February 16
District Courthouse
Defendant Lobby No. 1
2:00 PM
"Another successful trial!" Athena proclaimed when we arrived in the defendant lobby. She pressed her hands together in front of her chest with a bold smile spanning her lips. "I'm glad that we were able to find the truth behind the case, and now, Ms. Liyle is free to go back to life as usual!"
"Mr. Barnes is bound to be on trial in the few weeks to try him for what he confessed to here today," I nodded, smiling to myself. "It seems that he had a pretty firm motive against Oracle. It pushed him to murder... I have to wonder just how much sway this Oracle has behind the scenes."
"I guess that's something we'll just have to think about later on," Athena shrugged, still unable to pull her smile away from her face. "For now, I think we should try to celebrate our victory. We've done something great here today, and I think we should try to focus on it while we can. We can think of everything that Oracle is involved with after we've been able to enjoy what we did here."
I nodded my agreement. I had to admit that I liked the idea of taking a break from thinking about these darker subjects. We had done something great, and we deserved to be able to relish in our victory. Ms. Liyle was freed from suspicion, and that was something for us to be proud of.
"There you are!"
Speaking of Ms. Liyle, she came into view soon afterward, a grand smile pressed onto her features. She was practically bouncing on the spot as she looked to Athena and me. "Thank you so much for all that you did for me in there! I was nervous when I was first arrested for the murder, and that only got worse when I learned that the prosecutor was going to be Prosecutor Turner... But you were able to get me out of the hot seat, and I don't think that I'll be able to thank you enough for it!" Ms. Liyle cried out.
"It's no problem! We revealed the truth, and that's what matters most. Congratulations on being declared not guilty!" Athena smiled, clapping her hands together vibrantly. "I'm glad that everything here has been taken care of and squared away. The time has come for us to celebrate all that we've managed to do here today!"
"I don't know if I would go that far," I muttered. As much as I liked the idea of celebrating and focusing on all that we had managed to do in terms of good that day, I knew that there were still a few things that we had to take care of before this case could be squared away. There was a nagging sensation at the back of my mind, and I knew what the culprit was almost immediately.
"Do you think that there's something else going on in this case that we have to be careful of?" Athena questioned, her eyes going wide as she turned to face me.
I nodded. "The files on Oracle in the victim's office... They were the motive behind this case, but they were already long gone by the time that the victim and culprit got to the office again after the meeting," I frowned. "I have to wonder just who could have taken them. Why would somebody want them in the first place?"
"Oracle is a pretty big deal these days. Something big happened about year ago, and everybody is finally taking the time to process it," Ms. Liyle said. "I can say that there are probably a few people out there who have a grudge against Oracle because of the nature of what they do, but... That doesn't really matter right now, does it? The case is over, and we've found victory!"
"I have to agree with you there, Apollo," Athena remarked, her smile finally starting to slip away from her features. "There must be somebody out there who took the files, but... Who could it be? Why would they do something like that? Even if they had a motive to steal the files, it still feels weird to me... There was a period where nobody was looking at the door, I suppose, when Ms. Byrde left, but we don't know what happened in that timeframe aside from the murder. The thief definitely got there before the culprit arrived..."
"Ms. Liyle," I began, turning in the direction of our client. The redheaded girl perked up, tilting her head to the side in curiosity. "You seem to know quite a bit about Oracle... Could you tell us what you know about them? I have to admit that the subject intrigues me."
"Sure!" Ms. Liyle responded with a nod. "Oracle first showed up about two years and has been working to expose corrupted authority figures ever since then. The media hasn't been able to pay much attention to that though since there have been other bigger matters at hand. For example, there was the test run of the jury system, and after that, UR-1 came back to court, and those kind of soaked up the media attention in comparison."
"But with those matters resolved, Oracle's work is starting to become more mainstream knowledge," Athena concluded with a nod. "That makes sense... I guess that they've been doing quite a bit of this if it's been two years since they started then."
"There are well over three dozen people who have been exposed by this point. The world at large has no idea what it is that they're aiming for aside from the vague claims that they're trying to combat corruption. Everything is proven in hard evidence and sent to the media with a card signed from the Oracle. Nobody knows anything beyond that. They've done a pretty good job of keeping themselves hidden," Ms. Liyle continued to explain. "I guess that there are a bunch of people who could want to gather the information that Mr. Lenard was getting together, but..."
"We don't know where the files went, and the search for them is going to have to continue," I muttered. "Thank you for telling us this. I appreciate it."
A moment later, another figure came into view, and I recognized the person in question as being Ms. Byrde. "Ms. Byrde!" Athena exclaimed. "It's nice to see you again."
