Day 21: Concatenate

"Do you think it's related?" Phoenix asked, eyebrows raised.

Edgeworth only frowned in reply and continued to sift through the dusty and sloppily stacked pile of documents.

"Look, what about this one?" Phoenix held up a very creased letter grinning as if he'd discovered the biggest clue to the mystery.

"What does it say?" Edgeworth asked.

"I don't know," Phoenix said, "It looks important."

Edgeworth stared at him and then shook his head as he returned to his examination of the correspondences scattered in front of him.

"Dear Miles, Blah blah blah—" Phoenix pretended to read the letter, holding it up dramatically in front of him.

"Give me that!" Edgeworth snatched the crumpled leaf from Phoenix's hands and squinted at it, "This isn't to me. It's not even in English."

"I thought it looked funny," Phoenix said with a shrug.

They continued to peruse the pile of documents quietly. Edgeworth was very engrossed with the task before him, while Phoenix continued to not so subtly act out his boredom with the work at hand.

"What are we looking for anyway?" Phoenix said finally, frowning at the stack of papers he was studying.

"I'll know when I find it," Edgeworth said curtly, "Now stop interrupting me."

Phoenix groaned and shuffled through the papers he was holding, "So, like this for instance," he held one up and waved it in the air, "It looks a like bill. A really old utility bill… There's absolutely no rhyme or reason to any of the papers piled in here."

Edgeworth paused and looked up at him, "All the more reason to check everything—leave no stone unturned if you will—because there's no order to these documents we must look at everything. We can take time to concatenate corroborating documents later."

"Wait," Phoenix shook his head, "So we can what?"

Edgeworth frowned and went back to work, "I wont let you distract me."

"Look can't we just get one of the junior guys to do this?" Phoenix said, "I mean there's more important stuff we could be doing—like having lunch."

Edgeworth glanced at his watch, "Hmm. Still, I don't feel comfortable trusting this to someone else."

Phoenix made a face, "Really? You don't trust Prosecutor Von Rockstar or Samurai Birdman to rebuild the takeout binder?"

Edgeworth sighed, "You don't know how much this can effect our operations. Our takeout binder was glorious. I can't risk settling for a poorer collection just to have one. The quality of one's takeout binder by measure of options, clearly legible menus, and what have you can make the difference between folks staying to finish up a case or dragging it out because they'd rather go home."

"Yeah but—" Phoenix frowned, "Okay, so maybe you don't want the other prosecutors working on it—but why are you working on it? Can't you find an intern—?"

"NO!" Edgeworth said, "It must be perfect!"

Phoenix held up his hands and backed away, "Whoa… Okay… I'm here, helping you. Just be cool."

Edgeworth turned to him and frowned, "Franziska will be back next week. So I either need to find that binder or create a new one that's as close to the original as possible. You don't want to deal with her when she doesn't get her Falafel Fridays or Thermidor Thursdays…"

Phoenix frowned and began digging earnestly and with much gusto into the pile of papers.

Concatenate

con·cat·e·nate [kon-kat-n-eyt]v. (used with object), concatenated, concatenating. 1. to link together; unite in a series or chain. adj. 2. linked together, as in a chain.

A/N: What is this? Why, it's a brand new chapter. I'm so happy to be able to write again.

Challenge: Use this word in one of your stories!