March 12

Blackgate Ice Center

1:45 PM

Chrysalis Starr

When we arrived back at the ice center, it was with a renewed sense of purpose. I glanced up to Cotoli and saw that he was still lost in thought. I didn't have to ask him to know that he was thinking about everything that Prosecutor Bespoke had told us as we were leaving the courthouse. Our experience with prosecutors was, to be quite honest, on the limited side. We knew two of them, and while we were on good terms with both, the rest of the office remained a mystery to us. It was strange to be introduced to someone and then immediately fall into their good books. I would have found it to be unsettling under different circumstances, but there was something so shamelessly sincere about Prosecutor Bespoke that told me that I was being over the top and dramatic to think that perhaps there was more to his connection with us.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I questioned slowly, probing the waters before diving in. I already had a sneaking suspicion that I knew my brother's response, having grown accustomed to everything that he tended to feel and think over our many years together.

After a moment of hesitation, Cotoli nodded. "Yeah," he answered just as I expected. "I don't know how to feel about him. I get the feeling that Prosecutor Bespoke is being honest with all of this, but... I've done so much research on past cases over my years of getting ready for this first case and every case that will follow inevitably. I'm so used to hearing of prosecutors using their inherent advantage over defense attorneys to antagonize them, but Prosecutor Bespoke doesn't seem to want to do anything like that. Instead, he just wants to find the truth."

I snorted. "It sounds to me like he'd get along well with Sora," I murmured under my breath. That was one thing that we had learned about Sora as soon as we crossed paths with her three years prior. She was always in search of the truth, and she would do anything to find it under the right circumstances.

Cotoli laughed and shook his head. "I don't think that's a bad thing at all though. I mean, we know how great she is with all of this, so I'm going to consider that a note in our favor as far as Prosecutor Bespoke is concerned," he said next. "If Prosecutor Bespoke's words are to be believed, then he's going to be trying to figure out more about this case behind the scenes. He wants to work with us, and I could tell that he was being honest about it."

I nodded and reached one hand up to the Magatama that was hanging around my neck. The item had been there for the past three years ever since our first few encounters with Sora, and I never dared to take it off when we were investigating anything. If Prosecutor Bespoke had been lying about his intentions, then I would have been able to see it, and the same would have applied to Cotoli. This was one way that we were able to get through an investigation without being stopped by any difficulties that would impede the progress of many others. The fact that there had been no reaction from our Magatamas made it clear that Prosecutor Bespoke had been honest when he stated that he wanted to work with us and find out more behind this case.

"He said that all motives are rooted in past actions," I murmured softly. The area fell eerily silent, and I felt Cotoli still at my side. "In this case, I suppose that he has a point. But I wouldn't say that he's right all the time. There are some people who don't do anything because of past actions... They're just twisted individuals, and it's up to us to stop them from hurting anyone else."

Cotoli was statuesque for a long time before his hand came up to mine. He offered a gentle squeeze, and I returned the gesture before shaking my head. "Enough of that. Let's just go on and see what we can find here. Let's go to the backstage area first. There has to be something there that we can use to find more details with this case," I declared. Cotoli nodded in response, and it was clear by the way that he carried himself that this conversation was finished on both ends. We agreed that Prosecutor Bespoke was trying to help us, and that was all that we needed to know when push came to shove. The next priority for us had to be finding the truth, and the backstage area of the ice center was our best bet when it came to finding out something like the facts behind the murder.

The walk to the backstage area took place quickly and in complete silence. By the time that we arrived, I let out a small sigh. "This place is empty now," I muttered. I was glad for that much after the mess that had been the previous day of investigation. It was hard for us to pull Fiora away for long enough to talk to her about the case, and then, we weren't even able to see what else the crime scene had in store for us. I was glad that the officers that had previously been crowding the space had cleared out. That was going to make everything easier on our end.

Cotoli nodded as he crouched down to the ground. "I guess that they were here because this was the place where the crime took place," he told me with a shrug. "For now, I think that there's one thing that we need to figure out above all else... We need to find out how the body was moved to the costume closet. That's the best place for us to start as far as I'm concerned, and I think that we should see if there's anything here."

