May 29

Blocker Law Offices

2:30 PM

CotoliMorix

When Victoria and I arrived at Blocker Law, the first thing we did was try to find Detective Erikson. He had to be around here somewhere. We would need to hear what he had to say if we wanted to find the truth, but I had no idea where he was.

"I wonder if they got swallowed up by the chaos that is this crime scene," Victoria murmured, looking up at me nervously. "I don't know where he could be... I suppose we'll just have to see if the universe blesses us with good luck."

"I have faith everything will go well," I told her, trying to sound a lot more confident than I felt. I had a bad feeling about everything we had been told by Polly, and I had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. Detective Erikson would hopefully have more to tell us about regarding Marcus Moore and the case, but I couldn't say for sure. I hadn't expected his entire existence to be wrapped in mystery, but since that was how it was, there wasn't anything we could do to change it. If Polly had been trying to find out more about him for ages but ultimately came up short, were we sure Detective Erikson would be successful? I had no way of saying for sure, but I had a bad feeling about it. My stomach was tied tightly into a firm knot.

Detective Erikson came walking out of the building soon after I spoke. I smiled to myself as Victoria sighed in relief. "Detective Erikson... I'm glad to see you're alright. I was concerned you found yourself in trouble due to all the chaos of the crime scene. Is there anything new that you have found out?" I asked.

"I did find out something, though I can't say for sure if you'll find it helpful. I'll leave that up to you to decide," Detective Erikson replied. "Marcus Moore's existence is mysterious. He never got the chance to work at the law office... He's been missing for many years, and he only resurfaced when he applied to this job. After he didn't get it, he disappeared once again, and nobody knows where he is now. It would be easier to track him if we suspected the crime was recent, but it was a while ago. I don't know if we'd be able to find a trail to him."

"That's unfortunate... How are we supposed to think about where he could have disappeared to if we don't know where he is now?" Victoria murmured, shaking her head. "I mean, I know that's kind of the point of going missing, but we can't track him if he went missing so long ago. We don't even have a defined date, which could make this a lot easier to pull off. All of this is giving me a headache, and we've just started trying to figure it out."

"I'm sure we'll reach there soon enough," I assured her. "For now, let's sit down and start to talk about what we need done. I'm sure Detective Erikson has quite a bit of helpful information for us." I glanced around, and upon realizing there was nothing for us to sit on, I shrugged. "I suppose we could stand. That's fine with me."

Detective Hayes came stumbling out of the crowd, a sigh leaving his lips. "I didn't realize there were so many people around here... It's hard to navigate when there are so many of them," Detective Hayes frowned, cringing as a police officer pushed him with a shoulder. "Ow."

"Come on over. Let's sit down and tell them all about what we've learned. I know we wouldn't have found out all we did if not for both of us investigating, so what you did to help was incredibly helpful," Detective Erikson said, encouraging the younger detective with a small smile. He placed a hand on the smaller man's injured shoulder. "How about you start?"

Detective Hayes nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. "Okay... Well, we heard that Marcus Moore went missing a long time ago... I'm talking about nearly thirteen years ago. It was ages ago. He left behind his wife and son to make another life without even divorcing. There were many attempts to find him, but nobody knew for sure. We suspect that his disappearance was deliberate on his part," he explained.

"Wait... Deliberate?" Victoria asked, her eyes wide. "What do you mean by that?"

"We think that he left of his own free will. He didn't want to stick around. He had something else waiting for him outside of his family relations, and he wanted to pursue it above all else," Detective Erikson continued. "He didn't want to stay for some reason, though I'm afraid I have no idea what it is... He was missing for ages before suddenly resurfacing in February to apply for a job here at the agency. He never got the chance to return to his family, I'm afraid. His wife, Harriet, died of illness years ago. His son, Zach, committed suicide after a traumatic experience at school. If Marcus had intentions of returning, they were shattered the moment he heard about that. I'm not sure why he would have left in the first place if that was the case, but it's something to keep in mind, I suppose."

"Wow... That's awful to hear about," Victoria murmured, looking down at the floor. "I feel awful for his wife and son. He went missing and left them behind without caring at all for their safety mentally or physically. Now, we hear that he was alive all along, and he was just avoiding them... I couldn't even begin to imagine being so horrible. Wherever he is, he deserves a major talking to."

