May 31

Courtroom No. 6

10:45 AM

Cotoli Morix

"Our knowledge of Marcus Moore begins roughly twelve years ago. There's a large break in between this and everything else that we've figured out as of late, but it's still a solid place to start. After all, it's what we assume to be the beginning of his long stream of crimes, and it's important to explain his origins before getting into what he did," I began. "He lived with his wife and son, but he disappeared soon after his sister-in-law was assassinated. He retreated into nothingness, but the timing of such was rather strange. As we discussed yesterday, he chose to wait until after the Emsthorpe crime ring had been fingered for the crime to disappear. He wasn't seen as 'Marcus Moore' ever again as far as I'm aware, though it is possible that someone could have come into contact with him."

"He started using aliases not long after he left his family behind. He hid his identity behind a false name to ensure that nobody knew who he was, though this didn't stop us from figuring out the truth," Victoria continued. "He didn't appear again to us until recently. He was gone for twelve years, though I get the feeling these twelve years were eventful. After all, he had to commit crimes for the Emsthorpe crime ring to get the money he needed to get by. It wasn't a matter of doing what he had to do to survive though, instead choosing to do this simply because he wanted to."

"What a nasty man," murmured Judge Frost. "I have to wonder how long he was planning on abandoning his family before he left them. He didn't seem to hesitate much, so if I had to guess, I would say it was a plan for quite a while."

"He's already gained something of a bad reputation, and that's just from this trial," Ghastly murmured. He looked over to Prosecutor Wood, who had been rather silent up to this point. He nudged the girl's arm to get her attention. "Are you thinking about him and what he did?"

"I guess I am... He's done a lot to hurt people, and I hate that I'm related to him," Prosecutor Wood murmured. "I know there isn't anything that I can do to change it, but I wish I could. At least he's gone now, which means he can't hurt anyone ever again. That's something I probably shouldn't be happy about, but I can't help it... I'll really need to thank the person who ended his life." She seemed to realize what she had said, and she flushed profusely. "U-Um... Well... I don't think I could possibly make that sound okay..."

"You don't need to worry about it. I think we all understand what you mean. After all, he's done a lot to hurt others, and being thankful for his death... I can't blame you for that, and I don't think anyone else will do that either. After all, we've already explained how much he's suspected to have done," Ghastly remarked, shrugging lightly.

"We might not have an official number of the crimes he committed, but if he was working with the Emsthorpe crime ring all this time like we suspect, we can assume rather safely that it's a number well above one hundred. Granted, we still don't have any evidence, though I don't think anyone here is going to ask for it. After all, even if we don't know what he did in the past, we know for sure what he's done recently," I remarked. "Speaking of, we should get into explaining all of that. It's something that we should get started on sooner rather than later, because it's already going to be a doozy."

"Don't hold anything back then," Judge Frost said firmly, nodding to me with curiosity in his eyes. He waited patiently for me to speak, and when I looked over to Ghastly, I saw that he was doing the same.

"First off, we need to go into the truth behind Denton Barr. Denton Barr committed a crime at a local college graduation ceremony, killing the teacher who was going to be responsible for setting up the graduation. He thought she was involved with the Oracle of the Law, though this turned out to be false. His reason for such was finding a bottle she had to be suspicious, though it turned out to be nothing, and it had nothing to do with Oracle. He made that mistake, and it unfortunately cost an innocent person their life," I explained.

"I feel awful for that poor woman... She deserved better than to die because of a man like that. If I had to guess, I would say that he was ordered to kill her by the Emsthorpe crime ring somewhere along the way, which is what brought him to take her life in the first place," Ghastly declared. "Given his connections to the group, it wouldn't surprise me. He's done so much to hurt people, and he doesn't seem to have any regrets about it."

"Hopefully, her soul will be laid to rest now that we declared the truth behind her killer. She deserves to be at peace, and I hope that she finds out what we've done here today," Victoria said, a small smile on her face.

"We unfortunately have no way of knowing for sure, but I'm positive that she understands even in death," I remarked. "Is there anything else that we should point out relating to the murder before moving on? We have two other murders to discuss before we can call this line of reasoning completed."