"Congratulations on the victory, sir!" Ms. Byrde proclaimed, saluting with a proud grin. "I'm glad that you were able to find the true culprit. I've been in the defendant's seat a few times, and it's always nice to see somebody freed of false charges."
"It was no problem at all," Athena assured her, ever the social butterfly. "We couldn't have done it without you."
"I don't think that I can stay for too long since I have to get back to work, but I hope you all have a nice day! Tell Mr. Wright that I say hi!" Ms. Byrde beamed. She waved and was dashing off in the other direction before anyone could stop her.
"She's probably going back to her private investigation agency," Athena recognized. I nodded my agreement. Ms. Byrde had mentioned as much during her testimony, and it certainly made sense. No wonder she had been investigating Oracle; that certainly seemed like something of interest for a private investigator. There were other people out there who were trying to find the truth behind Oracle aside from the culprit and victim of this case. That number of curious people was only bound to rise as time went on given the circumstances too.
I was so focused on Athena that I didn't notice a set of footsteps was drawing nearer. Athena perked up before I did, and she turned her attention in the direction of the door before her eyes went wide. I frowned and glanced in the same direction. Prosecutor Turner was approaching us, a glare in his gaze.
"You two," Prosecutor Turner began bluntly. "You have made a grave mistake here today. You will come to regret what you have done. The defendant is guilty, and there is nothing you can do to change that."
"B-But I didn't kill him!" Ms. Liyle cried out, her voice shaking just a touch. "Mr. Barnes confessed in court because he was the one to hit Mr. Barnes with the vase!"
"Every defendant is guilty whether they choose to admit it or not," Prosecutor Turner snarled, taking a step toward her. Every past notion that I had of him had fallen apart; he was no longer the composed and stoic man that he had made himself out to be originally. The trial had degraded him until he was all snarls and rage, and it was so beyond jarring that it had my deepest instincts ready to respond in the blink of an eye.
"Can't you just accept that you lost?" I questioned, something in me snapping at his words. "You were wrong about Ms. Liyle doing it, and the true culprit was found. We've revealed the truth, and there isn't anything that you can do to change the fact of the matter."
"You will one day recognize the grave error that you have made here today," Prosecutor Turner told me with a shake of his head. "You may not see it yet, but you will understand one day. Guilt is absolute, and you will see the truth soon enough."
"Your victory record means nothing if you're willing to hurt people to add to the total of triumphs! Lying your way to the top isn't even victory; it's throwing other people under the bus and being selfish!" Athena exclaimed. "You don't understand anything about what it means to be a prosecutor. The courts are supposed to help the truth be revealed, you know. How is the truth supposed to come out when one side of the debate isn't even trying to help?"
"I understand the life of a prosecutor perfectly well!" Prosecutor Turner snapped at her, taking another step towards us. Ms. Liyle whined wordlessly and retreated behind Athena, tugging mercilessly on the edge of her fingerless gloves, a clear sign that she was nervous beyond her posture. Once again, my bracelet seemed to offer a pull of something indicative, but I was too concentrated on Prosecutor Turner to give it the time of day.
"You were willing to defend a murderer. If you think that we can reconcile on something like that, then you don't know anything about anyone here," I told him, trying my best to keep my voice level. I was on the verge of shouting, but I did my best to restrain myself for the sake of not making a scene.
Prosecutor Turner offered a light growl before he shook his head. "We will meet again one day... That much I'm certain of. You'll learn that your overconfidence will pull you to hell. Anyone who finds themselves in the defendant's chair made a fatal error at one point, and they must pay for such. Humans are guilty creatures, and they must pay back their debt to the world around them. One day, perhaps you will stop believing in false perceptions of innocence. One day, we will cross paths, and when we do, I will crush you to dust the way that I should have here today," he said, his voice quiet but dripping with intensity. A moment later, he turned on his heel and stormed from the room, leaving the air around us heavy as could be.
Athena was ultimately the one to break the silence with a halfhearted scoff, but I could see the blue reflected in Widget as a sign of her negative response to Prosecutor Turner's words. "Good riddance," she muttered under her breath. "He doesn't know what he's talking about, and I don't know if he ever will."
Ms. Liyle stepped away from Athena, but I could still see her hands trembling. She refused to meet anyone's eyes as she cleared her throat. "I... Um... I-I think I'm going to get going. I want to go back home," she whispered. "I'm not going to be working at Mr. Lenard's office anymore. I don't think I would be able to stand it if I kept going in... I'll figure out something else to do in the legal system... Though I doubt that Prosecutor Turner will ever understand any of us."