"You have my agreement there," I told her, frowning and shaking my head. "What a pathetic excuse for a man."

"When he returned, he claimed to have a law degree. However, nobody knows for sure if such a law degree was real. It was signed by a man who died ages ago. If he went to college, it would surely be on some records, but there are no records anywhere. It's odd... It's impossible to ask the person who signed it since he passed away a long time ago. It seems oddly convenient in the favor of Marcus Moore, though perhaps I'm just being a tad bit pessimistic," Detective Erikson went on.

"If the law degree was faked, he must have been involved in some shady business... Part of me was wondering at first if he left of his own free will, but that seems clear as can be now. I was thinking about if he had been taken against his will, but I suppose that isn't the case. He left his family behind of his own free will, and he got involved with something bad after departing from them... I can't believe he would even think of doing such a thing. I want to fight him already," Victoria said sternly, shaking her head in disappointment. "Is there anything else we need to know about his disappearance?"

"I can't think of anything specific... However, I can tell you for sure that he did something bad. Faking a law degree is a serious offense because it's classified as falsifying vital documents," Detective Erikson said. "I just can't imagine why he would want to do such a thing."

"He must have wanted to get into Blocker Law no matter what, even if it took resorting to illegal activities. Granted, whatever his motive is, I doubt it holds much water when compared to how obviously illegal doing something like that is, but I suppose there's not much we can do about it... Everything that he's already done is in the past, and unless we can catch him and get him in trouble for doing such things, I don't know what we can do about it. I suppose we can bring it up during the trial, but I don't know how much good it will do us if we can't drag him up to the witness stand, which I'm not sure will happen as of now given that nobody knows where he is," I frowned, one hand going to my chin. "Do you have any ideas as to what he did after he applied to Blocker Law? It's clear he didn't get the job, but he must have done something after finding out he didn't wind up as a member of the agency."

"I don't know. He was supposed to have a second conversation with the victim about her not hiring him, but that clearly didn't happen. He got away, and she wound up going missing before being killed. I don't know why that would be... Unless he killed her, I can't think of anybody who would have had a motive to kill the victim," Detective Erikson remarked.

"Hm... How strange. All of this is odd to think of, I must say... I never expected to be looking so far into the past to figure out the truth behind a murder case. In the case of most murders, it is solved soon after the death of the victim... I know a few months really isn't too much time in the grand scope of the universe, but that's a long time when it comes to figuring out who killed somebody else. A lot of evidence has disappeared in that time, and unless we get lucky enough to find something now, we're in trouble," Victoria sighed.

"Marcus Moore is your best bet to finding out the truth, but I don't know how much you'll be able to figure out based on him alone. He's been hiding from the rest of the world for ages. Nobody knew where he was for over twelve years, and after he did resurface, he went missing once again. Plus, he came back with a law degree that was likely falsified," Detective Hayes told us.

"A falsified degree... Polly told us about what happened at the time of the victim's disappearance. She was assigned to look around, though she didn't find out anything until recently," I murmured. "She suggested that the degree was fake, but it's starting to seem even more likely now. You proposed the same evidence she did, but the chances he got an actual law degree are slimming. It would have to be on some records if he got the education needed to get such a thing, and yet, there are no records he existed for over twelve years. We didn't have the exact time frame of how long he was missing or when he disappeared the first time, so we'll have to keep this in mind for tomorrow."

"I have a bad feeling about all of this," Victoria admitted, shaking her head as she looked at the floor. "I'm not positive how we're going to deal with this. We need to find Marcus Moore, but nothing around can point us to where he is, and he's our biggest lead. There has to be some evidence of where he disappeared to, but if there is evidence, where could it possibly be?"

"There's one thing that I'm not sure about when it comes to this case... Is it okay if I talk about it?" Detective Hayes spoke up.

I nodded. "Of course. Go ahead," I said.

Detective Hayes took in a deep breath before speaking once again. "Okay... Well... I want to know more about the key that was used to open the door to the cellar. It was found on the body of somebody who died in a recent case. He had already killed someone, and he was struck down when somebody realized he was attempting to kill others. I want to know... How did the victim of that case wind up with the key? Where did it come from?" he asked.

