Welcome to the third chapter of my Ace Attorney fanfiction.

In this chapter, Phoenix and Maya begin their investigation of the murder and Edgeworth provides Phoenix with an important piece of evidence.

As stated in the first two chapters, I only own Elise, Marcus Jacobson and the guard at the prison in the prison reception area. The rest of the characters are owned by Capcom, Shu Takumi, A-1 Pictures and Cloverworks.

Without further ado, please enjoy chapter 3 of Turnabout Justice.

The investigation begins

January 11th 2019 12:00 PM

Los Angeles State Prison

Warden's Office

After a short conversation with the guard about the nature of their visit, Phoenix and Maya entered the warden's office to find the police hard at work, investigating the crime scene. Only one voice stood out in the busy room.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Jacobson, but this is an active crime scene. I'm afraid I can't let you in until the investigation's over." came the clearly annoyed voice of Dick Gumshoe. Carefully navigating their way through the office, the defense team eventually managed to see the detective arguing with what Phoenix assumed to be the warden. "This is an outrage! You have your killer! There's no need for you to investigate my office any further so please leave and let me continue running my prison!" Jacobson yelled back indignantly.

"Look pal, it's our job to investigate the crime scene thoroughly. If you've got a problem with that, feel free to complain but I'm warning you, it won't look good for either of us if we miss something." Gumshoe said, wishing he could say more to this warden, who clearly thought the legal system revolved around him. "Fine. Do what you want but don't blame me if the inmates start rioting." Jacobson responded bitterly as he stormed off, running straight into the path of Phoenix and Maya.

"Excuse me, sir. Are you the warden of this prison? Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" Phoenix asked politely. "I am the warden and just who are you? More police?" Jacobson asked irritably. "No, sir, but we are investigating the case. I'm Phoenix Wright, Miss von Karma's defense attorney." Phoenix said, hoping that the warden would talk.

"Oh, I see. Very well, I'll answer your questions but I promise you, it won't help your client. She's as good as guilty. Such a shame though. To think that such a promising young lady would just throw her career away before it's even begun. And murdering her own father, who was himself a murderer. I guess it runs in the family." Jacobson mused smugly.

"You seem awfully sure of her guilt." Phoenix said skeptically. "The girl was found by the body with the murder weapon. That's all the evidence needed to prove she's guilty in my book." Jacobson said dismissively, an air of overconfidence about him. "With all due respect, sir, in my experience, trials like this often reveal that's rarely the case." Phoenix said, his mistrust of the man growing with each passing second.

"Is that so? Oh well, we'll see what happens at the trial tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe you'll barely scrape by with a self-defense plea. Anyway, best of luck to you with that wild theory of yours, Mr. Wright, but I must be going now." The warden said as he walked around the defense attorney and left. Well, he seems friendly, Phoenix thought sarcastically as he made his way to Gumshoe.

"Detective Gumshoe!" he greeted in a friendly manner. Unfortunately, rather than returning the greeting, Gumshoe grabbed Phoenix by the lapels of his jacket. "You gotta take this case, pal! That kid's innocent, I tell ya! There's no way she would kill her dad!" he yelled, loud enough for the whole room to hear.

"Relax, Detective. I've already taken the case, We're here to investigate." Phoenix said, a little startled by Gumshoe's less-then-subtle request. "Oh, right. Well...uh, that's good to hear, pal. Always knew we could count on you." the detective said, trying and failing to hide his embarrassment from his seemingly desperate plea for Phoenix's legal assistance. "I'm always happy to help. Now, have you found anything that can help us?" Phoenix asked, eager to start building the case for the defense.

"So far, all we managed to find is Miss von Karma's briefcase. We found it hidden behind the desk. It's opened by two three-dial combination locks so nobody but her can get into it. Unfortunately, that also means only she knows the code." Gumshoe said, holding up the briefcase in an evidence bag.

"When I talked to her earlier, she said something about a case that she'd been working on. Could that case be linked to this one?" Phoenix asked curiously. "I don't know. Without the code, there's no way we can find out." Gumshoe replied.

"Still, could be relevant. We'd like to look around the crime scene ourselves, if that's okay." Phoenix said politely. "Sure thing, pal. You'll need everything you can get if you're gonna prove Mr. Edgeworth's kid sister innocent." Gumshoe said as he walked away, leaving Phoenix and Maya alone with the forensics team.

Looking all around the office, Phoenix first discovered that most of the cupboards were fairly easy to open except for one, which seemed to have some sort of paper stuck between the doors. "That's weird." he said in confusion. "What is?" asked Maya, looking over her shoulder as she paused her investigation of the desk.

"There must be thousands of important files stored here. Yet only this cupboard is locked. Why would the warden feel the need to only protect what's in here?" he asked, becoming suspicious. "Maybe that's where he keeps the most important ones." Maya suggested innocently.

"Maybe." Phoenix said, smiling a little as he continued searching, next finding a keypad on the wall nearest to the desk. The keypad was small and black with nine smaller white buttons marked zero to nine. "I think I've found the source of the beeping Elise heard before she lost consciousness." Phoenix said seriously, showing the keypad to Maya as she abandoned her investigation of the desk to join him.

