Nice to finally be back to this story. It seems that it's gotten an unexpected popularity boost while I was taking a break from it too. Well, I'm back at it now and I don't intend to stop until I finish this thing.

Anyway, this chapter is going to end the second day of investigation. I wanted it to be a bit longer, but there really wasn't more much more I could drag out of this day.

Chapter 14: Hidden Motives

April 14, 6:10 PM

Santa Destroy – UAA Headquarters

I looked down at the time on my cell phone. It was getting late. The sun was already down and the moon now shone in the night sky. Investigating would prove more difficult now with the lack of light. But that was fine. I didn't really have more to investigate anyway. All I wanted to do now was get some answers from Ms. Sylvia Christel.

Thankfully, the UAA building was still open at this time and we could get in easily enough. Getting to see Sylvia, on the other hand, was proving to be harder than expected. "I'm sorry, sir, but Ms. Christel is simply too busy to speak with you right now," the secretary said, not bothering to make eye contact with us.

"But this is about the murder case! Can't she make an exception for that?!"

"I'm afraid not, sir. She's in the middle of a very important deal with a possible sponsor."

(Because that's clearly the most important thing going on right now.)

"Bloody hell, now what?" Henry was getting frustrated and so was I. We were seriously running out time for investigation and now our only remaining lead was being blocked. There had to be something we could do.

"Hey, you think maybe we could sneak in?" Maya whispered to us.

"Not likely," I replied, looking around at the building. Even at this hour, there was a good number of staff members around, not to mention armed guards. This was definitely a business Ms. Christel took very seriously. "I guess we'll just have to come back later."

"No."

We looked over at Henry. His normally good-natured and friendly expression was gone, replaced by a dark scowl. "This is my brother we're talking about. I don't care what Sylvia's hiding, but she's not hiding it from me." He stormed off towards Sylvia's office, not even seeming to register the guards standing in front of the door.

"Henry, wait!" I called out. The guards walked towards him, drawing guns, and I feared for the Irishman's safety.

A very silly fear in hindsight. Henry drew his beam katana and instantly disarmed both guards with a single swing. For an organization that specialized in assassins, they apparently weren't used to fighting them. Henry didn't even bother with his katana after that, kneeing one man in the gut, elbowing the other on the back of the head, and knocking both out. No one else tried to stop him as he walked up to the office doors and kicked them open. I mouthed an awkward "sorry" to the horrified staff while Maya and I crept in after him.

Sylvia was at her desk, talking away with someone on a tabletop phone, when we came in. She was back in her business wardrobe like the first time I met her, but now with a shorter hairstyle. Upon seeing us, she gave a look that radiated pure killing intent. It made the two of us shudder, but didn't phase Henry in the slightest. "Excuse me, I am in the middle of a ca-"

Henry threw his katana straight forward, severing the phone cable and embedding itself in the wall behind her. "They'll have to call back."

Sylvia tossed the now-useless phone to the side and huffed. "Well, what can I do for this extreme rudeness?" she asked scathingly.

Henry walked up and slammed a palm down on her desk. "What I would like you to do, is start giving a damn about the fate of your own boyfriend. We still have some questions that need answering."

Sylvia smiled at him, amused. "My, it's been a long time since I've seen you so passionate, Henry. It reminds me of the old days..."

"Don't give me that crap. I'm over you."

"Hmph." She leaned back in her chair and returned to glaring coldly at us. "Alright, what are these questions that need answering so badly that you felt the need to break into my office?"

Henry turned to me, his normal demeanor abruptly returning as he gave a pleasant smile. "Well, Mr. Wright? Ask away."

(Don't put this on ME!)

But I had Sylvia's attention now, and she was waiting for an explanation. I suddenly wished that I had a better reason for coming here. "Um...I would like to ask you what you know about the victim."

She frowned. "Didn't I already tell you that?"

"...Yeah...I guess I did..." Her glare was so frightening I spontaneously forgot where I was going with this. It had to be somewhere important, right?

Maya nudged me in the side. "Nick, the Magatama."

"Oh yeah, right." I regained my composure and dug the glowing green artifact out of my pocket, thrusting it at Sylvia.

Take That!

She titled her head curiously as the locks and chains formed around her.

- What I know -

"Is that supposed to be some kind of weapon? I'll have you know that you'll need more than that dinky little thing to kill me."

"What? N-No, it's not a weapon!"

(Though I suppose you COULD call it a weapon of justice.)

"I just want you to tell me what you know about the victim. This thing is just...um...a good luck charm."

"You're a terrible liar," Maya deadpanned.

"Hey, don't give it away!"

"No, you really are a terrible liar," Sylvia nodded. "But if you're so insistent, I'll tell you again. I know nothing about what that Heifer woman did." The three Psyche-Locks stood firmly opposed to her words. Admittedly, I didn't have much in the way of hard evidence to pin on her. All I really had was a hunch. But this wasn't the courtroom. I just had to get her to talk.

"Oh, I think you know more about her than you let on. Especially since you're the one who brought this up."

Take That!

I held up the rose pedal we had found at the cemetery. "You were pretty quick to conclude that this belonged to the victim, weren't you?"

