March 5
District Courthouse
Courtroom No. 2
12:15 PM
"If you don't mind my asking, defense..." the judge began to say, his eyes wide as he looked down at the envelope in my hands. "What is that? It looks like a case file."
"As a matter of fact, it is a case file," I announced firmly. "This case file is actually the one that was found shredded on the floor of the crime scene. The culprit ripped up a copy of it and left it behind on the floor of the victim's office, and as far as I can tell, it's a clue that will lead us to discovering who the culprit is."
"You think that case file is going to be a clear piece of evidence that shows who killed the victim?" the judge asked, his eyes wide as could be. "Go on and explain then! Who is the culprit? How are they related to the case file?"
I opened the case file soon afterward and began to look over everything that Chrysalis had given us. I was beyond glad that she had offered us with something like this, and I knew it was going to prove to be more helpful than I could have ever expected. "This case file is from the GC-9 Incident. This case took place two years ago and involved a murder at a factory not far from here. The prosecutor of the case was none other than the victim of the case we're looking at right now. Huber Turner was the one overseeing the trial, and in the end, he wound up winning and getting a guilty verdict against the defendant," I began to explain. "And I believe you'll find that the defendant's name is something incredibly intriguing given the circumstances of the case we're looking at right now."
"How did you get that?"
I looked up to see Prosecutor Lin standing across the courtroom, shock painted all over her face as she stared at the case file in my hands. "How were you able to figure out which case file was on the floor of the crime scene? I didn't hear of anybody knowing how to find the answer behind that question, but you seem so sure that you were able to find the truth," she said. Even though she was trying to make it seem like this was only a discussion about business over the case, I could see just how nervous she was about the entire situation. There was something more about this case that was bothering her whether she wanted to admit it or not, and if I had to guess, she was hardly happy that we had managed to hear more about GC-9.
"It was a gift from someone else who was involved with this case," I replied simply. "One of the witnesses of this case-or, to be more specific, one of the people who entered the building on the day of the murder-gave it to me after realizing what the case file had to be. I've looked through it and think that it's rather important to the case at hand."
"What's the name of the defendant?" the judge questioned. His eyes were wide as he looked down at me, and I could tell the suspense was already starting to get to him after the brief break in my explanation.
"Darken Russell," I explained. "The defendant of the GC-9 incident was accused of killing the victim in a factory. He was arrested and put on trial for the death of the victim. The case seems to be notably questionable in terms of the verdict though. There was a witness who claims to have seen the culprit leaving the scene of the crime, but their testimony was ultimately ignored and silenced by those involved with the case. The testimony implied the innocence of the defendant, and given what we know now about the victim of this case..."
"You think Huber Turner covered up the testimony to make it seem as if the defendant was guilty," Prosecutor Lin finished for me, and I nodded my agreement as she continued. "And then... Recently, the victim of this case was ultimately exposed by none other than the Oracle of the Law, and Oracle declared rather firmly that they were sure he had been forging evidence."
"Oracle had a recent trial as evidence too," I picked up next. "There was pretty solid evidence that the victim of this case was forging proof in order to secure false guilty verdicts. That exposure called all of his past guilty verdicts into question. After all, it was impossible to say just who could have been falsely convicted by forged evidence. All of this came together to paint a less than reliable picture of the victim's actions within the legal system."
"So the exposure could have been the inciting incident for somebody to want to lash out at the victim. With everybody now fully aware of just how many shady activities he was engaging in, it would have been easy for many people to grow upset with everything he was doing," Prosecutor Lin said. "And given the surname of the defendant of the GC-9 Incident..."
"Darken Russell shares a surname with the witness that we see on the stand right now," I declared. "I believe that this is no coincidence. The case file was torn up on the ground of the crime scene, and that makes it seem as if the culprit had a specific hatred for that incident above all others. No other case files were shredded by hand that way, and I believe that is proof enough of the GC-9 Incident being involved with this murder case."
"The defendant of the GC-9 Incident... What happened to him after he was declared guilty?" the judge asked, looking down on me with concern.
Prosecutor Lin answered before I could say anything. "He was executed," she told him bluntly. "Less than a year after his trial, he was put to death. The charges were piled on so heavily by the prosecution that it was decided he didn't deserve to continue living. I don't think I've ever seen a prisoner executed that quickly after a verdict was decided on. Everything moved so quickly, and it didn't seem natural at all."
