muttered as he took the design of the office in. "What is this, the headquarters of Hot Gimmick?"
"I don't see a problem with it." Trucy said, tapping a finger on her chin. "It's kind of cute in a gothy, depressing, emo way."
The jokes had to eventually get left behind. Their eyes came into contact with the white tape outlining the silhouette of what was a dead body. From the looks of it, it had been found slumped over the chair; the telltale signs of blood indicated the shot had been fatal, death perhaps instant.
"What was that Mrs. Ahnette told us about Ned?" Apollo asked in a serious tone, unaware that he was only addressing his client's wife respectfully. "That he had been set up, right? Framed. They found a gun with his fingerprints."
Trucy nodded. "Yep."
"Then this doesn't make sense." Apollo stood right where Viola Cadaverini's shooter may have stood as well. He pointed his finger like it was a gun.
One Klavier Gavin had been watching these antics with one of his million-dollar, record breaking smiles. Dressed as always in light and fashionable purple garb, he approached the defense attorney and laughed one of those European laughs he had been known for.
"Wow, what's with the gun finger? Herr Forehead watches too many crime dramas, ja Fraulein?"
"Yup!" Trucy bounced on her feet and giggled. "Sometimes he says he wants to be like Homero, from Convoluted Science Investigations."
Apollo looked at both of them with a frown on his face. He sobbed a little, being picked on relentlessly like this.
I guess I'll not be getting those sunglasses after all…, he thought. Oh wait. Mr. Wright is supposed to buy himself a hat first.
Prosecutor Gavin finally greeted Trucy and Apollo with a mock salute.
"Good to see you've finally come." he smirked, running his fingers over his glamorous pendant. "It looks like we have quite the unruly pack of boys outside. Some of them even claim that I've been seeing their sisters."
Apollo accusatorily narrowed his eyes. "Have you?"
"Gentlemen tell no secrets."
Oh brother. We gotta get outta here!
"Hm? You look pale, Herr Forehead."
Apollo stuttered. "Nevermind. I was just… looking at the crime scene! Yep! Crime! Here comes Justice!" he said as he walked away from Klavier and closer towards Viola's desk. "So she was found lying dead on her desk like this."
"And judging from your theatrics just seconds ago," Klavier smiled and leaned forward to meet Apollo's eyes. "I can only surmise you know about the gun."
The defense attorney clenched his eyes shut and grunted at himself. That wasn't very helpful for his case.
"Y-yeah."
"Who told you? Was it your client?"
"His wife, as a matter of fact." Apollo glanced at the rockstar prosecutor. "She told us that they found my client's prints on the gun. I can only assume she wasn't lying, from that winner look on your face."
"It's too early to tell." Klavier betrayed his words and smiled regardless. "But you said something didn't make sense. What was that?"
"Yeah!" Trucy cheered on. "Shove it on his face, Apollo!"
Apollo gulped a little. He hated being in the spotlight like this whenever he wasn't taking part in a trial.
"There's no relation between my client and your murder, other than a gun." Apollo pointed out. Then he tried to make a small bluff, due to the fact that he had no chance to speak with Ned. "And this gun isn't even issued to security guards in his company. The caliber's too big, and nowadays you can't come by guns the same way you do, say… candy."
Klavier brushed some of the bangs off his face and hummed one of his hit songs to speed up his thinking process. The caliber of a gun was a moot point if conclusive, clear fingerprints had been retrieved from it; a gun doesn't have to be yours for you to use it and pull the trigger, after all.
Thinking he'd save that for court if the young attorney decided to bring it up, the rival prosecutor abandoned the matter of the gun and decided to throw him one of those ambiguous leads Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright loved to share.
"Ja. Let's settle that itty-bitty contradiction in court, shall we?" Klavier winked at Apollo and jerked his thumb at the investigation team behind him. "After all, there is something else I believe you should see."
Apollo frowned. "And I'd bet my boots you won't tell me."
"Nein!" Klavier raised his eyebrows and pretended to run a zipper over his mouth. "Auf wiedersehen, Herr Forehead!" he now bowed at Trucy. "Fraulein? I must take my leave and head back to my office. I need to discuss something with Herr Edgeworth before I present my report to the Chief Prosecutor. Which really," he shrugged. "you'd think it should be him as well."
"Yeah. I'm sure Mr. Edgeworth will make it to Chief Prosecutor in no time if he settles for good." Apollo smiled at his rival.
Miles Edgeworth was a man Apollo couldn't help but admire; in the last year, he had won two cases against him, but both times he had gotten schooled and beaten to a pulp. He came out feeling like a loser, a complete rookie.
"It's too bad all that traveling abroad keeps him from climbing up the ladder, huh?" he added.
It was in an instant, a flicker between moments, that Klavier Gavin appeared to sulk, his head lowering like someone paying his respects after a great loss.
"I'm sure he'll be going places… Herr Justice."
The attorney's bracelet suddenly tightened around his wrist like a bone breaking clasp. Klavier was hiding something.
"What?"
Before Apollo could finish making the question, Klavier was already saying good bye once more and headed downstairs to exit the building. The spike-haired attorney rolled his eyes and raised his hands to the air, protesting against whatever force that watched him out there, that something so hellbent on keeping him thriving in ignorance.
"Goddamnit. Will anyone ever tell me anything!"
"Apollo…" Trucy saw Klavier leave and immediately walked to her friend's side. Her own powers made her experience that same helplessness he was going through. "Polly…?"
"You know what? Whatever. Let's get this over with. Let's do the damned investigation."
The magician regretted her actions and took a slow, careful step back. Apollo immediately realized his mistake and ran a hand through his hair, annoyed at his own misgivings and impatience.
"No. That wasn't fair to you Trucy, I'm sorry." he said sincerely. "But for the last couple weeks, I've felt something big has been going down, something probably bigger than the courts and what we've been through. Whatever it is," he shrugged, truly unable to make an educated guess, or any kind of guess whatsoever. "I'm being left out of it. Mr. Wright just continues feeding me these Mr. Miyagi rants and I don't know what to make of them! Today at the detention center was probably the closest I've been to making him admit something."
Trucy took a deep breath and stepped forward again. She remained unable to look at Apollo in the eyes, so instead she started fixing his tie.
"Mm. I think I see it too." Trucy whispered. "Daddy's been weird for weeks now. Weirder, anyway! He doesn't sleep, and sometimes it's like he doesn't smile as much, y'know?" she grinned. "Maybe I need to find him a mommy to take him to dinner and the movies."
Apollo simply laughed, watching Trucy's fingers tug somewhat clumsily at the fabric of his tie.
"If you're being left out of something, Polly, I don't think he means to do it because he doesn't trust you, or doesn't think you're up for it." the teen magician shrugged. "Who knows? Remember when you figured out it was my real daddy who Mr. Klavier's brother killed? Daddy wanted you to know only at the right time. It wouldn't have made sense otherwise."
"Maybe you're right." Apollo now took Trucy's hands between his own and squeezed them. "Thanks, Trucy. Being with you… it makes it a lot easier to bear. I mean it."
Trucy's cheeks were colored a certain hue of red. "It's alright! We're a team, right?"
"Yeah…" Apollo's hands trembled a little when he let go of Trucy's. The remains of a thrilling sensation tingled in his fingertips. "Let's go check that lead Klavier left us."
"Okay!"
When the search was on, attorney and assistant inadvertently split, each taking different sides of the office while they pretended to look for clues. In reality, all they could think off was that strange emotion they felt when they joined hands, when they focused on the sound of each other's breathing.
Phoenix Wright's problems had become much more serious.
Five minutes later, after pulling himself together, Apollo Justice was feeling very confused, but also very, very stupid.
"Oh, come on! Of course!" he shouted, slapping that big forehead Klavier loved to pick on.
"What? What is it?" asked Trucy from the other side of the room. Her current line of investigation consisted of finding out if the cookies left for guests were any good.
The ideas scrambled into place in Apollo's head.
"Assuming!" he began, verbally underlining that point. "Assuming that Ned Munny stepped foot into this place, what reason would he have to do that? He's a security guard, so it's not like they'd hire him. They already have a bunch of goons keeping an eye on this place."
"Goons? -Y-you mean those guys outside were mobsters!"
"Uh… anyhow. It's clear this place is hot."
"Is it? That fan up there works really well in my opinion."
"—street talk." Apollo explained quickly. "But why would Mr. Munny come here then? He'd be putting himself at too much of a risk. Think about it."
Apollo didn't wait for Trucy to follow up on that. He ran to Viola's desk and began looking frantically –perhaps too frantically- in the drawers and the folders she left there before being murdered. He was exchanging rushed words with a member of the investigation team when Trucy at last came over to his side.
"It's this!" the spike-haired attorney said as he was handed some photocopied files held together by a clip. He smacked the back of his hand on it, just like his mentor would have. "Oh jeez. I was right. Look."
Trucy looked over Apollo's shoulder and squinted.
"Wait a minute! That's our client's name. What's it doing there?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Apollo said as he grew increasingly weary of what he was about to collide head-first with. "He took out a loan. A loan for-"
Trucy tried her hardest to make out all the figures and information, but the quality of the copies made it difficult. She eventually resorted to her best investigation tactic: shake Apollo and annoy him until he told her something.
"Twenty five." he said weakly.
"What? Twenty five hundred?"
"Twenty five hundred thousand. Looks like a hundred more piled up in interests too." Apollo corrected a wide-eyed Trucy. "We have to look at this man's loan contract. I think we have found his motive for murder, according to the prosecution."
The case was thickening rapidly, lending credible proof to the idea that Ned Munny did have a reason to take Viola Cadaverini's life. How and when the murder exactly happened needed a great deal of looking into, but all of that could perhaps be solved after having a lengthy conversation with the client. Not all was lost! Moreover, Apollo had an undeniable head-start and advantage in the case: a watertight, solid alibi called Ahnette Munny. The defense's case, in spite of all obstacles and odds, was becoming rock solid.
…right?
Right? Keep on reading and you'll find out, trusty readers!
Next chapter: Phoenix confronts Lotta's Psyche-Lock! The secret of the pictures is revealed!
