May 31

Courtroom No. 6

10:00 AM

Cotoli Morix

When we got into the courtroom, I looked around. There wasn't anything that stuck out as particularly different compared to last time we had been in there, but I wasn't really looking for anything like that. I just wanted to get this trial over with. The truth about Cormous had to come out, and there was a lot we had to explain to get there. It was going to take a while before everyone in the courtroom fully understood, and I thought it was time for us to get the ball rolling.

Judge Frost picked up his gavel and hit it down against the podium. I jumped slightly as it tore me out of my thoughts, but I tried to keep from showing how much it had frightened me. I looked up to Judge Frost, waiting for him to speak. I saw Victoria giggle out of the corner of my eye, and I knew she was laughing at me. However, I couldn't really bring myself to be angry, so I decided to concentrate on the trial.

"Court is back in session for the trial of Polly Burke," Judge Frost declared. "Are the defense and prosecution ready?"

"The prosecution is ready," Ghastly announced, yawning. He didn't even bother exchanging a glance with Anton and Prosecutor Wood, as he already knew exactly what they were going to say in response.

"The defense is also ready," I declared after looking over to Victoria for a brief moment. We looked back up to Judge Frost afterwards.

"I'm glad to hear it. We have quite a bit to get started on," he announced. Judge Frost set down his gavel after turning it over in his hands a few times. "Where should we get started?"

"I think we should try to identify the culprit of this case," I advised. "In fact, I have an idea as to who it was. I have a name, though this does come with a bit of a catch."

"You think you know who the culprit is?" Ghastly questioned, examining me with an eye of scrutiny. Even so, he didn't seem to be glaring at all, simply watching and waiting in his unique brand of silence. "If that's the case, don't hold back at all. Get right into it. We're all listening. I know I want to hear your thoughts as soon as possible."

"I'd be happy to give them then. I believe that the culprit is one Marcus Moore, which we were discussing yesterday. However, there's an extra twist to it this time. The culprit is most likely Marcus Moore, but this is not the name he goes by at present. He has taken up false names to hide his true identity, and I feel as if one of his more recent titles will make a bit more sense in this context. After all, he was heavily involved in a pair of murder cases not that long ago," I began to announce.

"He was involved with a pair of murder cases? What pair are you discussing in particular?" Judge Frost asked, raising an eyebrow my direction. He examined me closely, waiting for me to provide an answer, though I didn't really have any ideas as to where I would be pulling the words from. I knew what I had to say, but dumping all of this out wouldn't be easy. Making people believe me only added an extra factor of difficulty I didn't know how to handle yet. However, I would have to cross that bridge when I got to it.

I took a deep breath before letting the words out. "The Prosecutor's Office had two murders not long ago with the second one following closely on the heels of the first. The culprit of the first case was never brought to court, though records have been updated with the truth of his identity since then," I began to explain. "As for his connection to the second case, he was the victim. The culprit cannot be called to the stand to testify because he no longer lives. I apologize if this is a disappointment, but this is the conclusion that we have come to since yesterday's trial was adjourned."

Ghastly stared at me, and I knew that he was aware of what I was talking about. His eyes went wide, and every muscle in his body grew tense. "You can't be serious. You have to be joking," he hissed in complete surprise.

"I'm as serious as it gets. Marcus Moore is a man we all know a bit too well due to his murder not long ago. However, when he was killed, he was going by the name of Cormous Arme. This is an anagram for Marcus Moore, and if you rearrange the letters, they match up perfectly. He was murdered not long ago for attempting to plant a bomb in the Prosecutor's Office. He had been hoping to cause an explosion large enough to get rid of any evidence involving the previous case. Before the attempted bombing, he had killed Luis Cruz, a local prosecutor, for getting too close to the truth about his identity. However, Prosecutor Cruz left behind clues about the truth behind Cormous, and he wanted those traces gone. He couldn't just get rid of the evidence since he didn't know how much there was or where it was located. Instead, he resorted to the bombing, though it caused his downfall when the culprit saw him and stabbed him in the back for attempting the crime," I declared.

