Apollo strode down the sidewalk with Trucy at his heels. Because it was so close to the office, it just made sense to walk to People Park to investigate. In addition, the sky was a clear blue and the young lawyer wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. He loved feeling the warmth of the sun melt through the cool, autumn air. Dry leaves in all shades of red fluttered around in the wind, which he thought brightened up the city. It gave the dull, gray urban settings a splash of color and covered up some of the litter on the ground.
Suddenly, Trucy skipped ahead of him and jumped onto a leaf as it blew down the sidewalk. The resulting crunch underneath her white boots made her smile, and she proceeded to jump on another one. Apollo smirked, rolling his eyes good naturedly. She is still such a child.
A single leaf rolled down the sidewalk, pushing along by the breeze. He watched it move towards him, until he stuck out his foot a stepped on it. It gave a satisfactory crunch, and the defense attorney continued walking as though nothing had happened.
The duo strolled along, following the stone wall on their right hand side that framed People Park. Considering it was built in the middle of a city, the park was quite spacious. In the distance, he saw a corner of the Kitaki Mansion. But then, when so much land is owned by one group, I guess you can always leave space for things like this. They turned the corner ahead and saw the entrance to the park covered in police tape. Standing the road next to a parked police car was a woman in a black suit reading papers out of a binder.
"Hey, it's Ms. Coldstare," Trucy said. "Hi!"
Maria looked up from her binder and closed it. "I thought I might be seeing you here. Hello."
"Well, we are Kay's defense team," Apollo said. "But what are you doing here?"
"Didn't it come up at your trial? I'm prosecuting another case that happened here," Maria said, crossing her arms and tapping her organizer. "However, I'm quite interested in your case as well."
"Yeah, I bet," Trucy said. "Do you know if Mr. Edgeworth is okay?"
"Yes, I visited him in the hospital," Maria said. "He seems to be doing just fine, though I suspect his shoulder is a bit sore."
"Well, it could be worse," Trucy said, with a cheery grin.
"Indeed, it could," Maria said, frowning.
"You don't sound too happy about that," Apollo said. "Is everything okay?"
"Oh, it's nothing I just don't like this part of town," Maria said. "It seems like there's always some kind of crime going on."
"It's not as bad as you think," Apollo said, noticing she was eyeing the manor. "Big crimes are pretty spread out. Sure there's the occasionally little thing, but for the most part everyone here isn't half bad."
"Be that as it may, I'll never understand people who break the law," Maria said. "Some of the things people do are just ridiculous. Just look at the sign."
Above the entrance to People Park was sign kept up by two poles. The name of the park was written in green letters. On the left side of the logo was 'We Kill' scribbled with a red marker.
"Why?" Maria said. "Who on Earth would write that?"
Apollo and Trucy glanced at each other and back at the brunette prosecutor. The defense attorney casually put his hands behind his hand.
"I have no idea," Apollo said, walking past the yellow tape.
"Hold it," Maria said, walking up to the defense team. "Do you know where your crime scene is?"
"It's somewhere in the woods, right?" Trucy said.
"Yes, a small dell to be exact," Maria said. "Would you like me to take you?"
"It wouldn't be too much trouble?" Apollo said.
"None at all," Maria said, starting down one of the dirt paths. "Actually, I would like to offer my assistance."
"Really?" Apollo said, catching up to the prosecutor. Wasn't expecting that. I wonder why she's being so helpful.
"That would be great, thank you!" Trucy said. "But wait, do you think the detective in charge of the crime scene will mind?"
Maria smiled slyly. "Oh, I doubt that."
After a short walk through the park, the group arrived at a clearing surrounded by trees. The trees had yellow police wrapped around their trunks to close off the area from unauthorized personnel. Inside the ring of tape were a few men in blue uniforms, a police car with the trunk open, and a large man in an old trench coat.
"Hey, pals! This is a crime scene!" the man said, rushing over to them.
Where have I…? Oh yeah, he's the detective.
The detective rushed over to the group, huffing.
"Correct, Detective. That's why we're here," Maria said, completely unfazed.
"Oh, Ms. Coldstare!" Gumshoe said. "And Kay's lawyers."
"Apollo Justice. And this is Trucy," Apollo said. "You know Kay?"
"Yeah, we go way back," Gumshoe said, smiling. He suddenly turned very serious. "You get her found not guilty alright, pal? I don't care which side I'm on, she would never hurt Mr. Edgeworth!"
Apollo jumped back, startled by the sudden outburst. "Okay, I believe you!"
Does he do voice training too?