"After all, since this is where traces of the victim's blood were found, then that means that the body must have been moved away from here. The process of moving the body started in this very room," I agreed. My eyes began to scan over the surface of the room, and I tried to see if I could find anything that stood out as strange.

My gaze fell upon a door that rested on the opposite side of the room, and I frowned before walking closer. After pulling my jacket sleeve over my palm, I opened the door by twisting the knob. Cotoli followed me to the area, and he let out a small gasp at the same time that I did.

I knew exactly what this small room was once I saw it, and when I glanced up to Cotoli, I could see determination in his eyes. The floor was carpeted the same way that all of the other backstage space's floor was, and that, combined with the fact that this was a backstage room away from the primary area, meant that we had found something important. This was undoubtedly the place where Fiora had been when she heard the argument between Venus and the victim, and afterwards, she had heard the victim being murdered without noticing.

The room itself was on the small side, and the most notable part of it was the large bench that sat in front of two vanities. This was clearly a space meant for makeup, and there were a few compacts with matching brushes scattered in between larger kits of makeup. I recoiled on instinct at the sight of the makeup, trying to brush away painful memories of Sora forcefully applying it to my face before a show with my theater group. The powdery stuff always made me sneeze, and to put it simply, I was glad that the makeup was put away rather than being pressed against my face.

"Well, this certainly seems like the place where Fiora was when the crime took place," Cotoli murmured. "I'm glad that we found this area, but... At the same time, I don't see anything that could possibly be used for the transportation of the body. Then again, that makes sense given what we know. After all, the body was moved away from the main backstage area rather than back here."

"We can keep this in mind in case it's important," I shrugged before stepping out of the room. It was on the smaller side, the perfect place for Fiora to hide herself from the rest of the world when she heard the sound of the victim's body dropping to the ground. Cotoli was starting to get uncomfortable because of the lack of breathing room, and I could see it no matter how hard he tried to hide his emotions. I shut the door and let it echo softly throughout the room before releasing a sigh.

The backstage area was, all things considered, much neater than I expected it to be. Then again, I supposed that having so many police officers in one small space would make any area seem crowded and cluttered regardless of how clean it truly was. There were large props for the show lining the walls, and some of them were on wheels for the ease of movement. I let out a sigh and tried to see if any of these props would be good for the movement of a body, but I couldn't see anything that would be used for such a purpose. In fact, a lot of the props were little more than fronts, and that wasn't going to help us as far as movement of a body was concerned. The body would have had to be out of sight, and not only was there no place to store it on a simple front, but the body would have been clearly visible to any passerby as well.

I was busy staring at the various props, wondering silently how any of them could have been related to the show that Venus would have performed in another light, when Cotoli let out a gasp. "Chrysalis, you should come and see this," he declared. I immediately perked up and walked over to his side.

He was pointing to something that certainly appeared to be out of the ordinary. To be more specific, it was a cart that seemed to be used for cleaning. I snapped my fingers together as I glanced up at him. "The fabric that the victim was holding...!" I realized, everything coming together immediately. Cotoli nodded and opened his mouth to say something in response, but the words were never given the chance to properly manifest.

"What are you two doing back here? I don't recall seeing your faces around here before now."

I practically jumped out of my skin upon hearing the voice from behind us, and I turned as soon as I had a proper grasp on myself. When I did so, I could see that there was a man standing in the doorway. His hair was brown and rather untidy, unable to sit properly on his head. His eyes were piercing as he glared at both me and my brother. I noticed immediately that he was wearing a typical uniform for a crew member. Well, that was what I assumed it was, at the very least. The color was pale blue, and it was far from being the glamorous sort of costume that Venus and Fiora had been wearing when the body was discovered.

"Oh, um..." Cotoli began, trying to find the words before taking a step towards the man. "My name is Cotoli Morix, and this is my sister, Chrysalis. We're here to investigate the murder that took place. The two of us... We're defending Venus Rinko in court."

The man's face twisted into a snarl as he rolled his eyes. "I don't know why you would bother helping out someone who's so clearly a criminal," he remarked. I glared at him, and he returned the favor a moment later. "You have to know that Venus did it, right? You can do this out of the kindness of your heart all that you want, but it isn't going to go anywhere. Everybody knows that the two of them were arguing before Aes turned up dead. There's no reason to try and seem all high and noble when we all know how this is going to end."

"We proved in court today that the culprit wasn't Venus," I pointed out, not bothering to hide how acidic my tone was. "I don't know who you might be, but we've already been through this line of reasoning and know the truth behind it all."

The man sighed with a shake of his head. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?" he asked. I resisted the urge to close the distance between us and step on his toes, but I was ultimately cut off by him shrugging and offering his name. "I'm Pyth Tambin. I'm a crew member around here. I've been helping out with this show for the past few months."

"If you're part of the crew, then you would be able to talk to us about what happened the day of the crime. After all, you would have been here at the scene," Cotoli said, doing a stunningly good job of keeping his voice even despite the pure enmity that this man emanated. "We would be happy to hear anything that you have to say."

Mr. Tambin shrugged in response. "I was here, I guess. Nothing out of the ordinary really happened... Though I didn't see Venus at all when I should have. Before the show, we're supposed to prepare for everything to get started. After all, we don't want anything to fall out of line," he replied. "Everybody was there except for Venus and Aes. If you ask me, that makes everything seem pretty obvious. Venus wasn't there because she was too busy going off and killing the victim."

I bit down on my lip so that I didn't snap back at him and ultimately aggravate him further, instead allowing Cotoli to handle it. "What were you doing before that? I know that this was a rather large show since it was the opening of this production, so you must have been rather busy pulling everything together, yes?" he questioned.

"I did what I had to. I'm used to getting everything together before the show starts since I'm part of the crew. This wasn't a rehearsal, so we had to make sure that everyone was here. I was doing a roll call when I found that Venus and Aes weren't there. Everyone else was there at the time," Mr. Tambin replied.

I didn't even need to touch my Magatama to see the reaction to his words. The trio of Psyche-Locks that slammed into place didn't even catch me by surprise. I knew that there was something that he was hiding. When I looked over to Cotoli, I was sure that he had picked up on it as well. There was more to this than met the eye, and this was something for us to keep on hand from here on out.

"Are you absolutely sure that everyone who was supposed to be there was present at the time?" I questioned carefully. "In fact, I believe that there's one person in particular who shouldn't have been there at the time of the roll call."

Mr. Tambin raised his eyebrow in confusion, but Cotoli explained before I had the chance to. "As far as we can tell, the witness of this case, Fiora LeTeir, was not present at the time of this encounter. She never said that she was there when we spoke to her about her experiences from the date of the murder," he elaborated. "Are you sure that Fiora was present?"

"We have a rather tight timeline about what happened from the time of the crime to the discovery of the body, and the witness is at the heart of it. If she was present at the roll call meeting as you claim, then this would change the outlook of the case completely," I continued.

Apparently, the pressure brought on by both my glare and Cotoli's inquisitive eyes was more than enough to make Mr. Tambin crack, and he let out a sigh before shaking his head. I could tell that the Psyche-Locks had vanished without even needing to check. "I don't think Fiora was there," he admitted with a huff. "Look, it doesn't matter, okay? The point is that I know for a fact that Venus and Aes weren't there, and it isn't important when push comes to shove if Fiora was there or not. I know for sure that Venus wasn't around because she was probably off killing Aes. Everybody knows that Venus is smart and a trickster under the right circumstances, so she could be trying to lure you into her trap by making it seem like she didn't do it."

I was about to say something about how he didn't have any evidence to back up his words, but Cotoli cut me off by raising one hand before speaking. "Thank you for your input. We'll be sure to keep your testimony in mind from here on out," he said. He took a step to the side and pointed to the cart that was waiting nearby. "If you don't mind my asking, do you happen to know anything about this?"

"It's a cleaning cart," Mr. Tambin replied with a raise of one eyebrow. "What's so interesting about that? Crew members use it to make sure that everything's cleaned off before the show starts. It's nothing out of the ordinary, so if you think that it's related to the murder, then you're mistaken."

"Thank you for your explanation. We appreciate it," Cotoli said next. "We're going to continue our investigation from here, so we'll be leaving you be for now. Until we speak again, I wish you a pleasant day." He started to walk for the door in the moments that followed. I trailed after him, pretending that I didn't see the way Mr. Tambin sent me a scowl out of the corner of his eye. Internally, I was resisting the urge to do much the same.

