May 31
Defendant Lobby No. 6
9:10 AM
Cotoli Morix
The next morning, I arrived at the courthouse bright and early alongside Chrysalis. She sat down on the bench in the lobby as soon as she had the chance to, and she let out a heavy sigh as I did the same. "I don't know if I'm looking forward to this. I know we don't really have a choice in the matter when it comes to solving this case, but... I'm just feeling bad. I have a major headache just thinking about all of this. It would be a delight if everyone in the gallery would keep it quiet for once, though I highly doubt they're ever going to give me such luck. I am exhausted, and I'm sick of everyone right now. Maybe I'm just feeling awful since the truth about Cormous came out fully, but... Ugh. Why is life such a chore sometimes?" she asked.
"I wish I could tell you," I said with a loose shrug. I tried to seem nonchalant, but I was sick of dealing with the universe as well. It seemed like everything was moving so fast, and I wanted it all to stop for a brief while. I didn't know what we were going to dospecifically. After the investigation, I had been so tired that I went right to bed and fell asleep after dinner. I didn't have the chance to think over strategies at all. However, if we could just keep a firm grasp on what had been discussed the day before, hopefully victory wouldn't be too hard to achieve.
"So, you're going to need to figure out how you're going to prove this. The primary piece of evidence that you have is that Cormous had the key to the cellar when he really shouldn't have. From there, you'll hopefully be able to connect Cormous to Marcus Moore. It's an easy connection to make, but it won't be easy to prove. However, you're a good lawyer, and I know that you know what you're doing. You wouldn't have such an amazing reputation if you didn't have a clue what to do," Chrysalis told me. She leaned her head over, resting it on my upper arm. She was too short to reach my shoulder unless I heavily slouched over, something I couldn't bring myself to do fully.
"I'm so glad that Ghastly is the prosecutor on this case," I admitted. "After all, he doesn't hate me, and he would be happy to help me figure out the truth. It all has to do with how he isn't corrupted, and I can't believe that's a relief. However, the legal system isn't exactly kind, and this is a small blessing I wouldn't exactly call common. We've been lucky as of late, but... I really can't wait for this broken system to be snapped back into order. It's been crooked and twisted for far too long, and I think it's high time that this dark period finally drew to a close."
"That's what we're supposed to do. It's been our job as long as I can remember. If the law isn't going to fix itself, if the law is going to rely on other people, then we're going to have to be the ones to snap it back to normal. It's upsetting that others aren't going to help us out at all, but... Not everyone can be trusted to aid us in a way. It's dangerous to place trust in people who don't deserve it. I hate to say that since it sounds so harsh and rude, but... It's unfortunately true. Not everyone deserves what we can provide to them," Chrysalis murmured. She reached out her hand to take mine in hers, squeezing it gently.
It didn't take a genius to be able to see what she was talking about. She was thinking about Cormous. I couldn't blame her. Even now, the betrayal hit hard. Cormous was Marcus Moore in all truth, and he had been all along. He came to our agency to deceive us. He was sent there by the Emsthorpe crime ring to find out more about the Oracle project, and there was nothing we could do about it. His intentions had been clear and harmful from the start, and even now, after we had accepted this fact and understood it for quite some time, it still stung a little bit. We believed that people were good despite our wish to change the broken system caused by the corruption of humanity. However, it was hard to hold that belief strong and firm when this was what our actions got us in return.
The Oracle project had been founded with hopes of undoing the harm done upon the legal system. It was broken and had been for a long time before we came along. We wanted change for the good people who suffered under it. We wanted change so that those who had committed unspeakable horrors would never be able to skirt away from their crimes. We wanted change to ensure that the future never slipped into suffering and darkness. However, people like Cormous made one wonder if it was even worth it if everything would only lead to pain at the end of the day.
We knew that it was worth it at the end of the day despite our doubts. Everyone was positive that it was. Change was important. Change fueled us. Even when times got dark, we had to find a way to press on. This was much larger than any one person, or even any one group. It was for everyone who needed to find the light of justice in their lives, and we couldn't let ourselves be deterred when so many people were relying on us. There were those who counted on us without even knowing it. For the countless souls who had suffered and would continue to suffer until change came, we had to overcome people like Cormous to find triumph.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when a shadow darkened my vision. I looked up to see Deirdre standing there. She had a small, pleasant smile on her face. "Good morning," she greeted simply. "You two look rather tired. I do hope you didn't stay up too late last night thinking about what was to come today."
"Of course not. He was sleep before nine," Chrysalis told Deirdre with a small laugh. She pulled herself away from my shoulder and yawned, stretching her arms up above her head. "I stayed up much later, but that's beside the point. I had a lot of thinking to do, to say the least. However, that's not important. How about you? You're awfully chipper for it being so early in the morning."
Deirdre smiled. "I suppose so. I was eagerly awaiting the conclusion of this trial. I don't think I've looked forward to a trial as much as this in a long time. It's rather thrilling to look in on from the outside, but I doubt you enjoy being a part of it," she told me. "Regardless, I have faith that you'll be able to figure this out. A lot was determined yesterday, and it will hopefully lead you to victory. If you decide that you need any help during the trial, I will be here to offer you aid. I'm sure Lily and Yuri will be here soon as well, so you'll have the entire agency working behind you."
"I'm glad we have your support. I really do appreciate it," I told her. "I don't know what we would do if we didn't have you and the others. I know for sure that we wouldn't have been able to find out the truth behind Cormous being Marcus Moore. I feel kind of ridiculous now for thinking that the answer was sitting right in front of us, but we still didn't see it until after you and the others spent hours figuring it out. If we had been paying more attention, maybe we would have been able to spare everyone else the time."
"It's alright. I know the others were happy to help you out. Plus, it gave us something to do, which is really all we could have asked for in that moment. After all, we didn't have any other plans, and doing something is better than doing nothing. If you hadn't needed us, we would have spent the rest of the day on edge, wondering when you were going to find answers. It's best that we were busy with something as a distraction," Deirdre assured me. "I have to admit, I expected Victoria to be here by now. Granted, I don't know her schedule very well since we haven't been working together for all that long in the grand scheme of things, but I anticipated her to arrive early. Maybe she got stuck in traffic though. I seem to recall that was a rather significant issue during yesterday's session."
As if on cue, the door opened to the defendant lobby. However, it was not Victoria as I would have anticipated. Instead, it was Lily, who practically threw herself to my side of the room. She sat down firmly on the couch beside me, flicking through a small notebook after she sat down. "You are not going to believe this!" she cried out.
"What's going on? You sure seem flustered," Chrysalis frowned. She looked to Lily with a gaze of concern, and I couldn't help but feel worried as well. Lily looked as if she had been running from death itself, and it was certainly something I hadn't expected so early in the morning.
"I did a little bit more investigating last night, and I found something out that I never would have expected. This has more to do with you three than it does with me, but I still think that this is very important," Lily told us, her words practically slurring together in her panic. She thrusted the notebook into my hands not long afterwards. "Check this out!"
I accepted the notebook with a glance of confusion before flicking through its pages. Soon afterwards, a paper fell out of the notebook and into my lap. I picked up the paper, which revealed itself to be a picture, and examined it. The face was familiar and rested on the tip of my tongue, and until I looked to the bottom of the page, I didn't realize that I had seen this man before. "Denton Barr," I murmured.
Chrysalis let out a small yelp of surprise. "I remember him! He was the culprit in the last case before Victoria joined the agency!" she exclaimed. She looked between me and Deirdre frantically, praying that one of us would remember. After all, we had been the defense team on this case that seemed to have taken place so many years ago despite only having happened a few months back.
"That's right... I almost forgot about him, to be honest," Deirdre murmured. "Who would have guessed that he would be important? What's the deal with him, Lily? You seem to be in a real panic, but you didn't even meet him during that trial. Did something happen involving him?"
"I didn't realize it at the time, but when we were laying out all of our pictures for the cross-check with Marcus Moore's photo, this one found its way into my notebook. I don't know how, but I guess it slid in there by mistake. When I went home, I started to unpack all of my things for the day, and I compared it to the picture of Marcus Moore. As soon as I did, I realized that they look exactly the same. Cormous wasn't just using the name of Cormous. He used a different one entirely in the last case before he came to the agency. He killed someone shortly before he came to work at the agency, and we were involved with that case," Lily told us, her speaking finally starting to slow down despite how frantic she still seemed to be.