"With how quickly the execution was carried out combined with the testimony of the anonymous witness who saw the culprit, it seems safe to say that the defendant of that case was innocent. He did not kill the victim, and he was executed for a crime he did not commit," I announced. "And then, the prosecutor of the case was revealed to have been forging evidence to the public."
"It was the perfect setup for a revenge killing," Prosecutor Lin concluded. "Witness, I have to ask... Just what do you think of all this? You claimed to not have a motive for killing the victim, but I believe all of this most certainly adds up to be a motive, and a rather substantial one at that."
"There's one thing that the case file doesn't explain," Ms. Russell announced. I got the feeling she was choosing to not acknowledge the case file because she didn't want to face the fact that she was being accused, but I chose to not call her out on it for now. Instead, I simply listened intently as she continued. "You act as if the case file will bring together everything, but you still don't have an explanation for the opening and closing cabinet doors. You can't say this case is sealed without looking at that. I doubt you're going to be able to find a solution to that if you've been clueless up to this point."
I winced at her words. She was right on that much; we didn't have an explanation for this yet. How were we supposed to figure it out? There had to be an explanation, but what could it have been? It felt like it was on the tip of my tongue but still barely stayed out of my reach much to my endless irritation. We did have to answer this question before the case could be considered closed, but how were we supposed to do that?
"We have to find an explanation for what happened with the file cabinet at the time of the crime... But where are we supposed to start with figuring that out?" Trucy questioned, her eyes shifting in my direction. "It doesn't make any sense. There has to be something that will prove what happened, but... What could it be?"
My mind was racing with a thousand different streams of thought as I did my best to come up with an explanation to the impossible question that had been haunting us all this time. This had been the biggest problem since the first time the case was brought into the courtroom, and as far as I could tell, it was going to be the final nail in the coffin when it came to revealing the truth as well. We just had to figure out how the doors could have been opened when there was nobody in the room.
I glanced down to the pictures sitting before me, and I compared the two photos of the investigation with a light frown on my face. Nothing had changed aside from the cabinet doors opening, and it was important that they had started closed. Was there a way that somebody could have opened the doors without entering the room? Could the doors have been disturbed without anyone going by Simon and Prosecutor Gavin to get inside?
My mind was briefly cast back to the investigation the day before. Trucy had entered the evidence cabinet and commented on how it could be used for a magic trick. She had been able to enter the cabinet when the shelves were gone, and the doors closed easily when she was inside. If that was the case, then...
I looked over to Ms. Russell, my eyes going wide with recognition as I started to put the pieces together. That had to be it! Ms. Russell was about the same size as Trucy, and their statures were similar enough that it would have been possible for her to get into the evidence cabinet if she really wanted to. If that was the case, then that could only mean one thing! We had found our explanation for the cabinet doors opening and closing!
I slammed one hand against the bench in front of me, easily earning me the attention of everyone in the courtroom. "I know how to explain the issue of the evidence cabinet!" I announced. "I have an explanation that will not only show what happened with the evidence cabinet but will also prove the defendant innocent without a shadow of a doubt!"
"Don't hesitate then, defense!" the judge cried out. "What happened with the evidence cabinet?"
"The culprit was still at the scene of the crime when the body was first discovered," I began to say. "The killer was hiding inside of the cabinet when the doors were opened and the body was found. The crime scene was briefly watched over by Prosecutor Simon Blackquill, but he eventually left to go and help with the recovery of the defendant. During that period, there were no eyes on the crime scene. It's true that no person could have entered the room at this time, but it is not true that nobody could have left. If they were already there, then they could have descended from the window and the rope tied to the sill to escape the crime scene. In their haste and wish to not make any noise, the culprit didn't close the cabinet doors properly while leaving, and so, we were left with the contradiction of the evidence cabinet being left open, but the fact of the matter is that the culprit was there when the crime scene was found! The evidence cabinet is more than large enough for a person to have climbed inside, and that solves the final mystery of this case!"
The gallery was about to start chattering, but they were ultimately cut off when Prosecutor Lin raised one hand and slammed it down onto the prosecution's bench. "You mean to say that the culprit was there when the witnesses first arrived at the crime scene?" she questioned, her eyes wide with surprise. "Could somebody even fit inside the cabinet?"
I nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes. Trucy here entered the cabinet yesterday during our investigation and proved that as long as the shelves are removed, a person can fit inside. The shelves were removed in the struggle of the crime scene when they were slid out of their regular spots by the fight between the victim and killer," I explained. "There was more than enough space for the culprit to have hidden inside, and then, it was just a matter of sneaking out with the rope that had already been prepared when nobody was watching! And so, the mystery of the evidence cabinet is solved with the explanation that the killer was still there when the two primary witnesses initially found the body and the defendant!"
Prosecutor Lin nodded her understanding from her place on the other side of the courtroom as the judge looked down on me with wide eyes. "Do you have anything else to say on the matter of this case, defense?" he questioned.
I smirked as I crossed my arms. "As a matter of fact, there are a few things that I would like to clarify," I told him. "I think that we can prove conclusively that the witness on the stand right now is the one who killed the victim, but it goes deeper than simply the blood found beneath the fingernails of the victim. I think that the culprit would have naturally sustained many bruises in the heat of their fight with the culprit, especially since it was enough to send so many files and pieces of evidence flying all over the crime scene. That means that if the witness truly isn't the culprit behind this case, then she shouldn't object to us seeing if she has any bruises. Well, Ms. Russell?! What do you have to say for yourself?!"
Ms. Russell was standing at the scene of the crime, staring down at the floor with her teeth grinding together in anger. She took in a careful breath before she sighed and raised her hands in surrender above her head. "I... I give in," she finally said. Her previous rage had been replaced by something muted and calm, like she knew exactly what was happening and couldn't even bring herself to care. She reached up to her neck and began to pull away the fabric from her skin. Her jacket was left to shift slightly, and beneath the black of the hoodie, a series of scratches could be seen. As far as I could tell, they were accompanied by a series of strangulation bruises, and I winced at the sight. It seemed as if I had been right in assuming the culprit had a few marks left behind by the victim... And it was clear as could be where the blood had come from that made its way under the victim's fingernails.
Prosecutor Lin was quiet for a long moment before she looked up to Ms. Russell, something difficult to describe in her eyes. "So... You admit it?" she questioned, her voice somewhat sad as she posed the inquiry. The silence of the courtroom was suddenly suffocating, and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears with each pulse.
Ms. Russell nodded slowly. "I do," she managed to push out. "I was the one who killed him... And I don't regret anything I did."
"Huber Turner was revealed to have been forging evidence less than two weeks ago, and that was enough for you to snap and lash out at him... As a way of getting back at him for what he did to your brother," I concluded, each word spoken carefully and slowly.
Ms. Russell crossed her arms as she continued to stare down at the ground. "He was always suspicious. From the day I met him, I knew there was something wrong about what he was doing behind the scenes. I could just tell that there was more to him than met the eye. His actions were always strange, and no person who lacked skill as a prosecutor to that degree should have walked away with so many victories," she murmured. "But he... It all changed when he falsely accused Darken. Everyone knew that Darken didn't do it. There was testimony from someone who saw the escape of the true culprit, but all he did was cover it up the same way he hid everything else. He wouldn't let the truth out because it was an inconvenience to him. He just wanted to win. Everything he did to Darken... It was in the name of his own twisted sense of success. He killed people, led them to their own executions, because of his own greed."
I nodded to myself, remembering what happened during the one trial where I was up against him. The forged autopsy report was the one thing that stuck out in the face of everything else, and that was all it took for everything to come crashing down. If we hadn't been on that case, if we hadn't helped out Ms. Liyle when we did, she would have been just another figure in a long line of those who were put to prison or worse at his hands. He didn't care at all about what he was doing, and he was glad when he was able to step on or hurt others. All he wanted was to be able to come out on top, and if anybody got in the way of that, then he was going to destroy them. That was just the sort of person he was.
Ms. Russell clenched one hand into a fist before she hit it against the witness stand, tears starting to stream down her face. "Oracle was right," she muttered darkly. "Oracle knew what they were doing when they exposed him, and it was something that should have been done a long time ago. He's been lying and stepping on people to maintain his reputation for as long as anyone can remember, and a man like that... He didn't deserve anything. My brother did not deserve to die because a selfish man like that thought only of himself and not the lives he was ruining on the way to his supposed triumph."
"Oracle didn't ask for Prosecutor Turner to die... All they did was lay out the facts, and in the end, he caused his own downfall," Mr. Wright murmured solemnly. "Oracle exposed the truth to the world, but Prosecutor Turner did this to himself. If he hadn't acted that way on so many occasions, he wouldn't have found himself in this situation."