Ghastly stared at me for a long while, and I heard the people watching in the gallery break out into chatter. I didn't give them the slightest bit of attention, instead watching as Ghastly turned to look at Prosecutor Wood. She didn't seem bothered by all of this, and I wondered if she was aware that her other side had committed this crime. After all, she hadn't been there when Nevada was exposed for the murder. She couldn't have been. Only her or Nevada could be out and running around at a given time. It was one or the other, and at the time Nevada was exposed, it was the 'other' option that had been in effect.

Judge Frost slammed his gavel down onto the podium, but it was little more than a distant humming to me. I couldn't concentrate enough to ram that sound into my head for a few seconds, and it wasn't until after the buzz of the courtroom gallery had calmed that I was able to focus fully. I would have to talk to Ghastly about this after the trial ended, but until that time came, I was just going to avoid discussing who the culprit was behind Cormous' murder. That would only complicate things further. Besides, there was no reason to bring up Nevada since this trial wasn't entirely about her, and it would cause issues we didn't want to deal with amidst the other chaos this case involved. "You think that Cormous Arme, who was killed weeks ago, is the culprit who murdered the victim in this case?" Judge Frost asked. His eyes were wide with surprise, and he stared at me like I had grown a second head. His shock was understandable, but I still did my best to avoid his interrogative gaze. "You had better have evidence to back this up. Making such a bold statement without some sort of proof is a death sentence in court."

"As a matter of fact, I do have some evidence to back it up. First and foremost, I would like to present a photo of Cormous Arme to the court. I want all of you to look at it and think about how similar it is to the photo of Marcus Moore that was submitted yesterday. Even if the second picture is incredibly old in comparison, it still gets the point across. The similarities cannot be denied. There's no way anyone could look so similar to the picture, even if they were related," I declared. "We already know for sure that Marcus Moore has no twins, as such a fact would have surfaced by now, meaning there is only one explanation: Marcus Moore and Cormous Arme are the same person."

The gallery burst into conversation once again, and a small smile spread across my face. Victoria nudged me, giving me an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I grinned to her, and I looked over to Ghastly. He was looking back and forth between the photo of Cormous and the picture that had been presented the day before. He had noticed how similar they were for sure, as he couldn't seem to find any substantial differences. Ghastly met eyes with me for a brief moment, and we both smiled to each other. We were going down the right path. All we had to do now was convince everyone else in the courtroom that we had found the correct explanation.

Judge Frost let out a frustrated sigh before picking up his gavel and hitting it down once again. "This court will have order!" he exclaimed. "Defense, you are correct in saying that these two pictures are incredibly similar. The likeness cannot be denied. However, are you sure this means that the victim from the previous case and the killer here are the same person?"

"I'm positive of it. I have another way to show that Cormous Arme and Marcus Moore are the same person as well. I'm sure that most of the people in this court are familiar with the practice known as spirit channeling, or at the very least, they have heard of it. Spirit channeling is going to be my next piece of evidence to prove my point," I announced.

"I get it. You're going to mention that Chrysalis could not channel Cormous because she didn't have his true name," Victoria murmured to me. "That's smart. Now, let's go on and get to it. I'm ready to show what we're made of."

"Spirit channeling is your evidence?" Judge Frost questioned, raising an eyebrow in my direction. "Please explain what you mean by that. I'm afraid you lost me, and likely many others, along the way."

"Of course," I nodded. "Spirit channeling needs two key components in order to bring back a soul. The first one is a picture of the deceased. The medium needs knowledge of the person's appearance from how they looked in life. If there's no picture in the immediate area, the medium must have seen the person from before they died at some point."

"The medium you likely had attempt a channeling was your sister. Cormous worked with your agency for a brief while, so she would know how he looked," Ghastly announced. "With that said, I'm going to guess that it's the other component that's causing issues."

"It is, as a matter of fact. The other requirement to channel a spirit is knowledge of the person's name. This means no false identities or aliases. Their true name needs to be exposed in order for the channeling to be properly carried out. This is where we run into problems. After all, it's hard to channel someone who has been lying about their true name for a long time," I explained.

"You attempted a channeling, but it failed because Cormous Arme is not the correct name. It was a lie from the start, and it kept him from being brought back to testify. However, if Marcus Moore had been called upon, it would have been successful," Judge Frost concluded, nodding slowly. "I think I understand what you're getting at. If his true name had been known at the time, there wouldn't have been any issues."