I looked over to her in shock before looking to Chrysalis and Deirdre. They seemed just as surprised as I was. "Wait... If he killed the victim of that case before coming to work at the agency, then that means that he was already involved with doing nasty things to those involving Oracle. He thought the victim in that case was somehow involved with Oracle, and it all came full circle after he joined us. He was killed after becoming one of our lawyers, but... The scars of his murders of the past were left behind," Chrysalis murmured.
"He must have found a way to escape law enforcement somewhere along the way. From there, he started plotting on how he could get more information for the Emsthorpe ring, and that led him directly to Blocker Law. However, he didn't get the job there, and he was forced to look elsewhere. That elsewhere was our agency, and he managed to worm his way in seamlessly using a bit of lying and manipulation. He was a lot more dangerous than we ever realized from the very beginning," Lily told us.
"That's... Oh my," Deirdre whispered. Her face had grown immensely pale, and I could tell that she was at a loss for words. "He got away, and after he did, he evaded law enforcement for quite some time. He was never caught again afterwards."
"Just since we met him, he committed two murders, and that's not even factoring this case or the countless people he must have been told to kill before our paths crossed with his. He killed both Vito's father and the victim in the graduation case because he thought they knew something. Vito's father was dangerously close to figuring out his true identity, and he assumed the victim of the graduation case was tied in with the Oracle of the Law," Lily continued to ramble. "After that, there was the murder at the prison. The culprit of the prison murder was his boss who instructed that Cormous do all of this from the start. Then, Luis Cruz was killed by Cormous for getting too close to finding the truth. That was when Nevada swept in and did Cormous in for trying to blow up the Prosecutor's Office due to Luis' findings."
"And that brings us right up to today. He's dead now, yes, but one of his past crimes has been uncovered. We had no idea what we were dealing with at the time, but now..." Chrysalis let her words trail off, and she shook her head before looking up to the doorway. She let out a small gasp and gestured for someone to enter.
I realized soon after that these people were Yuri and Victoria, who had arrived while Lily was on her enthusiastic rant. They walked over slowly and quietly, clearly unsure as to what they had just witnessed.
"What's going on?" Yuri asked slowly. She looked between the four of us who had been there for a while before her gaze settled on Lily, who was practically bouncing up and down in her excitement. Yuri raised one eyebrow and took a small step away from Lily.
"I figured out something very important!" Lily exclaimed triumphantly. She turned to Yuri and Victoria before rattling off her explanation once again. However, I wasn't fully paying attention to it, having already heard the story from her.
I stared blankly at the ground before me, swallowing nervously. If all of this was true, then there was more to Cormous than we thought. Plus, there was the matter of everything that had been involved with that case. Deirdre hadn't been around whenever we took it on, but it hopefully wouldn't be too hard to explain the full thing to her.
The culprit of the graduation case, Denton Barr, had killed the victim because he thought she was involved with the Oracle of the Law. In the end, that was incorrect. He thought the 'proof' of such was a suspicious bottle, but he jumped to conclusions without thinking about the other possibilities. The bottle had belonged to Pieter. It had been uncovered by Chrysalis when she went to Germany back in December. She had come close to tracking him down, but she barely missed him, and that was the only trace of him left behind. It had little to do with Oracle aside from the fact that it was involved with Pieter.
Denton Barr had been arrested after the trial by the bailiffs on the scene. Afterwards, he had been taken to the local prison to await trial, and if I had to guess, I would say that was the time when he got away from law enforcement. I didn't hear anything about him after the trial ended, so I didn't have the slightest idea, but he had escaped and then wormed his way right under our noses. He must not have been very happy with being forced to work with people from the same law agency that had got him into prison in the first place. I haven't ever committed a crime, so I can't exactly sympathize with that, but I know for sure that I would not want to be in that position had I been in his shoes.
Chrysalis had her face in her hands, and to an outside onlooker, she likely looked tearful. However, I knew this ran much deeper than that. Cormous had been someone who tried to have her framed for murder, even if he didn't know he was using her as his scapegoat at the time. He had used her to get away with his deplorable crime of taking another life, and even so, he was accepted in the agency without issue. He had figured out how to get inside of our core little group, and he used us as soon as he was in. I would be upset and surprised too.
"Hey," I murmured, nudging her gently. "Are you okay? I know this comes as a surprise, but... He lied to us all. You had no way of knowing that he was doing something like this, and it isn't your fault that you didn't catch it. None of us could have figured this out."
Chrysalis lifted her head from her hands, and I was relieved to see that there were no tears on her face. Instead, there was anger and disappointment in her eyes. She looked at me and let out a heavy sigh, one large enough to seemingly echo throughout the small defendant lobby. "I hate him immensely. If he was still alive, I would be plotting my revenge and how to get him prosecuted as soon as possible. However, since he isn't, the very least we can do is to defeat what's left of him and show what he did. This will scar his permanent record once and for all. I mean, it's not like it will impact him at all, since he's rightfully dead and buried, but... I need to do something to get my anger out, you know?" she said, her words rambling together in her moment of immense upset.
"I understand. I want to do the same. I wish we could have done this before he died. I mean, I'm happy he did die," I told him. "However, I would have loved to see him snap and break under the pressure of all his sins. He's done enough to harm everyone leading up to this point. I think it's time that we defeated him once and for all."
"I never thought I would think about a dead person needing to be defeated... However, I think that Marcus Moore is something special. He gives me a headache, and I want to get rid of this pounding anger sooner rather than later," Chrysalis said. "God, I never thought there was a soul who irritated me so much. That's saying quite a bit. I can think of a few people who I would have punched in the face by now if I had the muscle to actually do some serious harm. However, my limbs are essentially noodles that live on my body, so perhaps it would be best for me to take a step back and fire words as daggers instead."
"That sounds like a plan to me," I laughed, reaching an arm out to wrap her closer to me. She accepted the gesture and leaned up against my torso, and she barely reached my chest due to the massive difference in height. However, neither one of us seemed to care, and we remained close to each other despite the issue.
We focused back on the conversation taking place between the other four members on the agency, and I didn't realize how much I had spaced out. I had missed a considerable portion of the chat, and I had no idea how I was supposed to figure out what was going on again.
"So, that's what happened in the graduation case," Victoria remarked. I remembered that she had not yet been part of the agency when the case took place, so the others had spent a short while explaining the full story of it. However, Victoria was not looking over to Chrysalis, so they had left out the little twist detail at the end about Chrysalis being the defendant under an alias. That was a relief, even if I had no doubts from the very start. After all, they knew not to go blabbing about the Oracle project when we were in public or it wasn't otherwise a good idea. Yuri, Deirdre, and Lily were bright, which was more than I could say for Cormous.
"Yeah. We thought the culprit had been taken care of and sealed away ages ago, but he was at large all along. I'm glad that we were able to survive his existence. Now, we need to do something for the sake of all the souls he's hurt leading up to this point. Even if he's dead and buried, people deserve the justice that comes with either scarring his record or catching him for his crimes. His victim deserves this. The person who was framed for his crime deserves this," I declared. "Is there anything else that we want to go over before the trial begins? We'll probably be entering the courtroom soon, so now is the time to speak up."
I looked at all of the faces of the other people from the agency. They didn't seem to have anything to say, and if they did, they hid it rather well. After the issue of betrayal from a few months before, I hadn't thought it was possible for us to all come together like this again, and yet, here we were. Against all odds, we had reunited after the hardship. Even after dealing with secrets beneath secrets, we could unite. I never would have thought I needed to think about it, but then again, I didn't think that I would get involved with a traitor in my own agency either. This year had certainly taken a turn for the unexpected, but that didn't mean that we would be eternally divided.
None of them got the chance to say anything about the case. They were interrupted when another person walked up to us, and I let out a small gasp upon realizing who it was. "Polly!" I cried out.
Polly walked towards us, a small frown on her face. Her eyes were sunken in and exhausted, and I could tell that she hadn't slept much the night before. She let out a heavy sigh before speaking. "Good morning. You all seem rather chipper," she remarked, her voice monotone and dry. Polly continued to look us over before her gaze fell on the notebook Lily had pressed into my hands. She nodded to it as she spoke. "What's that about?"
I looked down to the notebook before returning my gaze to her. "Let's just say that we've found out quite a bit about the case since the trial yesterday. In fact, we learned a lot since the last time we ran into you. Quite a bit has changed in just one day of investigation," I told her.
"How much change are you talking about?" Polly questioned. "You're all gathered in the corner of the room, and your little circle seems to have an ominous aura. Whatever it is, I doubt it's a good thing. Did you figure out the truth behind the killer?"
"We certainly learned something about the killer," Lily told her simply. "I don't know if we have the time to explain it to you before the trial starts, but you'll hear the full story once we all get into the courtroom. We've figured out quite a bit about the killer's actions since the last time we saw him."
"Marcus Moore was suspected to be the culprit, right?" Polly asked. "That's what it sounded like from the trial yesterday. However, if you really learned so much about the killer since the last time we spoke, then I must be pretty far out of the loop."
"I don't know if I would go that far... I would be ready to be thrown for a loop if I was you though. After all, this might be the biggest case of false identity in the history of this city," Chrysalis told her.
This made Polly raise an eyebrow. Polly looked at her, trying to determine if Chrysalis really meant it, but she didn't find any signs of Chrysalis lying, so she continued to stare in surprise. I knew that she as thinking of the Oracle project, as that was a case of false identity as well. However, in the case of the Oracle project, the aim was to establish justice in the legal system where most false identity issues were intended to harm people. If Chrysalis, the Oracle herself, was calling this a bigger case of false identity than the Oracle project, it had to be a big deal. That was likely the last thing Polly expected to hear on the matter of the killer, and her surprise made perfect sense.
"That's a rather bold claim to make," Polly continued. "Are you sure you would go so far as to say that? It's not something you can say lightly." She was speaking slowly, trying to assess if Chrysalis was being serious. Despite Chrysalis' grave expression, it was still a difficult statement to take in.
"I mean it. The Emsthorpe crime ring is a lot better at this than I expected initially. I knew that they used false identities to get the information they needed, but this takes another step further. Let's just say that this isn't the killer's first crime. In fact, this is the second murder we know that this person committed, though there was another one after this," Chrysalis told Polly, keeping her expression even as she spoke.
Polly couldn't even bring herself to formulate a response. She started at Chrysalis for a while longer until she was brought out of her thoughts by a voice cutting through the area.
"The trial will be starting soon! If you wish to watch, it's time to head inside!"
I smiled upon realizing that I recognized the voice. It seemed that KJ was working that day. However, I could say hello to him a little later. First, I reached out and touched Polly's shoulder. "You heard him. You'll get an explanation when the trial starts officially. For now, you should head on inside. I'll see you soon," I told her.
Polly hesitated before letting out a sigh and turning on her heel to head into the courtroom. She disappeared inside, and I watched her go before looking to the other members of the agency. "We should get inside as well. I don't want to be late, especially since we have quite a bit to tell the court about. We need to prove Marcus Moore was the same person as Cormous Arme and Denton Barr, and after that, we have to show that he killed the victim. We'll certainly have our work cut out for us," I said.
"Good luck," Lily smiled. She shot me a playful wave before starting for the door. She turned her head over her shoulder when she was in the entryway. "Oh, and you can keep that notebook. I get the feeling it'll be more helpful to you than me anyways."
I nodded my thanks to her as she left and headed inside the courtroom. Deirdre and Yuri trailed after her, but Chrysalis stayed behind for a moment longer. She hugged me briefly before dashing after our coworkers.
I turned to Victoria slowly. "Well, this is it... I believe that we can pull this off. He won't get away with his crimes ever again," I assured her.
"We got this," Victoria grinned. She started to head for the entrance to the courtroom, and I followed her.
When I reached the door, I turned to my right to see the one and only KJ standing there. The bailiff-in-training hadn't been seen for quite a while, but he was still just as sweet and bubbly as I remembered. Even without speaking to him, I could sense it since I knew him so well after seeing him before important trials for years. I grinned to him once I had stopped walking. "Thanks for calling us in, KJ," I said simply.
"No problem, Mr. Morix," KJ smiled, saluting me upon noticing he was there. "Do you think you're going to win?"
I didn't even have to stop for a second to have my answer. "I'm sure of it," I replied, unable to contain my wide smile. "If you're going to watch any trial of mine, I would suggest this one. I can assure you that this will not be a case to forget."
The pressure right now wow
-Digital