The Psyche-Locks shuddered a little, but didn't break. I knew that this question had made her tense, but she didn't show it on the outside. In fact, she looked more amused than anything. "Oh, come on. Anyone could make the connection if they were paying attention."

"Exactly." I leaned in closer to stare her down. "You knew enough about the case to make that connection, you showed up at the detention center to visit Travis, and you were even present at the trial this morning. And yet, judging by your attitude so far, you couldn't seem to care less about how this case turns out. Now why is that?"

She looked off to the side and twirled a finger around in her hair. "Why indeed?"

(Someone please stop me from strangling this woman.)

I took a deep breath and regained my focus. "I'll tell you why. It's because you're more involved with this case than you let on. And I know that involvement has something to do with the victim."

"Are you suspecting me?" she asked, showing that faint amusement again.

"Not necessarily. But I do think you had something to do with this!"

Take That!

Maya peeked at the familiar image of a black VHS tape on my phone. "Hey, isn't that...?"

"Yes, it's the VHS tape stolen from Beef Head. But it's not the tape itself I'm curious about, rather the footage we found on it."

"Are you joking?" Sylvia asked. "Are you seriously trying to insinuate that I had something to do with that security footage?" She was trying to brush it off with dry amusement again, but I saw the Psyche-Locks start to shake and knew I was on to something.

"That's right. I believe that you are the one who put this footage on there. And that would have required you to know more about this crime than you're telling us!"

"Errggh..." She scowled at me as one of her Psyche-Locks shattered to pieces. "This is ridiculous. Why would I ever do such a thing?"

"Isn't it obvious? For Travis of course. The killer would never create evidence that would prolong the investigation, but someone with a close, personal relationship to the defendant sure would. It would be easy too. With the UAA's resources, I'm sure you could splice the footage from the two tapes together in very little time, and without leaving any trace of your involvement. The only other thing you needed was this..."

Take That!

I reached into the pocket of my suit and pulled out a small key. "This is a key to Travis's motel room. I'm sure you recognize it, considering you carry a spare. You took the stolen tape out of the motel room and then returned your edited version, all by simply using the key to lock and unlock the door. That ensured no one would have any idea you were ever there."

Sylvia was now visibly tense and, just like that, the second lock shattered as well. "You do think you're clever, don't you?"

(Well, not to brag, but...)

"But you forgot one thing!" she snapped, waving a finger in my direction. "The victim's murder was not announced to the public until the morning after it occurred, and by then, they already had the crime scene sectioned off. So how exactly do you think I swiped that security tape in the first place?"

I froze.

(Crap.)

The security tape was already gone when the police investigated the scene, so Sylvia had to have already known about the murder beforehand to steal it. That's the only way she could've pulled this off. But I didn't have any evidence that could possibly prove such a thing.

She knew this as well, smiling at me smugly from her desk. "Well? Have I answered all of your questions now? If so, then please leave my office so I can get to finding a new phone."

(Come on Phoenix, think! I don't have anything that could prove she knew about the murder in advance...but what if she didn't? Maybe there was something else. Something that simply gave her a hint...)

"I got it!" I said out-loud, making both Sylvia and my partners jump. I reached into my suit again. There were only a few pieces of evidence I decided to carry around with me, and right now, I was very glad that this was one of them.

Take That!

"What is that filthy thing?" Sylvia asked, staring at the piece of paper hanging from my hand.

"This filthy thing is a letter of challenge, issued to Travis on the night of the murder. In it, someone calls him out to Destroy Stadium for a fight. A fight that the UAA knew about, correct? After all, your guys did come to clean it up afterward."

"What's your point?"

"Namely, that the 'challenge' was not a challenge at all! Travis did not fight an assassin, but a crowd of petty hitmen. I'm sure that's something you immediately noticed when you went to clean up their bodies."

"..."

"At that moment, you knew that something strange was going on, and that it involved Travis. So you decided to keep an eye on Travis discreetly. It was through him that you found out about the murder when you saw him get arrested. And that's when you put your plan to help him into motion. How's that for an explanation?"

I ducked as she whipped the table phone at my head. "Filthy lawyer BASTARD!" she screamed, pounding a fist on her desk. Her final Psyche-Lock was broken and the chains undone.

Unlock Successful

Sylvia calmed down and looked away, refusing to look any of us in the eye, but not arguing any further. "...Fine, I admit it. I created that clue because I thought it might help out Travis."

Stolen VHS Tape updated in the Court Record

"Pretty cryptic clue. We only found it by dumb luck."

"It wasn't supposed to be. I figured that the police from your city would at least be competent enough to fully examine all of the important evidence."

(Ouch. I'm glad Gumshoe's not hearing this.)

"Well, it looks like we've figured out this part of the mystery at least," Maya said cheerfully.

"And now that record of the tape being 'stolen' makes sense as well," Henry noted. "She did that on purpose to try to alert the police to the footage."

"Yes," she agreed, the fire completely taken out of her. "I grabbed the case off the floor, ran it past the scanner, and then returned it. The pool of blood made it easy to put it right back where I got it from."

