February 16
District Courthouse
Courtroom No. 1
10:45 AM
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ Why Suspect the Defendant? ~
- "The defendant is being called into question because she had a way to access the crime scene."
- "Normally the victim's office is locked away from all others when he isn't there."
- "The victim has one of the keys to the office, and the second key was found on the defendant's person when she was arrested."
- "Her fingerprints were all over it, and beyond that, her prints were also on the doorknob to the office."
- "She was seen leaving the victim's office around the time of the murder too... What else needs to be said?"
The simple way of saying how I felt after that testimony would be to claim that I was sweating bullets. The accurate way of saying how I felt after that testimony would be to claim that I wanted to scream until the agony surrounding this case went away even though I knew it wasn't that easy.
"Wow," Athena said bluntly from beside me. I glanced over at her and saw that there was tension at the corners of her eyes as well. She didn't like these circumstances either, it seemed. Given how little notice we had been given for this case, there wasn't a way for us to investigate what happened, and that was really starting to bite us.
"The spare key that the defendant had is right here. The forensics team tested it and found only the fingerprints of the defendant and the victim. That's suspicious, wouldn't you say?" Prosecutor Turner questioned, his lips upturned in that obnoxious smirk once again. "She claims to have found the spare key abandoned on the floor... What a convenient excuse, wouldn't you say?"
"There isn't any proof to say that she did find the key on the floor," Detective Ponce continued. "And her fingerprints can also be found on the doorknob to the victim's office. No fingerprints out of the ordinary could be lifted from the knob. The most notable prints belonged to the defendant and victim much like with the key."
"Is there anything else that we need to be aware of regarding the key or the doorknob?" I questioned, doing my best to keep my composure despite how overwhelmingly incriminating all of this was against our case.
"The doorknob has a little bit of trouble staying shut, I suppose," Detective Ponce shrugged. "It requires force to close. The lock is somewhat faulty, it seems. According to testimony from others who work in the building, this is how the lock has always been."
"I think we should make a note of that," Athena suggested. "Even if it doesn't turn out to go anywhere, we can at least say that we tried to find out more about it, right?" Before I could say anything to the contrary, she was scribbling down what we had heard about the doorknob and its strange corresponding lock. Luckily for her, I had no reason to protest in the first place.
"Hm... It truly does seem as if the defendant is the guilty party in this case," the judge mused softly. He shook his head a moment later, dismissing the thought before it could fully manifest. "Begin your cross-examination, Mr. Justice."
I nodded, a frown on my face. He was right about one thing; all of this really did incriminate Ms. Liyle. We had to poke a hole in one of these pieces of evidence or testimony as soon as possible if we were going to save her from a guilty verdict and find the truth. It was the only option that we had.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ Why Suspect the Defendant? ~
- "The defendant is being called into question because she had a way to access the crime scene."
- "Normally the victim's office is locked away from all others when he isn't there."
- "The victim has one of the keys to the office, and the second key was found on the defendant's person when she was arrested."
- "Her fingerprints were all over it, and beyond that, her prints were also on the doorknob to the office."
- "She was seen leaving the victim's office around the time of the murder too... What else needs to be said?"
"Hold it!"
"What happened with the matter of this testimony?" I questioned, pressing my pointer finger to the space above the bridge of my nose. This seemed to be the best avenue when it came to learning more about the case.
"A witness saw her leaving the scene of the crime at roughly 9:40 on the morning of the crime," Detective Ponce replied. "That certainly does point to her being suspicious. After all, if you'll take a look at the autopsy report, you will see that the victim died at approximately 9:30 due to his head wound."
I winced at his words. He was right, as much as I hated to admit it, but there was one thing that was bothering me about this. "How exactly was the body discovered?" I asked next. "Was it this witness that saw her leaving that realized that the victim had been killed?"
"10:50 is when the police were called," Detective Ponce replied. "They arrived at around 11:00 and began their investigation. The witness came back to the crime scene at 10:50 to see the victim in his office, and that was when she discovered the scene of the murder."
"Do you know if the defendant and witness saw one another during their initial encounter?" I pressed. There was one thing about this supposed sequence of events that was nagging at me. If Ms. Liyle and the witness saw one another right after the crime had taken place, then surely the witness would have noticed that something was wrong with her. Any murderer would be shaken up after committing a crime, after all, and that was something that could not be denied.
"Objection!"
Prosecutor Turner's voice cut through before Detective Ponce could even think of replying to my inquiry. "You truly do love to badger witnesses, don't you?" Prosecutor Turner asked, his voice a lazy drawl that made me want to scream even more than everything else about this case. The only good word to describe him was 'obnoxious.' He let out a chuckle before he continued. "If you want to learn so much about this witness' testimony, then why don't we just call her to the stand and let her clear up any questions that you might have?"
