March 4

Prosecutor's Office

Room 708

2:05 PM

By the time that we got back up to the office, it was clear as could be that Detective Skye was still talking to Ms. Russell. Detective Skye's voice was easy to hear in the white noise of the hallway even if Ms. Russell was on the quiet side. Mr. Wright cleared his throat gently, and that was all that it took for the two to look up at us again. "Oh, you're back," Detective Skye greeted simply. "I didn't think that you would be coming back here again so soon."

Mr. Wright nodded. "We were able to get what we were hoping for in the form of the security footage, and we figured that it would be best if we came back here to speak with Ms. Russell," he explained, shifting his attention in the direction of the woman in question. "I was wondering if you would be willing to talk to us about what you were doing here at the Prosecutor's Office on the day of the murder. It seems like you were here on the day of the crime according to the footage that was captured outside the building."

"Oh. That," Ms. Russell said bluntly, each word punctuated with something stoic. "I wasn't around to see anything, if that's what you're wondering. I was dropping off a few files from old cases since a few prosecutors wanted duplicate files, and I figured that I might as well bring them here while I was out."

"I see," I murmured with a small nod. "It seems like you were here at the time of the crime. Are you sure that you didn't see anything out of the ordinary when you were around? A murder did take place here, after all."

Ms. Russell shook her head. "Nobody was in their offices, so I just dropped off the files and left. That's all that there is to it," she replied simply. "I don't think that there's anything that you should be worried about. Like I said, nothing happened, and I was gone before anything of note could be dug up to begin with. I was already out of here by the time that the crime was discovered, so I don't know what you want me to say."

"I see... Well, thank you for talking to us about everything," Trucy said with a small nod and matching smile. "We should probably go and look elsewhere in the building to make sure that we didn't accidentally miss out on any evidence while we were investigating."

"Um... Okay," Detective Skye said simply, raising an eyebrow in Trucy's direction. She clearly found this shift of demeanor just as peculiar as Ms. Russell, but she didn't say anything about it openly. "I guess that we'll see you later."

Trucy nodded, and from there, she dragged both myself and Mr. Wright out of the room before we had the chance to do anything to protest. I felt my stomach twist as soon as I glanced down at her, and I knew that I had already figured out why she pulled us away. After all, it was time for us to have an important discussion about Ms. Russell.

"So we can agree that something else was going on with her, right?" Trucy questioned, her hands planted on her hips. "I could tell that she was getting nervous. Her hand was starting to scratch at her torso. I feel like something there was wrong."

Mr. Wright nodded. "I could tell that something was amiss as well... I get the feeling that more happened at the time of the crime that she isn't willing to tell us right now," he agreed.

I nodded. I had heard a small amount of discord from her voice, but it wasn't as if I could bring that up in a conversation as long as she was standing right there. Perhaps it was for the best that we had been pulled out into the hallway. But as long as we were here, I smiled to myself. "Well, we might as well go out there and see what we can figure out, right? I mean, we're here for a reason, so we might as well take advantage of the fact that we're being given the chance to look around."

"I'd like to go and have a conversation with a certain chief prosecutor friend of ours, if that's alright," Mr. Wright said even though he knew that none of us were going to protest to begin with. "I'd like to learn as much as possible about this Darcie Russell character before we do anything else. After all, I somehow doubt that she's going to just tell us what she was doing at the time of the crime unless we have any evidence to convince her to open up."

"Then let's get right to it!" I agreed with a firm nod. That sounded like as good a plan as any, and we might as well go for it if we were being given the chance to investigate on our own. Talking to Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth sounded like a fine place to start, and hopefully, he would be able to shine a little bit of light on the peculiar character that Ms. Russell had already made herself out to be.

The walk to his office was a rather quick one, but we didn't wind up having to go inside. The man himself walked out of the room just as we arrived, and he took a step backwards out of surprise at us appearing before him so suddenly. He was quick to regain his composure though, reaching up to his glasses and pushing them up a bit higher on his nose. "I didn't realize that I would be expecting visitors," he said carefully.

"I would have called, but this was a somewhat... Sudden arrangement, I suppose you could say," Mr. Wright told him with a small smile. "We're here to ask you about somebody who was supposedly here on the day of the murder."

That was enough to get his attention. "Someone who was here?" he echoed. "I didn't realize that anyone outside of the prosecutors working here and Mr. Justice were in the building at the time of the crime... Aside from Prosecutor Lin's pair of visitors, that is."

"Her name is Darcie Russell, and she seems to be a coroner that's worked with prosecutors around here a few times," Trucy explained. "Do you know anything about her?"

Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth nodded. "As a matter of fact, I do. She's been cooperating with prosecutors within the building for quite some time now, and she was here a few days ago. The day before the murder, she was dropping off a few old files that I requested to see. We spoke briefly before she left, but I didn't realize that she was here on the day of the murder... I suppose that I was busy with other affairs at the time that she came to see someone," he explained.

"She seems to have entered the building around the time of the murder, if you can believe it," Mr. Wright told him with a small frown. "That's what the security footage seems to imply. Are you sure that nobody saw her at the time of the crime?"

"Everyone would have been in the meeting at the time that she was here. The only ones who could have potentially crossed paths with her would be Prosecutor Lin and her guests, but I somehow doubt that they would have neglected to mention such a thing in their summary of events from the time. You can speak with them a bit later if you would like, as a matter of fact. I'm expecting to visit with them shortly about what happened during their meeting on the day of the murder," Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth told us. "Perhaps that would be of use to your investigation."

"That does sound like it would help us, as a matter of fact," Trucy murmured with a light nod. "For now though, I want to know what your conversation with Ms. Russell the day before the crime was about."

"She was dropping off case files like I already said. While we were discussing the files, she brought up the recent exposure of Huber Turner," Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth said. He let out a humorless laugh when he next spoke. "She would hardly be the first one to ask about him given the circumstances. I told her about my plans in the aftermath of his death and that we wouldn't be having any other prosecutors involved with evidence forgeries from here on out."

"You mean... Did you tell her about the meeting that you were going to be hosting?" I questioned, my eyes going slightly wider. I didn't like what this was turning out to mean, but I wasn't going to jump to conclusions just yet. It would be for the best if I waited to see what he was talking about, but my mind was already starting to race.

Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth nodded. "I asked that she keep it between us. She was insistent on making sure that I did something to see to it that there weren't any other incidents such as Prosecutor Turner that slipped through the cracks, and I was able to ease her fears by saying that he would be packing his things as I spoke with the other people in the office. She thanked me from there and decided to take her leave. There wasn't that much to the discussion, all things considered."

He said that there wasn't much to it, but I already heard everything that I needed to. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I swallowed dryly. "Well... I think that certainly changes things," I murmured. How could it not change things? This meant that Ms. Russell knew that she was going to be the only one out and about in the office at the time of the murder, and yet, she came to deliver files anyways. She had known that she wasn't going to be able to find anybody, and she just so happened to arrive at the Prosecutor's Office at the time of the crime. I didn't like the looks of that, but I was almost entirely sure that we had found a new lead. This could certainly be used to go back and see if we could pressure something new out of her in terms of information, and I began to write down all that he had said on a small notepad when I was cut off by the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Ah, it's nice to see you," Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth said. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Prosecutor Lin was approaching with Mr. Morix and the silent as ever Chrysalis. "I believe that we have quite a bit to discuss about the time of the crime... Assuming that's not an issue for either one of you, that is."

"Of course it's fine," Prosecutor Lin replied with a light nod. She glanced over to the rest of us a moment later, a smile on her face. "Hey there, you three. I hope that your investigation is going well."

"I'm afraid that we can't exactly talk right now, but it's nice to see you again," Mr. Morix smiled. He glanced down to his side where Chrysalis was watching us with her ever-piercing gaze and permanent silence. "You can stay here if you'd like. Unless you need to speak with her as well, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth...?"

The chief prosecutor was silent for a long moment, wrapped up in his own contemplation, before he shook his head. "No, it's alright. I believe that you and Prosecutor Lin will be sufficient," he responded. "With that said, we should get to it. After all, I don't want to keep Prosecutor Lin from her investigation any longer than I have to."

Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth retreated into his office as Prosecutor Lin nodded, and Mr. Morix was hot on their trail. He offered a small wave in the direction of his assistant, and she simply closed her eyes as he passed by. The door clicked shut as the trio disappeared from view, leaving me and the rest of my investigative team alone in the hallway with perhaps one of the strangest witnesses that I had ever been given a chance to speak with in my career as a lawyer.

"If you have something to say, you can go on and say it."

I was caught by surprise when she spoke, opening her eyes to watch us all with critical, detached eyes through her glasses. Her hands were pressed behind her back, and something about her came off as strangely terrifying to me. I almost jumped at the sound of her voice before glancing in the direction of Mr. Wright and Trucy. I would have been lying if I said that I knew how to address this situation, so I thought it to be for the best if I left them to handle this matter specifically.

"Um... Could you tell us more about what was happening at the time of the crime?" Trucy questioned. "You were in a meeting with Prosecutor Lin and Mr. Morix, after all... We probably need to hear about this at some point since Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth is learning all about it right now."

"I was here to speak with both of them on the matter of Prosecutor Huber Turner. He left all of us deeply unsettled, and we decided that Sora's office should be the meeting place for our discussion. I didn't realize that our plans would conflict with the meeting that the chief prosecutor planned though. That was a coincidence," Chrysalis replied, her voice remaining just as even the whole time that she was speaking.

"You seem to be rather close with Prosecutor Lin and Mr. Morix," I remarked. "I have to wonder... How did you become acquaintances with them? It makes sense that they would know each other since they're a prosecutor and lawyer, but... You still seem to be a high school student."

"They're my older siblings," Chrysalis responded bluntly.

That was enough to bring the air in the hallway to a standstill, and my eyes went wide. "Excuse me... What?" I questioned of her carefully, trying to make sure that I had heard her correctly.

"If you want to get technical, they're my half-siblings," Chrysalis explained. "We have a shared father but different mothers. I've been helping Cotoli out with his cases ever since he became a lawyer a few years ago... Though I suppose that a proper introduction is in order now. My name is Chrysalis Starr. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

I continued to stare at her for a long moment as I tried to gather my thought process. Suddenly, the idea of Mr. Morix meeting with Prosecutor Lin made a lot more sense, and there hadn't even been anything in the first place to make it seem abstract or random. "I... Wow," was all I could say. The most obvious point to make was that the three of them didn't look alike in the slightest, but when I thought back on it, I realized that there was one common thread between them. They all had the same piercing blue eyes. Even if the shades of blue were different, they had the same qualities, albeit used in different ways. It may have been the only thing that they all shared, but it was still something that once again made a lot more sense in retrospect.

Chrysalis didn't stop for even a moment to account for my shock though, instead simply moving right along with her discussion of the day of the crime without missing a beat. "We decided that we had to discuss Prosecutor Turner and the validity of his past trials," she continued to explain. "In the light of his recent exposure, it only seemed natural that we would want to go over everything that he had been involved with."

"Is there any particular reason that you were so interested in looking into him?" Trucy questioned. "I know that he was a prosecutor involved with awful things, but I don't understand quite why you would want to investigate his past verdicts specifically. Is there some sort of correlation between you and him?"

Chrysalis didn't respond openly to that question for a long time, and when she did speak up, she was turning on her heel and gesturing for us to follow her. "There's something that I believe would be beneficial for you all to hear about. Given the circumstances, I feel like it has to be involved," she explained.

I wasn't entirely sure of what was going on, but I followed after her regardless. All of us did, and we allowed Chrysalis to lead us to the staircase. We went down a few floors before coming out on what seemed to be the tenth floor of the building. Chrysalis walked effortlessly in the direction of one of the doors, pushing it open after pulling out a key and inserting it into the lock. We followed after her carefully, not sure of what was happening but going along with it for the time being. I caught a glimpse of the name on the door as I went by, and suddenly, everything seemed to make sense. It was Prosecutor Lin's office.

Chrysalis was easily able to slide open a drawer of Prosecutor Lin's desk, and from there, she pulled a file out and extended it to us. "This is the reason that we were talking about Prosecutor Turner's past cases," she replied. "I was hoping that we would be able to give it to you at some point or another, so I prepared it in advance. I would have carried it with me if I thought that we were going to run into one another in the middle of the hallway though."

I took the case file a moment later, a light frown on my face. I had no idea what she was trying to imply here, but I figured that there was no harm in looking at what she had put together. I was halfway curious about why she had gathered this case file for us specifically, but I ultimately didn't voice the question. I was too lost in thought about the actual item itself to bother posing any inquiries about it.

Upon opening the envelope, I could see that it was a significantly trimmed down version of a case file. It seemed as if the case had been solved. The primary summary pages were the only ones that were left, but I could most certainly tell that the information had been cherrypicked to make sure that we only had what was important. No completed case file would have ever been this light. It seemed that Chrysalis had been doing quite a bit before she was able to give this to us.

"What exactly is this...?" Mr. Wright questioned softly. There was a light frown on his face when he glanced up to Chrysalis.

"It's a case file," Chrysalis replied bluntly even though that much was already obvious as could be. "To be more specific, that would be the case file that was torn up on the floor of the crime scene. I was able to figure out which file the culprit ripped up, so I decided to gather the relevant details for you. I want to find the truth behind this case just as much as you do, so I figured that I might as well put my drive to good use."

Her words were more than enough to make my eyes go wide. "This is the case file?!" I cried out in surprise. "How were you even able to figure out which one it was? The papers were destroyed so thoroughly that there was next to nothing left behind. How could anybody have found out which file it was?"

"I've seen that file enough times to be able to recognize bits and pieces of it," Chrysalis responded simply with a shrug that explained absolutely nothing. "If you want the specifics though, that would be the case file of the GC-9 Incident."

"The GC-9 Incident?" Trucy echoed as she looked up to Chrysalis as well. "There's one that I haven't heard of."

"Wait... No, you have heard of it," I murmured, the pieces starting to click together in my mind. "It was mentioned on the broadcast when Oracle was revealed to have expose Prosecutor Turner. The announcement on the news said that Oracle first appeared in the aftermath of the GC-9 Incident."

"That's correct," Chrysalis confirmed with a solemn nod. "It's beneficial to your case on multiple levels though. Its involvement with Oracle is something that's certainly interesting, yes, but that's not the reason that I put it together for you."

"The case was solved rather quickly, wasn't it?" Mr. Wright questioned. "It says here that the trial only lasted a single day."

"That's true. It was open and shut in the blink of an eye, and Huber Turner was the prosecutor," Chrysalis went on. "The defense attorney was one Aloist Lenard. I believe that's a familiar to you... Is it not, Ms. Cykes?"

I nodded. "Yeah! He was the victim from the last trial that Apollo and I took on! The one that caused Prosecutor Turner to be exposed to begin with!" I exclaimed.

"Exactly," Chrysalis replied. "The prosecution accused one Darken Russell of murdering a woman in a factory. The evidence was seemingly overwhelming, but in truth, it was shaky as could be. Prosecutor Turner always had a way of bending the truth to fit his needs, and this case was hardly an exception. Darken Russell was executed less than a year after the crime took place because of how heavily Prosecutor Turner piled on the charges to make him seem guiltier than he was."

"Only a year..." I murmured under my breath. That was the last thing that I expected to hear. "I didn't think that it was possible for people to be executed that quickly. He was only in prison for a year."

"Not even that," Chrysalis reminded me. "Prosecutor Turner piled on the charges despite the evidence to show that the defendant was innocent. He had a victory record to protect, it seems... And yet, it all came crashing down around him when you fought against him in court. A few days later, the man winds up dead. There are many who believe that he was involved with something darker behind the scenes of his cases given how his win record was perfect and how difficult it was for people to fight back against him. His recent exposure made it clear that he was forging evidence, and I highly doubt that it was just in the trial that you were involved with, Ms. Cykes. His history of forging evidence is no doubt a lengthy one, and GC-9 is more than likely just another case in a long line where he manipulated the board so he would win the game."

"How do you know so much about this case?" Mr. Wright questioned solemnly. "For that matter, how do you know so much about the case that Athena and Apollo took on against the victim?"

Chrysalis simply shrugged. "I do my fair share of research. I've looked into many cases that your agency has taken on. My brother and I have a hobby of learning about the past cases others have taken on, I suppose," she said casually. "And my research told me that there was something going on behind the scenes of GC-9. It wasn't just a matter of suspicion; Huber Turner did something during that case to make the defendant seem wrongly guilty."

"What did you find?" I asked. "You make it sound like you have evidence that he was lying about all of this, so... What is it?"

"The evidence comes in the form of a witness," Chrysalis answered. "There was someone who witnessed the culprit leaving the scene of the crime... The same one who discovered the body. The prosecution of the case silenced said witness and made sure that nobody believed anything that they had to say. Prosecutor Turner had all sorts of excuses so that nobody would listen to what they said during the trial. The witness claimed that the defendant was innocent, and Prosecutor Turner put them to silence with his manipulative tactics."

"Just who was this witness?" Trucy inquired, her eyes going wide. "That sounds awful..."

"The files don't name them. The witness was a minor at the time of the crime, so their name was kept out of most records of the case," Chrysalis explained. "The case was doomed from the start, and Prosecutor Turner was the one who ultimately ruined it by making sure that the witness wasn't believed. They testified before the court, but nobody listened. I can't say much more than that since, once again, the details of the witness have been kept secret, but it's something that you'll likely want to keep in mind throughout all of this."

"You said that the defendant's name was Darken Russell... Would he just so happen to have any association with one Darcie Russell?" Mr. Wright asked. "I somehow doubt that their common surname is a coincidence."

Chrysalis hesitated at those words before she ultimately nodded. "The files don't mention their connection... But I do know it," she said softly. "Darcie and Darken Russell are siblings. Darcie was the coroner on the case, and she insisted that her brother was innocent of the crime. When his guilty verdict was read out, she completely crumbled. I can't say what she's been doing since then though. I'm afraid that I haven't really been able to get close with her. I doubt that she would want to associate with a teenager who has a bit too much of an interest in the legal system."

"I guess not," I murmured with a light nod. The pieces of this case were starting to come together. Starting with Ms. Russell's strange entrance to the scene of the crime and ending with her connection to GC-9, it truly did seem like she had a reason to kill the victim. Was it possible that she was the culprit? We were going to have to examine her testimony in court in order to hear an answer for that much though.

"Should we go and talk to her one more time about what she knows?" Trucy questioned as she glanced up to me and Mr. Wright.

"That isn't going to work," Chrysalis interjected. "I know quite a few things about Darcie Russell, and I can promise you that she isn't going to crack unless you lay on the pressure. The best way to get anybody to talk is to put them in a courtroom where they can't run from anything that you have to say to them. Make sure that she can't escape what you have to say about the time of the crime. That's the only way that you're going to get any information out of her. She likely won't want to talk about the case that ultimately ended with her brother being executed due to false evidence and a lying prosecution."

"You know so much about this entire situation... And you seem really interested in finding the truth behind this case," Mr. Wright said, his eyes narrowing in Chrysalis' direction. "I get the feeling that there's something you aren't telling us about this case."

Chrysalis simply shrugged, not at all minding the borderline glare that Mr. Wright was giving her. "There are a lot of things that I don't tell people. Either way, I suggest using the GC-9 case file during the trial tomorrow. I know that you're going to need it. That has everything that you're going to need to get Darcie Russell to talk, and it's at the heart of this case. The fact that the file was ripped up on the floor of the crime scene should tell you everything that you need to know about how important it is to what took place the day of the murder."

"You really do want to help us find the truth, don't you?" I questioned with a light smile. I was choosing to believe the best of her intentions even if Mr. Wright was clearly suspicious of her. We could discuss the details of her demeanor once we were away from Chrysalis. That much I wasn't worried about. I just didn't want to drive off the one who seemed to be able to provide us so much information about the case.

"I have an interest in seeing the truth of cases like this brought to light, I suppose," Chrysalis replied with yet another loose shrug. "I want you to figure out what happened at the time of the crime. Besides, you want to help your coworker get out of the detention center, don't you? I think that accepting the case file and using it in court is going to be your best bet at getting what you're hoping for."

I continued to stare at her as she started to walk for the door once again. "We should get back to the chief prosecutor's office. I doubt that his meeting with my brother and sister is going to last much longer, and once it's over, you're going to have an investigation to continue."

Chrysalis was gone from view before any of us could stop her. Mr. Wright, Trucy, and I simply stared at one another in shock and confusion at everything that had just happened. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the face, but I could tell that there was something more going on behind the scenes of Chrysalis' intentions. Even if we hadn't figured it out yet, there was something else happening. I couldn't help but wonder what it was specifically, but something deep in my stomach told me that she wasn't going to tell us no matter what we did.

This chapter was a fun one. Dang.

Minor twist in there with Chrysalis, Cotoli, and Sora all being half-siblings (well, not a twist if you've read Morix, but a twist for everybody else). Then there's the greater twist of... Everything that Chrysalis does. This chapter is an important one both for the sake of this case and the overall progression of the story because of how much it does to establish the general plot. GC-9 is something that we're going to be hearing about again if the news report from the end of case one wasn't anything to go off. This was our official introduction to it, but this is hardly going to be the last that we hear of it.

There's going to be one other chapter of investigation after this, though it's mostly wrapping up loose ends before we go off to the trial. There's a strong chance that we're going to get the pre-trial defendant lobby scene next time since there really isn't all that much left of the investigation. I suppose that we're just going to have to see how that turns out, but for now, we might have my favorite chapter in the story up to this point. Foreshadowing is fun, and Chrysalis is cryptic as shit.

Next time, we'll be diving into the last of the investigation segments for the time being and maybe getting ready to transition into the trial. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital