Phoenix stood in the gallery. A low hum filled his ears, driven by the chatter around him. Mia, Mrs. von Karma, Mr. Gray, and Old Racoon stood still in their positions, not moving an inch. Iris was still in the defendant's chair, leaning forward, her face downcast. Phoenix looked at her briefly, then back at his shoes. He was clenching the phone in his hand so tightly he was surprised it did not break.
It had been thirty minutes since he had made the call, but time seemed like nothing to him. He had no idea what would happen next. Would Mrs. von Karma call out her own daughter in public this time? Would Franziska fall short while reading the notes? Would Mr. Gray interject? He could not find a satisfactory, let alone palatable, answer for any of them.
Abruptly, he felt his ears perk up and his hair stand on end as he heard the creaking of the courtroom doors. He snapped his head to the side as Franziska von Karma walked into the room, followed by a uniformed bailiff. She walked briskly, with a folder under her left arm and her crop under her right. Her face was utterly blank. She stepped up to the witness stand and laid the folder down upon it.
The first person she looked at was her mother. A passerby would say Mrs. von Karma was in a state of extraordinary composure, but her daughter could see the telltale cracks in the facade. The older woman had a thin layer of sweat on her forehead. Both of her hands were on the stand, clenched into fists. Her eyes were not visible from distance, but the skin around her lenses was twisted in a way that spelled only desperation.
Franziska then looked behind Mrs. von Karma to look at the gallery behind her. A quick scan, then she shook her head. Her quarry was not there. She turned.
Phoenix gulped as he felt Franziska's eyes search him out. He felt a flurry of emotions all at once; shame, guilt, fear, anxiety. But they died down just as quickly as he saw something glimmer in her face. Hope? Forgiveness?
He had no further time to reflect. She looked from him to Mr. Gray, who gave out a curt cough.
"Witness, your name and occupation, please."
She nodded. "I am Franziska von Karma, Ivy University student, and soon-to-be-attorney." Before Mr. Gray could proceed, she opened the folder and whipped out the notes she had shown Phoenix before.
"You can pass these along if you would like. Make copies. But I can verify that this Dahlia Hawthorne is a person of interest. She is the prime suspect in two poisonings. Terry Fawles and Diego Armando, on February 16th and August 27th, respectively, both in the year 2013. She disappeared shortly after the second poisoning." She took a deep breath. "And my research indicates that the poison in question has a strong possibility of having been produced in Ivy University's own lab. Atroquinine. Furthermore, she is the identical twin sister of the accused, Iris Bluegrass White."
For a second everybody in the gallery was talking at once.
"How…?"
"What is the meaning of this?"
"A serial killer?"
"Evil twin!?"
"This has gotta be…"
Then the gavel came down once more.
"Order! Order!" Old Raccoon pushed his sunglasses back. "So, Ms. von Karma, you certify that there is such a person as Dahlia Hawthorne, that she is the twin sister of the defendant, and that she is a person of interest to law enforcement."
"Yes, Your Honor."
"And how is it that you came by this information?"
Franziska hesitated, looking from Old Raccoon to her mother and back. If looks could kill, so Phoenix thought, Mrs. von Karma would have burned a hole between her daughter's eyes.
"I visited the office of the defense, Fey & Co Law Offices, some time back." She looked at Phoenix. "The young man who summoned me can attest to this. I found the file containing this information and thought I should retain it."
"But what does any of this MEAN!?" Mrs. von Karma slammed a fist on the stand. "Who cares about Dahlia Hawthorne!? What does she have to do with anything!? I-"
"Excuse me," Mr. Gray cut in, taking a few steps closer to Franziska. "Thank you for updating us, but I regret to say that as Prosecutor, I cannot treat this as important evidence." He stepped back and inched forward to Mia Fey at the defense's stand. "I already know what you are going to say. Dahlia Hawthorne is the one who killed Jane Dodder and physically assaulted Doug Swallow. Because she is the twin of Ms. White, everybody who claims to have seen her mistook her for the one sitting in the defendant's chair. And because, again, she is the twin of Ms. White, it is very probable that the police cannot tell their fingerprints apart, which negates the position that the bloodstained rock proves that Ms. White is indeed the culprit. How convenient."
His gaze turned stern. "But you, too, already know what I am going to say." He raised his arms. "Even if there is a Dahlia Hawthorne, why would she do this? What possible motive could she have had for committing these crimes?"
Mia closed her eyes. The old words spoken to her so long ago came back. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth. Then she opened her eyes and stared back at Mr. Gray.
"Prosecutor, we agreed that the watch on the body of Ms. Dodder was broken, and therefore that she was murdered long before this trial."
"Yes."
"And we agreed that Old Man Dodder had been in contact with her."
Mr. Gray squinted. "Yes. And what of it."
Mia put both hands on the stand. "In that case…"
"Are we absolutely, positively sure that the Jane Dodder he met was really Jane Dodder?"
"What?" Phoenix's pupils shrunk.
"What?" Franziska's face went blank.
"What?" Mr. Gray slouched where he stood.
The gallery was silent. The Judge stared down upon the courtroom. All of the color drained from Mrs. von Karma's face. Iris put her hand to her mouth.
"Consider this," Mia continued, smiling triumphantly. "Ms. Dahlia Hawthorne poisons Mr. Fawles in court. Then, to escape being formally accused, she poisons another man, Armando Diego. But this solution leads to another problem….she now has two poisonings on her head. And she knows that this problem has only one solution. To disappear." She paused. "Or rather, become something else. Someone else."
"You cannot possibly mean…"
"I do." Mia looked up at the judge. "She finds a suitable victim. Jane Dodder. She murders Ms. Dodder, hiding the body under the very soil she tilled. She has a new name and a new life, but there is one more loose end. But that is a problem with a ready solution. All she needs is a blunt weapon…" she gestured to the defendant's chair. "...and a scapegoat."
The court was stunned silent. For the first time, Mr. Gray was floundering. His face and frame betrayed him. He opened his mouth, but Mia raised a finger, pointing it.
"Third time's the charm. I already know what you are going to say. Even if all this is true, where is Dahlia Hawthorne? She disappeared once, she can do it again." The smirk returned to her lips. "And I have just the answer." She looked back up at Old Raccoon.
"Your Honor, the defense requests that Mary Masque return to the stand!"
-A multi-chapter story; Chapter 31; story idea by CRed1988 and writing by Jerviss.
