May 2
Defendant Lobby No. 3
9:30 AM
Yuri Rinko
My stomach was still doing quiet little twirls in my torso when we arrived at the courthouse the next day, and I couldn't stop fidgeting no matter how hard I tried. Venus was giving me sideways glances to show how concerned she was about me, but I didn't return the favor. I knew that we were going to be alright... That was what I was hoping, anyway. If I was being honest, I still didn't know how all of the pieces of this were supposed to come together, and I had no idea what Mr. Morix and Chrysalis were saying when they thought that they knew what we were going to be doing once the trial kicked off once again.
Speaking of the mystery siblings, they were sitting on the couch in the defendant lobby when Venus and I walked into the room. Venus and I approached them carefully, and I offered them a weak attempt at a smile. "So... Big day, huh?" I questioned even though that much seemed obvious. How could it not be a big day given the circumstances? This was going to be our best chance at showing that KJ didn't commit the crime, but that was bound to be easier said than done. After all, we still had so much else to do before we would be ready for something like that. For example, we still had to determine what it was that had actually happened at the time of the crime, and that was something that I wasn't quite sure that we were going to be able to do yet.
"You can say that again," Venus commented with a shake of her head. "I do have to ask though... Do you two still think that we're going to be ready for this trial? I'm not trying to say that I don't have faith in your judgement when you say that we have everything that we're going to need in order to find the truth, but... I don't know. I guess I'm still ab it concerned about how everything could wind up going down."
"I think that we're going to have to see how it goes when Ms. Rowland is called up to the witness stand," Mr. Morix told Venus. "Sora passed on the message last night; Prosecutor Bespoke was able to convince the witness to come to the witness stand to testify, so we're going to be able to look forward to seeing her talk."
"And if all goes well, she won't be able to hide from us the way that she kept trying to do during the investigation," Chrysalis remarked with a sigh. "We'll just have to see how it goes... Well, you three will have to see what comes of this. After all, I'm still somewhat bound to the role of a witness even if I'm not going to be testifying today. I've done my part, so you're going to have to take it over again from here."
"I wonder how all of these pieces are even going to wind up coming together," I commented with a loose shrug. "I don't know where we're even supposed to start when it comes to making sure that everything fits in a way that forms a cohesive picture. I suppose that we'll just have to see how everything unfolds... It had better end well on our part. That's the hope, at the very least."
"There you all are."
KJ came into view soon afterwards, and I glanced up to him with a small smile. "Hey there, KJ," I greeted casually. "We were just talking about our investigation yesterday. It seems like we're going to be able to talk to Ms. Rowland about what she was doing at the time of the crime."
"Prosecutor Bespoke must have pulled off a real miracle to convince her that her testimony was going to be necessary in the trial," Venus proclaimed with a shake of her head. "After all, she seemed to be pretty firm when it came to insisting to us personally that she had nothing to do with the case, so it's surprising that she would suddenly break that streak to come and testify for the court."
"I'm not going to be complaining about it in the slightest though, that's for sure," Mr. Morix remarked. "I agree that it must have taken quite a bit of work on his part, but I'm not going to protest the fact that he was able to pull this off."
"Maybe we'll be able to figure out what she was looking for in the locker room too," Chrysalis pointed out. "I don't think that she found what it was that she was trying to get her hands on, and that... Well, it doesn't exactly sit well with me that she was searching in the first place, but it certainly seems as if that wound up helping us. I mean, she didn't get whatever it was that she was looking for, so that has to count for something."
"We'll see how that goes too, I suppose," Venus shrugged, tucking her hands up behind her head. She stared at the ceiling of the room before she dropped her arms and glanced around at the people in the general area. "I think that we're going to find a way to push through this. Everything might seem a bit uncertain right now, but we're all here because we know what we're doing. I'm sure that the pieces will come together one way or another, and we'll figure out the truth sooner or later. It's just a matter of time."
I was personally glad that Venus had so much confidence, because I knew for sure that I did not fall into that category. I was nervous as could be about the upcoming trial, and I couldn't help but pray that Mr. Morix could come up with a plan that would get us out of this situation. When I glanced over to KJ though, I could see that he had taken Venus' words well. That was when I understood what it was that Venus was trying to do; she was hoping to get his spirits up, and as far as I could tell, she had succeeded.
