"One, two, three... One, two, three..."

"I thought that we agreed you were going to be returning what you owe to me."

"One, two, three... One, two, three..."

"No. I've mentioned before that I can't just do that."

"You had best not be lying to me. It would be a shame if I discovered that you were hiding something from me that you shouldn't be."

"One, two, three... One, two, three..."

"I told you that I don't have what you're looking for, and I meant it."

"You might think that you can escape from me, but that's never going to be true. Nobody gets away from me. Surely you're aware of this, hm?"

"Stay away from me... Ack-!"

"One, two, three... One, two, three..."

April 17

Morix Law Offices

4:15 PM

Chrysalis Starr

I let out a sigh as I walked away from the door. "I don't think she's coming," I murmured under my breath. "It's been seven hours since she was supposed to be here, but she hasn't shown any signs of coming."

Cotoli shook his head. "I can't believe that Venus would just randomly decide that she didn't want to come into work. She's been so good about being here on time every day that she was going to be here. I somehow doubt that she would just suddenly choose to not show up."

I nodded my agreement as I glanced over to the door once again. It had been a few weeks since the end of our first case, and times at the agency had been peaceful for the most part. Venus had been helping out around the agency, but today was different. She had randomly not appeared on a day when she said that she was going to be here, and I was starting to worry. It wasn't like her to randomly make a choice like this. If she couldn't come in due to some other events in her life, all she had to do was say so. Cotoli and I were forgiving people, and we would have given her time if that was what she asked for.

"I suppose that it's good that nothing of particular note wound up happening today," Cotoli said with a shrug. "It isn't as if she would have been doing much of anything notable even if she did come in. It's not ideal that we don't know where she is, but I'm going to assume that there's a good reason that she didn't come in. There just has to be."

I opened my mouth to agree with him, but when I did so, I was cut off by the sound of the door opening nearby. I nearly jumped out of my skin and glanced over at the entrance to the agency while pressing one hand against my chest. "V-Venus!" I exclaimed as the one and only girl of the hour finally showed herself. I had gotten better about hiding how flustered I got around her, but I couldn't exactly repress my reaction of shock when she showed up randomly like this.

"It took you a while to come in... Did something happen?" Cotoli questioned. He stepped aside to give Venus more room, seeing that she was flustered and clearly had been in the midst of some type of activity. She was practically buzzing with nervous energy, and that was more than enough to earn some concern from both of us.

Venus nodded. "I-I really need your help again!" she cried out. "It's my younger sister... Something happened, and Cassidy is being suspected of a murder!"

That more than caught my attention, and I glanced up at Cotoli with wide eyes. That sure was a good reason to not come in to work if I ever heard it. "Alright," I said with a nod, knowing that Cotoli was going to agree with me no matter what. "Can we go and talk to her?"

"I think so... I just came from the detention center. I was on my way here when Cassidy called me and said that something had happened after I dropped her off at practice. I went back, and... Well, I feel like you can already put the pieces together as to what happened from there. She was arrested, and I had to figure everything out. It was just... Hectic. I'm sorry that I didn't call in to say that I was going to be late, but... I'll do what I can to make it up to you both by helping out on this case!" Venus declared confidently.

"We would be happy to have you," Cotoli nodded. "Let's go on down to the detention center then. I take it that the trial is still being held tomorrow, after all..."

"Yeah," Venus confirmed with a sigh. "But I do have one other piece of good news for you. The one on this case is none other than Prosecutor Bespoke. I suppose that he thought you were going to be involved with this case, and that's probably why he took it on. I mean, he sure did seem to be interested with you when I was the one arrested, and I doubt that has changed at all since then."

Cotoli opened his mouth before shutting it again, sighing and shaking his head. "Let's focus on going to the detention center. We should talk to your sister and learn everything that we can about all of this before we start investigating."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan," I agreed. Just as quickly as Venus had arrived, we left the agency behind, off to take care of our second case, this time as a team of three rather than a team of two.

April 17

Detention Center

4:45 PM

Chrysalis Starr

"I'm glad that the detention center is going to be open late for us today," Cotoli murmured as we entered the visiting room. I nodded my agreement; since we were getting this case so much later than most others, we were being given the chance to speak with Cassidy for a while even if the detention center closed down. We definitely needed that extra little advantage given that we were in a bad enough position as it is, and I was more than willing to take this chance while we had it.

Before I could make a comment on the matter though, Cassidy appeared on the other side of the glass. Her pale face was red around her eyes, and I could tell clearly that she had been crying. I couldn't blame her in the slightest; she was even younger than I was, and it had been awful enough seeing Venus as the suspect when she was just barely older than me. Somehow, it had gotten even worse.

"Hey, Cass," Venus began gently, a light smile on her face as she sat down in the chair of the visitors' area. "How are you feeling?"

Cassidy looked up before swallowing dryly. "I... I'm going to be fine... I-I hope," she murmured. Despite her attempts to be strong, it seemed as if she was still cracking at the edges. I couldn't blame her in the slightest; this was a lot of pressure for someone so young to be under, after all.

"We're going to defend you from the murder charge," Cotoli assured her. "Venus truly does believe that you're innocent, and we have faith in you too. Please... Tell us everything that you know about this case."

Cassidy nodded carefully. "I... Um... Well, it took place at a dance studio," she began quietly. "The victim is an assistant teacher at the studio. His name is Drake Sach. He's been at the studio for the past few years, but... He's not all that old. He was only twenty-one, and... He was hit on the head by something, and that was how he died."

"I see," Cotoli murmured. "Do you know why it is that you're being suspected? Anything that you can tell us is helpful."

"It's mostly because I don't have an alibi and discovered the body," Cassidy explained. "There isn't anybody that really has a motive to kill him... Everybody liked him. Today, Drake was the only one who was teaching at the studio. He was working on a smaller class with a few young girls, all of whom are under the age of ten. That means that none of them can be suspects... The only other person who I know was there is a girl a few years older than me named Sumia Paige. She's sixteen and a dancer that I've known for a few years now... She wouldn't want to kill him either. I know it. There isn't a reason that anybody would want to hurt him."

"What happened when you discovered the body?" I asked with a frown. If Cassidy's words were to be believed, then this meant that there must have been something else to this case that we weren't seeing. I didn't know entirely what it was, but it must have been something that would show another person could have committed the crime.

"I wound up feeling somewhat sick to my stomach," Cassidy began to say. "The studio has a miniature fridge in the back room, and I wound up getting a water bottle from there after I got there for practice. Soon after we started rehearsing, I started feeling awful, so I left to go to the restroom. I was out of the rehearsal space for a while because of how sick I felt, and when I walked out of the bathroom, I smelled something... It turned out to be blood, and that was how I found the body."

"I see..." I murmured under my breath. "Why is it that you mentioned getting the water bottle? Did something wind up happening with that?"

Cassidy shrugged. "You said that you wanted to hear everything, so I wanted to mention it in case it wound up being important... When I left the room, Drake and Sumia were both still teaching the younger girls, but I guess that Drake left at some point while I was feeling sick. Sumia was with the girls the entire time according to the police, so that leaves me as the only suspect," she explained.

"What's the floor plan of the studio like?" Cotoli questioned. "We're going to be investigating it for ourselves shortly, but the sooner that we can learn more, the better."

"There are two studio rooms," Cassidy began. "The front lobby has the desk, and there are two rooms connected by a hallway from there. I was teaching the younger girls in the larger room out of the two since there wasn't anybody around, so we might as well have used the bigger of the spaces. The bathroom is just off the lobby, and the same applies to the back room where the employees go. Since I was assisting with a dance class today, I was able to go into the back room even if I'm not technically an employee."

"The body was found in the smaller of the two studio rooms," Venus explained. "The murder weapon was an award that was hanging on the wall. The studio has gained a fine reputation over the past few years, so they've got a bunch of award plaques that they keep mounted to the wall. They're pretty hefty too, and one of them was used to hit the victim over the head."

"Well, we already have a few points in our favor then," Cotoli remarked. "Cassidy, you're a rather small girl. Even if the victim was only twenty-one, there's a large difference in terms of strength and stature between someone who's fourteen and someone who's twenty-one. That should be something that we can use to our advantage."

"The police weren't thinking about logic like that when they arrested her. That's something that I can say confidently," I chimed in. "Cassidy is the only one who seemed to be suspicious, so they just had to suspect her. In terms of other culprits, I think that we can safely assume that somebody must have been in the studio that you didn't know was there. After all, if you were busy in the bathroom feeling sick, then that means that somebody else must have done it. I doubt that any girl younger than ten would be able to kill a fully grown adult, and if Sumia was occupied, then that's the only option for us to consider."

"It seems that we've got a lot to look into on that front then," Venus concluded. "There should be something that we can use to our advantage down at the scene of the crime. All we have to do is look around and hopefully dig up the information that we're searching for."

Cotoli turned back to Cassidy as he nodded in agreement. "We're running short on time for the trial tomorrow, so you'll have to forgive us for needing to run off so soon... Still, I do have one more question, if you don't mind my asking," he said.

"It's nothing to worry about... I know that this isn't a great situation to be in," Cassidy murmured with a shake of her head. "You can ask me anything that you want to know though. I'll do what I can to answer the best that I can."

"Do you know anything about the victim's past?" Cotoli questioned. "Even if you can't think of anybody who would want to kill him within the studio, there still could be somebody out there who does have a grudge against him."

Cassidy hesitated before shrugging. "I don't know anything. Drake appeared at the studio about two years ago, and he helped to make us even better. We were already a fine studio as it was, but... He was something special. He was always humble about it, but... He might as well have been a dance prodigy," she explained. "When we asked how he got to be so good at dance, he just said that it was an interest of his. He never went into detail about what his life was like before he showed up at the studio."

"In other words, it seems like this was a matter of circumstance," I commented. "I suppose that it's most likely that a figure from his past appeared and decided that this was the perfect chance to get rid of him for some reason or another. If Prosecutor Bespoke really is on this case, then we can use that to our advantage and talk to him about what we know."

"I guess that it's our cue to get going then," Venus remarked as she glanced up to her sister. "Once again, I'm sorry that we have to dash out like this, but... We're going to do what we can to get you out of here. I promise."

"I trust you," Cassidy agreed, though her smile was shaky and uncertain despite her words. Given her position, this made sense, but it felt like a stab to the chest regardless. "I... I guess that I'll see you again at the trial tomorrow. I hope that your investigation goes well."

We bid our farewells to Cassidy, and I let out a sigh as we left. I wasn't liking how tight we were on time, but it wasn't as if we had much of a choice in the matter. We were going to be fine one way or another, but that would only be the case if we started our investigation sooner rather than later. It seemed that it was time for us to go and check out this studio.

April 17

Sweet Steps Dance Studio

5:20 PM

Chrysalis Starr

The first thing that I noticed when we arrived at the studio was how many police officers were gathered around the entrance to the building. The second thing I noticed was the fact that the studio space itself appeared to be rather small and compact. In other words, it seemed that there wasn't going to be all that much for us to look over in comparison to the large ice rink that had been our target previously.

"Do you know anything about this studio?" Cotoli questioned, glancing over to Venus with a light frown on his face.

"Cassidy has been attending classes here for a long time. I used to come here too, but I wound up quitting when I found that I liked ice skating better," Venus replied. "It's always been pretty good in terms of competition, but it only got better after the victim showed up. Cassidy would come home telling me all about how much she loved learning from Drake Sach, and it was honestly sweet how much she idolized his skills, saying that she wanted to be like him one day. She's a shy kid, but... She really did look up to him."

"We've got to find the truth behind this case for multiple reasons then," I murmured, glancing over in the direction of the door. "We should go on and head inside, I suppose. If the trial really is tomorrow, then we've got a lot to cover in a short span of time, huh?" Venus nodded her agreement, and she was about to walk in the direction of the door when we heard a voice from behind us.

"I see that you three are back with yet another case."

I turned around with a smile on my face. "Detective Erikson!" I greeted with a wave. "I didn't realize that you were going to be on this case too. I'm glad to see a familiar face around here."

"I could say the same to you," Detective Erikson replied with a light grin of his own. "The investigation has been going well so far, I would say... You aren't going to have an easy case in court tomorrow, I'll say that much. We've got two witnesses who are going to testify."

"Let me guess... One of them is this Sumia Paige character that Cassidy mentioned," Cotoli remarked.

Detective Erikson nodded. "Correct. The other one claims to have seen the very moment of the crime... But she's refusing to talk to anybody that she doesn't have to, so I somehow doubt that you're going to be able to get to speak with her before the trial starts tomorrow," he explained. "Before you head inside, there are a few things that I want to give you."

He reached into his bag and pulled out an envelope and a single piece of paper before passing them over in our direction. "The envelope has the autopsy report in it. The victim died of blunt force trauma this morning at around 9:30. The individual piece of paper is just a map of the studio. The victim's body was found in the smaller of the two studio rooms while everyone else in the building at the time was in the larger room... Everyone except for the defendant, who was gone due to a sudden bout of sickness."

"I don't like this in the slightest," I remarked with a heavy sigh and a shake of my head. "If that's the case though, then where did the witness supposedly see the crime from? It's not like she could have been in the studio itself, right? There must be another explanation for that, I would presume."

"She was outside the studio," Detective Erikson replied. "But I guess that's something you're going to have to check out that on your own time. I've got to head back down to the precinct so that I can talk to the defendant a bit more. There's a lot going on with this case, and I'm just finishing my investigation here. Prosecutor Bespoke is here though if you decide that you want to talk to anybody else involved with the case."

"He is?" Venus questioned in surprise. "I didn't expect him to be here at the scene of the crime like that. Last time, he wasn't really at the crime scene all that much."

"He's been admittedly rather excited about facing off in court against you again. I think that's the main reason that he took on the case," Detective Erikson replied, glancing over in the direction of my brother. "Of course, you'll have to talk to him about that yourself, and I'm not going to get wrapped up in all of that since I've got other things to do with the case at the moment."

"Thank you for the autopsy report, Detective Erikson," Cotoli smiled. He waved as the detective quickly retreated from the scene. Once we were alone, he glanced back to me and Venus. "It's time for us to go on and head into the building, it seems. We've got a lot that we still have to check out, after all."

I nodded, and I led the way into the building, the others trailing in my footsteps. I opened the door before glancing around the studio with a light frown. It was a rather basic layout, I had to admit. There were two doors, one which led into the larger of the practice rooms while the other went to the lobby. We wound up going in through the lobby, and when I glanced down the hallway that was near the lobby, I saw the doors to the bathroom and back area respectively. This really was a small place, and it was hard to believe that a crime could have taken place in a tiny location like this. I almost felt like if I sneezed incorrectly, I would blow the building right off the face of the planet, and I wasn't exactly a big person to begin with.

"I think we should start off with the scene of the crime," Venus suggested. "We can look around in there and see if there's anything of particular interest before we check out anything else. We can see if the witness is around here too, and I guess we'll just have to see where everything unfolds from there."

I nodded my agreement, and I started to walk in the direction of the smaller practice room. The entrance could be seen from the entrance to the lobby, and I opened the door carefully, not wanting to accidentally hurt anybody who may have been standing inside of the room. There were too many people in this small building, and the last thing I wanted to do was accidentally cause someone to get upset when there wasn't enough room to argue in the first place.

The smaller practice room looked rather basic, I had to confess. The victim was stretched out on the ground, yes, but aside from the fact that he was dead on the ground, the space seemed almost completely undisturbed. There was white tape outlining the corpse, and I got the feeling that forensics was going to take the body away soon for the rest of their examination. Next to the victim, there was a small plaque that was dripping with blood at one corner. It seemed to me that this was the murder weapon that had been mentioned by Cassidy back at the detention center.

"Well, it seems like there wasn't much of a struggle," Venus remarked first. "There isn't anything else disturbed in here... Then again, I guess that there's nothing to be disturbed in the first place. I mean, there's a small speaker in the corner for playing music, but that's... That's about it."

I nodded my agreement. The speaker was one of the only items in the room. Aside from that, there was a folded up chair and a gymnastics mat that had been flattened into a portion of its normal stretched size. I didn't see anything that could have been out of the ordinary aside from that. There weren't even any dancers' bars lining the walls like I would have expected to see. It was just a room with a mirror and hardwood floors. The walls were lined with other plaques, but none of them had at all been disturbed in the slightest.

"There definitely wasn't a struggle," Cotoli agreed with a firm nod. "But that makes you wonder... If someone really did get in here from the outside, then how did they come in? There weren't any signs of a struggle, so the victim didn't immediately assume that he was going to be killed."

"I believe that I can explain that."

I perked up at the sound of the familiar voice from nearby, and my vision shifted to the other side of the room. There was another door, this time that led into the larger of the two practice rooms, and a familiar figure was standing in the entryway between the two rooms.

"Prosecutor Bespoke!" Venus cried out in surprise. "It's good to see that you're here. We're getting to this case late, and we don't really know all that much."

"I'm willing to assume that you're here at all because you're going to be taking on the trial tomorrow," Prosecutor Bespoke commented. When we all responded with firm nods, he chuckled to himself. "In that case, then I'll share what I can with you. This case is going to be a tough one, but the truth has to come out one way or another, doesn't it?"

"That's true," Cotoli agreed. "What is it that you can tell us? We already know why it is that Cassidy is being suspected. She didn't have a motive, but she did have a chance to commit the crime."

"The victim was hit in the head with this plaque and died as a result," Prosecutor Bespoke replied, gesturing to the murder weapon on the floor. "Death was instant, and the injury matches with the corner of the plaque. It's a heavy item, and it would have caused some serious damage even if it didn't kill him. As for anything else that you need to know... I had the forensics team on this case conduct a few fingerprint tests, and I think that you would be interested to hear about the results."

"Go on and share then," Cotoli instructed, crossing his arms over his chest. He glanced down to the body, undoubtedly searching for anything that could have been used as a hint, but when he didn't pick up on anything, he looked back up to meet Prosecutor Bespoke's eyes again a moment later.

"Well, I had them look at the door handle leading to the lobby from the outside," Prosecutor Bespoke began to say. "There aren't any fingerprints out of the ordinary there, but... The lock was tampered with, and it seems as if someone had a way of getting in that didn't involve using the key."

"Was there anything else out of the ordinary?" Venus asked, her head tilting to the side. "That already seems to imply that there was at least a little something that happened at the time of the crime, wouldn't you say?"

"I agree with you there... Well, since this place is so small, forensics has been looking up and down for anything suspicious. The police didn't find anything, so the forensics team is taking over. They've checked for prints on just about anything that they think could be relevant. The curtains in this room are clear of prints from anyone related to the case. All prints found are likely older since the people who they belong to already have an alibi and weren't here at the time. The same applies to the mat and the speaker over there. In other words, there's nothing in this room with any prints on it. The plaque is clear too," Prosecutor Bespoke went on.

"It sounds to me like the culprit was using gloves then," Cotoli concluded. "I don't think that Cassidy was wearing gloves when we saw her at the detention center, so if she was the culprit, then she would have had to dispose of a pair of gloves. I take it that there weren't any gloves found here either, so that means that the culprit must be somebody else."

"The arrest was hasty and incorrect if you ask me, but who listens to me around here?" Prosecutor Bespoke questioned with a loose shrug. "There's not really anybody who would have had a motive to kill the victim from within the studio. Everybody adored him. He was able to boost the studio's reputation significantly thanks to being a great assistant teacher. He was going to be getting a promotion soon, as a matter of fact."

"Wow... Do you think that there was anybody outside of the studio who would have a reason to kill him?" Venus questioned next with a light frown on her face. "I mean, there must have been a motive to this case, and it's not like a fight broke out or anything. There are no signs of a struggle, after all."

"Anybody outside the studio? That's where things get a bit complicated," Prosecutor Bespoke replied with a light wince. "I'm trying to look into his past right now, but I'm not really finding anything. If I figure something out, I'm going to find a way to tell you. I mean, if we're going to find the truth behind this case, then we've got to start somewhere, huh?"

"Thank you for all of this, Prosecutor Bespoke," Cotoli smiled, bowing his head in gratitude. "We really are glad that you've been so willing to help us out over the course of our past two cases, and... We're looking forward to being able to figure out what happened with this case."

"I'm happy to help," Prosecutor Bespoke responded, a smile of his own appearing on his face. "I can't exactly let you talk to one of the witnesses given that she's being cagey about speaking even to me and the rest of my team, but... I can point you to the other practice room. That's where the second witness is waiting, and you can ask her about the time of the crime."

I glanced over to Venus and Cotoli before nodding. This had to be Sumia Paige. "Thank you, Prosecutor Bespoke," I told him.

"It's no problem," Prosecutor Bespoke assured me. "I'll talk to you again later. You've got an investigation to get back to, and so do I. Until we meet again."

With that, he walked away. I glanced in the direction of the door, earning the silent agreement of Venus and Cotoli in the process, before walking toward the next step of our case: the witness.

New case hype!

-Digital