"So what she heard was this little keypad?" Maya asked curiously. "Looks like it. She also said she heard a door opening so that means it could lead somewhere." Phoenix said, walking out of the office to the prison reception area, where the warden was stood talking to the guard.

"Sir!" he called, catching the attention of both men. "Oh, it's you again." Jacobson said in a bored tone. "I have a few more questions I'd like to ask you, sir." Phoenix said sternly. "Oh please, call me Mr. Jacobson. No need to be strangers here." Jacobson said smugly.

"Very well, Mr. Jacobson. Why is there only one locked cupboard in your office?" Phoenix asked, not liking the warden's behaviour. "Oh, it's nothing, really. There's nothing in that cupboard except for a few random valuables I like to keep under lock-and-key. You can never be too careful in a building full of criminals." Jacobson said dismissively. If the stuff in there's so valuable, why not store them somewhere else?, Phoenix thought as he continued his line of questioning.

"And where does the keypad in your office lead to?" he asked. "Huh? Oh, that! That merely opens the door to my panic room. It's where I go if things get out of control with the inmates." Jacobson replied, this time a little more nervously. This only made Phoenix even more suspicious. "Well, I'd better get going. I have to find somewhere temporary to work while the investigation is still ongoing. Goodbye." Jacobson said, rushing off before he could be asked any more questions.

He's definitely hiding something, Phoenix thought as he turned his attention to the guard at the reception desk. "Excuse me, sir. Is there a possibility I could have a copy of the page out of the visitor's register from yesterday?" he asked the guard politely. "Yes, sir. Is there anything else?" the guard asked. "Yes, I'd also like a copy of the prison incident reports from the day of the victim's arrival until yesterday and I'd like to see the security footage from the warden's office as well." Phoenix replied, wanting everything he could get to build his case.

"I can get the incident reports for you, sir, but I'm afraid the security footage is out of the question." the guard told him apologetically. "What?! Why?!" Phoenix asked in shock. "There's no security cameras in the warden's office so there's no footage to see. Sorry." the guard said as he left to get the documents Phoenix had asked for, leaving the defense attorney standing dejected at this revelation.

"There's footage of the reception area at the time of your client's arrival until now. I can get that for you if you want." the guard said as he returned with the documents, trying to be helpful. That could prove useful, especially if it shows Elise didn't leave the building until she was arrested, Phoenix thought. "Thanks, that would be really great to have." he said gratefully.

Phoenix walked away from the reception area in great concern as he contemplated the guard's words regarding the lack of security cameras at the crime scene. If there was no video evidence of the real killer attacking Elise and killing von Karma then he could only rely on the evidence currently available.

Unfortunately, all of that evidence pointed to Elise as the killer and, at the moment, he only had a gut feeling and his client's own words that she was innocent. Words and hunches do not win cases, he silently reminded himself. Reluctantly, he retrieved Maya from the warden's office and left the prison with the few pieces of evidence that he had managed to collect. There was nothing more that the office could offer them right now.

January 11th 2019 01:30 PM

Wright and Co. Law Offices

Sitting at his desk, Phoenix took a deep breath as he prepared to compile the small amount of evidence he had managed to gather into a coherent defense. However, just as he was about to begin, he suddenly heard a short, sharp knock on his office door. "Come in!" he called out. The door opened and Miles Edgeworth walked in, tightly clutching a file. "Edgeworth?" Phoenix asked in amazement. "Wright." Edgeworth greeted back, approaching Phoenix's desk.

"What are you doing here?" Phoenix asked, confused. "I came to give you some help with the case. If you're going to defend Elise, you'll need all the evidence at your disposal to expose the truth. Here." he said, handing the defense attorney the file. "What's this?" Phoenix asked as he took it. "It's the autopsy report for Manfred von Karma. It should provide some assistance." Edgeworth explained.

Hoping that he was right, Phoenix looked through the file. According to the report, Manfred von Karma had died from a total of six stab wounds to the chest with the fatal blow piercing his heart. Time of death was 07:50 PM, exactly ten minutes before both the body and the alleged murderer were discovered.

That small ten-minute window could be very useful in this case, Phoenix thought hopefully. If he could prove that Elise had been unconscious until after that time, then he would be one step closer to proving that she was innocent. "Thanks, Edgeworth. This could really help." Phoenix said, feeling a little better about their chances. "I'm just searching for the truth, Wright. That's all. Good luck with the trial tomorrow." Edgeworth said as he left.

Turning his attention back to the evidence, Phoenix quickly started building his case. With the autopsy report, he felt like he had a better chance of getting a not guilty verdict. All he had to do after that was show up to court and find the contradictions in the witnesses' testimonies. He only had one worry left in his mind; who was the prosecutor?

So who will Phoenix be facing in court and what will be revealed during the trial?

As always, I do not own any of the characters except for Elise, Marcus Jacobson and the guard at the prison reception area.

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and I hope to have the next chapter posted as soon as possible.