Once we were out in the hallway, Cotoli looked down to me with a small frown. "I think that there's something going on with that cart and that witness," he murmured. "He came in right as we were starting to examine the cart, and as far as I can tell, he wasn't going to let us check it out as long as he was around. We're just going to have to come back to check out the cart another time."

"The way that he spoke about this roll call event was rather strange," I told Cotoli, crossing my arms over my chest. "If I had to guess, I would say that he was trying to do this while Venus was off skating to try and clear her head. That was when we saw her... Fiora never mentioned being there though. He seemed pretty willing to dodge the matter of Fiora not being there too... If you ask me, there had to be some sort of hatred brewing there towards Venus or the victim."

"I agree," Cotoli nodded. "I think that it would be for the best if we tried to find either Fiora or Prosecutor Bespoke. If all goes well, we'll be able to chat with them about what we heard from that witness. Call it a gut instinct, but I'm willing to assume that we're going to be seeing that man, Mr. Tambin, again later on."

"But for now, he's guarding the backstage area, so we aren't going to be able to look around there. Let's try and look around to see if there's anything else we can find," I suggested. He nodded his agreement, and we started to walk away soon afterwards.

It didn't take long before we found someone for us to talk to. It was none other than Detective Erikson, and while he wasn't the person that I was expecting to see, I certainly wasn't complaining about coming across him again. "Hey there, you two," Detective Erikson greeted. "I saw what you did in the trial today. You sure did pull off quite a bit to make it seem like your client is innocent."

"We've already made a lot of progress, and if you ask me, we're getting closer to the truth. There are just too many mysteries behind this case for her to be the one who killed the victim, and we're going to make sure everyone knows it soon enough," I assured him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cotoli give me a glance filled with mischief. I rolled my eyes and chose to ignore him, pretending I didn't hear the small snicker leaving his lips. He knew too much about me, and in this situation, that was certainly not a good thing.

"I saw that another witness went into the crime scene that you just came out of," Detective Erikson commented. "Pyth Tambin is going to be another witness for tomorrow's session of the trial... Assuming that Prosecutor Bespoke decides to summon him, anyways. There really isn't a way to be sure of that since he isn't back here at the crime scene quite yet. I guess I'll just have to ask him when he gets here."

"Speaking of Prosecutor Bespoke... Is there anything that you can tell us about him?" Cotoli asked. "He approached us after the trial to say that he was going to be on our side from this point forward, and I have to say... That's the last thing that I expected to hear out of him."

"Prosecutor Bespoke is pretty good at what he does," Detective Erikson replied. "I've worked with him a few times. He tends to have two modes in general though... If there's a case that captures his attention, then he gives it everything that he has and won't stop until he's learned the truth behind it all. However, when he isn't interested in something... Well, let's just say that it takes much longer for him to get his work done. I haven't ever seen him work quite this hard on a case though. I guess that you really did manage to catch his attention."

I raised one eyebrow in Cotoli's direction, and this time, it was his turn to roll his eyes and pretend that I wasn't making fun of him blatantly. "I see... I didn't realize that we were having such an impact on him," Cotoli confessed.

"It's refreshing to see, if I'm being honest. I'm sure that you'll be able to work with him to find the truth behind this case," Detective Erikson smiled. "Prosecutor Bespoke knows what he's doing. He's always been the type to search for the truth rather than just victory. I suppose that it makes sense that he would be like that though... When he came over here to America to work, he was trained by Tora Yin, and her methods, while intense, do get the job done as far as pushing for truth over win record."

"Came over here?" I echoed. My mind was cast back to the trial from that morning, and I remembered that there had been a light European accent to his voice. It was so slight that I barely even noticed it, but it was most certainly present.

"Yeah. He's from England," Detective Erikson replied. "He's been working hard ever since he joined up with the local Prosecutor's Office. I suppose that he was never quite like this until this case came around though. I said before that he could tend to vary in his energy levels depending on the mood that he's in, and I meant it... This case has been something special for him, and I don't think that it's just because the basic details are interesting in his eyes."

I nudged Cotoli with my elbow. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I would say that the new prosecutor boy has a crush on you. Who would have thought that a bad boy like him would fall for a softie like you?" I teased quietly, jabbing my pointer finger into his chest. It felt great to be able to poke fun at him after all of the teasing that he had done in my direction over the course of the past day.

Cotoli, ever the easily embarrassed type, stammered and shook his head. "I'm sure that it's just an intellectual attraction. It's nothing that you should be getting dramatic over," he insisted softly, though I could tell that he was still struggling to meet my gaze.

"Intellectual attraction. Sure," I scoffed, shaking my head as well. I didn't know all that much about Prosecutor Bespoke so far, but judging by the way that Detective Erikson was describing him, there was a lot that he had to say about my brother, and I would be a fool to let that chance for poking fun pass me by.

Detective Erikson chuckled to pull the attention back in his direction so that we could discuss the case at hand. "Your dynamic truly is sweet... But I don't think that I would be able to tell you all that much about Prosecutor Bespoke beyond what I've already said. You'll have to ask him yourself if you want further answers," he said.

"There is one question I have," I confessed. "He said that he thought all motives were rooted in past events, and I have to know... What do you think he's going to do wit that? I mean, we haven't seen him around here at the crime scene at all today, so I'm willing to guess that he's off doing something else, but... I'm afraid that we're a bit behind on the details."

"I think that he's either down at the criminal affairs department building or the Prosecutor's Office," Detective Erikson replied. "That's what I'm willing to guess, anyways. If he thinks that there was a past case that defines the motive of this case, then he's probably trying to dig through old files to find a connection with past events. As soon as he finds something, he's bound to come down here. Like I said, when he puts his mind to something, there really isn't much of a way to stop his determination, and he's going to show that off in full as soon as he gets back here."

"I see... Thank you for telling us," Cotoli told Detective Erikson. "I suppose that we'll just have to see where he comes from when he comes back here. For now, we should probably turn our attention to speaking with Fiora. We have a few new things to ask her about given what we've heard from Mr. Tambin from a few minutes ago."

"If you're looking for Ms. LeTeir, I would suggest heading out to the ice rink itself," Detective Erikson suggested. "I believe that's where she is at the moment. I spoke with her about twenty minutes ago, but she seemed to be rather... Upset, to say the least. I think that what happened in the trial came as a shock to her, so she's keeping to herself until she feels safe enough to branch out."

"I do feel bad for her after all that's happened... I know that it was a lot to take in all at once," I murmured with a shake of my head. "But all that we can do now is go and talk to her to resolve the truth behind this case. I'm sure that we'll be able to fully figure out what's happening as soon as we work out the last of the contradictions behind this case."

"Then let's go on and get to it," Cotoli concluded. He turned to Detective Erikson a moment later with a grateful smile on his face. "Thank you again for everything. We're off to take care of the last of our investigation, but we really do appreciate everything that you've told us." The words that were left unspoken at the end of the last sentence were 'about Prosecutor Bespoke', but I didn't need to hear them to know that was what was on Cotoli's mind to the dot.

"Of course. I'm glad that I could help," Detective Erikson replied. "I'll be off to see if there's anything else that I can find as well. I'm looking forward to being able to see you both later on. May the rest of your investigation go well. I'm sure that you'll be able to find the truth behind the case in court tomorrow." He gave us a brief wave before walking away.

As soon as Cotoli and I were alone, I glanced up to him with a light frown on my face. "What we heard from Mr. Tambin is certainly going to make waves in our previous perceptions of this case, but we're just going to have to bear with it and see what we can find out from here," I told him. "For now, we should go and talk to Fiora again. I bet that Prosecutor Bespoke will show up when we need him to."

"If he's figuring out a motive for someone else to commit the crime, then that means that we can use that to pin down the culprit... I never imagined that we'd work with a prosecutor this way so soon after starting, but I guess there's no reason to complain about it," Cotoli said. I shot him yet another smirk, but he just sighed and rolled his eyes. "Don't even say it. Come on. We have work to do, and any other talk about Prosecutor Bespoke and his 'intellectual attraction' can wait until after all of this has been taken care of permanently."

The intellectual attraction line is me making fun of 1-5 lmao gay people

-Digital