"GC-9 was just one example of a case he deceived everyone on," Prosecutor Lin said next, her voice falling to shadows as she stared down at the prosecution's bench before her. I couldn't help but pick up on the overwhelming grief behind her voice, and I was left to wonder if perhaps she knew more about GC-9 than she was willing to admit at a first glance. "Everything he did back then... It destroyed lives. The true culprit of that case is still at large. Darken Russell was innocent, and we know that for a fact. A witness made that much perfectly clear, and yet... Huber Turner still silenced them."
"They were telling the truth all along," Ms. Russell snarled. "I know that for a fact. I don't know who actually committed the crime back then, but I do know that my brother wasn't the one who did it... He... He admired the victim more than anyone could ever hope to understand. She did more for him than even I realized. Her death broke him the same way it shattered the hearts of so many others, and he... He didn't deserve to die for the crime of caring for her. Everyone knew that trial was falsified on a thousand different levels. Turner... That monster just buried it deep and let the true culprit get away along the way."
"Do you have any ideas as to who the true culprit could have been?" Trucy questioned. Her voice was oddly sad, and I found myself wondering how many people in the courtroom were capable of fully hating Ms. Russell in light of her circumstances. It was a tragedy through and through, and my stomach twisted more the longer I thought about it.
Ms. Russell shook her head. "No... I don't. The only one who saw the true culprit was silenced, and I don't know who they are. Their testimony was provided in a way that would keep their true identity a secret. I couldn't begin to tell you who saw the culprit as a result. I don't think anybody knows who the witness is at this point aside from those with access to the most exclusive of case files. You're not going to be able to find the truth behind this easily. Everything was rigged on all sides, and that's not an easy thing to work past. My brother... He wasn't able to escape it. Everybody was fighting against him and pushing him to confess to something he didn't do, and even though he was innocent, he... He was faced with death."
I found my fingers drifting in the direction of a piece of evidence we hadn't looked at much over the course of this case: the details behind Oracle's exposure of the previous chief prosecutor. This was the second situation in which Oracle's exposures had led to a widespread revelation that changed everything, and those were just the ones I knew about. As far as I could tell, this wasn't going to be the last time this happened either. The circumstances of this trial had told me one thing without a doubt, and I didn't think I was going to ever forget it.
The supposed "dark age of the law" never ended. I don't even know if it truly started; people simply started realizing what was happening, but they were all too ready to shove it in the past as soon as possible. This was happening everywhere, and people were trying to ignore it because they were afraid of facing the truth. The situation had been this bad for decades, and as far as I could tell, it was going to keep up with more tragedies like this until something changed completely... Until there was a complete upheaval of everything we had come to know up to this point.
Prosecutor Lin cleared her throat before she looked up to Ms. Russell. "You know what's going to be happening next, right?" she questioned. "Regardless of if it was noble the way you think it was... I think we all know what will be following this."
Ms. Russell sighed before she glanced over to where Apollo was sitting. "I apologize for what I did to you, Mr. Justice," she said simply, not acknowledging Prosecutor Lin's question just yet. "Framing you was a matter of convenience. I was trying to find someone to pin the crime on, and you were caught at the center of the personal matter at hand... You are under no obligation to forgive me, but know that I am sorry."
Ms. Russell raised her hands as Apollo stared at her in surprise. "I understand what has to come next," she announced. "Until we meet again." She was apprehended by a pair of bailiffs from there, but I could see in her eyes that she didn't regret any of this. She knew what she was getting into from the beginning, and she was simply happy that her revenge had been carried out. I felt my heart break in my chest, and I immediately knew that she had been closer with her brother than any of us could have thought. The two of them likely counted on one another on many levels, and his death... That would break anyone, and in this case, it just so happened to lead to yet another tragedy. Ms. Russell didn't seem to view it that way, but that was how I thought about it, and my stomach began to twist over itself in anxiety.
It wasn't until after Ms. Russell was gone that I fully seemed to come back down to reality. I would have been lying if I said that this case didn't bother me in more ways than I knew how to describe. I stared down at my hands before shifting my attention next to the report of what Oracle had done to expose the previous chief prosecutor. We wouldn't have found ourselves in this situation if not for Oracle. They had no way of knowing it was going to end this way, and yet, the exposure of Prosecutor Huber Turner ended in yet another tragedy of the legal system. I knew I shouldn't feel so much overwhelming sympathy for a murderer, but... Once I stared thinking of Ms. Russell in terms of why she did all of this, I couldn't help it. This shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have even come close to this.