"Hearing from this witness would clear up the facts surrounding the discovery of the body..." the judge murmured. He hit his gavel down a moment later. "The court will hear the testimony of this crucial witness at once!"
"In that case, I'll leave you all to it," Detective Ponce said. He tilted his hat in my direction before walking away from the witness stand. I watched him leave in silence, and Athena's gaze followed him as he made his way to the door.
"I think that we've held off the verdict for at least a little while longer," Athena hissed to me. "But the prosecution's case is still really tight. If we want to show that Ms. Liyle didn't do it, then we're going to have to poke a hole in one of those pieces of evidence!"
"There was an hour gap between the witness seeing Ms. Liyle leave the crime scene and the discovery of the body... I wonder what it is that happened during that timeframe," I told her. "The timeline behind this case just doesn't make much sense to me yet. There are so many logical fallacies that cause the prosecution's case to fall apart under any sort of scrutiny."
"Then we'll just have to prove it," Athena said, her smile bright as could be. I nodded my agreement, and we both shifted our attention back to the trial at hand. More specifically, we looked to the witness stand.
A woman had appeared there while we were distracted, and I assumed that she was the witness for this case. Her hair was a deep brown color and cut short to her face. A few small barrettes kept stray tresses from getting into her thin wire glasses. Something about her felt familiar, but I couldn't quite place where it was that I had met her before.
"Witness, please state your name and occupation for the court," Prosecutor Turner declared. Everything about him had come together to form that mask of complete confidence again, and I hated it just as much as I had a few moments prior.
The woman behind the witness stand nodded, and one of her hands came up to her forehead in a firm salute. "My name is Maggey Byrde, sir! I'm currently working as part of a small group of private investigators," the woman replied.
As soon as I heard her name, I remembered where it was that I had heard her name before. She was a friend of Mr. Wright's, and he had introduced her to me a while ago. If I recalled correctly, she had been accompanied by a larger man who also worked in investigations, though said man was notably absent given the circumstances.
"You were the one who saw the defendant leave the scene of the crime," Prosecutor Turner continued, not stopping for even a beat. "We would like to hear your testimony about what you saw happen involving the defendant and the victim's office on the day of the murder."
The judge looked down at Ms. Byrde for a long time before nodding. Something like familiarity flickered in his eyes before he was able to shake it off, and I took it that this was not his first time meeting her either. "Yes, what the prosecution said," he continued. "Tell everyone what you saw on the day of the murder."
"Of course, sir!" Ms. Byrde proclaimed. She saluted once again, and her powerful voice echoed throughout the courtroom before her testimony began properly.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ The Defendant and the Crime Scene ~
- "I was at the victim's law agency that day because I was hoping to meet with him."
- "Of course-curse my bad luck-I arrived when he just so happened to be out."
- "After that, I wandered around the office looking for him, but I didn't find him."
- "I wound up deciding to wait on the bench outside of his office for a while."
- "That was when I saw the defendant walk out of the office at about 9:40 or so."
- "We made eye contact for a minute before she nodded to me and walked away."
"As you can see, this is conclusive testimony regarding what happened when the defendant left the scene of the crime," Prosecutor Turner declared. "This witness saw the defendant leaving the office after she killed the victim in cold blood. The timeline matches up perfectly with the autopsy."
"So it seems..." the judge muttered under his breath. He shook his head and glanced down to the witness stand. "You said that the victim was out at the time when you were hoping to see him. Do you know why this was?"
"I have an explanation for that," Prosecutor Turner cut in. "A calendar was found on the victim's desk that stated he had a meeting that morning in another building. It's safe to say that after the meeting ended, he made his way back to his office, and that was when the defendant found him and killed him in cold blood."
"This is bad...!" Athena hissed in my direction. I already knew that, of course, but I didn't tell her that much. My mind was too busy racing to figure out a way to make all of the pieces come together in a way that didn't completely incriminate Ms. Liyle for the murder.
"The defense would like to begin its cross-examination of the testimony," I declared. I didn't know where this was going to lead us, but I knew that we had to start off somewhere. What happened next would take us in the direction of the truth.
The judge nodded. "Of course. You may begin."
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ The Defendant and the Crime Scene ~
- "I was at the victim's law agency that day because I was hoping to meet with him."
"Hold it!"
"What is it that you were hoping to speak with the victim about?" I questioned.
Ms. Byrde saluted once again. "Mr. Lenard was looking into the Oracle of the Law. My investigation agency has taken a bit of an interest in the case, and I was hoping to find a bit of extra information since he's been digging for information," she replied.
