Chapter Eight

Kay stopped in front of the library, pulling out the list of names. She had to find the true identities of Raina Rhodes, Belladonna Leaves, and Selina Kyle. The only three contacts who eluded discovery in the police's system.

Klavier had been careful to note that all three were female names, consistent with the letter found in the victim's cell. She knew where this was going.

Could one of these people have been the true killer? She didn't think there was enough proof.

She walked in, trying to find the area where people's public records were kept. Despite LA being a big city, the local government had decreed all personal archives were kept in one library for convenience to all. Thank you, city government. Making people easier to stalk since founding.

Kay put a bounce in her step, making her way up to the librarian with a big beam. "Excuse me, ma'am, where can I find the citizen's archives? I have a project for college."

The brunette woman looked up from her book, eyeing Kay with a great deal of disinterest. FInally, the lady pointed upstairs at a glass door. "No documents leave the room, got it?"

"Thank you!"

Kay skipped up the steps. Sure, it'd be kinda weird if the library had more information than the police, but the police kept track of criminals. It was possible the killer was a first time offender.

Kay closed the door behind her. A quick check revealed the records room to be empty, save for her. Without further ado, Kay straightened her gloves and began to peruse the archives. They kept things in alphabetical order, right?

Kay walked over to the 'K' section first, finding seventy-two women with the last name of Kyle and none with first, middle, or relatives' name of Selina. Serada, but no Selina.

Next up was 'Leaves'. She found a woman named Belladonna... only to discover she had died in 1973 and had no family or friends listed in her will. All her property had gone to the state upon her death by drowning. How sad...

Getting curious, Kay took a detour to the 'F' section of the library. She found two files labeled Faraday: hers and her father's. She took a brief peek, then wandered off to the 'B' area. Strangely enough, no Ingrid could be found. Was she not registered?

Lastly, Kay made a stop in the 'R' section of the archive, flipping through the hundreds of people named Rhodes. Aside from a beautiful woman named April Rhodes in a revealing wedding dress and famous actress Selina Rhodes, Kay found nothing of interest. She snapped a picture of the married woman and put the file back in its place.

Hm... If all the names were psuedonyms, they probably weren't random. Most of the fake names Kay had come across had a story behind them, a reason the person had chosen it.

But reasons like that were so often personal... how could she discover them, without knowing the person?

Kay sat down at a computer and searching each name one by one. Raina Rhodes was the name of a Borginian game show host, but that was all the new information Kay learned.

She had to think outside the box. If she were going to kill a man imprisoned, what fake name would she have given herself? Executioner? Ax Wielder of Justice? Kira?

Come on, there had to be some other clue... what else had the killer called herself?

Ah! Kay reached once again for the keyboard, typing as fast as she could. The Lady of Justice.

There were over 64 million results in less than a half a second, mostly depicting the statue she'd seen in the PIC meeting room.

Kay revised her search, adding the word "murderer" to slightly narrow the wading pool.

The first option to appear was the plot summary to License to Love, Laugh, Maim, and Murder (stage-play version). She clicked on it.

"The stage-play adaptation of License to Love, Laugh, Maim, and Murder was published on June 16th, 2021 by famous playwright Sonya Rivera and has been preformed all over the world, including Broadway and the Oxford theater. Selina Rhodes, original star actress of the Broadway performance, received her debut in this production. Below is a brief summary of the play's plot, which differs from the movie in many key areas:

After being bailed from jail by a rich, anonymous character, ex-CIA agent Raina Leaves receives several letters from her mysterious benefactor, instructing her to kill criminals the day after the corrupt courts acquitted them. Leaves complies when promised money, but the press believes her actions to be that of a vigilante, perhaps even the work of the police. Upon the third killing, the death of a corrupt politician through the use of belladonna, the news media issues her a nickname: The Lady of Justice. This ends act one.

When the curtains rise on act two, the audience discovers that throughout her time as a serial killer, Leaves continues a normal life, dating a police detective after they meet in a comedy club. It is the love interest, Allan Kyle, who drops the title name after discovering Leaves was a CIA agent. Unfortunately, their brief love affair takes a turn for the worse when Kyle is assigned to investigate the very murders Leaves is committing. After killing the serial rapist who nearly victimized her the week before, Kyle becomes suspicious of Leaves, to the point of inspecting her apartment while she's asleep. Leaves, frightened by her boyfriend's suspicion, begs her patron to set her free. The act ends with the first appearance of Leaves's true boss: successful lawyer Christopher Flinn. He served as the defense for all of Leaves's victims, but only had her kill the ones who couldn't pay him.