"So, Detective," Maria said. "Perhaps it's not my place to ask, but how is the investigation progressing?"
Gumshoe sighed. "We're at a bit of a standstill right now. Kay's cross-examination kind of turned everything upside down. Right now we're looking for that second bullet, but nothing's turned up yet."
"Second bullet?" Maria said.
"I guess no one told you. The gun was fired twice," Apollo said. "But somehow you and Ema only heard one. I don't suppose you can explain that?"
The prosecutor's quizzical look was all he needed to know she couldn't.
"Yeah, I figured as much," Apollo said. That would've made this easy. And we can't have that, can we?
"We've been trying to figure that out too," Gumshoe said. "But between you and me, pal; we're not making a lot of progress."
"You mean the police haven't found any new evidence?" Trucy said.
"We don't know where to look," Gumshoe said. "I've been using my metal detector to search for that other bullet, but it's a big forest. It could be anywhere. We don't even know what direction it was fired in."
"I might be able to help with that," Maria said.
"How?" Apollo said.
"Detective, you said you know Kay, correct?" Maria said, taking something out of her pocket. "Then I assume you know what this is?"
"Little Thief!" Gumshoe said.
"Hey, don't call Ms. Coldstare names," Trucy said, putting her hands on her hips.
"He means this," Maria said, holding up the device in her hand. "It belongs to your client, but she gave it to me when I found Miles here."
"You and Detective Skye never mentioned that," Gumshoe said.
The prosecutor brushed a lock of hair out of her face and shrugged. "You never asked."
"So what does Little Thief do?" Trucy said.
"It's easier to just show you," Maria said.
The prosecutor strode to the center of the clearing and turned on the gadget. She glanced at the group watching her then brought the device closer to her face. Apollo watched her, curious. She seems to be saying something into that Mini Thief thing. Now she's… typing something.
Little Thief's antenna popped out and began rotating as Maria continued to type. Suddenly, the entire clearing was bathed in light and Apollo was forced to close his eyes. When he opened them again, everything looked pixilated and green.
"What the…" Apollo stared at the scene in front of him.
On the right hand side, a red silhouette of a man held up a gun. Facing the gunman was a blue humanoid silhouette in the middle of the clearing. There was a quick bang sound, and the blue man fell to the ground.
"Whoa," Trucy murmured under her breath, looking all around her. "How did you do that?"
"Little Thief is a simulation device. It can recreate just about anything, including crime scenes," Maria said. "This recreation in particular was based off what I know about the case. Miles was fired at, and when I arrived he was on the ground like the blue silhouette is now."
"Wow," Apollo said, walking around the simulation. He knelt down next to the blue silhouette and stuck his hand out. It passed through like there was nothing there. Well, I guess technically there isn't anything there. "So this is how you found Mr. Edgeworth?"
"Yes," Maria said. "And I'm positive he was in that spot."
"So this is where he was shot…" Apollo said to himself. "I wish we could see what happened before that."
"Why don't we use Little Thief?" Trucy said, looking over the defense attorney's shoulder.
"I'd need data to put into this thing first," Maria said.
"That's not a problem. Right, Polly?" Trucy said.
"Oh yeah, that's right," Apollo said. "We can use Kay's testimony."
"That would work," Maria said.
"Hold on, I think there's a printed copy in the police car," Gumshoe said.
He rummaged through the open trunk of the police car and came back with a manila envelope. Maria took the file and skimmed through the papers inside.
"After the trial, Kay started to open up a little bit more about the incident," Gumshoe said. "We got a few more details out her. According to Kay, a man pointed his gun at her and fired at her feet, possibly as a warning shot. Mr. Edgeworth probably heard the gunshot and went to check it out. One thing led to another and you know what happened to Mr. Edgeworth. After that Kay kicked the gun out of the shooter's hand, and he ran."
"I see…" Maria said.
She closed the file and held it under her arm. With her now free hands, she typed the information into Little Thief. The device emitted a bright flash of light just as it had before, momentarily blinding Apollo. After the light faded away, he blinked a couple times and saw that the scene had changed.
The red gunman pointed his gun at a purple silhouette off to the left hand side of the dell. There was a sharp bang like a gunshot, but both people stayed upright. A blue figure appeared from the south end of the clearing. Another blue man appeared a few away, this one in a running position, followed by another one in the center of the dell. A second gunshot rang out and the final image of the blue man appeared, flat on its back. A chain of purple silhouettes popped up, appearing to run towards the shooter. The last one kicked its leg up at the gunman, which then faded away.
"It might not be exactly like the testimony, but it gets the point across," Maria said.
"This is perfect," Apollo said, already beginning to inspect the area. "Guy shoots Kay, he misses. Mr. Edgeworth comes in, gets hit. Kay gets mad and fights off the shooter, who drops his weapon and leaves. Still doesn't explain why you only heard one gunshot though…"
"Maybe we should look around for clues," Trucy said. "We might be missing something."
"You know, something does seem off about this scene," Apollo said, pressing his index finger against his forehead. "Ms. Coldstare? Can you rewind to the beginning?"
Maria pressed a button on Little Thief's key pad, and the scene changed back to the purple figure and the red shooter. A sharp crack sound rang out, and both silhouettes stayed as they were.
Apollo walked up to the purple figure and investigated the area around it more closely.
"That's what I thought," Apollo said.
"What is it, Polly?" Trucy said.
"There's no bullet around here," Apollo said. "Kay said the shooter fired at her feet, meaning the bullet should be in the ground. But it's not here."
"Keep in mind that I made assumptions of where everyone stood when making this simulation," Maria said. "Given the path Miles would've been on before hearing gunfire, he obviously would have entered this clearing from the same side we did. Kay and the shooter, however, I can't say for sure."
"Sure, Kay might have been standing somewhere else. But it still doesn't explain why no one's found that bullet yet," Apollo said. "Detective Gumshoe, you said you looked all around here with a metal detector didn't you?"
"Yeah, pal. Every inch," Gumshoe said.
"Then you should've found the bullet in the ground," Apollo said.
"But he didn't…" Maria said. "Odd."
"Exactly," Apollo said.
"Perhaps Kay was mistaken," Maria said. "It's difficult to watch a moving bullet, she might have just assumed it landed somewhere around her feet."
"I guess that's possible," Apollo said. "But there have been too many contradictions so far for me to just write off this one."
"Well, finding that bullet would allow me to create a much more accurate simulation," Maria said. "Seeing how there really was a second gunshot, it has be around here somewhere."
"Let's look for it!" Trucy said.
"You guys do what you want; I'm going to keep looking around with my metal detector. There might be a couple places I didn't check," Gumshoe said.
"Thanks, Detective Gumshoe," Apollo said. Now then… where to look?
The defense attorney began wandering around the dell, kicking up the occasional leave as he walked. He examined the ground carefully, looking for anything that stuck out. The middle of the clearing didn't yield any results, so he began scouting around the edge. I still have so many questions. What was everyone doing here, why did Ms. Coldstare and Ema only here one gunshot, where'd the other bullet go, and most importantly who shot Mr. Edgeworth? There has to be something here that will tell me.
Apollo sighed, trying to sort out the information in his mind, and kicked the ground. He felt something touch the toe of his shoe, and it was propelled a few inches forward. Curious, he knelt down and picked it up. It was an empty glass bottle with a plastic cap screwed on. Trash. Figures.
He slipped the bottle into his pocket. I'll throw that away later.
"Wah!"
Apollo turned around just in time to see Trucy hit the ground. He swiftly walked over to the other side of clearing and extended his hand.
"You okay?" Apollo said.
Trucy looked up and grinned. "Yeah, I'm fine!"
She took his hand and he pulled her up to her feet. The young magician quickly knelt down and rummaged through the leaves.
"What are you doing?" Apollo said.
"What if the thing I tripped on is important?" Trucy said. "Ah ha!"
She proudly lifted up a broken branch. Her shoulders sank, and she dipped her head down. "Dang it."
"That's an amazing branch," Apollo said in mock awe, examining it.
"You don't have to make fun of me," Trucy said, twisting the branch around with her fingers.
Suddenly, he noticed something that caught his interest. Wait a minute. "Actually, let me see that for a second."
Taking the branch, he looked at the base. The end was chipped and torn, like it had been snapped off the tree. There was a rounded indention, about the circumference of his finger; that ran through the end of the branch. Strangely, it appeared smooth and clear cut.
"This is a weird cut, it doesn't look natural at all," Apollo said.
"You're right, it kind of looks like someone carved it out," Trucy said.
"What are you looking at?" Maria said, walking over with Gumshoe right beside her.
"Check this out. What does this little crevice remind you of?" Apollo said, showing them the base of the branch.
Maria adjusted her glasses, examining the wood. She smirked. "That looks to be about the size of a bullet."
"You're right, it is," Gumshoe said.
"I think the branch came from this tree," Trucy said, pointing up. "Look, you can see where the branch snapped off. Help me up there, Polly."
The young magician hopped onto Apollo's back before he had time to react.
"Trucy!" Apollo said, losing his balance.
"Hold still, I think I can reach that branch," Trucy said, stretching her right arm out.
"Trucy, I'm going to collapse. Get off me!" Apollo said, his legs wobbling.
She slid off the defense attorney's back and crossed her arms. "Well, how else am I supposed to get up there?"
"Here you go," Gumshoe said. He grabbed Trucy from under her arms and lifted her as easily as a child would a kitten. "That good?"
"Oh, yeah, thank you!" Trucy said, grabbing a nearby branch and hoisting herself up into the tree. She sat on the thick branch and looked down at the rest of the group. "Give me the wood thingy."
"Branch. Just call it a branch," Apollo said, handing her the item in question.
The magic prodigy took the stick and carefully made her way over to the broken branch. She put them together to find they fit perfectly. In the spot where the two halves met was a perfectly circular hole.
"This looks way more like a bullet hole now," Trucy said. "Hey, can we use Little Thief to see where the bullet went?"
"I suppose that might be possible," Maria said, taking out the simulation device. "Hmm… If I can map out the trajectory and calculate the speed, perhaps…"
The prosecutor walked over to the silhouette of a gunman. She typed a string of commands with the keypad, and the red figure changed position. The arm with the gun was pointed at Trucy's tree, with a chain of small, red dots appearing to come out of the gun. Apollo took a closer look and saw they were images of bullets. I get it, a frame by frame of the bullet being shot. Man, the technology they can pack into such small devices.
"Does the shooter need to be repositioned?" Maria said.
"Yeah, a lot," Trucy said. "Try moving it to your right."
Maria tapped in the commands and the digital silhouette moved. "Tell me when to stop."
"Keep going," Trucy said.
The prosecutor and the young girl went back and forth, Trucy calling out directions and Maria making the adjustments. This continued on for several minutes, and by the end of it the gunman figure was in a completely different spot.
"Almost got it, just a little bit more," Trucy said. "And… stop!"
The red figure was now outside the clearing on the north side. It was about thirty feet away from the tree, with the gun pointed farther up.
"Are you sure this is it?" Apollo said.
"Positive, the bullet fits in there perfectly now," Trucy said.
"I guess after shooting at Kay, the culprit ran out into the clearing. Maybe to get a better shot," Gumshoe said.
"Probably," Apollo said. "So where'd the bullet end up?"
"Let's see…" Trucy said, following the trail of pixilated bullets with her eyes. "Looks like it ended up… Oh, right there!"
She pointed to another branch a few feet away. Cautious with her footing, she maneuvered to the other side of the tree.
"Be careful, Trucy," Apollo said.
"I know, I'll be fine," Trucy said. She examined the hole the bullet was lodged in, scratching her chin. "Hmm… Oh, I know!"
She rummaged through her heart shaped side pack and pulling out a pair of tweezers. Why does she…? On second thought, if she can pull frozen chickens out of undergarments why should I question tweezers in a side pack?
With steady hands, Trucy reached into the hole with her tweezers and extracted the bullet. She dropped it, and Gumshoe caught it in his palm.
"I'll get this examined right away!" Gumshoe said, and sped off.
"Well, I think that's everything!" Trucy said, hopping down from the tree.
"I'll add all of this into Little Thief and see what we get," Maria said, already typing in the data.
With a bright flash of light, the simulation began once more. A purple figure stood in a tree, facing a red gunman not too far away. A gunshot rang out, and the purple silhouette fell to the ground. The shooter moved to west side of the clearing, and a blue figure appeared. A second gunshot was heard, and the blue silhouette fell on its back. The purple figure sprinted over to the red gunman and kicked its leg out. The gun dropped down and its owner disappeared.
"Alright, I think we got it this time!" Apollo said, grinning. Feels good to make progress. "Little Thief turned out to be pretty useful."
"Yes, I can see why Miles spoke so highly of it," Maria said, turning off the simulation.
"Yeah, I just have one question," Trucy said. "Why was Kay standing in a tree?"
Because trees are nature's rooftops! I don't know, I'm not funny. So anyway, this chapter turned out a little longer than usual. It was a fun challenge writing out Little Thief's simulations, hope it didn't come out as confusing or anything. I really wish I could give you guys a map or blueprints some times. Too bad FanFiction doesn't come with a Court Record button. But it does have a review button, so by all means tell me your thoughts! :D
Oh, and remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned a collab fic I'm doing with Darkblah1123 and coolfr123? Well, it's coming soon! In the mean time you should check out the stories they've already written.