June 22
Defendant Lobby No. 5
9:35 AM
Chrysalis Starr
Preparing for the trial the next morning was, to put it simply, an interesting experience. And by that, I mean that it was an absolute disaster. It was so easy to feel the nervous energy in the air that I felt like a knife would be able to cut through the tension and then some without anybody even having to try. I tapped my foot impatiently against the ground, desperate to not have to think about everything that was going to be coming next. The trial was starting in less than half an hour, and unfortunately for me, that was the last thing I wanted to put up with.
"So... We're going to be heading in there soon to take care of everything," Venus began to say, breaking through the tension like it was nothing. "I think that we should go over everything we know before we head in there."
"I'm glad to see that you three seem to be prepared."
The voice of Chief Prosecutor Cristopher caught me by surprise at first, and I couldn't tell if it was because of the fact that he had appeared so suddenly or because I was so anxious and worked up that just about everything was scaring me at this point. I turned to face him, my eyes narrowing. "It's good to see you," I said dryly even though I knew I was lying. Something about this case was weird, and if I was being honest, I couldn't help but think it went all the way down to the defendant himself. It was a strange way of looking at things, but I couldn't help feeling that there was something out of the ordinary taking place within him. Something about his smiles was strange to me, and all I wanted to do was run and hide just so that I wouldn't have to put up with him for a short while.
"We did quite a bit with our investigation yesterday," Cotoli told him with a small nod. "We think that we're going to be able to make at least some progress during the trial today, though we aren't sure as to who the real culprit is yet. It's going to take a bit more digging before we're able to find the truth behind that."
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher nodded gently, but I could tell that there was more hesitation to this action than he was willing to admit. "I see... Is there anything you think is going to be able to prove my innocence?" he questioned carefully, clearly trying to prod for one answer in particular. I looked over to Venus as carefully as I could, but the other girl didn't return my glance, too focused on Chief Prosecutor Cristopher to bother.
Cotoli looked at the man with suspicious eyes before he ultimately shook his head. "No... I'm afraid not," he said, and something in me began to frown even though I refused to show it outwardly. Why wasn't Cotoli mentioning the writing on the floor? It was the greatest peculiarity about this case, and I knew that it was going to be one thing that would take a lot of effort to work out. He must have had a reason for not wanting to bring it up, but it struck me as strange regardless.
"Are you sure?" Chief Prosecutor Cristopher asked, his voice starting to ease on the pressure as the seconds went by. "Surely there must be something that could help you in terms of proving my innocence. I wasn't the one who did this, and surely you're aware of the fact that I wasn't the murderer who killed the victim."
Cotoli hesitated before nodding. "We'll just see how the trial goes. We're going to do what we can to see who the true culprit is. You can have faith in that no matter what happens," he assured him, but I would have been lying if I said that I didn't hear the note of something anxious and wavering in the back of his voice. He was just as worried about this as the rest of us were, not that he was willing to admit it openly. I felt a shudder sprint up my spine. Somehow, my bad feeling about this case was only getting worse, and I hadn't even thought that was possible.
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher looked at Cotoli with a critical gaze, clearly trying to figure out something even though I struggled to determine what it was. I resisted the urge to squirm even though he wasn't even looking at me; there was something wrong with everything he was doing in that moment, and I would have been lying if I said that it didn't catch me a little bit by surprise. Well, to be more accurate, it left me scathingly uncomfortable. It almost seemed like Chief Prosecutor Cristopher knew something about the case that he wasn't telling us about, but instead of being honest about it, he was expecting us to figure it out on our own. Somehow, that only made the situation worse.
"Defense! It's time for the trial to begin!"
The cry of the bailiff caught me by surprise, and I jolted out of my curiosity in the blink of an eye before I turned to look over at the other members of the defense team. Venus offered a half-hearted shrug. "Well, you know what that means," she said casually. "It's time for us to get in there and see what we can do to find the truth behind this case."
I nodded as Cotoli turned his attention to Chief Prosecutor Cristopher. "You can have full faith in us. We're going to do what we can to show that you aren't the one who killed the victim. Just do what you can to have confidence that everything will work out, alright?" he questioned.
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher nodded, though the uncertainty was still present at the corner of his gaze. He not only wanted us to figure something out, but he was actively upset that we hadn't determined the truth behind this mystery subject quite yet. My mind drifted back to the crime scene, and I wondered if there was anything that we had managed to miss. Either way, I had an awful feeling about how this trial was turning out, and we hadn't even entered the courtroom yet.
"I'm sure that you'll do everything you can to prove my innocence," Chief Prosecutor Cristopher told us with a small nod in our direction. Something about his smile seemed off to me, and I resisted the urge to shudder at the sight of it. There was something he was hiding from us, and he didn't even seem to care about the fact that he was keeping so much from us. In fact, it almost seemed to be part of some greater plan, but what sense would that make?
Then again, what sense did any of this case make?
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher was gone a moment later, walking toward the courtroom without a beat of hesitation. I turned to Cotoli and Venus, and the latter was the first to speak up. "Why didn't you mention the writing in blood at the scene of the crime?" Venus asked of him. "I think that's evidence that conclusively proves that he didn't do it even if... Well..." She trailed off, and I knew that she was thinking about just how shaky our foundation for this case was. We didn't know much about what we were supposed to be doing here, and when push came to shove, we were just as lost as we could have been.
"I'm not going to use that as evidence quite yet," Cotoli replied. "Something about it feels off, and... I would prefer to not rely on something so shaky and unstable as a piece of evidence. We can wait until it's absolutely necessary, assuming there's a need for it in the first place."
"I still want to know why we're in such a situation to begin with," I muttered under my breath with a shake of my head. "The chief prosecutor asking a lawyer with only three cases under his belt to defend him... It's weird. Everything about this case is weird, and I'm sure that there's something hiding in the shadows that we haven't seen yet."
"Well, all we can do is grab a flashlight and do what we can to handle the situation," Venus smiled, though I could tell that she was partially putting up a facade because she wasn't sure of how to handle this either. "For now, let's get on in there and do what we can to show that he didn't do it."
I nodded my agreement, though there was something uncertain deep down regarding all of this. I shook my head to do my best to get rid of the thought, though I knew that it wasn't going to be that easy. Nothing about this case was going to be easy. We were just going to have to do our best to push through it and hope it all ended well. I hated the fact that we were in this situation to begin with, but there was nothing I could do to stop it now.
June 22
Courtroom No. 5
10:00 AM
Cotoli Morix
The scene for this trial was much the same as the courtroom had been for the last three cases that I took on. I glanced around the area and saw that Ghastly was on the other side of the courtroom with Cassidy at his side, something that I had known would be the case from the outset given the fact that Ghastly was the one who delivered the message about this case to begin with. Judge Diaphan was presiding over the case, though she seemed to be even more tense than usual. Given how stressed she always appeared to be in some form or another, that was most certainly impressive, and I found myself shuddering at the way that she stared down at the rest of the courtroom. If I was being honest, I hadn't ever been this anxious for a trial before, and I knew that it was mostly because of the sinking feeling that something was going to wind up going horribly wrong. Was I being dramatic and anxious? Perhaps, but I didn't want to take the chance now.
Judge Diaphan slammed her gavel down, immediately earning the attention of the people in the courtroom. "Court is now in session for the trial of Hans Cristopher," she declared, seemingly not at all caring about the fact that she was looking over a trial involving the chief prosecutor of all people. "Are the defense and prosecution ready?"
Ghastly was the first to respond to that question. "The prosecution is ready," he announced. Cassidy was standing at his side, and she offered a small nod of agreement.
I didn't bother glancing over to my coworkers for the sake of confirmation that they were prepared; none of us were. There was still something wrong with this trial, and us being ready or not wasn't going to change the fact that something was up with this case from the beginning. "The defense is also ready," I replied, though I knew that I wasn't exactly making the lie convincing. I didn't bother trying to reinforce it; I just wanted to get the trial started and over with so that we could figure out what was going on.
"Prosecutor Bespoke, please begin your opening statement at this time," Judge Diaphan declared, her attention shifting in the direction of the other side of the courtroom.
Ghastly nodded. "The crime took place in an abandoned building not far from the heart of the downtown segment of the city. The building had been left alone for quite some time, and the victim came in to investigate potential evidence forgeries taking place in the area," he began to explain. "Once she was there, she was ultimately attacked and shot multiple times in the chest by someone who sought her life. She was killed almost immediately, left to rot in the building's remains. Two witnesses stumbled upon the scene of the crime, and when they arrived, they found none other than the defendant standing in the entrance of the building. No other people were seen at the crime scene, so it stands to reason that the defendant was the one behind all of this."
I glanced over to Chrysalis and Venus, a light frown on my face. I didn't see anything that we could have used to break through the case's logic quite yet, but I knew that we were going to have to start putting the pieces together soon. I knew that it was probably my anxiety getting the better of me, but I couldn't help feeling that perhaps my foundation for this case was shakier than anything else had been in the past. I just wanted this case to be over already, and truth be told, it hadn't even begun yet.
"That certainly is incriminating evidence against the defendant," came the hum of Judge Diaphan. "That's rather unsettling to imagine, though I suppose that there's evidence on the matter to show that the defendant was the culprit, yes?"
"The crime scene itself is overall lacking in evidence, I'm afraid," Ghastly said with a shake of his head. "The murder weapon was not present, and there weren't any other traces of a struggle having taken place. If not for the body, it would have seemed like nothing had happened at the scene of the crime at all. We aren't sure as to where the murder weapon could have disappeared to, though it stands to reason that the culprit took it for the sake of it not being used as evidence against them during the trial."
"Since the defendant was found at the scene of the crime alone with the body, it seems as if he was involved with the killing of the victim," Judge Diaphan concluded with a light nod. "I understand."
"The prosecution requests that it is granted the power to call its first witness at this time," Ghastly announced next.
Judge Diaphan nodded once again. "Permission granted."
"The prosecution calls the detective in charge of this case to the witness stand," Ghastly said, his voice all too casual for the subject of a murder trial. I found myself frowning already even though I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do anything that changed the outcome of what came next. Everything was already seemingly falling out of control, and yet, we hadn't even gotten into the true details behind the case yet.
Detective Wattson had appeared at the witness stand by the time I next looked up, and Ghastly cleared his throat before he continued to speak. "Witness, please state your name and occupation for the court," he announced.
Detective Wattson nodded in response. "I'm Vera Wattson. I work as a homicide detective at the local precinct, though I'm currently in charge of this case," she replied.
"Please give the court as many details as possible about the case and the discovery of the body," Judge Diaphan announced. "Don't leave anything out."
Detective Wattson nodded once again. I wondered if she was just as nervous as we were. If she was, she was doing a great job of hiding it, and I couldn't help but wish I was able to keep my composure to such a degree under the pressure that was hanging heavily in the courtroom around us. "Of course," she said. And with that, she began her testimony proper.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ Details of the Crime ~
-"The victim was looking into something within the area involving evidence forgery, you see."
-"Not long ago, a video was captured showing a back alley deal in the location of the crime scene."
-"The victim was following up on leads with that only to wind up being shot and killed before she could get the information."
-"There weren't any traces of the culprit left behind, unfortunately. Everything was gone by the time the police arrived."
-"But the defendant was standing there in the entrance to the building. He was ultimately arrested for being present in the area."
-"The ones who found him were two Interpol agents who were investigating the area at the time."
-"Nobody else was seen in the area at the time of the crime's discovery, I'm afraid... It was just the three of them and the body."
The sinking feeling in my stomach that I had come to think of as customary since this case began returned all too suddenly, and all I could do was frown at those words. As much as I hated to admit it, I didn't know what we were supposed to do about something like that. The defendant being found at the crime scene was one unfortunate fact that I still hadn't managed to resolve yet, and I knew that it was going to be difficult at best to find a solution to something like that.
"So... What are we supposed to do now?" came a question from Venus after the testimony was finished. "I don't really know what we're supposed to do to poke a hole in the fact that Chief Prosecutor Cristopher was in the area at the time of the body's discovery."
"I might have an idea," I murmured, though I knew that it was still something a bit unsettling about this case. Then again, it seemed like everything was off about this case, so it wasn't as if it would be anything too out of the ordinary. I glanced up to Judge Diaphan a moment later. "The defense would like to begin its cross-examination at this time."
"Go right ahead, defense," Judge Diaphan declared with a light nod. I was left to wonder if she could tell just how wrong this trial was too, though I supposed that my curiosity was unimportant for the time being. We just had to concentrate on figuring out what happened at the time of the crime... For better or worse.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ Details of the Crime ~
-"The victim was looking into something within the area involving evidence forgery, you see."
-"Not long ago, a video was captured showing a back alley deal in the location of the crime scene."
-"The victim was following up on leads with that only to wind up being shot and killed before she could get the information."
-"There weren't any traces of the culprit left behind, unfortunately. Everything was gone by the time the police arrived."
-"But the defendant was standing there in the entrance to the building. He was ultimately arrested for being present in the area."
-"The ones who found him were two Interpol agents who were investigating the area at the time."
-"Nobody else was seen in the area at the time of the crime's discovery, I'm afraid... It was just the three of them and the body."
"Hold it!"
"There truly were no other people in the immediate area of the crime scene at the time of its discovery?" I questioned of Detective Wattson. I did my best to ignore the way my heart was pounding in my chest with an unspoken sense of anxiety, knowing that fixating on something like that wasn't going to help anyone.
Detective Wattson shook her head. "No, there weren't any others around the crime scene," she replied. "The two Interpol agents involved with this case were together throughout their entire investigation. The defendant stumbled upon the crime scene by himself, and he was naturally found to be suspicious because of the fact that he was standing over the body."
"And you have evidence that the Interpol agents weren't involved, yes?" I asked. I already had a feeling of what she was going to say to confirm such a fact, and luckily, that was exactly what I was hoping to hear.
Detective Wattson nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes. They were carrying guns with them as per Interpol agent customs, but the guns that Interpol agents use are all the same model. This specific model was different from the one that shot the victim. We already did a ballistic test on the bullets, and it became clear as could be that the agents could not have been the ones who shot the victim unless they used a completely separate gun," she explained.
"The matter of the gun is the exact subject of my interest right now, as a matter of fact," I told her with a light smirk. "I have to ask... Where do you think the gun disappeared to after the crime took place? Did the culprit take it with them when leaving the crime scene? I heard that there wasn't any luck in locating it at the scene of the murder, so I can only assume that it was gone by the time the police arrived to investigate the scene."
"That much is true. We have no idea what happened to the murder weapon right now," Detective Wattson replied with a shake of her head. "It was already gone by the time we arrived at the crime scene."
"In that case, I have to ask... How could the defendant have gotten rid of the gun if he found the crime scene by chance?" I asked of her. "How could he have eliminated the gun from the scene if he was found standing over the body seemingly in a moment of shock? I get the feeling that a man like that-someone who holds so much power in our local legal system-would know better than to return to the scene of a crime so soon after committing a murder. It simply wouldn't make sense for him to do such a thing, so I must ask... If he truly was the culprit, then what happened to the gun?"
The gallery burst into chatter at that, and Venus nudged me in the side with her elbow. "Good logic there," she hissed to me. "I would be lying if I said that I wasn't curious about it too, you know... Though I suppose it's a bit harder to figure out what's going on right now compared to other cases. I mean, everything is... Kind of a mess."
I offered her a dull nod, though I chose to not say anything on the matter as Judge Diaphan hit her gavel against the podium. "Order in the court!" she shouted, her voice admittedly sharper than it regularly was. I glanced up at her with a light frown on my face as she turned her attention toward Detective Wattson. "Is it true? Was the gun truly not found at the scene of the crime?"
Detective Wattson nodded. "That is the case, yes... We don't know where the murder weapon could have gone, in all honesty. We looked as much as we could around the area to see what we could find, but we weren't ever able to come back with anything that seemed to be noteworthy on the subject of the murder weapon," she replied. "The weapon used to kill the victim was a small handgun, you see. It would have been easy to hide something like that in the immediate area given how much the building was falling apart, but..."
"It wouldn't be quite so easy to put it somewhere that the police wouldn't find it immediately," Ghastly finished for her. "I know that everyone was searching quite frantically for the murder weapon, and yet, each attempt to find it ultimately came up short. It makes you wonder just where the weapon disappeared to."
"I think it's safe to say that the culprit escaped from the scene of the crime soon after killing the victim. Instead of sticking around and risking being caught, they escaped and did their best to hide. They took the murder weapon along with them so that it couldn't be used as evidence to track them back to the scene of the murder," I declared. "I'm uncertain as to who could have done this specifically, but I think that it would be realistic to assume that the culprit did escape with the gun as a way of making sure that they weren't caught by the police."
"This is nothing more than a theory at the moment though," Judge Diaphan pointed out. "In order to figure out what truly happened at the time of the crime, I think that it would be for the best if we heard from one of the witnesses who discovered the scene of the murder. The sooner that we can get more information, the better off all of us will be."
Ghastly nodded his agreement at that, and he glanced over to the witness stand where Detective Wattson was standing. "Witness, you are dismissed," he told her. Detective Wattson nodded before she stepped away from the podium, and Ghastly snapped his fingers as he pointed to the stand a moment later. "The prosecution calls its first witness to the stand at this time."
It didn't take long for D to replace Detective Wattson at the witness stand, her gaze as solemn as it got. Everything about her was just as terrifying and nerve-wracking as it had been the first time that I met her, though I supposed this wasn't exactly surprising. She seemed to simply have an intimidating presence, though I knew that this was just sort of par for the course given the fact that she was an Interpol agent.
"Please state your name and occupation for the court at this time," Ghastly announced.
D nodded, and once again, I was made all too aware of just how scary she was as a person. When you put her next to Q, she seemed a bit softer given the fact that he was so anxious and jittery, and if she put up with him, then she had to be at least somewhat kind to those around her. When she was alone though, everything about her seemed to stand out as threatening all of a sudden. I swallowed dryly as she spoke, doing my best to shove my nerves down as far as possible. "You may call me D. I'm an Interpol agent," she said bluntly.
"I see," Judge Diaphan replied simply, her voice just as edged and lifeless as D's was. "I know that Interpol agents do not share their names in public situations unless it cannot be avoided. It's a matter of security, is it not?"
D nodded a second time. "Correct," she answered. "It's for the best that nobody knows our names, so we keep them secret under the titles of letters to represent our positions. I was at the scene of the crime with Q on the day of the murder. He's a member of our technology branch and has been working as my unofficial partner of sorts for the last few months. We were hoping to gather information about the evidence forgery ring when we just so happened to stumble upon the dead body of the victim."
"In that case, I think it would be for the best if you told the court about all that you saw at the time of the murder," Ghastly announced. "The more information we can get our hands on, the better." I couldn't help but envy his confidence, truth be told; he didn't seem to mind at all that D was so terrifying, instead simply going along with the flow of the trial like it was nothing. Cassidy was certainly anxious around D, but Ghastly actually seemed to have himself together as he watched her. I wished I was him more than ever in that moment just for the sake of calming my nerves for a few brief moments.
"Of course," D replied, not at all noticing (or perhaps simply not responding to) the anxiety that seemed to surround her presence in the courtroom. She began to fiddle with her gloves before one hand came to rest on the witness stand. I swallowed dryly. Why did I have a bad feeling about this before she could even begin her testimony in full?
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ Finding the Crime Scene ~
-"Q and I were wandering through the streets of the downtown area of the city when we overheard something sinister."
-"We heard a gunshot, and we glanced to one another in curiosity. A few moments later, there was silence."
-"The single gunshot was followed by countless others, and from there, we made our way to the abandoned building."
-"It was difficult for us to reach the area in time since we were somewhat far away and had to search for the source of the sound before arriving..."
-"But when we did get there, we could see the defendant plain as day standing in the doorway and looking down at the body."
-"There was nothing out of the ordinary about the crime scene when we arrived. The building was empty save for the body on the floor."
I frowned to myself when I heard the conclusion of her testimony, and all of a sudden, my anxiety at having to speak with her collided with the tidal wave of my paranoia about how this case was wrong from top to bottom. I frowned over at her, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to answer my questions easily but still fully aware of the fact that I was going to have to push her until I could figure something else.
I stared at the bench before me for a long moment before I glanced back up to stare at her. This was going to be where the hard part of the trial began, it seemed. I could only hope that it didn't turn around and find a way to bite us, though given what we had already seen up to this point, it seemed like it was just a matter of time before it all came crumbling down.
All I could do was stay hopeful, I supposed. After all, hope was kind of all we had for the moment, wasn't it?
This case is just *growing sense of dread*
-Digital