"What a headache... This man aggravates me immensely, and I don't think I ever even spoke to him. If I did, it was so forgettable that I don't remember it now," Ghastly snorted, letting out a small yawn and stretching his arms above her head. "Well, I guess we can go onto the next murder. I feel like this one will probably give us a bit more to talk about."

"Let's go chronologically," Victoria whispered. She nudged me lightly and then looked to the center of the courtroom. "So, that would mean that the current case we're taking care of would come next. After that, we can talk about the murders at the Prosecutor's Office."

"Alright," I nodded. "The next crime that he was responsible for... Well, it's the reason that we're here now. If we didn't need to figure out what he had done to the victim of this case, we wouldn't be standing in this courtroom now."

"He came to Blocker Law with hopes of getting a job. He wanted to find out more about their connection to Oracle, if I had to guess. That was his motive for the previous murder we talked about, so it wouldn't be a stretch to call it his motive here as well. Blocker Law is known for being involved with the one case that had Oracle being exposed. It was the case where its previous owner was murdered," Ghastly announced. "However, he didn't wind up getting the job, and that deeply upset him."

"It upset him so much that he turned to murder. He snuck into the cellar below the building with hopes of talking privately with the victim, but they likely got into an argument. After that, he killed her, and her body was shoved into the freezer the agency had beneath it," I went on.

"The witness from yesterday happened to see him walk out of there though. The victim walked in but never came out, and he walked out but never went in. He had been waiting before the witness arrived for the victim to come down. As soon as the victim arrived, he killed her with a single stab to the chest. If you ask me, he was probably waiting just outside the door to the cellar, still down in the basement, and he stole the key from her after she died. He dragged her body into the cellar and threw it into the fridge afterwards, locking the door behind him to make sure nobody got in there without his consent," Ghastly continued. "Despicable."

"That brings us up to his third and final murder, though there was quite the buildup in between the second and third murders that we're aware of," Victoria remarked. "After being turned down from Blocker Law, Marcus Moore set his sights on a new location: Morix Law Offices. Blocker Law was involved with the only case that had Oracle exposed, but Morix Law Offices had been wrapped up in it as well. It was a strong secondary choice as far as he was concerned," Victoria announced. "He came to the agency under a false name, Cormous Arme. None of us were aware of his past crimes due to forged documents courtesy of the Emsthorpe crime ring. He kept everything hidden because none of those papers told the truth."

"He worked on one case in his time there, and it came to light that he didn't like Oracle much. However, we didn't have any information aside from that. We would never get the chance to find that information because of the next case our agency took on. However, let's stick with the first case that he took on first. This was a murder at a nature preserve, and an investigator was murdered while looking into forgeries of official documents there. The culprit was blackmailed into killing the victim. He had a motive to do so outside of the blackmail though, which made him the perfect scapegoat since nobody would question his motive. None would believe that he was blackmailed since his motive made so much sense," I went on.

"The victim was getting too close to finding the truth behind Cormous' true identity, so he had someone else do the dirty work for him. If the offer was refused, then he would have been able to pressure the culprit using his influences from the Emsthorpe crime ring. No matter what the killer of that case wanted, he was going to have to murder the victim or face serious consequences," Victoria continued. "The killer claimed to have been blackmailed, but nobody was sure if his word could be trusted. Regardless, this is what we believe to have happened after thinking over it for quite some time. We strongly believe that the killer was blackmailed by Marcus Moore, or in this case, Cormous Arme."

"After that, there was a murder at the local prison. The prison murder shook the foundations of the agency when the culprit said that there was a traitor in our ranks. At the time, we weren't sure if such words could be believed when they came from an assassin, but we went along with it since we didn't have any choices on the matter. The agency disbanded for a while to figure out who was involved with the traitor issue," I said next. "We didn't wind up finding an answer easily. It took us a while to finally reach the truth, and the agency remained split for a while."

"There's one little detail that you forgot when talking about the prison murder. The killer there was a member of the Emsthorpe crime ring. To be more specific, he was the leader of the group. He was the one who gave Cormous the order to invade Blocker Law, but in the end, that plan died on arrival. They turned their sights on our agency after that to try and find more information, though in the end, they didn't find anything helpful. The agency was divided before that could happen," Victoria pointed out.