"I don't know... Does anybody have any ideas as to why this is? Something must have happened to get the key into his hands, but I don't know what it could be. He must have known it was important as well, because he wouldn't carry around a random key unless he knew it was relevant somehow. I can't say I know how he thought it was important, but I have a feeling we'll be figuring it out sooner or later. It's pretty important to know how the key wound up in the hands that it did, so something has to point to it," I said, unsure of if I was talking more to myself or to the people in the area with me.

"Hm... Cormous must have interacted with him at some point, though I don't know when it could have been. Perhaps it was after he was hired to work at the agency," Victoria suggested. "It's something confusing for sure... I wish this crime had been more recent. At least we would be able to figure out how Marcus knew Cormous if the latter was still alive. Granted, he would still be a criminal, and it would be hard to say if he was telling the truth, but..."

"We would figure it out," I told her firmly. My Magatama, which was sitting in my pocket, seemed to ache for some secrets to crack. Even if Cormous had tried to lie to us, he wouldn't have gotten very far.

It did make me wonder though. If he was lying about a lot of things, how was he able to avoid us figuring out the truth? A lot of us can figure out if people are telling the truth or not, but he got away with it despite all of that. Perhaps he found a way to cheat the system... I couldn't say for sure how he could have done that, but I wasn't going to ask too many questions then. We had much more important things to think about, and it would be best if we avoided getting too distracted.

"Cormous Arme... Do you want to know more about him at some point? I know he was involved with something bad. The fact that he had a bomb on hand and was killed because of it makes that incredibly obvious. I don't think we would be able to find out too much about him now since we're short on time, but we could try to find out more by the next time we meet up," Detective Erikson offered.

"That would be great," I told him, bowing my head in his direction. "I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you so much for being so willing to help us on this matter. Until then, do you want to hear what we know about him? If you want the truth, I doubt any of this was actually honest information, but it doesn't hurt to go over, even if he was lying about everything."

"I don't know much about him, to be honest... Nobody really knew he existed up until he appeared at the agency. Mr. Morix, you hired him, so maybe you know something extra... You're our best bet for finding out more about him. Do you have anything? Even if you think it's minor and insignificant, please share," Victoria begged, looking to me with pleading eyes.

I felt my heart twist at the sight. She was so hopeful, but I was going to have to shatter her dreams with a single sentence. "I'm afraid I don't know much of anything. In fact, I don't know anything. If I did, I would have told you by now. Cormous appeared at the agency looking to apply for a job. I responded by interviewing him, and he lied during his interview. It's clear he was hiding who he really was. I don't know if that just boiled down to small matters of opinion or if it was much bigger, but I don't think we can figure that out now. Even if we had him channeled by a spirit medium, that likely wouldn't end well. After all, some spirits can grow violent, and given that he killed someone while he was still alive, that's a risk I simply don't wish to take," I told her.

"Dang it... I was hoping you would know something more, but I suppose I should have known you wouldn't have anything else on your mind," Victoria said with a small shrug. "Oh, well. There's not much we can do about it now, so we might as well focus on something else for the time being. We could come up with theories about how he could have gotten his hands on the key."

"I don't know how he could have received it. Maybe he knew Marcus Moore. If he did, I don't know what their connection could have been. It's not like we can ask either one of them. Cormous is dead, and even if he wasn't, he would be in jail, and I doubt he would want to tell the truth to the people who figured out that he committed a murder. As for Marcus, he disappeared months ago. Unless we can find some clue as to where he is now, we don't have any leads to follow," I murmured. "Detective Erikson, thank you again for speaking with us. It truly does mean a lot that you would take time out of your day to help us out with thinking through the finer details of this case."

"It's my pleasure. I want to find out more about the killer just as much as you do, so it's nothing to worry about," Detective Erikson told me. "Now, I think it would be best if you started to prepare for the trial. After that, I don't know what you should do, but I'm going to try and find out more about Cormous for you. I somehow doubt this trial will be ending in a day, so we should have time to talk about him tomorrow."

