May 30

Defendant Lobby No. 6

9:20 AM

Cotoli Morix

I arrived at the courthouse as soon as I had the chance. I sat down on the couch and began to stare at the ground. I had no idea what I was going to be doing today. Obviously, the plan was to try and get Polly out of the detention center, but I didn't know how we were supposed to pull that off. Solving a murder was hard enough when you knew the time of death, and not having such a crucial detail made the work a million times harder. I didn't know how much I took autopsy reports for granted in the past until a case finally came where it was impossible to get one. We could only wait until something showed us the time of death.

I had no idea who we were supposed to be going up against in the courtroom either. I had texted Ghastly to ask if he had assigned a prosecutor yet as soon as I got the chance to do so, but I never got a reply. Surprisingly, he didn't respond in the dead of night when I was trying to sleep, and part of me missed that already after just one night of him not doing it. After all, I had been counting on him to offer me a response, and when he didn't, I was left clueless and frustrated with no ideas on what to do next. I couldn't get mad at him since he didn't know how desperate I was, but it was still a bit aggravating.

Lily, Yuri, Deirdre were supposed to be coming by to watch the trial. Chrysalis, on the other hand, I wasn't quite so sure about. She had spent the night with Anton since he was in immense distress after hearing that Polly had been arrested. He hadn't wanted to be alone, and she was happy to be there to comfort him when he asked. She texted me late the evening before to say that she wouldn't be coming home. I didn't know if the plan was to have her dropped off so she could come watch or if she was going to be staying back with Anton to keep him from getting too stressed out by the chaos of court.

Either way, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Chrysalis being there wouldn't have changed much about the outcome of this case. She hadn't been given the chance to do any research, something she regularly would have done if I was in a state of panic and desperation like this, because she was busy with Anton. The universe seemed insistent on showering me with the perfect lineup of horrible outcomes to keep me from finding success in this case. I couldn't exactly change the way the world as a whole worked, but I felt like slamming my head into a wall more and more as the seconds ticked by. What did I do to anger the universe to such a degree?

"Mr. Morix?"

I practically jumped out of my skin upon hearing Lily's voice above me. I held one hand over my chest, hoping that would calm my rapidly-beating heart. "Oh, you startled me... I didn't realize you were going to be here so early," I told her, letting out a shaky sigh. I had been so busy thinking about how hopeless the situation at hand was that I never even bothered to observe my surroundings. I really was off my game today, wasn't I?

"It's okay. Can I sit?" Lily asked, gesturing to the couch.

I nodded and moved to the side to offer her some extra room. Lily took a seat soon after, looking at me with a small frown. "You look like you have a lot on your mind... If you want to rant it out, I'm happy to listen. You know me. I'm great at listening... I think," Lily said, smiling lightly at her own joke. She let out a small laugh before focusing on me once again. "Well, go on. Let it all out."

I paused for a moment before sighing. "We don't know when the victim died. That's the main thing that's bothering me. Because we don't know when the victim died, it's hard to talk to any witnesses. Countless people went in and out of that agency since the death of the victim. We can't ask all of them what happened since nobody saw her get murdered. If someone had seen it, there would have been reports about it much sooner. On top of that, I don't know who the prosecutor is. I was hoping to try and form an alliance with them, whoever they are, but that's not exactly possible when I don't know who I'm trying to get into contact with," I said. The words came out quickly, and they were barely coherent to me despite them coming out of my lips.

Lily stared for a moment and placed her chin in her hand. "Yikes. In a way, I'm happy to not be on this case, because that sounds like a million train wrecks happening at once. I'm sorry you have to deal with this, but since you're the most experienced of us, if anybody can take it on, it would be you. Besides, I'm sure the prosecution will want to work with you no matter who they are. After all, they're just as unsure of what happened as you are, if not more so, and I don't think they'll want to decline help like that," she told me.

I nodded slowly. "You make a good point there... It's just a lot to think about as a whole. I'm not entirely sure where we'll be going with this, but I won't let it go too horribly. After all, there are a lot of people counting on us, and I don't want to let any of them down," I murmured. I frowned before looking around the room silently. Speaking of people I didn't want to let down, there were a few people who hadn't arrived yet that I had really been hoping to see.

"Is something wrong?" Lily asked, catching onto my behavior immediately. "Are you looking for someone? I can help you try and find them, whoever they are. Just say the word."

"I expected Victoria to be here by now... Plus, Deirdre said she was going to try and stop by. Yuri told me the same thing. Last but not least, our client hasn't even arrived, which is worrying on many levels. Something could have gone wrong," I explained. I tried to push the thought of something bad happening out of my head, but it was much easier said than done. After all, I had a horrible habit of thinking about all the ways the universe could make something go wrong, and that wasn't going to stop just for this trial.

"Well, there's no need to worry! I have faith everything will turn out just fine," Lily told me, a wide grin appearing on her face. Even in times like these where everything seemed dark and hopeless, she managed to cheer me up just by being there. It was one of the reasons I had hired her, and I was happy more now than ever that I had decided to bring her on board. Even after all of the drama that had plagued us over the course of the past few months, she was still sticking it out, just like-

"Here we are!"

Yuri and Deirdre came walking into the lobby soon after. Yuri dashed up to us and smiled widely. "Sorry it took us so long to get here. We had a few issues with traffic, but we're finally here. I'm just glad we weren't too late. I get the feeling this trial will be good. I mean, if a case isn't straightforward, it's bound to be amazing to watch. The more the attorneys can turn the case around, the better it is to hear about," Yuri told us. She continued to grin as she went on with speaking. "How about Victoria? Will she be getting here soon? She has to help you out at some point, right?"

"I hope she'll be coming soon. Perhaps she got stuck in traffic just like you did. Polly isn't here either, so I guess it's really bad. I'm glad I left early," I said with a small shrug, trying to seem more relaxed than I felt on the inside. My brain was screaming excessively, but I wasn't going to show that. I didn't want to freak out my coworkers too much before the trial started.

"You know, I think it's funny how you're talking about how interesting it is to watch a trial where details are overall minimal," Deirdre remarked, placing her pointer finger on her chin. "I mean, if I recall correctly, you weren't thinking that even the case at Interpol took place."

"Deirdre is right. I don't remember you being this happy back when you were on a case that had minimal information like this. In fact, you were incredibly upset and frustrated that we didn't have more to go off," Lily agreed, a small smirk appearing on her face. "If I recall correctly, you were hoping for a miraculous piece of evidence to save us from the previous struggles we were dealing with. We were dealing with a murder that barely gave us anything to work with, and you hated it, praying to the universe to have mercy on our souls. However, that seems to have changed drastically since the last time we spoke about this... If you don't mind my asking, Yuri, why is it that you've changed your mind on the matter?"

Yuri glared at them both before rolling her eyes dramatically. "Wow. You two sure do know how to lay the sarcasm on thick. It's different when you're watching it instead of being part of it. I mean, it's far less stressful to deal with when you're in the gallery rather than behind the bench. Besides, this time, Mr. Morix is the one solving it, and he knows what he's doing. He's the most experienced lawyer I know, and his trials are always a joy and a half to watch from the gallery. I trust him not to let the rest of us down," she told us, looking to me with a small smile. She nudged me playfully with her elbow. "You'll take care of it, right?"

I will admit that the idea of everybody counting on me so much was starting to get to me. They were relying on me a lot more than I could have expected, and it was a bit stressful to think about. I couldn't make them stop idolizing me or anything, but it still worried me a little bit. I didn't want to let them down since they were counting on me to solve this case and figure out who could have committed the crime. I didn't want to drop morale by proposing the possibility that I could fail, so I forced a small smile, praying they didn't find it to be uncharacteristic, and spoke. "Of course. It's all under control," I said, hoping I sounded much more confident than I felt. My stomach knotted itself up, but I tried to hide it.

"Here I am! Sorry I'm late!"

Victoria's appearance distracted everyone from my nervousness. I looked up and smiled in relief. "There you are," I said softly. "What took you so long?"

"Traffic was awful, I'm afraid. However, I'm here now, and that's what matters at the end of the day, right?" Victoria questioned. "Also, Prosecutor Burke should be on her way here. I saw her on my way in, but I was too focused on trying to get here quickly to bother stopping to talk to her and Detective Erikson. I hope it's okay that I passed them by."