"There's one thing I don't get," I said. "If you had the time to mess with the crime scene like that, why did you stop there? Why not just get rid of all the evidence implicating Travis?"

"I knew that the police must had already gotten a look at the crime scene to have arrested Travis. I couldn't make any changes that were too obvious, or else they would know it had been tampered with. They might have even traced it all the way back to the UAA."

Henry glared at her. "So what you're saying it that you put your organization above Travis? An organization that wouldn't even exist anymore if it weren't for him?"

Sylvia had shown me a wide variety of emotions up to this point, but now she displayed one I never expected to see from her. Guilt. "Yes, I'm a terrible person. You think I don't know that? And yet...Travis loves me anyway. The stupid otaku..."

She turned around completely, putting her back to us. I started to hear muffled sobs coming from her hunched form. "Please...save him..."

We said nothing more, leaving Sylvia to herself as we left the office.

Court Record:

Attorney's Badge

My trusty badge that proves I am a defense attorney. Always fun to present to random people.

Magatama

A gift from Maya and my key to the hearts of those who try to hide secrets from me.

Crime Scene Photo

Shows the victim lying face down between two shelves, covered in video tapes and a burn mark on her back.

Diane's Autopsy Report

Death caused by impalement from a beam katana. Time of death estimated between 9-10 PM.

Bloody VHS Case

Found lying in a pool of blood in front of the victim. The edges and part of the front cover are stained with blood. The video itself is missing and presumed stolen.

Desk Calendar

A Beef Head-styled calendar that belonged to the victim. It shows Diane's work schedule for the night of the murder as 6:00-9:30 PM.

Rose Nasty

A beam katana that belongs to Travis. It has two blades, one of which was the murder weapon. The other was found in Travis's motel.

Motel Room Key

The key to Travis's room at Motel No More Heroes. Sylvia has a spare.

Stolen VHS Tape

Taken from Beef Head Videos on the night of the murder and found in Travis's motel. The label reads "Bizarre Jelly 5: Extra Bukkake Special". It has security footage from the night of the murder taped over it, going from 9:00-9:42 PM. The footage was added by Sylvia.

Answering Machine Message

A message left by the victim at 8:55 on the night of the murder. In it, she yells at Travis about yet another late movie rental and revokes his membership.

Teddy Bear

Found in Travis's motel. Apparently, it was a gift from Sylvia.

Schpeltiger

Travis's surreal motorcycle. Skid marks show that it was used recently.

Letter of Challenge

A typed letter challenging Travis to a fight at Destroy Stadium. It's very muddy.

Blood Berry

A blue beam katana that Travis took with him to Destroy Stadium on the night of the murder.

Overhead Map

A map that shows Motel No More Heroes and Beef Head Videos around the corner from it. A restaurant named Burger Suplex is across the street from the motel.

Door scanner

A tiny scanner in Beef Head Videos that reads the bar codes on packages and triggers an alarm if they're not paid for. It registered the missing tape as stolen on the night of the murder at 10:14 PM.

Glastonbury

An action figure from Travis's favorite anime that he left as a gift for Bishop.

Bouquet

A bouquet brought to Bishop's grave on the night of the murder. Only a stray rose petal is left of it.

Victim's E-mail

An e-mail message sent by the victim to her manager on the night of the murder, confirming that she was leaving before 9:00.

De Killer's Knife

A short knife used by Shelly De Killer. Currently in possession of forensics.

Cell Phone

A destroyed cell phone presumably belonging to the victim. Signs indicate it was intentionally smashed.

Profiles:

Phoenix Wright

Age: 27

I've been a defense attorney for over three years now and it doesn't look like the job is going to get any easier.

Maya Fey

Age: 20

My assistant and trusted friend since the beginning of my career. Has a fondness for burgers and stealing things.

Travis Touchdown

Age: 31

My client, who also happens to be an assassin. He's not the most likable guy, but I know that he's at least innocent of this crime.

Sylvia Christel

Age: 27

A strange woman with a strange accent. She called me to take the case on Travis's behalf. She's apparently his girlfriend though she doesn't seem to agree with that assessment. She's also an agent for the United Assassins Association.

Dick Gumshoe

Age: 33

The detective on this case, as per usual. He's apparently the lesser of two evils when compared to the Santa Destroy police.

Diane Heifer

Age: 23

The victim in this case. An employee at Beef Head Videos who was killed during her night shift.

Jeane

Age: 5

Travis's friendly pet cat. Maya forced me to add him here.

Henry Cooldown

Age: 31

Travis's twin brother, believe it or not. He is now acting as my new partner and bodyguard for this case.

Bishop Shidux

Age: 30

Travis's former best friend, who was killed exactly one year before the night of the murder.

Shelly De Killer

Age: Unknown

A professional assassin who I've crossed paths with once before. His client has hired him to stop my investigation by any means necessary.

Miles Edgeworth

Age: 27

My childhood friend and the prosecutor on this case. He's a bit on the snobby side, be he has a good heart.

Kimmy Howell

Age: 19

A student at Destroy University and a former opponent of Travis that also seems to have a crush on him. A bit on the crazy side.