"You weren't scheduled to speak with the victim?" I asked next.
"Not exactly," Ms. Byrde replied. "I was hoping to be able to walk in and talk to him if he wasn't busy, but it was just my luck that such a thing wasn't possible..."
- "Of course-curse my bad luck-I arrived when he just so happened to be out."
"Hold it!"
"He had left for this meeting of his by that point, yes?" I inquired. Ms. Byrde responded by nodding confidently. "I have to ask... The victim's calendar was what showed that he was out in a meeting at the time, was it not?"
Prosecutor Turner was the one who responded with a nod this time. "I take it that you are hoping to see the calendar, yes?" I nodded to him. "If that's what you desire, then so be it. I just so happen to have this calendar right here."
As soon as I had the calendar between my fingers, I looked to the square that was marked as the day of the crime. Sure enough, there was something marked down to show that the victim was set to be out. It was highlighted in bright yellow unlike all of the other indicators on the page. "What do you know?" I muttered.
"Hey, look at that..." Athena whispered, her finger pressing down onto the page. "It says that this meeting of his was going to last from about 9:00 to 10:15... Isn't the time of death supposed to be 9:30 though? That's a clear contradiction."
"I can clear that up," Prosecutor Turner interjected. "The victim's meeting could have very easily ended early. If the business of the meeting was wrapped up in the first half hour, then the remaining forty-five minutes would have been made irrelevant. From there, he went back to his office and was ultimately found and murdered by the young woman sitting in the defendant's chair."
"Ugh... I hate this," Athena muttered. I found myself snorting and nodding. 'Hate' didn't even begin to describe it all.
"If that's all that you wanted to see, then perhaps we can move right on with the rest of testimony," Prosecutor Turner said. His smile was sickeningly sweet as he raised an eyebrow in my direction. "Assuming that's alright with you?"
I hesitated before nodding. "Of course." Something about him wasn't sitting well with me, but I did my best to shove it aside in favor of the matter at hand.
- "After that, I wandered around the office looking for him, but I didn't find him."
- "I wound up deciding to wait on the bench outside of his office for a while."
- "That was when I saw the defendant walk out of the office at about 9:40 or so."
"Hold it!"
"Did you happen to see inside of the victim's office when this happened?" I questioned. "If you saw the defendant walk out, then you must have seen at least a little bit of the rest of the office."
Ms. Byrde paused before she nodded. "I suppose that I did see a little bit of the office... I could see the little segment next to the door, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary," she replied.
I smirked to myself. Finally, we were going to be able to make some progress in this case. "The defense requests that the last statement be added to the testimony," I announced, looking in the direction of the judge.
He paused for a moment before nodding. "So be it. Add that remark to the testimony, witness," he instructed.
Ms. Byrde saluted firmly. "On it, sir!"
- "I saw part of the office's interior, but there wasn't anything that seemed out of place."
"Objection!"
"Ms. Byrde, you're confident that you didn't see anything strange when you saw part of the victim's office?" I questioned.
Ms. Byrde nodded. "Positive! Everything looked pretty normal for an office like that," she replied.
"In that case, we have a huge contradiction on our hands," I declared. "The defendant left the victim's office at 9:40. The crime supposedly took place at 9:30. If that's the case, then when the victim's office door opened, then the witness would have seen the space by the door."
"And what exactly is the issue with that?" Prosecutor Turner asked. His sickeningly sweet smile had contorted into something nauseatingly sour.
"Look at the photo of the crime scene," I declared. "The body is positioned right next to the door of the office. If the door was opened the way that the witness is describing, then she would have had a clear view of the body! On top of that, she would see how messy the office is from the culprit searching through the victim's belongings!"
The gallery began to chatter, and I found myself unable to keep myself from smirking. At long last, we were able to poke a hole in this case. This was just what we had been waiting for, and I was beyond relieved.
The judge hit his gavel against the podium before him. "Order!" he declared. He glanced down to me next, his eyes wide with surprise. "Mr. Justice, just what are you trying to suggest? Do you mean to say that the crime had not actually occurred at the time that is listed in the autopsy report?"
I nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying," I replied. "The witness didn't see anything by the door when that was right after the time when the crime supposedly occurred. The defendant wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she was there. She acknowledged the witness in a casual and nonchalant fashion, and that is hardly something you would expect of a person who had just committed murder!"
"Objection!"
"The autopsy report very firmly states that the murder took place at 9:30 the day of the crime!" Prosecutor Turner shouted. His previous serenity had been replaced with pure rage, and his fists were clenched tightly enough that I almost feared he would accidentally draw blood. "The body could have easily been hiding elsewhere in the room!"
"Objection!"
"The bloodstain surrounding the victim's head makes it clear that the body was not moved. He was always there. Besides, how could the victim have been moved away from the door and then suddenly placed back there later on? The defendant never returned to the area after she left when Ms. Byrde saw her," I pointed out. "There's still the fact that the crime scene was a complete mess as well. Even if she somehow missed the body, Ms. Byrde would have noticed the way that there were papers and files all over the room, including the space beside the door!"
"I didn't find the body until an hour later," Ms. Byrde cut in. "I swear that I didn't see anything when the defendant was leaving the room! She opened the door wide as she was leaving too, so nothing could have been hiding behind the door in the first place!"
"And that proves my point exactly," I announced, unable to keep the smile off my face. "The murder did not take place at 9:30... The victim was killed at an entirely different time before 10:50 when the body was initially discovered!"
"Objection!"
"I would like to see some hard evidence beyond this witness' testimony that the crime took place after the time that the autopsy states," Prosecutor Turner said. Sweat was starting to bead up on his face as a result of the holes in his case.
"Take that!"
"Look at the victim's calendar, and that should tell you all that you need to know," I replied. "How could a meeting that was set to last more than an hour be wrapped up in less than half the time? If the meeting was really as important as the victim's calendar implies, then that means that there was a lot of information to cover, and I somehow doubt that it would be finished in time for him to be killed at 9:30!"
Prosecutor Turner was unable to protest such logic it seemed, and he remained silent as the judge's gavel came slamming down onto the podium once again. "It seems as if further testimony is required," he announced. His gaze traveled down to the witness stand. "Witness, please tell the court about what happened when the body was discovered later in the morning."
"Of course, sir!" Ms. Byrde proclaimed, her hand coming up to her forehead in a salute once again.
"If the crime took place later in the morning, then that means that the prosecution's case is falling apart!" Athena told me proudly. "I guess that Prosecutor Turner put all of his eggs in one basket, and it wound up blowing up in his face."
"I do have to wonder though..." I muttered. "Wouldn't it be rather easy to figure out when the victim's meeting ended? All you would have to do is speak with the participants, and from there, the pieces would fall right into place saying what happened when."
Athena paused thoughtfully, and her finger came up to pick at her moon earring. "That is a good question... You don't think that he deliberately tried to keep that hidden from us... Do you?" she asked.
I was unable to come up with a proper response for a long time. When I did speak, my voice was soft and hesitant. "I don't know," I said. Prosecutor Turner came off as such a calculating individual, and this felt like a major oversight on his part. Part of me doubted that this was a mistake, but I didn't have any evidence to prove one way or the other, much to my frustration.
Luckily for me, I didn't have to focus on it for much longer. When I glanced up, I could see that Ms. Byrde was about to start her testimony. In other words, this discussion was going to have to wait until later. For the time being, we had to figure out what in the world was going on with the discovery of the body and how that could reveal the true time of the murder once and for all.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ Discovering the Body ~
- "I was hoping that Mr. Lenard was back from the business that he had been taking care of."
- "That was the reason that I went back to his office after a while to see if he was there."
- "For an hour after I saw Ms. Liyle, I went to a small restaurant to get some food since I skipped breakfast that morning."
- "When I came back, everything seemed to be mostly the same... Well, aside from the fact that the door was cracked, and I could smell something..."
- "When I went inside the room... Mr. Lenard was dead on the floor, and his papers were everywhere!"
- "I called the police right after that, and when I checked the time, my phone said it was 10:50."
"Hm... I do have to wonder why it is that the door to the office was left cracked in the first place," the judge commented with a shake of his head. "Surely there must be a reason behind the door being left open."
"As was previously mentioned, the lock on the door to the victim's office is known for being somewhat faulty. It takes some force to ensure that it fully latches into place," Prosecutor Turner replied. "As for how the door was left open in the first place... I believe that the explanation should be loud and clear. The defendant left the door cracked open when she visited the victim's office. After all, she was the one found with the spare key, and her prints are all over both that and the doorknob."
"The body was not in the office as of the time when the defendant entered the room," I reminded him. "There is no backing anymore to the fact that the defendant killed the victim at that point in time. In fact, there's more evidence to the contrary than anything else. The autopsy report does not fit with our overall schematic of the case, and I do not believe that we can trust its judgement regarding when the victim was killed."
"Let's say for a moment that the defendant didn't kill him at this point then," Prosecutor Turner said, and I already knew that I wasn't going to like what I was about to hear. "She could have entered the office again later on after the victim had returned. She was the one with the key, after all. Our current witness left after crossing paths with the defendant, and nobody was there to watch over the office. That would have been the perfect time for her to strike and kill the victim without any witnesses."
"Perhaps it would be best for the defense to begin its cross-examination for the time being," the judge suggested with a light cough to cut short the debate that was bound to start between myself and Prosecutor Turner. "Mr. Justice, if you would please..."
"Of course," I replied with a nod.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ Discovering the Body ~
- "I was hoping that Mr. Lenard was back from the business that he had been taking care of."
- "That was the reason that I went back to his office after a while to see if he was there."
- "For an hour after I saw Ms. Liyle, I went to a small restaurant to get some food since I skipped breakfast that morning."
- "When I came back, everything seemed to be mostly the same... Well, aside from the fact that the door was cracked, and I could smell something..."
"Hold it!"
"What exactly was it that you smelled at the time?" I asked. I already had a feeling that I knew what the answer was going to be, but I figured that I might as well ask her first.
"It was definitely blood," Ms. Byrde replied, confirming my suspicions immediately. "That smell definitely wasn't there when I was previously waiting outside of the office..."
"What about the door being cracked?" Athena questioned. She took the words right out of my mouth, to say the least.
"I can't remember if the door was shut all the way before," Ms. Byrde confessed. "It was closed before Ms. Liyle came out, but I don't know if she closed it when she left... In fact, I don't think that she did shut it when she saw me. She seemed shocked to see me, and I guess that surprise could have kept her from remembering to shut the door all the way. Either way, I didn't go into the office after that since I left a few minutes later."
"What I'm hearing here is that there is a blank space of time where the office was not being watched," I announced. "There was roughly an hourlong period during which this witness was gone. If the door was left cracked when the defendant left, then anybody could have gone into the office and killed the victim! The files from the victim's investigations could have been taken at this point in time as well."
"Objection!"
Prosecutor Turner let out a sigh and shook his head. I could tell that he was holding back a laugh, and I absolutely hated it. "I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to do this, but... If the testimony of the current witness isn't going to convince you, then it seems I'm going to have to call upon someone a bit different from what we have seen leading up to this point," he said.
"And just what are you referring to?" I questioned warily. Once again, I already hated the sound of whatever this was, and he had barely gotten into the process of explaining what he was talking about.
"The prosecution has an even more decisive witness that it wishes to summon to the stand," Prosecutor Turner replied. "This witness will certainly seal the deal behind the truth of this case, showing to everyone within this courtroom that the defendant is the one and only guilty party of this heinous crime."
"If this witness is really so decisive, then why didn't you call them sooner?!" Athena shouted, slamming her hands onto the defense bench. I jumped at her sudden outburst, noticing that Widget was an angry red color along the way. My eyes next shifted to Ms. Byrde, who seemed to be holding back a shocked cry of her own. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Prosecutor Turner.
"He requested that he not be called to testify unless it was absolutely necessary... My apologies for not mentioning it sooner," Prosecutor Turner said. His smile was so false that it made it clear as could be that he wasn't sorry at all; this was just another beat in his plan as far as I could tell. "The prosecution requests a twenty-minute recess to prepare this next witness."
The judge nodded. "Your request shall be granted. This court will leave its current session for a brief recess as the prosecution prepares its witness," he announced. He reached for his gavel before slamming it down. "Court is adjourned!"
And so the case continues!
I'm already having a lot of fun with this story. Planning out everything in advance was definitely the way to go given how many details are important for the progression of the case. Much to my surprise, this case is going along a lot faster than I anticipated originally, and I don't think that it's going to take as long as I originally assumed. Then again, after this is where things ramp up the intensity even further, so we'll just have to see how the cookie crumbles from here.
Since we're talking about this case, Maggey is back! I always really liked her character when she appeared, so I just had to bring her back for another round of fun times. As was stated earlier in the chapter, she's found work as a private investigator over the course of the seven year gap. Will we see the other members of her investigative team during this story? Perhaps! In other words, the answer is yes. They'll show up in a later case, but for now, the scope of the cast is on the smaller side.
This chapter also starts off a running theme with me: foreshadowing everywhere. One upside to having a lot planned out in advance when you're as detail-attentive as I am is being able to foreshadow in all sorts of little ways. Granted, this all won't fully make sense until later, but let's just say that there are already a few seeds that are being planted for future reference. Mysterious, huh?
Anyways, I'm going to leave things off here since I have an awful habit of typing this story late at night, and I really need to get some sleep. I'll see you all next time for the continuation of this case, starting off with the recess! Until next time, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is always appreciated. Have a nice day, everybody!
-Digital