"It's alright. At least we know that they're coming soon, which is the most we can ask for at the moment in my opinion," I said with a small shrug. "We should get ready to head in there. The trial will be starting soon, and I don't want it to get ready while we're unprepared."

I said that, but I knew that no matter what we did, it would be starting before we were ready. Victoria and I weren't going to be fully prepared to get into this trial until after the autopsy report came back, but that wasn't going to be happening for a while, assuming it ever did, so all we could do was ignore the pressing need to know more and keep going with the case. It was frustrating, but what could we do? We weren't time travelers.

"Prosecutor Burke might be able to tell us who it is that you'll be going up against. As soon as she arrives, you should ask her about it," Lily suggested.

"Ask me about what?"

Polly came walking in soon after, frowning deeply. She looked exhausted, but she was hiding how tired she was behind a mask of anger. She looked me up and down and let out a small sigh. "You aren't looking great, Cotoli. What have I told you about getting rest before a trial? You won't do anyone any good if you're exhausted. I swear, if you and Ghastly would switch habits for just one day..." she murmured.

While others might have seen this as rude, I knew this was how she showed she cared. She wasn't the best with showing her emotions, and I understood that well. I shrugged off her words to focus on the matter at hand. "I promise not to push myself too far... Now, I have an important question for you. Polly, what do you know about the prosecution for this case? Do you have any ideas on who it could be?" I asked.

Polly frowned and nodded. "I'm afraid I do know, but you'll have to find out once you get in there. After all, the bailiff looks like he's about to call us all in, and I would rather keep my eardrums inside of my head, thank you very much. It's nothing bad, so don't worry too much about that," she told me. "Now, let's get going."

Sure enough, the bailiff near the door had opened his mouth to cry out, but he was cut off when Polly walked by him to enter the courtroom. I looked to the other members of my agency. "Thank you again for coming. We'll do all we can to try and figure out the truth behind this case," I told them. I focused on Victoria next. "Now... It's time for us to get in there. Are you ready?"

Victoria smiled, though I could sense how nervous she was behind the grin. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she said. With that said, we all went our separate ways and headed into the courtroom to get this mess started.

May 30

Defendant Lobby No. 6

10:00 AM

Cotoli Morix

When I got into the courtroom, the first thing I did was look across the room. The prosecution was already in place, and I swallowed nervously before checking who I would be going up against.

There were three people on the other side of the room, but only one of them was a prosecutor, and I knew he was the leader of the bunch. Ghastly stood between Anton and Prosecutor Wood. Now that was an odd group. Prosecutor Wood got along with Ghastly, and Anton got along with Ghastly, but I hadn't ever seen Prosecutor Wood and Anton together in such an environment. I certainly wasn't expecting that group, but I wasn't objecting to it. Ghastly had made the choice he thought he was best, and I trusted him with such a thing.

"Court is now in session for the trial of Polly Burke," the judge declared. I looked up and saw Judge Ervan Frost sitting before the podium. I had been so distracted looking at the prosecution to think of looking up at him. I focused my attention onto him fully as he spoke again. "Are the defense and prosecution ready?"

I nodded quickly after exchanging a brief glance with Victoria. "The defense is ready," I declared. I looked across the room to Ghastly, Anton, and Prosecutor Wood afterwards to wait for their response to the question.

Ghastly looked up to Judge Frost and nodded as well. "The prosecution is also ready," he replied.

"Please go on and give your opening statement, Chief Prosecutor Bespoke," Judge Frost directed. He seemed far less distracted with the idea that Ghastly was prosecuting this case, so I got the feeling that he had come in here fully aware of such a fact.

Ghastly pulled a small page from the messy stack before him. Prosecutor Wood looked up at him with an admiring gaze. Anton was too busy looking at Polly to bother focusing on the opening statement, and I felt my heart ache for him. Poor thing.

If they were here though, that meant Chrysalis was likely up in the gallery as well. After all, she had been staying with Ghastly and Anton all of the day before, so it made sense that she would be here if they had come to prosecute the trial. I made a mental note to search the gallery for her when there was a break in the action.

Ghastly began to read, snapping me out of my thoughts of Chrysalis in the blink of an eye. "The victim is one Dee Fence. She was once the leader of the law agency Blocker Law. She took up the position as the head of the agency after the death of the previous owner. She was found dead beneath her law office, specifically in the cellar-like basement below the building. Her body was in a fridge that was often used to store evidence," he explained.

Ghastly pulled a small diagram out of his stack of papers. I realized how messy the prosecutor's bench was this time in comparison to how it regularly was. Ghastly was far from an organized person, don't get me wrong, but he still somehow managed to top his regular mess. I didn't even realize that was possible until now, but it seems the universe is intent on finding ways to prove me wrong.

"The fridge is located in a small room off the main area. The basement as a whole is free to the public, but there's not really much down there. Just off the basement is a smaller room where evidence is stored. The evidence is kept in many file cabinets if it's paper or something small enough to go in there. There's a fridge down there in case some evidence needs to be kept in the cold. The fridge is what was used for storing the body, and it threw off the time of death. Nobody knows when the victim was killed, I'm afraid. There's no way of saying how long the victim's body was in the cellar, but it was long enough to mess with the forensics team's analysis of the corpse," Ghastly continued. He pointed to the different segments of the page as he spoke about them.

"I see... How peculiar," Judge Frost murmured. "Who all has access to the basement? You said the main area can be seen by everyone, but the cellar doesn't seem to be the same way."

"There are very few keys, and all of them are owned by the head of the law agency. She gives them to people who need to get inside. None of the keys were checked out when she disappeared back in February, and nobody else had access to the keys. In fact, nobody knew where the keys were being kept, so it was impossible for anyone to get inside of the cellar without calling someone to break through the lock," Ghastly explained. "In other words, access is rather limited... Despite none of the keys being checked out according to the log the victim kept, one of them was still missing."

"Key log?" Victoria hissed, her eyes wide as she looked at me. "I never heard anything about a key log, and I certainly didn't see that in her office when we were investigating either."

"The key log was discovered near the end of the investigation yesterday. The victim kept tabs on when she checked out each of the keys, and according to the log, none of the keys had been checked out at the time. Despite this, one of the keys was still missing, and it wasn't found until a recent murder when one Cormous Arme was killed. The key was in his pocket, and once it was recovered by the defendant, she figured out what it was meant to go to. I submit the key log to the court as evidence," Ghastly declared.

Prosecutor Wood grabbed a piece of paper from the mess on the prosecutor's bench before dashing across the courtroom to drop it off in front of me. I nodded my thanks to her, and she scurried away to return to her spot.

I pulled the page between Victoria and me. We looked over it, and I let a frown appear on my face. Each time a key was taken out, it was brought back, meaning no keys were meant to be out as of the time of the crime. Every hole on the chart was filled in with a date that a given person took a key out along with the date that the key was returned.

"I don't see Cormous' name on here... Marcus' name isn't on here either. I don't know how the key got to them after this crime took place, but it somehow did. We'll have to figure out how that happened. Maybe that will give us a lead to figuring out the time of the murder. I'm not entirely sure how they could be connected, but I'm willing to look for anything that might be a clue at this point," Victoria told me.

"What happened with the defendant to make her a suspect? Why was she arrested for this crime? Do the police have a motive for why she would want to kill the victim?" Judge Frost asked, looking over to Ghastly and his companions with a solemn gaze.

"She found the body. That's the primary thing that makes her a suspect. Aside from that, there's nothing to really show that she's connected to the case. She was investigating the disappearance of the victim, but she didn't know the victim at all while she was still alive. The defendant didn't have a motive to kill the victim either, meaning the police pointing fingers at her doesn't make much sense. She used the key to get into the cellar and find the body in the fridge, but that's all she did. She had no reason to go after the victim since they had never spoken, and if there was an issue between them, I would have known about it," Ghastly replied with a deep frown.

"I'm glad that he's siding with us again," Victoria smiled, nudging me lightly with her elbow. "If not for his help, I don't know where we would be."

I nodded my agreement, internally thankful for the existence of Ghastly. What in the world would I do without his help in cases like this? "Also, I can't think of a reason why she would want to check out the body again if she really killed the victim. If we think for a second that she committed the crime, then why would she go back? Nobody had suspected that the victim had been murdered up until the body was discovered, and she wouldn't go back to it if it would point to her as being the culprit," I explained.

"She wouldn't have a reason to go after the victim in the first place, and even if she did, it wouldn't make any sense for her to return. Nothing works in this case quite like logic, and I'm glad to know that you've got something in mind revolving around deduction," Victoria told me.

"I did quite a bit of thinking last night. I was hoping to get a text from Ghastly at some point to say who we would be going up against, but he wound up never responding, so I stayed up late for nothing. At least I got some deducing done regarding the case, and I already get the feeling it will help us out significantly as the case goes on. We've already got the judge leaning our direction thanks to what I just said combined with Ghastly believing in her innocence, but we still have an uphill battle ahead of us," I replied.

"Having a prosecutor cooperate with us really does help out a lot, huh?" Victoria murmured, looking down at the bench before us. "I mean, I always knew it was the case, but this is only proving it more."

"Is there anything else you wish to announce before we get on with the trial?" Judge Frost questioned, looking over to Ghastly once again. Victoria and I halted our conversation as soon as he began talking, and I watched Ghastly intently to see what his next move would be. He was on our side, yes, but analyzing him was still important if we wanted to see victory.

Ghastly thought about it for a moment before letting out a gasp. "I completely forgot to state what the cause of death was. There's no official autopsy report as of now due to the fridge being used, but I do have a few other details that would regularly be on such a file. The time of death was heavily thrown off due to the freezing that was done to the body, but the cause is still clear as day. There was a single stab wound directly to the chest. It got to the victim's heart, so she died instantly after the stab was executed. The knife that killed her was found embedded inside of her when investigators first arrived on the scene, and it was tested for fingerprints. One set of fingerprints was found on its surface, but we don't know who they could possibly belong to," he explained.

I looked to Victoria, and she glanced in my direction. "A set of fingerprints that wasn't identified... Wow. I didn't expect to hear that... What are we supposed to do with that kind of information? There has to be something that could reveal whose prints they are, but I don't have the slightest clue as to what that could possibly be," she whispered.

"Has the forensics team made any progress in figuring out who they belong to?" I asked, looking away from Victoria to focus on Ghastly.

He hesitated before shaking his head. "As of now, they have no ideas. It's a work in progress. All the people inside of the agency have been tested already, but none of their prints match up. They don't belong to the defendant either, which leaves us in a bit of a rough situation. They are doing their best to work it out though, and I have faith that we'll know as soon as there's a breakthrough in the case," Ghastly replied.

"I suppose that's all we can really ask for at this point... What if the prints belong to Marcus Moore? That would be the perfect way to tie him into all of this, and we might be able to track him down if we have that kind of information," Victoria suggested quietly, a smile of optimism on her face.

"I'm not sure where they would even find an example of his fingerprints to use... There has to be something for them to compare it to, and I don't know if there are any places that his prints would be. As much as I hate to say it, I don't know if they'll be able to do such a thing, which really upsets me. After all, if we could die Marcus Moore into this, we could hopefully show that Polly didn't do it sooner rather than later. I don't like leaving cases unresolved, but we might have to in this instance. After all, I simply don't see how we're going to track a criminal from months ago," I frowned.

"Hm... In that case, it's all about finding an example for them to compare it to. We could go through and check out the office of the victim next time we can investigate. How does that sound?" Victoria told me.

I nodded. "I like the sound of that. However, we should focus on what's going on now for the time being, and if we decide that we need to go off and look for something else later, we'll take care of it then," I said.

"If you ask me, I think It's time for us to call our first witness. There's not much else to say on the subject of opening statements, and he's been waiting quite patiently to take to the stand," Ghastly declared. Judging by the use of masculine pronouns, I already knew who he was talking about. It had to be Detective Erikson. Unless another witness happened to appear out of thin air, it was likely the good detective.

"Go on and call your witness then," Judge Frost told Ghastly with a nod.

"The prosecution now calls Toby Erikson to the stand!" Ghastly announced. Just as I had suspected, Detective Erikson was going to testify for us. I wondered if he had found anything since the last time we had seen him. Traffic had kept us from speaking before, but that excuse would no longer keep the truth away from us. Nervousness rose inside me, but I did my best to silence it. After all, there were far more important things to worry about first.

Tuesday updates are cool

-Digital