The third act picks up from the last scene with Leaves's reaction. She becomes horrified, and kills Achmed Reba, Flinn's newest client, with strychnine while he's being kept in the detention center. After leaving behind evidence in the form of a visitation after hours, Leaves is arrested and convicted for all twelve of her murders, but not before revealing the identity of the mastermind. She's to be put to death in a week, but before she is killed, she takes one last victim down with her: disgraced lawyer Christopher Flinn."

Kay gasped at her discovery. She texted Ema a picture of the plot summary, exited out of the computer, and left the records room.

She had to think about this. All these names came from the same play? Did that mean they were all the same person, or was everyone just connected, somehow? There was no way this could just be a coincidence!

She would ask Ema to get any letters left from these people, find out the locations they were sent from. She would track down the people who wrote to the victim before his death.

In all her years of investigating, Kay had never failed to find her target. She just needed a plan to follow.

Let's see... she could do a bit more digging on Selina Rhodes, the woman who played the star. Klavier was famous, and he was close to his brother at one time. It wasn't impossible the two had a connection. And being such a huge star, it made sense for her to use a fake name when talking to a prisoner. What would the press do if they found out?

But their connection would have to run deeper than a single meeting, if she was the killer. Most people didn't comply to their own murder, let alone allow a stranger do the honors. What had he said? 'Better you than someone else'? He must have known the person awhile, must have trusted them, with what he said in his letter.

Who had Kristoph Gavin ever trusted? His family members? The people he'd worked with? Lovers?

He had no visits the day before the murder. That much was a fact. And no poison had been found the last time his cell was inspected, on December 17th. Some time in those two weeks, the victim had been given strychnine.

Had he ingested it willingly? If the defense could prove he had, the case would be ruled a suicide. The highest charge the defendant would receive was either accomplice or smuggling of a dangerous substance, neither of which had a heavy sentence attached.

If he hadn't, the prosecution would have a hard time proving it because the victim had allowed his murder to happen. And without decisive proof the defendant could access and transport the murder weapon, there would be no case.

Kay sat down in the nonfiction section, stewing over it all. Suddenly, a familiar symbol caught her eye.

It was the Yatagarasu! White bird, black background, soaring through the night like the modern day Robin Hood it was. Kay pulled the book off its shelf. Great Grief of a Great Thief by Norma DePlume.

She remembered this book. The woman had wanted to interview her back when Kay still wanted to become the next Yatagarasu. Kay told her no, saying the thief's secrets were meant to be kept. Then Edgeworth released the case files to the public and Uncle Badd gave her the goods. She'd even tried interviewing Calisto Yew (or Jane Doe, as the courts listed her), from what Kay had heard. But that interview hadn't made it into the final version of the book, so Kay didn't know if it was true.

A pang of longing struck Kay's heart. Before she knew it, Kay had checked out the book and was walking to the bus station. She'd just sat down when her phone went off.

"Kay Faraday, Ace Investigator. How can I help you?"

It was Ema. "Kay! I showed the fop that picture you took, and he thinks you know who the people are! Do you?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but I-"

"Great! Come over to the Prosecutor's Office as soon as you can. Gavin's office is 936."

Kay nodded, committing the number to memory. "Got it. I'm on my way."

Kay hung up, stood, and began to walk over to the Prosecutor's Office. It was only six blocks off.

When Kay got in, she told the secretary who she was and received automatic entry. Advantage of being one of the Chief Prosecutor's closest friends, she supposed. She took the elevator to the ninth floor, admiring the warm, open area near the window.

"Fraulein Faraday! How good to see you again," Kay turned around to see Klavier leaning in the doorway. He must have intended to sound welcoming, but his tone made the girl shiver.

"Hello, Klavier. Detective Skye called and said you wanted to see me."

"Ja, ja. Please, come inside my office. I'd rather discuss this in private," Klavier moved out of her way. She walked in, taking a seat on an expensive leather chair.

The office was slightly smaller than Mr. Edgeworth's, but still kept nice and clean. Polished guitars lined one wall, and a huge window let sun in on the far side. A third side of the room held his desk, the only messy thing in the room. It made Kay feel slightly better about her office. Kay stole a glimpse at the case file in progress, eying the title in the top corner: GK-22. Was that what this case was being called?

"Fraulein Detective showed me what you found. I must say, very clever. How did you think to check a stage-play, of all things?"

"It was brought up in a search. Most people don't choose pseudonyms at random. If you can figure out what it means, you're one step closer to finding the person's true identity."

"Hm. I found one part in particular very interesting. The main character's nickname, in particular. Tell me: where have we seen the name 'Lady Justice' before?"

Was this a test? Why was Klavier asking her? "The victim's letter to his killer. He was writing it when he died." Kay gasped. "Wait, do you think-"

"That the victim was in on it? Ja. He knew exactly who he was truly writing to. Perhaps it was even his idea to use nicknames. When you sent my detective this picture, I thought of something I hadn't before: what if the fake names started while he was imprisoned?"

Kay nodded. "It's possible, I guess." But how would you prove it?

"Klavier shook his head furiously. "More than that. I found the time of correspondence on all the letters, and noticed an interesting pattern. When you take letters from all three pseudonyms and line them up chronologically, there was one letter sent every two weeks after one was received. Each time, the victim waited one week for a reply. There is one other correspondence that follows this pattern." Klavier paused, handing the investigator a sheet of paper. "The correspondence between Mr. Gavin and his ex-partner, Mrs. Block. She communicated with him this way until October 2026, the same week of VM-3, or the Misham Murder. There is a period of silence spanning six weeks, until the first pseudonym, Raina Rhodes, appears."

"So you think Mrs. Block is the one writing under another name?" Kay asked. She needed to meet this lady at some point, the way everyone was talking about her.

"I have no evidence, but ja. And Fraulein Trucy claims she was being blackmailed. And upon review of the prison records, I was able to find this:"

Klavier clicked something on his computer, causing a low quality video the appear. A tall, olive skinned woman was conversing with the victim. The quality made it hard to tell, but the woman seemed quite tense. Kay's attention flicked to the timestamp in the corner. 12:09pm, December 27th.

"Is that Mrs. Block?"

"Ja. These cameras do not record sound for privacy reasons, but this and the blackmail proves she had motive and opportunity."

"You're missing means," Kay noted. "If you can't prove access to the murder weapon, this case will never stand."

"Ja," Klavier agreed, flicking his bangs out of his eyes. "I sent Fraulein Skye on a quest to gain a search warrant. Errands make her unusually happy, it seems. I likely won't have one until tomorrow, but ah well. If my suspicions are correct, that will be the end of the initial investigation."

Was it enough for an arrest? Maybe, depending on what their search brought up.

But what about a conviction? There was no way a defense attorney wouldn't question the accusation, especially on these grounds.

Klavier must have read her mind. "I agree, there is... some room for doubt. But that is not my responsibility. I won't be prosecuting, after all."

"So, it's the next guy's problem?" The prosecutor nodded. She watched as he fell back into his chair, blonde hair falling over his eyes like curtains at the end of a show.

Kay felt a pang of sympathy. "So... how have you been the past few days?"

"Horrible," the prosecutor didn't even bother pretending."My brother chose to die and we hadn't spoken for months. I thought he... Kris could have said goodbye."

"Wow, I-"

"Yesterday, when I fell asleep in my office, he was here. He was going through my evidence, smiling. I asked him who his killer was. He said... He told me I did it. I didn't know what to say. How should I have responded?"

The man shrugged, "It doesn't matter. When I woke up, he was gone."

Kay didn't know what to say. Her dad died when she was young, and Uncle Badd was still alive. "I'm sorry. Are you sure you don't want to-"

"Nein. I don't need time off."

Kay didn't bother arguing. She trusted Mr. Edgeworth to take care of his employees. "Okay. I'm really-"

"Gavin!"

The two turned towards the sound of an opening door. Detective Skye must have run all the way over, the way she was panting.

"Fraulein!" Klavier plastered a smile in his face. "Did you get the search warrant?"

"Yeah. Here," she handed him a piece of paper, looking almost distracted by it. "I also got a call from the medical examiner's."

"Oh, did they find something else?"

Ema nodded grimly. "We got a problem."


A/N's: Dun dun dunnnnn! Sorry about the cheap cliffie, but it was almost midnight when I posted this on ao3 and I need to end this somehow. I'm really excited for the next chapter (when the suspect is arrested), but it's the week of finals, so I don't know when I'll have that up.

What could have gone wrong with the medical examination? Did Ingrid really do it? I'm leaving it open at the moment for a reason. And no, that reason is not that I don't know yet. How the trial ends is one of the few things I am sure of at the moment. It's one of the few turnabouts AA hasn't attempted yet.

Also, I would like all of you to give a listen to the song "State of Seduction" by Digital Daggers. I just head it recently, and all I could think about was how perfect it was for this fic. Try listening as you read, perhaps?

Anyway, thanks to all of you stopping in, special thanks for all the reviews I've received so far, and I'll see you all on the far side!