"If you ask me, the division of the agency was a deliberate move. Their hope was that it would get us to weaken as a whole due to paranoia, and stealing information would be made easier if we slipped up. However, it instead kept him from getting the information he wanted. He slipped up, and it cost him greatly," I remarked. "The traitor speech was meant to weaken us, but it only made us stronger as a whole. That was his mistake. He paid for it in the end, but if you ask me, that was for the best."

"The agency was kept apart up until the murder of Cormous himself. However, Cormous was still acting up before that point. He killed a prosecutor named Luis Cruz. Prosecutor Cruz was getting closer to finding the truth behind Cormous' identity. He didn't ask anyone else to do his dirty work for him this time though, instead taking care of it on his own. If you want my opinion, this is because Prosecutor Cruz was already a danger to the Emsthorpe crime ring. They wanted to take care of it because it was the group's business as a whole. Regardless of the actual reasoning, the point is that Prosecutor Cruz was killed by Cormous," Victoria said.

"We didn't wind up finding the killer at the time. The culprit's identity wasn't discovered until the next murder at the Prosecutor's Office when the research of the victim came to light," Ghastly recalled.

"Exactly. Prosecutor Cruz told one of his coworkers to keep his research in case anything happened to him. However, the information could not be safely reported until the culprit of Prosecutor Cruz's murder was found. The one who received Prosecutor Cruz's information kept it hidden before deducing that the victim of the second murder was the killer," I declared. "I'm keeping this person's identity anonymous for the sake of their safety, but it's written in police records. It was reported in privacy, and because we want to keep them from danger, the name is hidden."

"Cormous tried to cause an explosion in the Prosecutor's Office. He didn't know where the research was, so he was going to take the entire building down to make sure it didn't get out. However, he was spotted by the culprit of the second murder at the Prosecutor's Office. He was killed in the fight that followed, and the bomb was disabled, saving the lives of everyone who was in the building at the time. The papers were kept safe until the person holding onto them came forward to say what they knew about the crime," Victoria went on. "With that, he was declared as the culprit for both cases."

"The investigation into Luis Cruz's murder was brought to a screeching halt when the second murder occurred since the more recent one took priority. If not for the notes of Luis Cruz and the words of the person he confided in, he would have gotten away with the murder. He would have died either way, but the culprit wouldn't have been officially found," I announced. "We owe a lot to the person who told the police the truth. Cormous wouldn't have been found out for official records without that help."

"I can't help but wonder who killed him," Prosecutor Wood murmured, looking down at the bench in front of her. "I want to speak to them at some point about what happened... Even if that sounds like an awful idea at a first glance, I want to try it."

Ghastly looked in between me and her. Victoria and I shared a brief glance, as if we were agreeing silently not to tell her about the full truth. Somebody else could explain it. After all, we didn't know her all that well, and it would come as a serious shock if we told her what had happened that day in the Prosecutor's Office. Sora and Ghastly could talk to her later on.

"I don't think it would hurt," Ghastly murmured, though judging by how pale his face had gotten, he wasn't thinking that at all. Prosecutor Wood looked up at him, wondering what he was so nervous about, but she didn't say anything about it. Her gaze lingered on his face for a few moments longer before she turned her attention back to the trial at hand. I got the feeling she would be asking him about it in full as soon as the trial ended, and part of me was thankful I wouldn't be present for that intense conversation.

"I'm relieved that he died, to be honest," Victoria murmured. "I keep on saying it, but... Well... It's the truth. How can I not be thankful to the killer?"

"They had no idea what they were getting into when they killed him, but I don't even want to imagine how many lives were saved by his death. Not only was he kept from blowing up the Prosecutor's Office, but the other people he would have targeted in the future were saved as well," I said. "He was an assassin. His job was to kill important figures, or just anyone who got in the way of the Emsthorpe crime ring. He undoubtedly would have gone after other people further down the line if he wasn't taken care of early."

"The number of crimes that he committed, the number of people that he killed, is still unknown. He's been doing this for ages, so it wouldn't surprise me if the number was above fifty. If he was with the ring for that long, then he undoubtedly would have had to kill a lot of people. We won't be able to get an official count until the ring's members are all arrested. Granted, I'm not going to expect something like that given how long they've been able to avoid authorities up to this point, but hope doesn't hurt, I suppose," Ghastly yawned.

"Finding them will take a lot of time... I get the feeling the police force will start to look into them more after this trial ends, as this makes for the second time in recent memory that one of their members was exposed for a crime," Judge Frost declared.

"Regardless of if the police are able to catch them soon, I think we can consider this a victory for now. The killer might be dead, but we were still able to bring his crimes to light. The justice system didn't need to take care of him since it happened naturally along the way," Ghastly said. "The Emsthorpe crime ring can be saved for later. After all, this is our main issue right now. We found the truth behind Marcus Moore, Cormous Arme, and Denton Barr and the crimes they committed while under those names. That's quite an accomplishment."

"He's right. We can call this something positive even if we don't know much about the ring as a whole. It might be thought of as a small blessing, but a small blessing is still a good thing," I smiled.

"With all of that said, I have to wonder... Is there anything else we need to figure out about this case? We went over our believed summary of what happened along with the other crimes that he committed. If there's something else we need to talk about before the trial comes to a conclusion, now is the time to take care of it," Victoria said next.

I thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out if this was the end of the trial. At the end of the day, it was Judge Frost's decision to make, and we couldn't force him, but I could still sense the trial was nearing its end. After all, if there wasn't much to talk about, there was no reason to stick around.

I knew I was looking forward to the end of this trial. I wanted some time to relax, especially after the nonstop barrage of things to do both for the case and not. The day before had been the longest investigation I had ever participated in, and while it had been helpful in finding the truth, I needed a break after all that.

Judge Frost considered things for a while, closing his eyes in silent contemplation. Everyone watched with held breath, wondering what he could possibly be planning to say next. "I can't think of any reasons for this trial to continue. We discussed everything the victim was involved with, and we determined the killer behind this case as well. We made considerable progress and eventually reached the end of the explanation," he announced.

"Now that we've figured it all out, then we can consider this case closed, right?" Ghastly asked. "I know that we don't have a full list of his crimes, though I get the feeling it'll be a long time before we get that, assuming we ever do. We've figured out what he was involved with recently, which is good. Unless we have some other reason to stay here, we might as well call it quits. Is there anything you want to hear about before you likely end the trial and close this mess once and for all?"

Judge Frost thought for a moment longer before shaking his head. "There's nothing I can think of. Prosecution, do you have any further questions regarding this case?" he asked.

Ghastly dropped his gaze to Prosecutor Wood and Anton. Prosecutor Wood looked up at him silently, and while I could see a question stirring in her mind, she didn't open her mouth to say anything. I knew she was still thinking about the person who had killed her uncle in the first place. It couldn't have been easy to first find out that a relative was an assassin and then hear that he had been killed a while ago for attempting mass murder. Nobody would know how to handle something like that
How do you even prepare for it?

Anton looked up at Ghastly next, and he shifted uncomfortably for a moment before shaking his head. He hadn't spoken much since the trial started, instead just watching silently from the sidelines. If he had any questions, he was going to keep them in until after the trial drew to a close. Anton seemed to want to get out of the courtroom just as much as the rest of us, and I couldn't blame him at all.

Anton and Prosecutor Wood stared at each other for a few seconds more before looking back to the witness stand. Ghastly took their silence as a sign that they were finished with the trial just as the rest of us were. "The prosecution has no objections to the trial ending here," he declared.

Satisfied with their answer, Judge Frost turned his attention towards me and Victoria next. "What do you say to this, defense? Do you have any questions before we call this trial as good as finished?" he asked, meeting eyes with me.

I turned to Victoria, and she met eyes with me. We seemed to have the same thoughts on the matter. After the mess the day before, we were tired of all this action. The investigation had tired us out, and if we had figured out everything else related to the case, we shouldn't have needed to worry about it anymore. That could wait until a little bit later as far as I was concerned. Nothing involving his previous crimes with the Emsthorpe crime ring was known, and until it came to light, we couldn't do anything about what he had done. Arguably, we wouldn't be able to know anything regardless because he was dead and buried, but updating records was still something in my humble opinion.

Victoria didn't say anything about wanting to drag this trial on any longer. She seemed to be able to sense that I wanted it over just as much as she did, and if we didn't have any questions and were sick of all this, there was no reason to remain. Other cases would require our attention soon enough, and I wanted a break before we got into those after the nonstop action this case had involved.