"Don't give him the time of day," Athena told her, trying her best to keep her smile intact. "Everything is going to be fine. Don't worry about it. We'll make sure that he learns his lesson one of these days... I mean, he did say that he was going to see us again in the future, and it wouldn't surprise me if that did happen, you know?"
Ms. Liyle nodded, pressing her hands behind her back. "Alright... Well... I'll see you guys another time then. I hope that I do, anyways. Thank you again for everything that you've done for me. I won't forget it no matter what," she said. She bowed her head in gratefully in our direction before she dashed from the room and rounded the corner, disappearing elsewhere in the courthouse.
Athena and I were silent for a long moment after her departure, and I glanced over to her carefully. "I guess that we should be getting back to the agency," I suggested. The rage in my stomach was starting to calm, a tempestuous yet restrained sea at the core of my body. Prosecutor Turner wasn't deserving of our time, and I wasn't going to give him the attention that he wanted.
Athena nodded, though I could tell that she was just as shaky as Ms. Liyle had been when she abandoned the room. I was used to Athena being fiery and passionate about her beliefs, but Prosecutor Turner had caught us both off guard when he suddenly started shouting. We needed a bit of distance from the courthouse to get it out of our minds as far as I could tell.
"Yeah... You're right," Athena agreed with a nod. "We have to celebrate this case anyway, don't we? Trucy and Boss are going to want to hear about this when we get back there, and I bet that they're going to be curious about Oracle and all of that too."
I nodded my agreement, and with that, we started off for the door. It seemed that this case had been wrapped up with a neat little bow, and at a first glance, there wasn't anything that merited further investigation beyond the missing files. Nobody knew where they were, but I was sure that they would turn up sooner or later. For the time being, we had managed to succeed in yet another trial, and Ms. Liyle was free of suspicion. The case had been taken care of, and we deserved some time to rest and celebrate after all that we had accomplished.
If only things were that easy though... Because we had absolutely no idea what it was that we were in for.
March 1
Wright Anything Agency
Office
11:00 AM
I closed the folder I had been working on with a sigh. Paperwork was undoubtedly the most tedious part of working as a lawyer, and it made me yearn for the days of investigations and trials. At the very least, it was done for the time being, and I was going to consider that the first victory of the day.
I got to my feet and started to walk out to the main area of the agency. I needed a break after all of that, and a bottle of water was just what I was looking for to chase all of this down as I shifted gears. I would pass off the files to Mr. Wright's desk and then take a moment to myself before I got a headache from staring at the papers and their tiny fonts for too long.
"Polly!"
I was about to leave the office when I was suddenly assaulted by pain erupting across my stomach like a punch to the gut. I recoiled and dropped the files in the process. "Ouch!" I instinctively cried out, stumbling back until my thigh collided with the nearby desk. One hand curled around my abdomen while the other moved to the jabbing injury of the desk corner on the back of my thigh.
The culprit came into my field of vision a moment later, and one of Trucy Wright's gloved hands came up to cover her mouth. "Sorry about that, Polly!" she cried out apologetically.
"What do you need, Trucy?" I questioned, reaching down to pick up the file once again. A few pages had been left to scatter across the ground from the collision, and I started flicking through them to put them back into their proper order. I used the desk to hold the folder as I slid the pages into their rightful positions.
"Athena told me to come and get you! There's something on TV that she wants you to see," Trucy replied. She didn't even wait for me to get the pages fully settled before she reached out and seized my wrist. I was barely able to scoop the folder back into my grasp before Trucy was dragging me out of the office and into the main area of the agency. She was surprisingly strong for someone so small, and she didn't have any issues with pulling me along like I was little more than a rag doll.
My arm practically felt as if it had been pulled free of its socket when I arrived at my destination in the main part of the agency. I slid the folder onto the table and hissed as I stretched out the new ache that had blossomed in my shoulder. Athena was sitting on the couch and staring at the TV screen, her attention impossible to break. Mr. Wright was the only one not around since he had left about an hour ago to visit the chief prosecutor. Their discussions had become more frequent ever since he regained his badge, and it wasn't particularly out of the ordinary for him to not be present at this time of day.
There was a news report taking place on the TV, and a woman sat at a desk with a page in her hands that she was reading from. Her expression was painted with shock and something almost terrified yet excited. Athena barely even seemed to notice that Trucy and I had arrived as the woman began to speak once again.
"The infamous Oracle of the Law has exposed yet another figure in the legal system. Earlier today, evidence was exposed to our news station showing that a prosecutor was responsible for falsifying evidence."