"Exactly. We can't exactly try to summon Marcus Moore to prove this fact though. Cormous Arme was already known to have killed Luis Cruz, and if he was brought back, even temporarily, it would cause many issues and put lives at risk," I continued. "With that said, you'll just need to trust us."

"If this will help you to believe in their story, I believe it," Ghastly declared. "I see no reason not to trust their words. Mr. Morix has a younger sister who can channel spirits, so they would have been able to ensure that he was really impossible to channel."

"I see... In that case, I'll believe you," Judge Frost nodded. "You think that this proves that Cormous Arme and Marcus Moore are the same person... The pictures of them are incredibly similar, so this wouldn't surprise me given this extra evidence... I agree that it would be best not to summon his spirit back from the dead given his track record with harming other people."

"He killed a prosecutor for getting too close to the truth of his identity and nearly caused an explosion in the Prosecutor's Office. Just one of those things is bad enough, but both of them on top of connections to an illegal group... Yeah, it's pretty clear why we wouldn't want to bring him back, even if it was just for a short while," Ghastly remarked, shuddering and shaking his head.

"I'm glad that we've come to the same conclusion on the matter," Victoria smiled. "As for what else we should do... We believe that he was involved with the Emsthorpe crime ring while he was still alive. This was mentioned briefly during the case when he was killed, but this only proves the issue further."

"When he was killed, we came to the conclusion that Cormous was involved with some illegal group. Specifically, we decided that he had ties to the Emsthorpe crime ring. We discussed yesterday how Marcus Moore was involved with illegal activities, so when you put these together, it's pretty easy to see how the pieces slam into place," I announced.

"I think that we've come rather far in finding the truth of the matter," Judge Frost murmured. "As for his connection to the Emsthorpe crime ring, what are you thinking about it?"

"It's rather simple, as a matter of fact. The culprit of a murder at the local prison was the leader of the Emsthorpe crime ring, and he was the one who proposed the possibility of a traitor at our agency, which leads into the supposed motive from when Cormous was murdered. He knew this better than anyone since he was the one who sent the traitor into our ranks in the first place," I began.

"Cormous was involved with a lot while he was still alive. In fact, I would say that he was something of a criminal mastermind. Even if he wasn't the leader of the Emsthorpe crime ring, it's still easy to see that he was influential. If we went over everything that we figured out about him being the mastermind behind recent cases... Well, we would be here for a while," Victoria said, letting out a nervous laugh to lighten the heavy mood.

"If you want my opinion, I would say that we should listen to everything that he did while he was alive at some point. If he really was responsible for so much, the least we can do is offer an explanation. He might be dead, but I'm still going to find this to be a very sweet victory," Ghastly declared, a small smile on his face. His exhaustion had vanished, replace with an unspoken sense of mischief. I loved seeing him this way. It was the expression he wore when he was getting ready to fry someone completely in the courtroom. It had been a while since I last witnessed it, but I was happy to see him happy once again, even if it was regarding such a serious subject.

"If you would like, we could get into that later on. For the time being, I think we should go over any other lingering issues we want to take care of before covering the crimes he committed," I suggested. "Is there anything in particular that you want to discuss before we move onto the subject of everything that he did to manipulate others? I don't know if we'll be able to reverse the topic change, to be perfectly honest."

"It's that bad, huh?" Ghastly asked, his voice barely above a mumble. He shook his head and let out a hefty sigh. "I suppose I saw it coming, but... Wow. That's pretty nasty to think about from the start of the discussion, huh?"

"We can get into it fully a bit later," Victoria insisted. She turned to the judge. "What do you think about this, Your Honor?"

Judge Frost stopped for a moment, pondering his thoughts on the matter. "Hm... I have to wonder one thing on the subject of the crime. We briefly discussed this yesterday, but the defendant found the key to the underground cellar in the pocket of a dead man not long ago. If I recall correctly, that dead man was one Cormous Arme... You mentioned before that he can't be called as a witness since he died a while ago. For the sake of the record, how did he come to own the key?" Judge Frost questioned, tapping his fingers against the podium before him.