"It's kind of hard to end a trial in a day when you don't even know when the victim died," I remarked, shaking my head. "It just doesn't make sense."

"Yeah, I agree with that fully. Unless the prosecution can come up with something, this case is going to take a while to solve. I don't even know who's been assigned to prosecute this case, as much as I hate to say it. Normally, I would have met whoever is leading the prosecution by now, but I haven't gotten anything about that. I'm the person all the information gets through before spreading among the other investigators, and I never heard who it was, so we're clueless," Detective Erikson frowned.

"So, the prosecution is going to be running in with even less knowledge than us. Somehow, I find that comforting. It means that we're not alone in thinking that we have no idea what's going on. The only people who would know are either missing or gone at this point, and I don't know if we can count on talking to them unless the dead come back to life or the missing return out of the blue," Victoria said, rubbing her fingers together as she stared at the ground in her nervousness.

"If you ask me, there's something more to this case... I don't know what it could be, but something is going on," Detective Hayes murmured, one hand wrapped around his chin as he looked at the floor. "Hm... I don't know. I guess we'll find out soon enough, and when the time comes, we'll know what to do about it."

"I suppose only time will be able to tell us what this case will have in store for us," I shrugged, trying to seem more nonchalant than I felt.

"The prosecution is going to try and find some relevant witnesses as soon as they arrive. If they figure out who was there at the time of the victim's disappearance, it will be much easier to narrow down what happened. I'm sure something will come of that, though I can't exactly point you to any witnesses like that. After all, I don't even know who they are," Detective Erikson told us. "Chances are that they'll be coming by sooner rather than later to talk to us, so we'll have to be ready for that."

"Maybe we should go and find somewhere quiet to talk about this case. We need to have some strategy in place before going into this, even if we feel clueless," Victoria suggested, looking up at me. I could see a mix of nervousness and upset in her eyes. She had no idea what to do, which wasn't something you would want to see to boost your confidence.

"I agree. That would be a good idea," I nodded. "Thank you for talking to us about all of this, Detective Erikson. It really does mean a lot that you would take time out of your investigation to help us in this way, especially given that you already have a lot on your plate."

"It's no problem. I'm happy to help you out. If you find out anything of interest over the course of the next day, feel free to tell me. I'll be at the trial tomorrow, so I'll hear about whatever you have to say during the trial. Aside from that, you know where to find me, and I'm always available to talk about what's going on and help you out if need be," Detective Erikson told us.

"We'll see you later," Victoria smiled, waving as Detective Erikson turned on his heel to walk into the building. Detective Hayes followed him, leaving me and Victoria to stand alone outside of the building.

I gestured for Victoria to follow me away from the building. I looked around before turning my attention towards her. "Well, we sure do have a lot on our minds now... Any ideas on what to do for the trial?" I asked.

Victoria hesitated, thinking something over, before shaking her head. "I'm afraid not. I wish I could tell you something, but I don't know what's going on at all. My head is spinning just thinking about how this could go," she told me. "We have to do something if we want to stand any chance of winning, but I have no idea what would even work. We don't even know when the victim died."

"However, that information will get to us eventually. I'm sure of it," I told her, though I was nowhere near as confident as I sounded. Even so, I wasn't going to back down on my boldness, as I didn't want Victoria to get nervous. She got scared enough as it was even without a crisis involving the case at hand.

Victoria nodded slowly, though she didn't seem convinced at all. She looked up at me and sighed. "Well, I suppose we'll have to go with the flow. The prosecution will show us something, and when they do, we'll be ready for it. I have faith we'll be okay... At least, that's what I'm hoping happens. I can't say for sure how it will go at the moment," she said, shrugging. She tried to seem neutral and relaxed, but I could tell she was terrified beneath the surface.

"I wish I knew who we were going up against... I could try and reach out to them if I know them already, but I can't exactly do that unless I know who our rival will be. I can try and text Ghastly, but I know he's far from being the type to answer a text early. In fact, I can't think of any time he ever responded less than an hour after I asked him for something," I murmured, cringing at the thought. Ghastly had always been an odd type, and this was shown nowhere more than with his texting habits.

If I texted him in the afternoon, he wouldn't reply until later in the evening over an hour later. Sometimes, I would text him before going to sleep, and he would respond at three in the morning, sending my phone into a buzzing frenzy before we both rolled over and went back to sleep. When I asked Ghastly about why he had texted me at such an ungodly hour the next day, he would respond with saying that he didn't remember ever giving me a reply, and when he checked out what he had sent, he would confirm such again. His unrestrained chaos was something that could never be questioned no matter how one thinks about him. He's always been odd that way.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, right?" Victoria asked, trying to remain hopeful. She smiled up at me, though I could tell she was trying to hide her fear. "If you find out anything, please tell me. I can't exactly wait around with you all day while we wait for a response, so I'll trust you to send me any updates."

"I wouldn't count on it, as much as I hate to say it," I told her, shaking my head. "Even so, I'll be sure to tell you if I learn anything else. Go on about your day like you aren't looking forward to anything. I don't want you to get too eager only to have your expectations shattered grandly when I find out nothing more."

Victoria nodded slowly. "Alright... It stinks that we can't do much about this, but I guess that's fine," Victoria murmured. "Even so, I have faith we'll be fine. There are a lot of people counting on us to find the truth, and I don't want to let them down by saying we can't do it. Confidence is key! I-I don't mean getting cocky though. Just being confident in ourselves. I mean, you probably already knew about that from the start, so I guess I didn't need to point that out, but... Oh, you know what I mean." She let out a sigh and shook her head, clearly thoroughly flustered with her awkward behavior.

I let out a small chuckle. "You don't need to worry. I'm used to dealing with Chrysalis, and she's just as anxious as you are," I told her. "I'm not going to judge you or anything. If I thought our personalities were going to clash, I wouldn't have hired you to join the agency."

"I know, but I get worked up about these things sometimes. I don't think I'll ever be able to get myself to calm down, as much as I hate to admit that. I want to get better, but I don't believe this is a good time to worry about something like that. After all, we have a case to think about, and said case is much more pressing than my obnoxious anxiety issue," Victoria told me, speaking at a rapid pace to get me to move on and change the subject.

"Alright... Well, there's not much we can do at this point. We've done all that we really needed to, so I think it's time for us to split up for the evening. We can spend the rest of the day on our own thinking about other things. How does that sound?" I suggested. If she wanted to change the subject, I was happy to follow along with it for the sake of her comfort. It was nothing that would shatter what our plans were, so why not give her what she wanted?

Victoria nodded. "That sounds good to me," she agreed. "I'm going to head back to my place. I'm sure my boyfriend and mother are waiting for me. Maybe I'll be able to get some ideas on what to do from my boyfriend... He tells me he used to work as a lawyer, though he doesn't ever want to open up about it," she said.

"You'll have to introduce me to him sometime. I mean, you've been working at the agency for a while now, but we've never had the chance to meet him. I'm sure we'd have some great things to say to each other," I remarked. "Maybe we can talk after this case is over. We'll certainly have a lot more time after that. Plus, there's no pesky traitor threat getting in the way anymore, so we have the ability to see each other without issues."

Victoria smiled. "That would be nice... I mean, it all depends on if he's feeling up to it. He's a bit shy, I'm afraid. You would never guess that just by looking at him, but he can be rather antisocial when he's not in the mood to talk to others," she told me.

I shrugged. "That's fine. I don't want to cross any lines anyways... Well, until next time we see each other, I hope you have a nice day. We can talk tomorrow. I'll be sure to text you if I hear anything about who we'll be facing off against tomorrow. Does that sound alright?" I asked.

"Of course," Victoria said with a firm nod. "I'll see you later, Mr. Morix! Have a nice rest of your day!"

I waved as Victoria dashed off. I watched her disappear into her car before driving away. I had been planning on letting her lead this case to help boost her confidence, but it seemed to me that she wasn't ready for that. I didn't want to throw her in unprepared to deal with a case like this. It was difficult enough for me, someone with a lot of experience, and I didn't want to stress her out too much with it.

I headed for my own car, ready to leave Blocker Law behind. I told myself internally that we would be finding out the truth no matter what, even if the universe seemed to be against us striving for a grand reveal.

School got canceled for me tomorrow wow

-Digital