June 22

Abandoned Building

12:30 PM

Venus Rinko

Arriving back at the abandoned building brought with it a new wave of stress that left me struggling to stay still for longer than a few seconds, my foot constantly tapping as I did my best to prevent myself from pacing back and forth. Everything that had happened in the midst of the trial was making me anxious and jittery, though I supposed that was just part of how all of this was slated to go down. Don't get me wrong, I still hated it, but it wasn't as if there was all that much I could do about it.

"Venus, you're going to run yourself out of energy if you keep moving around like that," Chrysalis commented, glancing over to me and noticing just how dramatic my motions had become since we settled down for the next stage of the investigation.

I hesitated before letting out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I know," I admitted. "I'm just... I don't know. Everything that happened during the trial is still on my mind. I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it all. Everything is moving so quickly. We already knew that there were people who were fighting against the exposure of the evidence ring from the last trial, but it seems like... I don't know... There really isn't anybody we can trust to help us find the truth. I don't like that at all."

"It would hardly be the first time the ground was taken out from beneath our feet," Chrysalis remarked simply with a shake of her head. "We're just going to have to keep going. There has to be something here in terms of a clue that could help us to find the truth behind this case."

"In that case, let's get to searching," Mr. Morix said, managing to stay much calmer than I even thought possible for the situation. He turned on his heel and gestured for us to follow him, and I did so with a light sigh pushing its way free of my lips. This entire situation was exhausting to me, and I had no idea how anybody could put up with something so... Complex. I was normally good when it came to circumstances of complication, but something like this was well out of my range. I wanted to be able to trust people, and having that so suddenly yanked out from beneath my feet bothered me more than I was willing to admit.

We walked into the building proper from there and saw that the place was just as clean as I would have expected. Well, it wasn't exactly clean given the fact that there were still pieces of collapsed wall over the floor, but there wasn't anything that could be used as evidence. The body had been removed, leaving behind just an outline of a blood pool and the writing in crimson that we had already decided had to be faked. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary though, and that somehow left me even more agitated than I was before, and truth be told, I hadn't even thought something like that was possible.

"Let's just keep looking for anything we think might be of use," Chrysalis announced as she started to examine everything within the building. She walked away from me and Mr. Morix, her tone oddly dark as she began to look at the wall. I found myself frowning, wondering just what was going on inside her head. Chrysalis was a mysterious person to most of the world on the best of days, but I always assumed I was an exception to that rule. I thought I was going to be able to understand her and what she was going through no matter what other people knew. And yet, I found myself just as confused as we continued to search for more evidence in the heat of the trial coming to such an unfortunate conclusion.

But if Chrysalis was going to busy herself with other facts in the investigation, I was going to take advantage of it. I nudged Mr. Morix gently, getting him to look down in my direction a moment later. "Hey, Mr. Morix... Do you know what's going on with Chrysalis? I think she's acting a little bit weird today," I told him even though that was obvious as could be. Everyone must have noticed that Chrysalis was acting out of place, and Mr. Morix was no doubt no exception. He knew her better than anyone else, after all.

Mr. Morix hesitated for a long moment before he shrugged. "Chrysalis hasn't ever really trusted the legal system," he said simply even though that much had been obvious for a long time up to this point. "I can't say I'm surprised this sort of... Shook her confidence to the core. Everything seemingly fell apart so quickly, and we still don't know who it is that we can safely trust as we move forward with the next stage of our investigation."

I nodded slowly, but there was still something tense about my actions before I addressed him again. "Why doesn't she have any faith in it?" she questioned. "And... Why would you guys decide to take up a legal occupation if you knew that you weren't going to be able to trust what was going on behind the scenes?"

There was another question that gave Mr. Morix pause for a long moment, and each second he didn't talk left me suspended in another bout of worrying anxiety. When he did finally reply, it was with a shake of his head. "I believe that would be a story for another time," he said simply. "For now, we should focus on the investigation. Chrysalis is a bit worked up right now, but she's going to calm down soon enough. After all, we've got a lot to take care of regarding this trial, and she isn't going to let us lose our grip on the case because of her own personal issues. Everything is going to be fine, Venus. You can have faith in that much."

I would have been lying if I said that I believed him on something like that. If anything, all this had accomplished was making me worry more. I wanted to understand what was going on with Chrysalis, especially because Mr. Morix was all too aware of what she was struggling with. He was fully knowledgeable on the matter, but he still wasn't telling me. I knew that it was likely because he didn't want to intrude upon Chrysalis' privacy without her consent, but it was still bothering me. All I wanted to do was help them both, but the situation was making that incredibly difficult. It was almost impressive how much trouble this case was giving me even when you pulled apart the segments that had been so problematic in the courtroom regarding the blood writing on the floor.

"I think I might have found something. Come on over here, you two."

Chrysalis' voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and I found myself darting to her side with notable speed to see what she was looking at. She was peering in at something that appeared to be a dent in the wall, and I frowned to myself at the sight. She sure had found something, but I could barely tell what it was in the limited lighting of the area. "Um... Do you have any ideas as to what it is?" I asked her carefully.

Chrysalis hesitated before she nodded. "It seems to be an extra bullet that got lodged in the wall," she replied as she continued to peer in at the dent in the wall. She pulled out her phone and switched on the flashlight before swiping it through the hole, revealing that the second layer of the wall did, as a matter of fact, have a bullet hiding inside. Because of the fact that the first layer of the all had crumbled away so long ago, the bullet managed to go unspotted by the investigation team. It had been there all along but simply flew under the radar.

I turned to look at the other members of the investigation team, a small frown on my face. "What do you think that bullet could mean?" I questioned. "Do you think someone else fired at the victim on the night of the murder?"

"For all we know, it could have been a warning shot. Given the positioning of the victim, I somehow doubt it was an attempt to actually shoot her. Nothing would make sense if she was standing in the place where she died and the culprit shot at the wall like that to try and kill her," Mr. Morix said with a shake of his head. "The problem is that we still don't know who it is that could have killed her. An extra bullet lodging itself into the wall behind the victim doesn't tell us much of anything about who could have killed her. That means we still have a lot to search for yet."

"I take it the trial didn't end the way you were hoping?"

A familiar voice cut through the quiet, and I glanced up to see none other than Mr. Middleton walking toward us casually. Everything about him was just as well put-together as always, and I found myself letting out a small sigh at the sight of him. "Hey there," I greeted simply before I went back to staring at the bullet. However, I wasn't able to do much in terms of looking at it after Mr. Middleton appeared. Chrysalis turned off her phone's flashlight and shoved the device back into her pocket as quickly as she could without looking suspicious. It seemed as if her rules of not trusting anyone even extended to our allies from past cases, and I was left shifting uncomfortably on the spot at the idea of who was being excluded from her ring of trust. I could only hope she wasn't counting me out. We had gotten too close for her to do something like that now.

"We've still got a lot of information to gather before we're going to be able to reach a satisfactory verdict," Mr. Morix told him simply. He looked at Mr. Middleton carefully, and I could have sworn that there was something almost wary in his gaze. "What are you doing here? I thought you were only here yesterday because you were hoping to defend the chief prosecutor when the case went to court. But since you weren't given that opportunity..."

"We thought you would be gone," Chrysalis finished for her brother. Mr. Morix hesitated before offering a small nod to confirm that was what he had been thinking. I couldn't help but wince at just how blunt Chrysalis had become in such a short span of time. Once again, I hoped that the ring of trust wasn't small enough that it kept me out.

"Well... About that," Mr. Middleton began to say, a light laugh pushing its way free of his lips. I could tell that something about him was anxious on the matter. "I don't think that you're going to want to hear this, but... I'm going to be testifying in the trial tomorrow regarding this murder case."

"Excuse me?" Chrysalis said immediately, her eyes narrowing in Mr. Middleton's direction. "I don't recall you saying anything on the matter of you having witnessed the crime yesterday. I would have expected that to be something that should be mentioned, especially if you were trying to help the defense team the way you appeared to be doing."

"I wasn't called to testify until today," Mr. Middleton replied with a shake of his head. "If I had known that I was going to be called to the witness stand, I would have mentioned it to you sooner, but life has a strange way of working out sometimes, wouldn't you say?"

"You didn't answer my question," Chrysalis reiterated, practically snarling at him by this point. "If you witnessed the crime, why didn't you say anything about it to us sooner? You seemed to want to help us before, but all of that changed pretty damn quickly when you said you were a witness to the crime. You should have mentioned it yesterday so that we could gather your testimony."

"I see someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Mr. Middleton said with a chuckle, not at all minding the way Chrysalis was scowling at him. Her glare only intensified at those words as he continued to speak. "I saw the same thing as everyone else involved with this case. I heard the gunshots and came to the area out of curiosity. By the time I arrived, the Interpol agents were already here and had decided to do a preliminary investigation of the area. I ultimately stepped back when I saw they were at the crime scene since I assumed that agents from Interpol would be able to handle such a situation."

Mr. Morix's expression shifted briefly, but he nodded in response to Mr. Middleton's words. He placed one hand on Chrysalis' shoulder to keep her from speaking, and much to my surprise, the younger girl did actually fall silent at this action, instead choosing to stare down at the ground with a glare still playing around in her eyes. "Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Middleton," Mr. Morix told him instead of letting Chrysalis snap back. "I want to know though... Did you happen to see anything out of the ordinary? Any new fact at all will help us more than you realize."

Mr. Middleton paused to think for a moment before he shook his head. "No... I'm afraid not," he replied. He was silent for another beat before he glanced up to us. "Though I will say that there is one thing about this case I find to be strange... You were given the chance to act as the defense attorney to the chief prosecutor for this case. Why would he hire someone with so little experience? I was anticipating him to ask for an attorney who had been working in the field for much longer, and yet... It seems that fell through before there was the chance for anything to truly be established." He shook his head in contemplation. "It truly is a tragedy that he began to act so strangely just before the case took place."

I didn't say anything about how we were all a bit suspicious of the chief prosecutor's actions, instead simply looking up at him with concern in my eyes. "What do you mean?" I asked, desperate for him to explain it after all that had been left untouched after being presented with an air of mystery. I glanced to Chrysalis out of the corner of my eye and saw that she had pulled herself back up to her full height once again, seemingly pushing her previous thought processes aside.

"He's in a precarious position at the moment. I would have expected him to not want to risk anything by letting a new attorney defend him in court," Mr. Middleton explained. "This case truly did make it seem as if he was the culprit. In fact, if it was not for the missing gun, I would argue that he was dead on arrival... But you've still managed to turn everything around. I simply find it odd that he would leave something like this up to matters of luck and chance when a more experienced attorney would have changed the tides of the trial completely from the beginning."

"Believe me when I say we've been wondering the same thing for quite some time," Mr. Morix assured him with a shake of his head. "We're doing what we can to prove his innocence though... And for the time being, that requires asking you once again... Was there anything you saw out of the blue on the night of the murder?"

Mr. Middleton shook his head. "I heard the gunshots and came to the building out of curiosity. I was wondering what could have happened, but by the time I arrived, the Interpol agents were already here. I backed away slowly when I realized they were already handling things. It isn't as if I heard that much on the night of the murder, after all. There was a lot happening at the time, and I hardly wanted to add to the confusion. So I backed away and left them to handle the crime scene because I knew I would only contribute to the chaos taking place," he said. "I'm afraid there isn't much more to say on the matter."

"Thank you for speaking to us about it then," Mr. Morix told him. "We appreciate it... And we look forward to potentially clashing with you in the courtroom tomorrow."

Mr. Middleton nodded to him before retreating a moment later, and I watched him go before I looked up to Mr. Morix. "You sure do seem nervous all of a sudden," I commented simply, unsure as to what I was meant to say on the matter. How could I not point it out? That much was obvious after you just took a single glance at him.

Mr. Morix shook his head before sighing to himself. "I believe there's more going on behind the scenes of this case than we've realized up to this point," he explained to me simply. "I can't be the only one who finds Mr. Middleton's actions on the night of the crime to be somewhat suspicious. Why would he simply abandon the crime scene after going so far as to see the building? It doesn't make any sense. If he was worried for his safety, surely seeing the Interpol agents would have helped him to calm down before pushing him to investigate. After all, he is a lawyer, so it's natural that he would want to do at least a little bit of looking around."

"If you ask me, the weirdest part of that conversation was the fact that he knew they were Interpol agents to begin with," Chrysalis remarked. "I mean, he could have been speaking about the crime with the knowledge he now has access to, but... I don't know. I just think it's a bit weird. Why would he leave the crime scene if he was so sure they had it under control? It isn't as if he could have known they were Interpol agents on the night of the murder, right? That should have just made him want to go and check it out more."

I paused before nodding to myself. "Huh," I murmured. "I think you have a point there, Chrysalis... But I don't know what it's supposed to mean in the grand scheme of our case. I wish I could tell you what we were meant to do from here in general, as a matter of fact. I know that we're going to be talking to Mr. Middleton in the courtroom tomorrow, but... I don't know. There's just a lot going on here, and I wish we knew more about the actions of the culprit on the night of the murder."

"I wish I could tell you what the culprit did," Mr. Morix said with a loose shrug. He glanced over to Chrysalis a moment later, his eyes narrowing. "What do you think, Chrysalis? I get the feeling there's something on your mind right now."

Chrysalis hesitated before shaking her head. "I'm not going to say anything until I have evidence," she said simply. I could tell that was her way of communicating to us that whatever she was thinking about was absolutely dreadful. She knew that she had found something unfortunate in her deductions and was holding off deliberately because she didn't want to see our reactions.

Somehow, I got even more worried, and I hadn't even thought that was possible going into this conversation.

Mr. Morix paused and glanced over my shoulder. "There's D and Q," he murmured. "Let's go and talk to them about what we've learned about the case." I nodded my agreement before trailing after him in the direction of the Interpol agents.

The two of them were talking with another investigator on the case, seemingly receiving a status report. Most witnesses weren't given the chance to hear about all of that, but given the fact that they were still Interpol agents at the heart of their current jobs as witnesses, I supposed it made sense. I watched as the officer speaking to them began to walk away from the duo, and I knew that this was going to be our chance to talk to them.

"It's good to see you two again," I greeted as I approached them carefully. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest in the heat of all this, and I swallowed dryly to try and get rid of any lingering traces of anxiety before they could start to bog me down.

"You're back here to investigate today, aren't you?" Q questioned, not at all bothering with a formal greeting. Given how anxious he seemed to be, I couldn't say I was surprised. There was clearly something else on his mind, and he wasn't going to be letting it go until after he had shared whatever new information he had gotten his hands on.

Mr. Morix nodded. "As a matter of fact, we are," he replied. "Is there something you think we should know about the crime scene?" He could already tel the answer was positive given the circumstances; he was simply asking to be polite because that was the type of person he was. I had learned to read him over the course of our time on cases together, and I was certain of this much.

"We heard something interesting about the crime scene, yes," D told him with a nod. "There was another bullet found embedded in a hidden layer of the wall. That makes a lot of sense given what we heard on the night of the crime."

"What do you mean?" Chrysalis questioned, every part of her body tense and suspicious. I wanted to put my hand on her shoulder to try and reassure her that we were going to work through things before everything fell apart. She didn't seem to want the physical touch though, so I chose to not poke the bear.

"We overheard a strange pattern of gunshots on the night of the murder," Q began to explain. "We heard one gunshot before there was a break. After that, we came back and heard more. There was a brief period in between the sessions of gunfire where we didn't hear anything, but... We didn't know why that would be the case."

"It wouldn't make sense for the victim to have been shot once and then shot another handful of times after she was already dead. After all, the barrage killed her, not a single shot," D pointed out. "For a while, we were wondering if perhaps we were simply mistaken on the matter... But now, everything makes a lot more sense. The first shot we heard was a warning shot, and after that, the culprit truly unleashed the bullets on the victim. That was when she was killed, unable to fight back under the onslaught."

"That certainly seems to make sense," Mr. Morix murmured with a small nod as he processed what she was saying. "How long do you think it took you to reach the building after you heard the first gunshot?"

"It took us a few minutes, I must admit," Q confessed as he began to rub at the back of his neck nervously. "We first heard the gunshot and decided to move in the direction of the sound, but when we did that, we... Let's just say that we ran into a few difficulties."

"This area is rather loud at the time of night that we were here, so after we heard the initial gunshot, it was somewhat difficult for us to track down the location where the gunshot had come from," D picked up for him. "We searched for a short while before we ultimately stumbled upon the building ourselves and found the victim on the ground and the defendant in the entryway. From there, our investigation began as normal."

"So it was the second group of gunshots that allowed you to find the building properly," Chrysalis realized quietly. "In that case, I suppose it took you longer than you would have liked to reach the crime scene. Did it take you another few minutes after you heard those gunshots to reach the crime scene?"

"I'm afraid so," Q said with a small nod. "I sent in a report to our superior about how the situation had deteriorated just so that he would be aware of what was taking place. After that, we did arrive at the building though, but by that point, the defendant was the only one there. If there truly was another person in the building, they were long gone by the time we arrived. We didn't see any traces of the person when we were there."

"And the murder weapon is long gone too," Chrysalis sighed with a shake of her head. "I get the feeling that the culprit has already disposed of it some place or another. After all, if the victim was looking into the evidence forgery ring, it stands to reason that the culprit was part of that in some way or another. That means that the culprit would certainly know how to dispose of evidence. Getting rid of the gun would have simply been another part of the job, and from there, they disappeared and pretended they were never at the crime scene in the first place."

"This case sure is turning out to be a frustrating one," I said softly before letting out a quick huff of air. After a moment of silence, I glanced back up to D and Q. "On the note of what happened on the night of the murder though, I have to ask... Did you happen to see anybody else of note when you were first stumbling upon the crime scene?"

D and Q shared a look that made their answer clear as day before either one of them could say a word, and I already knew the response was going to be negatory. Sure enough, this was confirmed when Q shook his head with a loose shrug. "I'm afraid not. The only person we saw out of the ordinary was the defendant standing in the doorway of the building. All other people in the area were put on lockdown as far as I can tell. They decided that they didn't want to mess with the danger that came with the gunshot and decided to stay away. I made sure that there were no other people in the area at the time of the crime scene's discovery too. If somebody had come near us, I would have spotted them," Q explained, his voice taking on a surprising degree of confidence.

I felt like I was punched in the stomach, and I looked up at him with wide eyes. "You really were watching the area the entire time?" I questioned carefully, just trying to make sure that I had heard it all properly. Q nodded as I continued. "You were looking around the area of the building to make sure that there were no people out of the ordinary trying to get a look at the crime scene?"

Q nodded once again, though he seemed a bit less certain this time. "Might I ask what you mean to accomplish by interrogating me...? I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Nobody came anywhere close to the building in the short period of time where I was looking out at the area. After that, an actual lockdown was put into effect as per D and my request. We didn't want anyone interfering with the investigation, so we did what we could to keep people as far from the crime scene as possible."

"Do you think we could get a written record of what you just told us?" Mr. Morix questioned, digging one hand into the bag he was using for evidence and pulling out a piece of paper and a pen.

Q nodded for a third time, and his uncertainty only seemed to grow. "I have a bad feeling about this," he murmured to D, no doubt thinking that we couldn't hear him. Or perhaps he simply care if we did. Either way, he wrote down everything that he claimed to have seen in messy handwriting that I could barely read. D followed up in her much neater font, and from there, she passed the page back to Mr. Morix, who folded it up and tucked it away in the bag.

"You don't need to be concerned. We're simply glad that you were willing to share such crucial testimony with us," Mr. Morix assured him with a light smile that was so fake it felt like I was getting metaphorically punched in the stomach all over again. At this point, I should have just worn armor over my torso to keep this case from throwing me around like a rag doll.

"If you insist," D said simply. She shared a brief glance with Q, and a moment later, they walked away, seemingly recognizing that the conversation was over. I watched as they disappeared from view, and I sighed and shook my head once they were gone. This entire case was only getting more complicated and frustrating the deeper we went in, and as much as I hated to admit it, I was starting to see the reason why Chrysalis wasn't open to trusting people a majority of the time.

When it came to cases like this, you really couldn't trust anyone... Not even those you thought you knew.

I just want to sleep

-Digital