"The defense has no objections," I finally managed to say after what felt like an eternity of silence. It had only been a few short moments, but it seemed to be much longer at the time. Regardless, I couldn't wait for it to be taken care of permanently.

Judge Frost nodded and picked up his gavel. "In that case, I see no reason to continue this trial. It has gone on for long enough as it is, and the truth seems clear as can be. The defense offered an explanation that not only makes sense, but shows what else the killer was capable of. The pieces have all come together, and I see no reason to question what they have told us up to this point," he declared.

"We know quite a bit about his crimes, and I can't wait to put this down on the official records. It's the least we can do for all the people who suffered under him. He caused a lot of pain, and he's finally seeing justice... Well, as much as a dead man can see justice. I'll let you debate the logistics of that on your own time. There's no reason to do so right now, because we have far more important business to take care of. Your Honor, you have something to say about the defendant, do you not? Specifically, is she guilty or not? The answer seems clear as day, but you're the one to make the final choice," Ghastly said.

Judge Frost looked over the courtroom, as if he was waiting for somebody to potentially shout out that they didn't want this trial to end. When nothing like that happened, he raised his gavel. "You do have a point there, Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. The answer behind this case is incredibly clear, and I believe we all know the truth at this point, so I see no reason to hold back. Defendant, please take to the stand," he announced.

Polly rose to her feet and walked over to the witness stand. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and while she might have looked irritated at a first glance, I could tell she wasn't angry at all. If anything, she was glad that the trial had gone this way. Polly had always been fond of watching a good trial, and I doubted this was any exception. A lot had happened, and while it had been exhausting, I was inclined to say that it was all worth it for this moment. Our hard work was finally about to pay off, and the information we had been trying so hard to bring to light was about to be set in stone permanently. This mess was finally about to come to a close, and we would be able to leave Cormous and everything he was ever involved with in the past once and for all. I couldn't wait to not have to think about him after all the pain he had been responsible.

"This court now finds the defendant, Polly Burke, not guilty," Judge Frost announced after Polly had taken her spot behind the stand. He kept his gavel in his hand as a wave of relief passed through the courtroom. I could hear a few people start to talk amongst themselves at this declaration.

I looked over to Victoria and reached out my hand. She accepted it soon after and grinned, unable to hold back her happiness and relief any longer. Her eyes had taken on a somewhat glassy sheen, and I got the feeling she was on the verge of bursting into tears from a combination of relief and excitement that things had gone our way. Victoria seemed to want to start bouncing up and down in joy, though she managed to keep herself mostly calm to ensure she didn't get any odd looks from the people in the gallery.

Ghastly wrapped an arm around Prosecutor Wood's shoulders before doing the same to Anton. Ghastly and Prosecutor Wood smiled at each other, sharing a glance of father-daughter happiness that I would recognize anywhere from the two of them. Even if they hadn't seen victory, they didn't seem to mind. After all, the truth was much more important than a mere triumph in court, and they had worked hard to reach the correct answer they sought for so long.

Anton, on the other hand, was unable to hold back his excitement. Victoria might have looked ready to start bouncing on the spot, but Anton actually started to do it. He held tightly to Ghastly's arm, giggling lightly under his breath. I got the feeling he wanted nothing more than to run towards Polly and embrace her, but he kept himself back, though I knew this wouldn't last long after the trial ended. As soon as Judge Frost declared this over, Anton was going to talk to Polly no matter what anyone told him.

"Court is adjourned!" Judge Frost declared, taking advantage of a brief moment of quiet in between the buzz of the gallery. He lifted the gavel for a moment before hitting it against the podium in front of him once again. Chatter broke out, even louder than before, and I could barely hear myself think. However, that didn't matter much, as there was something else I had to take care of first.

I gathered up my paperwork and started towards the door. Victoria did the same, and we double checked our area until we were sure nothing had been left behind. We met eyes for a moment before walking out and into the crowded lobby.

At long last, we could put an end to this chapter of our lives. We could leave Cormous behind us and never bother with him ever again. Even if the Emsthorpe ring returned, this was a significant step as far as I was aware, and I couldn't help my excitement that this was finally over. The truth was out in the open, and I couldn't wait to see what awaited us next.


Definitely typed this while dying of allergies oop

-Digital