"A prosecutor forging evidence?" I echoed. I glanced over to Athena, but she quickly shushed me and pointed back to the screen. I shifted my attention toward the television once again as the reporter went on.
"Prosecutor Huber Turner was known for having a perfect win record in his many years of prosecution with his notable case being the GC-9 trial two years ago, but many are left to wonder if perhaps his verdicts were false in some cases. Oracle has revealed that he has forged evidence to prove his defendants to be guilty even if that is not the case. The proof in question was an autopsy report from a case that took place in the middle of last month."
"An autopsy report... From a case last month...?!" I echoed, my eyes going wide. I felt my stomach to a flip, and it had nothing to do with the forming bruise that came with Trucy and I's rough collision.
Athena nodded wordlessly. Trucy took a seat on the couch, her lips parted slightly in surprise. The reporter held up a white card with a prominent signature on it. The word 'Oracle' could be clearly seen in obsidian ink against the pale white of the paper.
"Last month, a murder took place at a law firm belonging to Aloist Lenard, a prominent defense attorney. His time of death was distorted by a falsified autopsy report that claimed he died an hour earlier than he truly did as a way of framing the suspect. The defendant was cleared of suspicion, but the fact of the matter remains the same. On top of forging the autopsy report, Prosecutor Turner hid the fact that there were fingerprints belonging to the true culprit found on the murder weapon. Oracle would like the world to question his verdicts and all that he did to find potentially innocent people guilty."
"Oracle used our cases to expose Prosecutor Turner! The issue of the autopsy report wasn't a mistake on the part of forensics; he did that on purpose to make it seem like Ms. Liyle did it!" Athena cried out. I barely heard her as I focused in on the reporter's voice once again.
"The forensics team responsible for the autopsy report said that they declared the time of death to be 10:30 AM while the version Prosecutor Turner distributed to the court claimed that the victim died at 9:30 AM. He hid the fingerprints on the murder weapon on top of that. Oracle is calling for action within the Prosecutor's Office. There has been no response as of yet from the chief prosecutor, but there will be updates as the situation progresses. Oracle has struck again, and they are bringing down yet another corrupted legal figure along the way."
It felt like all of the pieces of the puzzle were slamming together in a way that I had no power to stop. It all made sense all of a sudden. Prosecutor Turner had every way of figuring out the true time of death; it wouldn't have been hard to figure out when the victim's meeting ended, after all. He masked the fingerprints on the murder weapon under the hopes that we wouldn't ask about the truth. He was hoping to use all of that as a way of making it seem as if Ms. Liyle was the culprit when that wasn't the case.
He had spoken to us about what it meant to be a prosecutor and how the guilty deserved to be arrested and jailed for the actions. We hadn't realized it at the time, but that was him telling us exactly about his ideals. He was forging evidence to make it seem as if Ms. Liyle was guilty, and he had likely done this with countless other cases too. This trial simply offered the evidence needed to prove it. Prosecutor Turner protected Mr. Barnes because he was trying to make Ms. Liyle out to be the culprit. All of this was in the name of his win record, presumably. He did this to maintain a perfect record as a prosecutor, and he lashed out violently because we managed to find the truth behind the case despite his attempts to bury the honest facts.
Athena glanced up to me with a fire burning in her eyes even still. "Did you hear all of that? Prosecutor Turner forged the autopsy report to try and pin the crime on Ms. Liyle!" she cried out. "Oracle is back, and they revealed the truth about the case... The files on them still haven't been found, but they appeared again to make sure that everybody knew the truth about Prosecutor Turner lying to make it seem like Ms. Liyle did it. He wanted to win for the sake of his victory record!"
"It all makes sense..." I muttered under my breath. I shook my head to myself as I sat down on the couch beside Trucy. "I don't know how Oracle managed to figure this out, but this... It means that any number of his verdicts could be lies, innocent people sentenced to prison or worse. I'm glad that Oracle was able to do all of this... I hope that the chief prosecutor responds to this sooner rather than later."
"I bet that Daddy has already heard about this since he's with Uncle Miles over at the Prosecutor's Office," Trucy chimed in, a frown deep across her features. "There are going to be people there any minute now to ask about what's going to be coming next. It's not like Uncle Miles is going to let somebody like that stay at the Prosecutor's Office... I bet that he's going to be fired before the week is over."
"He has to be fired! He's endangered so many people because he doesn't care about what it means to find the truth!" Athena cried out, Widget bright red around her neck. "It seems to me like all of his talk about seeing us again in court isn't going to amount to anything. After all, we can't see him again in court if he can't stand as a prosecutor anymore. He doesn't deserve that title after all that he's done to hurt people."