Chrysalis nodded, offering her confidence despite it being clear that it didn't fully reach her heart. "We're going to have to get inside the courtroom soon though... We have a lot to accomplish, and we're going to have to rely on Ms. Rowland's testimony to fill in the gaps of our story. Of course, you're all going to have to drag the truth out of her. I think that we all know that she's not going to be quite so easy to speak with when it comes to the facts of what took place at the time of the murder," she told us.
I nodded my agreement, and the spinning feeling in my stomach came back all too abruptly. Once again, I prayed that Mr. Morix knew what he was talking about, and I hoped that I would be able to see how all of the pieces of this case came together sooner rather than later for the sake of soothing my own nerves. I was about to open my mouth and say as much when I heard the bailiff call out for us to enter the courtroom, and that brought a screeching halt to everything that I might have been considering saying.
"Well, you know what that means," Chrysalis continued, seemingly unbothered by the interruption. "I'll be looking forward to seeing what all of you are able to do in there. You know what you're doing, and I have full confidence that you'll be able to find the truth behind this case. It's just a matter of time at this point."
Chrysalis started to walk into the courtroom from there, and I watched her from afar and did my best to ignore the way that my body was rejecting her words. I still felt awful about all of this, but I knew that the only way that I was going to be able to fix that was to go into the courtroom and spring into action the way that I knew I was going to have to if we wanted to find the truth. Surely we would be able to figure out what was going on sooner or later, right? We just had to. For KJ's sake and for everybody else involved with this case, we had to find the truth one way or another.
May 2
Courtroom No. 3
10:00 AM
Cotoli Morix
The inside of the courtroom was just as bustling and active as one would have expected, and I glanced around the area with a light frown on my face. I knew what we had to do in order to find the truth behind this case, but I also knew that something like that was much easier said than done. I knew that we had a lot left to take care of when it came to finding the truth, and while I didn't like how little we knew about the true picture behind this case, all I could do was press on and hope that we found out where everything fit together sooner rather than later.
Judge Diaphan's gavel came down on the podium before her as she silenced everyone in the courtroom swiftly. "Court is now in session for the trial of KJ Jett," she announced. "Yesterday, I granted the defense and prosecution the extra time needed to find more information about what took place at the time of the murder given the doubts that were proposed regarding the defendant's guilt. I take it that both sides have upheld their end of such a deal, yes?"
I nodded my confirmation. "The defense most certainly has, Your Honor," I assured her. It was at this moment that I realized something critical had slipped my mind up to this point. We still hadn't gotten the results from Detective Wattson about the fingerprint test done on the door that led into the locker room. I could only hope that we would be able to get our hands on that information sooner rather than later. After all, it was bound to revolutionize everything that we knew about the case.
"So has the prosecution," Prosecutor Bespoke declared with a firm nod. "As a matter of fact, I wish to start off today's session of the trial with a handful of new information relating to what we discovered at the end of yesterday's trial. During the trial yesterday, we received testimony from a few witnesses that offered the revelation that the defendant was, in fact, not in the gymnasium at the time of the murder. This morning, I received test results from something that the forensics team had started to look into relating to just that new truth."
I couldn't help but perk up, part of me wondering with a twinge of fantastical curiosity if perhaps Prosecutor Bespoke had been able to read my mind when I expressed concern over this very subject. He didn't seem to notice, instead continuing to explain without missing a beat. "The forensics team discovered that there were fingerprints from the defendant that showed him making his way out of the locker room by pushing on the door at some point on the day of the murder. We aren't sure when these prints wound up on the door, but it's clear as can be that they are fresh," he explained. "After all, when it comes to something like a door handle, it's easy for older prints to wind up covered in the shuffle of movement. Still, it was easy to see that the door was pulled open from the inside at some point recently, and that shows that the defendant was in the vicinity of the locker room door at some point on the day of the murder."
The gallery began to chatter and buzz from all directions, and I smiled to myself at his words. I wasn't the only one who was relieved with this new information though. "That's certainly a good way for us to start off this trial," Venus commented in my direction. "I think that's the best way that we could have kicked this off, as a matter of fact."
Judge Diaphan reached for her gavel as I nodded. "Order in the court!" she cried out sharply, silencing everyone in the room without any issues. A moment later, she moved her attention back to Prosecutor Bespoke. "What do you say about this, prosecution? Do you believe that the defendant was in the locker room at the time of the murder?"
Prosecutor Bespoke nodded a moment later. "Given the testimony that we received yesterday combined with the locker room door's fingerprints, it seems as if he was in the locker room at the time of the crime. He couldn't have come in from any other entrance in the gymnasium, and I believe that it would have been all too possible for him to slip into the area thanks to the darkness of his clothes and hair," he replied. "Furthermore, we now know that the defendant couldn't have been the culprit due to the dominant hand of the killer being opposite what we saw from the defendant during the trial yesterday."
"In other words, our focus is shifting now from trying to figure out how to pin down KJ Jett as the culprit," Judge Diaphan declared. "Our new mission here in the courtroom is going to be to figure out who it is that actually killed the victim and to bring them to justice... With that said, do the prosecution or defense have any theories as to who the culprit behind the victim's murder could possibly be?"
Prosecutor Bespoke was the first one to respond, this time by shaking his head. "I don't know of anyone suspicious at the moment, but I can say that the prosecution was able to uncover a new witness yesterday. I believe that it would be beneficial for us to call her to the stand as soon as possible to speak with her about what happened at the time of the murder," he announced. "She claims to not have been involved with the crime, but I believe that it would be most effective for us to examine her testimony here in the courtroom to make sure that we can find all of the answers that we may seek over the course of our search for justice. It would be better than letting go potentially useful testimony, wouldn't you say?"
Judge Diaphan nodded her agreement, and I could have sworn that at least half of the tension in my body dissipated with the way that she was agreeing to Prosecutor Bespoke's proposals. This was certainly going to make the rest of the trial much easier on our part even if we weren't entirely sure what we were going to be doing quite yet. "Please call your witness at this time, prosecution," Judge Diaphan instructed firmly, and I finally felt like I was able to breathe easily for the first time since the trial started.
Prosecutor Bespoke nodded his understanding before he pointed to the witness stand. "The prosecution hereby calls Eris Rowland to the stand!" he declared.
The courtroom fell silent as Ms. Rowland approached the podium before finally settling down. I felt something inside of me flip at the sight of her, and I hoped that we were going to be able to get at least something new out of her in terms of information. I had an awful feeling about all of this, but we were going to have to try and learn more if we wanted to prove that KJ wasn't the culprit.
"Please offer your name and occupation for the court," Judge Diaphan told Ms. Rowland.
"My name is Eris Rowland. My occupation, at least as it's relevant to this case, is that I helped out with the community center's gymnastics tournament at the time of the murder," Ms. Rowland replied. "I still maintain my statement that I was not involved with the crime, and I don't think that you're going to be able to change that fact."
"You can say that as much as you want, but there are still a few concerning facts behind this murder that make it seem as if there was more going on than meets the eye," I pointed out. "For the time being, we simply wish to hear your testimony."
Ms. Rowland shook her head as she crossed her arms. "I know that you aren't going to be letting me go until I tell you about what happened, so I guess that I've got no choice on that front," she remarked. "Fine then. If that's what you want, then I'll tell you about what I was doing at the time of the murder."
Prosecutor Bespoke offered her a smile, but I could see clear as day that he was putting up a mask for the sake of appealing to her bad attitude as much as possible. "Then go right ahead, witness. There's no reason to hold back."
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ The Time of the Murder ~
-"When the murder took place, I wasn't even in the gymnasium where the victim was killed."
-"I was in the restroom since there was finally enough of a lull in activity to give me the chance to breathe."
-"When I came out, the audience had already flooded out of the gym because of the gunshot scaring them."
-"I didn't see the crime take place, and I didn't see anything else that could have possibly been considered related to the case either."
-"In other words, there really isn't anything that I can tell you. I was in the building, but that doesn't mean that I'm connected to the case."
-"I hope that's enough of an explanation for you, because that's all that I can really say. I'm not related to this case, and I didn't see or do anything of note."
I turned to Venus with the end of her testimony, and I could see that the dark-haired girl had come to glare intensely at the woman standing behind the witness stand. "She might think that she's going to be able to get away with this, but she would be sorely mistaken," Venus murmured under her breath. "This isn't what she thinks it is, and we know that there has to be a reason for the way that she was rifling through the victim's things at the time of our investigation yesterday."
"I still don't see how all of the pieces are supposed to come together though," Yuri commented with a loose shrug. "It feels like there's still something that we're missing. Why was she looking through the locker? If she was involved with the case, why was she hanging back at the crime scene?"
"It's almost like she was doing something that she didn't want anybody to know about," Venus joked with a light yet hollow laugh and a shake of her head. "I mean, everybody else was distracted with the murder at the time, weren't they? She would have been mostly alone at the time, right? You know, aside from the few people involved that didn't come to the trial, but they were definitely in the minority as far as I can tell."
"For now, we can take this one step at a time and see what comes of that," I told them both. I shifted my attention back to Ms. Rowland and saw that she was refusing to make eye contact with anyone in the courtroom under the supposed pretense of staring down at her fingernails. I knew better than to fall for something like that though, confident that there was more than met the eye behind her actions and this case as a whole.
"If you're ready, defense, go on and begin your cross-examination of the witness' testimony," Judge Diaphan instructed. I nodded in response before glancing over to the prosecution's side of the courtroom. Prosecutor Bespoke hadn't said anything to interject when it came to this testimony, and I could tell that he was letting us handle this to the best of our ability. After all, we already knew where this was going to wind up leading. This was the first step of many to figure out just what was happening in this case, and we were going to figure it out one way or another, I was sure.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ The Time of the Murder ~
-"When the murder took place, I wasn't even in the gymnasium where the victim was killed."
-"I was in the restroom since there was finally enough of a lull in activity to give me the chance to breathe."
-"When I came out, the audience had already flooded out of the gym because of the gunshot scaring them."
-"I didn't see the crime take place, and I didn't see anything else that could have possibly been considered related to the case either."
-"In other words, there really isn't anything that I can tell you. I was in the building, but that doesn't mean that I'm connected to the case."
-"I hope that's enough of an explanation for you, because that's all that I can really say. I'm not related to this case, and I didn't see or do anything of note."
"Objection!"
Prosecutor Bespoke perked up at my objecting cry, and I could tell what he was thinking without even needing to ask. Instead of prompting him to continue, I simply shook my head in the direction of the witness. "I would certainly object to the idea that you didn't do anything notable related to the crime," I told Ms. Rowland.
"What are you talking about?" Ms. Rowland asked, clearly doing what she could to play the part of naivete despite it being clear as could be that I knew what she had done. After all, how could I not? I was one of the people to catch her in the act, and her denial wasn't going to be able to get her away from this forever.
"You claim that you didn't do anything related to the murder, and while that might be true based on what happened at the time of the crime, your actions after the murder are most certainly suspicious," I continued. "If the court will recall yesterday, we mentioned the locker room where the defendant was cleaning up at the time of the crime. Well, the witness here was found in that very same locker room yesterday, but this time, she was rustling through the belongings of none other than the victim."
Ms. Rowland shot us a hardened glare in a desperate attempt to keep me from continuing. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said, continuing to play the role of denial despite the truth being clear as could be.
"I saw it as well," Prosecutor Bespoke interjected. "I don't know what it was that you were searching for in the first place, but it certainly seems as if you were trying to find something on the scene of the crime. You might not want to talk about what it is that you were trying to find, but it's clear as can be that you were searching for something. You even stooped to the lows of going through the belongings of the dead to try and find what it was you were looking for."
Judge Diaphan shifted her attention down to Ms. Rowland, and the glare in her eyes was clear as could be even through her mask. "I would certainly like to hear your explanation for this, witness," she commented darkly. "Don't hold anything back; tell the court why it is that you were looking through the items of the victim yesterday."
Ms. Rowland was silent for a long moment before she perked up to look at the others in the courtroom. "I was actually an acquaintance of the victim, you see. There was something that she wanted someone to look after, and I was trying to find it," she explained. "As for what that specific item is... That much is going to have to stay my secret for the sake of her privacy. I didn't find what I was looking for at the time though, and no matter how many times I searched for the object, I wasn't able to find it."
"You care about privacy now?!" Yuri cried out, scandalized at the mere implication. "You were looking through the items belonging to a murder victim without caring in the slightest! I don't think that really counts as caring about privacy! You can say all that you want that you're trying to defend the privacy of the victim, but you were the one snooping all this time!"
"Because she wanted me to look after something for her," Ms. Rowland corrected. "Given the fact that she wound up dead, I could assume easily enough that I had to look after it since she was no longer alive to do so. I didn't find it though, so there's nothing that you need to know about the object now."
"I would argue that the object in question is much more important than anyone here could possibly understand," I interjected. "It's not something completely unrelated to this case... I can only think of one object that could possibly fit the bill of something that you would search for desperately but not be able to find no matter how hard you tried to look. The victim wouldn't have needed to bring all that much in terms of personal items to this competition, but there is one thing that she did bring that could not be found in her locker."
"What are you talking about?" Yuri questioned, having slightly backed down since her outburst in Ms. Rowland's direction. "I don't get it... Is there really something that she never would have been able to find no matter how hard she looked?"
I nodded. "Just to clarify, you were not at the trial yesterday, witness. Is that correct?" I questioned as I glanced back up to Ms. Rowland.
The woman stared at me for a long time as she tried to figure out what it was that I was trying to ask her in truth before she eventually shook her head. "No, I was not at the trial. Instead, I was at the scene of the crime," she replied.
"That would be your fatal mistake in this case," I told her. "My theory is that you were searching for the victim's phone at the time of the investigation yesterday. You hung back from the trial because you were trying to find the victim's phone for some reason or another, and because you were not in this courtroom yesterday, you did not know that the item was not going to be anywhere near the scene of the crime during the investigation."
"Could you stop talking in circles already?" Ms. Rowland questioned as she narrowed her eyes in my direction. "Just say what it is that you've been talking about all this time. Why wouldn't her phone have been at the scene of the crime?"
"It was being used as evidence for this trial," I responded. "There was a recording made at the time of the crime that showed the victim being killed. The phone was crucial evidence yesterday in us finding out something about the culprit since it recorded the moment of the murder."
Ms. Rowland's eyes went wide. "You can't mean..." she murmured, having been caught completely by surprise by my words.
I nodded. "The phone was never at the scene of the crime yesterday, instead being in police custody," I replied. "You were mostly at the scene of the murder on your own, were you not? You kept to yourself because you were conducting a search of your own that you couldn't tell anybody about, so you had no idea that the phone wasn't there. After all, you could only learn that by speaking to others involved with the crime, and beyond that, you had to use as much of the time as possible to look for the phone. You had a narrow window to search without being held back because of the trial, but that time period would not last forever."
"Why is it that the witness would have been desperate to find the victim's phone in the first place?" Judge Diaphan questioned as she looked down at Ms. Rowland. "I'm certain that there must have been a motive for all of this, and yet, you have not elaborated on what that could have possibly been."
I hesitated at those words. I didn't have much of anything in terms of evidence for what I was going to be saying next, but it wasn't as if we could back down now. We had come this far, and I was sure that everything had to come together in a way that made sense. The evidence that Prosecutor Bespoke had given us the day before was bound to point to the truth behind the case, and even if it seemed as if I was jumping to conclusions, I had no choice but to follow this subject through to its end. That seemed to be for the best all around for better or worse.
I eventually steeled myself and pressed my shoulders back as I glanced up to address Judge Diaphan directly. "If that's the explanation that you want, then I would be happy to provide it," I declared. I still wasn't sure about if this was going to go over well, but I knew that we had come too far to back down now. This wasn't going to be an easy trial to carry out, but if this was where the truth seemed to be leading us, then so be it.
We were just going to have to see what came of this, and I could only hope that it skewed in the direction of being positive rather than negative.
This case is a funky one
-Digital