The judge cleared his throat, and I glanced up to him. "It seems as if we have finally found the truth behind this case," he announced. "The true culprit has been revealed, and the lingering questions regarding this case have been tied up without any issues."
"Ms. Russell is bound to see her own trial within the next few weeks. None can say what her sentence will wind up being, but time will be able to say for sure what her fate is meant to be from here," Prosecutor Lin announced. "I somehow doubt that we'll have any other incidents of her framing people for the death of the victim though. She already owned up to what she did, and I don't think she's going to turn against that after all that she's already spoken about today."
I nodded my agreement before looking over to Trucy and Mr. Wright. "I think we all have a lot to think about after today," I murmured. I hadn't mentioned anything about my thoughts on the supposed "dark age of the law," but I didn't think I had to. Ms. Russell's situation along with the grander idea of the GC-9 Incident had done more than enough to instill uncertainty in all of our minds, and as far as I could tell, it was a deep injury that we weren't going to be escaping any time soon. How could we? This was a significant incident that was bound to stick with all of us for quite some time, and not just because Apollo was the defendant.
"Oracle has done quite a bit to change the legal system already, wouldn't you say?" Mr. Wright questioned. "We've only heard about two incidents of them acting, and yet, it seems clear as can be that they aren't going to be leaving for quite a while. Both times, everything has changed for better or worse. First, it was the chief prosecutor, and now..." He fell silent, and I looked back to the witness stand where Ms. Russell had previously been standing.
I let out a small sigh to myself, and I found myself wondering what we would be able to find out about Oracle. I would have been lying to myself if I said that I had no interest in talking with them about everything we had stumbled upon over the course of the last few cases. There was so much that seemed to be waiting in the wings for us to discover, and this case was simply the beginning. The full truth behind the GC-9 Incident had to be out there somewhere, and it seemed as if that was the only way we were going to be able to find justice not only for Ms. Russell, but her brother and even the other defendants that Prosecutor Turner had condemned by his actions.
"If there are no other objections, I believe now would be a fitting time for me to render the verdict of the court."
I perked up at the sound of the judge's voice, and I saw that Apollo had taken to the witness stand. Across the courtroom, Prosecutor Lin shook her head. "The prosecution has no objections," she announced.
I shook my head as well, doing my best to hide the way I was shaking. We had won the case, so why did I still feel so awful about everything? "The defense has no objections either," I replied firmly.
The judge nodded. "In that case, this court hereby finds the defendant, Apollo Justice, not guilty. Court is adjourned!" He slammed his gavel down a moment later, bringing an end to this case and seemingly the nightmare that surrounded it.
But even as the courtroom began to empty out, I couldn't do anything but stare down at the evidence still waiting for me on the defense bench. I didn't think I was going to forget about everything that had happened in this case no matter what came next. It felt like we were still at the beginning of a long journey that we had yet to see to its conclusion, and the more I thought about it, the worse I felt. I didn't know what was waiting for us, but I could tell that this was just the beginning. There was still more out there that we had yet to resolve, whether it relate to Oracle, the GC-9 Incident, or anything else in the legal system.
After all, the dark age of the law was still around. It had never started or ended in the first place.
One more chapter left of this case! Woohoo!
I was hoping to finish this case in twelve chapters, but I wound up taking a bit more time with this last trial than expected, so we're going to instead wrap things up next time around. Next chapter is going to be the defendant lobby and any other lingering details, and there are quite a few of them after this case. This was the introduction of the main plot in full even if the first case was still involved. There's a lot we have yet to understand, but that's just part of the fun. We have to start somewhere, huh?
This story is, as you can probably see by now, following in the tracks of Apollo Justice thematically... Like a lot. The dark age of the law mentioned in Dual Destinies was never really there in this interpretation; it was always this bad, but people didn't start waking up to it until it became a news headline. This is the harsh reality of the system, and even after the end of the supposed dark age, things are still really bad. Oh, I love little moral dilemmas. Am I trying to retroactively fix the writing of Dual Destinies through fanfiction? Yes. I'm doing my best, and that isn't my problem.
Next time, we'll wrap up case two at long last! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital