June 22
Abandoned Building
1:20 PM
Chrysalis Starr
The next step in our investigation was to find Ghastly and Cassidy to ask what they had figured out over the course of our recent search of the crime scene. I was antsy as could be to talk to them, but I didn't want to make that obvious. Venus was worried enough about the case as it was, and I didn't want to contribute to her nerves when it was so clear just how worked up all of us were as it was. Why couldn't we just have a break every once in a while? Was that really too much to ask for? Apparently, the answer to that question was a resounding 'yes,' so all we could really do was keep pushing and hope for the best.
Ghastly was looking down at his phone when we approached him, and Cassidy was speaking to him with worry in her eyes. Ghastly didn't seem to realize what was happening until after we arrived in the area, and he perked up slowly but surely. "Hey there, you three," he greeted simply, though something in his voice was distant and lifeless. "How has your investigation been going up to this point?"
Cotoli hesitated before shrugging. "It's certainly been happening," he remarked. "Did you happen to speak to Mr. Middleton? He claims that he was here on the night of the crime and might be testifying when we return to the courtroom tomorrow. If anyone is going to be able to offer confirmation on that, it would be you."
"As a matter of fact, I did speak to him," Ghastly replied, something in his eyes going dark. "And it was... It was certainly an experience. I didn't expect him to have been in the area at the time of the crime, much less for him to admit to the fact that he saw the two witnesses in the entryway of the building but didn't say anything about it. He turned around and left almost as soon as he thought they were taking care of the situation."
"I can't be the only one who finds that to be a bit strange," I interjected even though I already knew what they were going to say in response. "How could he have known D and Q were capable of handling the scene of the crime? When you first look at them, it isn't obvious at all that they're from Interpol, and if Mr. Middleton already knew they were with Interpol, surely they would have mentioned something about meeting him before."
"It gets stranger still," Cotoli said next, everything about his eyes darkening as he looked to Ghastly and Cassidy. "D and Q claimed that they didn't even see him at the scene of the crime. I don't know how he managed to do it, but... They didn't see him anywhere in the area around the time when the body was discovered. They were looking for other people, but they didn't see anything that appeared out of the ordinary. I don't know about what you guys think of that, but... I find it suspicious."
"You wouldn't be the only one," Ghastly agreed with a light sigh and shake of his head. "I think we're going to have a lot to talk to him about during the trial tomorrow. For the record, he is going to be testifying, and... I think we're going to need to be ready for the ride of our lives when we start to talk to him in the courtroom. All pressure is there in the courtroom, and all previous bets are off. I think it's pretty clear what we're going to run into if this current line of logic keeps up, and... Well, I'm not particularly fond of where it seems to be leading us."
"I don't think any of us really want to follow the path that's being presented to us right now," I remarked with a shake of my head. "This entire situation is a mess. I don't know what we're supposed to be doing to solve this case, but it doesn't seem like we can really trust anyone. If we hadn't gotten to know each other so well over the course of the last few cases, I probably wouldn't have even wanted to come over and talk to you two in the first place."
"We're doing what we can to help with this investigation," Cassidy told me simply, though there was something in her voice that was overwhelmingly defeated. "It seems like finding leads is proving to be much easier said than done though. I don't know how the culprit managed to do it, but... They did a great job at covering everything up."
"I think saying 'he' did a great job at covering up the crime scene would be the more accurate way of phrasing it," Ghastly pointed out, and the area fell completely silent. "I'm not trying to say that I already know how this case is going to turn out before we even enter the courtroom, but... There's a lot happening around us right now, and we need to be wary of every potential outcome we could run into."
"Yeah," Cotoli muttered, but I could tell he was worried about all of this. He was quiet for a long moment before he glanced up to Ghastly and Cassidy again. "I want to know why we were chosen to defend the chief prosecutor. You said he requested us specifically, and that... I don't know. I'm just suspicious about why he would want to have us of all people look after his case. Other people would have had a lot more experience with figuring out what happened on the night of the murder..."
"Other people like Mr. Middleton apparently," I said sourly under my breath. "He wanted to be the one who defended the chief prosecutor originally, and he didn't even mention being a witness until today. I think that's strange. We were talking with him during the initial investigation, and he never brought up anything relating to the case until today."
"I agree that it's odd," Ghastly said with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I don't know why Chief Prosecutor Cristopher made the choices he did. I was just passing on the message to say that he wanted you to help him get out of this tough spot. If I had any ideas as to what was going on inside of his head, I would have told you already."
"And all of this is coming together to make one of the most complicated and frustrating cases we've ever had to deal with," Venus concluded, crossing her arms over her chest with a frown. "I don't know how we're supposed to handle any of this. So much has happened, and it seems like we're still nowhere near the truth."
"I don't know if I would go that far," I told her as I shifted my attention down so I was staring at the ground. Venus didn't say anything for a long moment, and I let out a heavy sigh full of exhaustion. "I don't like this at all. If I'm being honest, I despise this more than I could ever hope to describe, but... I don't think us standing here and being upset about it is really going to help. We have to figure out what we can do on our own terms, even if that doesn't seem like it's going to be easy."
"It isn't going to be easy. I can promise you that much. Mr. Middleton is a lawyer, and as far as I can tell, he's one with quite the reputation. If we try to say that he's the culprit behind this case, he isn't going to take it well... I hope you're ready for the battle of a lifetime when he hits the witness stand, because I don't think you're going to wind up facing anything less," Ghastly told us.
"We can't really think Mr. Middleton is the culprit... Right?" Venus asked, but the hope in her voice was already starting to drain away. "He did so much to help us out during the last case when we were trying to figure out what was going on with the gymnastics murder. Why would he just... Turn around and betray all of that? It doesn't make any sense."
"Whoever committed this crime is part of the organized ring of evidence forgers. For all we know, his perfect win record isn't as perfect as he's led us all to believe," Ghastly said with a shake of his head. "We don't have any evidence right now, but I can say that I think his behavior up to this point has been suspicious. There's a lot we have left to figure out, but we're taking steps in the right direction to finding out the truth. I know Chief Prosecutor Cristopher is counting on us to figure out just what happened on the night of the crime, and we can't let him down now."
"Even if he isn't the culprit behind this case, I can't bring myself to trust him," I admitted, my grip on my upper arms growing tight. "I don't know how anybody can trust him in a time like this. He keeps pushing for us to use the writing in blood to prove his innocence, but it isn't that simple. We know that evidence has to have some extra strings attached. D and Q don't seem like they were the ones who committed the crime. None of this makes any sense, and the writing in blood... It doesn't seem like it should be there at all. We have a complete enough picture of the crime scene without something like that being brought in."
"I think it's odd that it's there too," Venus admitted, her voice finally hitting the point of resignation where she was done defending what was happening when she knew what we were bound to run into eventually anyways. "But I do have to ask... What in the world is going on with this case as a whole? It seems like everything we try to learn more about just winds up leading to a thousand more questions, and we don't know how to answer anything that comes up in our path."
"I'm not sure, but I can say that there's a lot more going on than what you would expect on the surface level," Ghastly told us. He reached into his pocket for his phone once again before holding it up to us. "Before you got here, I received a report from forensics. They found an extra bullet in the wall of the building, and they were able to confirm that the ballistic markings do in fact match the gun that was used to kill the victim. Even though we don't have the gun on hand, it's easy to see that the bullets are really similar in that regard."
"It seems like the culprit fired a warning shot before attacking the victim all out," Cotoli commented. "But if that's the case, I guess that means only one thing..."
"The culprit knew this was going to happen," I finished for him. "The killer was fully aware that it was going to come to a deadly confrontation when they were given the chance to meet with the victim of this case, and they brought a weapon along just to be sure that they were able to finish the job off. The gun was the weapon of choice for the night."
"There's so much going on with this case," Venus muttered next with a shake of her head. "I think we would all be lying if we said we knew what to do about it, but... I guess all we can do is keep looking around for as much evidence as we can possibly find, right?"
I nodded, but there was still something bothering me. Well, truth be told, there were a lot of things bothering me about this case. I didn't think we were going to be able to get away from this case without at least a small handful of extra questions being posed, and that was one of the things that left me the most nervous. If Mr. Middleton really did commit the crime, then did that mean he was involved with the evidence forging ring? It seemed as if that was bound to be the case, but that only led to another question. D and Q were there on the night of the crime because they were trying to investigate the ring and the influence it had been having on Interpol. Chief Prosecutor Cristopher on the other hand... Just why was he in the area on the night of the murder? That was one thing we were going to have to ask him about when we next went to see him in the detention center, and as far as I could tell, that time was going to come sooner rather than later.
Cotoli seemed to agree, and he cleared his throat to look to the other people in the area anxiously, doing his best to keep his composure even though it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep his raging emotions under control. "I think we should go on and see what we can find out about all of this from the defendant himself," he suggested. "So many questions have come up, and it would be for the best if we simply asked him on our own terms."
"We have a few questions to ask him as well, so we're going to join you... Assuming that's alright, I mean," Ghastly said as he glanced over to my brother. There was something anxious in his eyes, and I recognized it as something resembling his general lovesickness. It mixed with his exhaustion over this case to create something that I wasn't entirely sure of how to describe, but I was confident that I hated it. Every reminder that thins case was proving to be more frustrating than we could have ever imagined was annoying as far as I was concerned.
"Of course," Cotoli assured him with a nod the same way I knew he would. He glanced to all of us before receiving nods of confirmation that it was time to go. I would have been lying if I said I had a good feeling about any of this, but it wasn't as if we had much of a choice. We would just have to figure out what we could figure out and see what we could do from there. Everything about this case was wrong, but the least we could do was try to figure out why that was.
June 22
Detention Center
2:00 PM
Chrysalis Starr
Walking into the detention center was a nerve-wracking experience for all of us, and I tapped my foot anxiously against the tile below as we waited for Chief Prosecutor Cristopher to be brought into the room. A thousand questions were whirling around in my mind that I wanted to ask him, but I somehow doubted it was going to be possible to get much of anything out of him in terms of the questions I was most curious about. This entire case was quickly proving itself to be a nightmare, and Chief Prosecutor Cristopher was just the tip of the iceberg.
When the man himself entered the room, he regarded us all with vague concern and confusion. "You're back already?" he questioned carefully, doing his best to keep the condescension out of his voice. It mostly worked. Mostly. "I would have thought you would still be out at the crime scene. There's still quite a bit we don't understand about the case, if I recall correctly.
I shared a brief look with the others in the investigation team before my brother spoke up. "We found all the information we believe we're going to need for the time being... But I have a few questions for you before we go any deeper into this case," he began to explain. He sat down soon afterward, his anxiety finally calming enough for him to take a seat. The rest of us all grabbed chairs and pushed them over to the glass as well, though Ghastly opted to stand. His nerves were still rattling around too much for him to sit, it seemed, not that I could particularly blame him. My leg wound up bouncing in place from my sheer anxiety too.
"What is it?" Chief Prosecutor Cristopher asked of him, confusion starting to paint itself across his features. "I do hope you haven't come to suspect me of this crime. You already made it clear that I couldn't have killed the victim."
"That isn't what this is about," Cotoli assured him. "I have a different question for you... To be more specific, I want to know just why you wanted to hire us for this case instead of a more experienced legal team. I just... I find it odd that someone like you who is so prominent in the legal world would choose to find people like us instead of those who would probably be able to do more help to your case."
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher was quiet for a long moment, and I let my hands come up to grasp at the space just above my collarbones. I was as subtle as possible when I began to rub at the Magatama found there, and immediately, the air around him went black. I could hardly say I was surprised when five Psyche-Locks came slamming into view, and I did what I could to keep from muttering bitterly at the sight. Of course he was hiding something. He didn't want to talk about why he hired us because he knew we weren't going to want to hear it. But what about this situation could have been bad enough to merit such a reaction? It should have been a question with an easy answer, and yet, that was quickly proving itself to not be the case.
"Your perfect win record in court impressed me," Chief Prosecutor Cristopher eventually said, though the Psyche-Locks still did not waver. "There aren't many defense attorneys who are able to pull together three consecutive wins as their first cases, much less without relying on any other larger offices... I was impressed by all that you were able to do on your own, and I decided that people like that were the sorts that I wanted to be looking after my own case in the courtroom."
I could tell he was lying, but I didn't say that openly. Judging by the clouded looks on everyone else's faces, I knew that they all knew just how much he was lying. He was putting on a show for some reason or another. He had a reason to hide the truth from us, and he was making sure it all stayed under wraps even if it meant lying to the people he should have been most honest to. All I could do was resist the urge to glare at him, not wanting to upset him in the midst of our investigation but still wanting him to know that we were onto him. I wound up staring down at my hands where I had folded them in my lap instead, wishing with everything I had that he would just be honest for once. Then again, in this case, it seemed like anybody being honest would be too much to ask for.
"I see," my brother said softly. He was quiet for a long time before he looked up to Chief Prosecutor Cristopher after a few beats of contemplation. "I don't believe we have any other easy questions to ask you at this time... Unless there's something else you want to tell us about what happened on the night of the murder. Any details will help, and we can't fully assist you unless you're as honest with us as possible."
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher simply shook his head. "What else is there to tell? Everything is perfectly normal. You're on your way to showing that I wasn't the culprit behind this case, and you're going to be able to prove it in the courtroom tomorrow," he declared. "You already know everything you have to... And as far as I can tell, you have a conclusive piece of evidence to show that I'm not the one who killed the victim as well."
I could tell he was talking about the writing in blood at the scene of the crime, and I was on the verge of reminding him that we weren't going to be using that because of how suspicious it seemed when lined up with the other facts of this case. However, I was ultimately cut off by Cotoli's hair screeching against the tiles as he rose to his feet. "We're going to prepare for the trial now, if you don't mind," he said simply. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Until then, Chief Prosecutor Cristopher."
The man was stunned at first at how brazen he was being by leaving, but he course corrected as he offered us a smile and nod. Everything about the smile was so fake that it seemed to make the Psyche-Locks around him even more frustrating and glaring. "Until then," he said casually, his voice all too laidback for the conversations we had been having up to this point. I was so angry deep down that I wanted to punch something, perhaps his face, but I held myself back as we walked out of the detention center's visiting room.
Out in the hallway, Cotoli let out a heavy sigh. "We have a long trial ahead of us," he murmured. He didn't say how it was going to be long and difficult, but he didn't have to. I could tell that everybody else in the area already understood exactly what he was talking about, and unfortunately, we were being caught at the center of something much greater than ourselves.
"I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes us," Ghastly commented, but something about his voice was dull at the edges. He hadn't spoken a word in quite some time, and Cassidy was in much the same category. It seemed as if they were just as nervous about this case as we were. How could we not be nervous? It seemed like everything was falling apart with us at the center of it.
"We're going to head back to the agency and start preparing," Cotoli told him. "I'm sorry to leave you two so suddenly, but... I think we can all use as much preparation time for the trial as we can get."
I nodded my agreement, and Ghastly did the same. "I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's trial has in store for all of us," Ghastly said simply, but it was clear without even having to touch my Magatama that he was lying. All of us felt like we were lying, just dancing around the greater picture because we didn't know how we were supposed to handle any of it.
I watched as Cassidy waved us goodbye in Ghastly's place since he was too out of it to realize what was happening in full. I sighed as they left before looking to Cotoli and Venus. This trial had proven itself to be a strange one from the outset, and it seemed like every new thing we learned about it just made the situation get worse, and I hadn't even thought that was possible.
June 23
Defendant Lobby No. 5
9:40 AM
Venus Rinko
I couldn't stop pacing once I arrived in the defendant lobby the next day. It seemed like every nerve in my body was rattling around in place, desperately trying to keep themselves under control but failing each time I remembered everything we had been dragged into. This case was a nightmare, and I knew that we were nowhere near the end of it yet. Even if we had vague answers about who we thought the culprit was, there was still a lot we had yet to prove, and I would have been lying if I said I had any ideas as to how we were supposed to pull something like that off.
When Mr. Morix and Chrysalis came walking into the room, they both looked completely exhausted. Darkness tore at the skin under their eyes, and their bodies were so tense and lacking in energy that they didn't even seem like themselves. It seemed Cassidy and I weren't the only ones who hadn't been able to sleep. I smiled to them despite how strained the action was on my end, offering them a halfhearted wave in the process. "Hey there, you two," I greeted. "Are you ready for the trial today?"
Chrysalis took a seat on the couch, though it was less her deliberately sitting down and more her collapsing into the cushions. "I think we all know the answer to that," she muttered under her breath, and I let out a heavy sigh. Of course the answer was negative. How could it not be? Everything seemed to be getting worse the longer we looked at this trial. Time didn't make the wounds go away; it only seemed to make the situation worse.
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher appeared in our line of sight soon afterward, a pleasant smile on his face. I could tell he was putting on a show of it though; he didn't fully have confidence in us anymore after we had spoken with him the day before. He knew we were onto the fact that there was something weird going on behind the scenes of this case, and ignorance wasn't going to get him anywhere in hiding such a fact from us. "We have a big trial ahead of us, wouldn't you say?" he questioned.
I saw Chrysalis' leg start to bounce on the spot as her brother responded to the newcomer. "We're going to do what we can to find the truth, I promise," he told Chief Prosecutor Cristopher. "We've found quite a bit in terms of information that we think is going to be able to lead us to the truth behind all that happened on the night of the crime, and we're going to do what we can to bring that truth to the light of day during the trial."
"I'm glad to hear it," Chief Prosecutor Cristopher said with a firm nod. The area fell quiet for a long time, and I did my best to keep from squirming on the spot as well. I wanted to pace, but since I knew that was going to draw too much attention to me, I wound up sitting down on the couch next to Chrysalis instead. I was close to her when I pressed my arms against the back of the couch, doing my best to look casual even though I felt like something inside of me was going to explode if I was left unattended for too long. Chrysalis didn't bother to lean into my gesture, instead simply continuing to tap one foot against the ground anxiously.
"We're going to call a new witness to the stand to testify about the case," Mr. Morix began to tell Chief Prosecutor Cristopher next when he realized that nobody was feeling up to maintaining the conversation aside fro him. I didn't even think he really wanted to talk, but he was doing it anyways for the sake of seeming as composed as possible in the face of everything falling so far out of our control.
"And you believe you will be able to use that to discover who the culprit is?" Chief Prosecutor Cristopher asked, something in his voice shaking with uncertainty. Of course, he would never dare to admit that he didn't have faith in us. He would keep the mask up and make sure we thought that he believed in us even though it was so clear that he was lying through his teeth. He just had to be, and I was left to wonder just how much he was lying about, both when it came to this case and everything else.
Mr. Morix opened his mouth to answer, but he was ultimately cut off by a cry from the bailiff positioned just outside the door to the courtroom. "Defense, it's time to enter the courtroom!" he cried out. "Please proceed inside at this time!"
Mr. Morix let out a sigh and gave Chief Prosecutor Cristopher a light smile even though it was so clearly falsified that it made me feel sick to my stomach. "That's our cue to get in there," he said simply, his voice all too casual for the panic I knew was circulating through his body. "We're going to do what we can to find the truth behind what happened on the night of the murder. That much I can promise you."
Chief Prosecutor Cristopher nodded, his smile remaining present on his features even though nobody was buying any part of it. "I'll be looking forward to it," he said plainly. From there, he turned on his heel and walked into the courtroom, leaving the three of us alone in the defendant's lobby.
"Do you think we're going to be able to do it?" I asked of Mr. Morix, doing my best to hide the way my voice was shaking even though I knew I wasn't fooling anybody. None of us were able to deceive each other at this point. We knew just how nervous the others were, and there was no point in hiding it.
Mr. Morix shook his head. "We'll do what we can," he told me in the place of an answer. He started to walk into the courtroom from there. Chrysalis rose to her feet and trailed after him, and I walked in her footsteps. We all had a bad feeling about this trial, but there was nothing we could do but wait it out...
And hope it went somehow according to plan.
Oh this case,,,, a
-Digital