"Since Cormous Arme and Marcus Moore are the same person, it's easy to see how Cormous got his hands on the key. Marcus Moore took the key to the underground cellar, and it was passed onto Cormous when he changed his identity fully a few weeks later. Cormous kept the key on him at all times to ensure that nobody found out that he was hiding it. He never would have shown that he had the key with him while still alive, so it didn't come out that he had the key until after he had died. The key had to be pulled from his dead body in order to show that he had been hiding it all this time," I announced.

"Hm... It seems as if he was scheming this for quite a while. He wasn't going to show anyone that he had the key, so I wonder if he had a plan to reveal the murder... That's assuming he was going to let us know for sure if the victim had died or not at all. He could have easily kept her body hidden away, leaving us to wonder what happened to her with no ways of confirming it. It seems that his death was a positive thing for countless reasons. Not only did it keep him from killing anyone else, but it also allowed us to discover one of his previous victims," Judge Frost murmured.

"She deserved to have her case brought to court like this. It's a shame we couldn't take him to prison to let him pay for what he did, but I feel like he would have probably received the death penalty anyways. Anyone part of the Emsthorpe crime ring has a lot of crimes to answer for. We already know of three murders that he committed, and those all just took place in the past few months. Who knows how many other lives he was responsible for taking over the years?" Victoria asked. She looked down at the bench, twisting her fingers into a knotted pattern out of nervousness. "I can't help but wonder how we were ever able to work with him in the first place... Looking back, it's so odd to think that we trusted him."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Something might seem painfully obvious later, but in the moment, as it's taking place, you don't realize it. We shouldn't beat ourselves up about it. Besides, we need to explain what he did fully. He was responsible for a lot, and all we know about are the crimes he committed in the past few months. There's a lot still left to look into. I'm sure the police force will try to find out more about his past crimes, and while I'm not sure how much success they'll have, we can give them a bit of a boost. If anything, it's for the sake of the victims of his crimes," I told her, trying to keep my voice even.

I would be lying if I said I didn't blame myself for what happened with Cormous. He might have been a wolf hiding under the guise of a sheep, but I was the one who let him in. He wouldn't have been able to hurt us so much if he hadn't been pulled in. After all, we wouldn't need to solve his issues, clean up the messes he left behind, if he hadn't come to our agency in the first place. He had tried to get in, and I had let him in without a second thought. I had felt awful enough after the traitor incident, but his murder, and the truth that came out with his death, made me lose all sympathy for him.

The others, however, were a completely different story. They wouldn't have had to deal with Cormous and all his mischief if I hadn't pulled him in. Everything would have been fine if he had just stayed out of the agency, but because he got inside, everything changed for the worse.

I was going to do my best not to think about my guilt on the matter though. After all, we couldn't change the past. What we had to focus on now was making sure that something like this didn't repeat in the future. Being able to leave the past in the past was a skill we would have to learn how to use now more than ever. It was how we would be able to get over this mess, which was what I wanted most desperately in that moment.

"They'll have quite the investigation to carry out after this ends," Ghastly declared. "He's been committing crimes for more than twelve years as far as I can tell. That's assuming that he dove into this just after he left his family, though he could have been wrapped up in this before then. His track record is immense, and I don't know if his crimes will ever fully be decided on. If you ask me, we'll probably find out the truth when the Emsthorpe crime ring is finally fully caught. There are likely records kept by the ring, and we'll have to use them to add to the list of his crimes."

"We've only caught one member of the Emsthorpe crime ring ourselves. He might have been the leader, but he still got away with it after running from the courtroom. I don't know if we'll ever see him again, to be perfectly honest, and if we do, I doubt he'll give up his secrets that easily," Victoria shrugged. "Either way, I don't think that's the primary focus at the moment. For now, we have to worry about Cormous on his own. After all, he's the one who killed the victim. He might have been ordered to do so by the members of the Emsthorpe crime ring, but he's our main concern right now. We can talk more about the ring as a whole later on when it's more important."

I knew what Victoria was doing by gently steering the conversation away from the ring as a whole. She was trying to prevent any deaths like what had happened to Luis Cruz. He had been killed for coming too close to a secret of the Emsthorpe crime ring, and others would likely follow if they tried to get too deep into the business of the ring. It would be for the best if we encouraged others to stay out of it until we knew it was safer to investigate them. Chrysalis hadn't even tried to look into them since the risk factor was simply far too high. Taking care of Occisor was one thing, but the Emsthorpe crime ring was something else entirely, and it was best if it was left alone.

"I must agree," Ghastly nodded. "What should we get into next? If there's nothing else on the to-do list, maybe we should go over his full list of crimes. It seems to me like it's crystal clear that Cormous Arme and Marcus Moore are the same person. They're simply far too similar for it to be a coincidence, though I don't think any of us doubted it in the first place."

"There's one other alias of his that we found out about shortly before the trial. This one does not have an anagram name, but the resemblance based off pictures is uncanny," I began. "He was the culprit of another recent murder, one that took place at a local graduation ceremony."

"His name is Denton Barr," Victoria announced. "Or, to be more accurate, it was. He killed a teacher on the day of a graduation ceremony at a nearby college. He thought that she was involved with the Oracle of the Law, and he killed her because of it. However, this assumption wound up being false, and she died even if he was entirely incorrect because he jumped to conclusions."

"If you take a look at his picture and compare it to the photos of Cormous Arme and Marcus Moore... The facial structure has similarities that cannot be denied. It looks more like Cormous than Marcus due to the time frame in between the photos, but it's easy to come to this conclusion," I declared.

The gallery started to buzz once again, and I looked over to Victoria. She had a small smile on her face, but I could tell she was still nervous about revealing the full truth behind Cormous. I was relieved to see that she didn't seem to hold any anger directed at me, and if she did, she was hiding it rather well. It was a small mercy, but I wasn't going to be upset with it. How could I be when it worked out in my favor?

Judge Frost picked up his gavel with an angry huff and slammed the small hammer against the podium before him. "This court will have order!" he demanded. I hadn't seen him get this upset before, and it was rather odd, I had to admit. If only the people in the gallery knew how to keep quiet for just a while...

The gallery slowly let its chatter come to a halt, and it took what felt like a million years to get back on subject. All eyes were on me as I held up the pictures of Cormous and Denton Barr. "You see what I mean here. When you look at them for long enough, it becomes hard to tell which one is which. Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, if you don't mind, would you be able to tell the court what you know about Denton Barr? Even small details will help us significantly, so don't hold anything back," I instructed.

Ghastly paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "He was arrested after the graduation case a while back. I wasn't involved with that case, but I heard about it from the people who were tied into it. However, he got away from the police somewhere along the way and went rogue," he explained. "He escaped from prison, if I had to guess, though we don't know how he pulled that off. The point is that he got away, and he was declared missing. However, nobody ever found him. It was announced to the public that he was on the run, though he wasn't turned in. I suppose not enough people got the message that he was someone to be feared and turned in to the police."

"Even if they didn't realize it at the time, we figured it all out in the end. After all, he's been killed, and he can't hurt anyone now. We were thankful at the time for the fact that he was killed because his death saved many innocent people, but... Who even knows how many people the culprit saved by ending his life?" I asked. "We truly owe a lot to them, even if we didn't think that at first."

"It's funny how things change. At the time, people were upset that he had been killed, but now, we're happy he's gone," Ghastly snorted, his voice barely above a whisper. It was a miracle I had been able to hear it across the courtroom. "If you ask me, he probably had a thousand other false identities. I mean, he had two at least, but if he had to sneak into various locations to kill people, he must have known how to make aliases he would use to break into secret places for the sake of murder."

"He was responsible for hurting many people... If you ask me, that's a perfect way to transition into our next primary subject of discussion: everything we know for sure that he did. There are countless things he could have done, but we have a few confirmed crimes he was responsible for, and such an explanation is going to be important for the record of both this case and the other cases he was involved with," I announced.

"Prosecution, do you object to hearing the defense's explanation?" Judge Frost asked, looking over to where Ghastly was standing with his two partners.

Ghastly shared brief glances with Anton and Prosecutor Wood before focusing his attention back towards Judge Frost. They had come to a unanimous decision without many issues as far as I could tell, not that I really expected anything different. They were just as curious as everyone else in the courtroom. "The prosecution has no objections," he announced firmly.

Judge Frost nodded. "In that case, go on and start explaining, defense. Don't hold anything back," he instructed, looking over to where I stood with Victoria with a curious gaze.

"We'll get right to it," I assured him with a nod. With that said, I started talking.


I forgot to post this on Tuesday oops

-Digital