"There have to be others like him," I muttered under my breath. "Oracle wouldn't have garnered the reputation that they have if there were only a few people that had done these sorts of things. We heard about Detective Barnes during the case last month, and now, Prosecutor Turner is being revealed to be responsible for putting countless people in danger because of his search for a guilty verdict."
"For now, I guess all we can do is make sure that everything turns out alright involving Prosecutor Turner," Athena said softly. "I'm sure that the chief prosecutor will handle this. Boss trusts him a lot, and if he has faith, then so do I. We'll have to see what happens from here though... Hopefully there will be news sooner rather than later."
I nodded my agreement. This new revelation was like throwing a boulder in the center of a pond, and it completely changed the way that I looked at the last case. How could that not be the case? Everything seemed to make sense when we looked at it from this perspective. Prosecutor Turner had been a liar from the start, and he was planning on using all of us as pawns if it would help him to reach victory and make his record more impressive than ever before.
It would be a while before I had any news about what happened to Prosecutor Turner, but I already had an awful feeling about this. I hoped that it was dealt with sooner rather than later, but there was no way of saying for sure what would come of it. In the meantime though, I knew that my stomach was going to be on fire with nervous energy, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it. This was a huge deal, and I didn't think that I would be able to stop thinking about this case until the truth was revealed.
Beyond just this case though, Oracle crossed my mind. I didn't know who they were, but my curiosity regarding them had increased tenfold with this new revelation. How could I not want to know the truth? They were the one who completely changed my outlook on this last case, and Prosecutor Turner was going to see justice after years of prosecuting innocent people at long last. As far as I could tell, Prosecutor Turner wasn't going to even have that title for very long. Oracle was going to make sure of that.
I didn't know who Oracle was, but I was silently glad for what they had done. Prosecutor Turner had hurt too many people to be counted, and at long last, something was going to change, and I could only hope that it would be for the better.
March 1
Location Unknown
11:10 AM
"Oracle has struck again, and they are bringing down yet another corrupted legal figure along the way."
A hand reached for the remote corresponding with the television, fingers shifting over the button that would power the screen off. A screen left the lips of the person cloaked in shadow as they shook their head. "Another mission success," they said evenly and dryly as their eyes fell shut. The media had received their report regarding Prosecutor Huber Turner not long ago, and the news report on the subject was immediate. In other words, everyone was going to know soon enough that he was responsible for countless violations of justice, and that was just what they wanted.
Times were dark and difficult, but justice remained difficult to find. There was little such thing as salvation in a system that had such a stranglehold on corruption, but they were doing what they could to find the truth even so. Of course, truth was hard to grasp in a world where everything was distorted beyond belief.
Aloist Lenard had thought that he was searching for the truth in trying to find out who was behind the Oracle mask, but he was wrong. The person cloaked in shadows had simply whispered two words under their breath when they read over the files that he had compiled. Lenard's desperation was almost entertaining to them, a futile attempt to grasp at shadows when the man himself might as well have lived in them.
"Now, then... Let's see what you've found."
The person rose to their feet and glanced back in the direction of the television screen. This was only going to make more people wonder who Oracle truly was, but that mattered little. Nobody had come close in the past two years, and the chances of anyone finding the truth were slim as could be. After all, they never left a trail behind, and soon enough, everyone would understand that.
If anyone did try to find the truth, they would be met with false assumptions. Lenard had been foolish for trying to reach honesty, and the answer that they gave his curiosity was the same one that they would provide to everyone else who came close to finding the truth. The person cloaked in shadow thrived off truth, their blood bright red justice, and no other person would ever fully understand what such retribution truly meant.
"Wrong answer."
KEYS TO THE TURNABOUT
END
And so arrives the conclusion of case one!
This chapter is a slightly unorthodox one given that it focuses on the aftermath of the trial, but it's a pretty important one regardless. I couldn't cram all of this into last chapter in good conscience while throwing in all of the details that I had to, so here we are! The end of case one is upon us, and next week, it'll be time for case two!
The twist with Prosecutor Turner is something I planned from the start. I wanted to make the 'tutorial case' plot relevant, so here we are. It has a different prosecutor, and it has a reason. This really does set the stage for the rest of the story, especially with the fact that the files that were stolen from the victim's office have yet to be found. I really do adore this story, and I love how this case ended.
The final scene is just sort of a treat on my end. Everything there was meant to be cryptic enough to inspire theories from all of you, and I definitely want to hear your theories. With that said, I'm going to leave you to theorize until next time. When we next meet, it will be to commemorate the debut of the second case, Turnabout Intertwined! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital