Welcome to the seventh chapter of my Ace Attorney fanfiction.

In this chapter, Phoenix and Maya have some unexpected help with their investigation and a link is discovered between von Karma's murder and the case from twenty years ago.

As always, I only own Elise, her mother Clara, Marcus Jacobson, Robert Willis and the doctor who was convicted in the case Elise was investigating. The rest of the characters are owned by Capcom, Shu Takumi, A-1 Pictures and Cloverworks.

Without further ado, please enjoy chapter 7 of Turnabout Justice.

Second investigation of the warden's office

January 12th 2019 04:40 PM

Los Angeles State Prison

Visitor's Entrance

Phoenix and Maya walked into the prison with a new sense of purpose, determined to find more evidence to prove Elise's innocence. Luckily for them, Robert Willis was once again stationed at the reception desk. "Mr. Willis, We're here to continue our investigation of the warden's office." Phoenix declared to the much calmer guard, who had a depressed look on his face. "Fine, sir. Here you go." the guard said as he glumly pushed the visitor's register towards the defense team for Phoenix to sign.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Willis?" Phoenix asked, noticing the guard's odd behaviour as he wrote down his name and the time. Willis sighed sadly as he took back the register from Phoenix. "It's nothing, Mr. Wright. I just feel horrible for testifying against Miss von Karma today. I should have known that she didn't steal my ID." he said, guilt-stricken that he could have sent Elise to prison.

"Anyone in your position could have made that assumption, Mr. Willis. There's no need for you to feel guilty." Phoenix said, trying to reassure the man. "Most people who lose their IDs aren't called to testify in a murder trial. " Willis said, dropping his head into his hands in despair.

"I'm sure Elise will forgive you, Mr. Willis. Who knows, you might be able to make it up to her one day." Maya said, hoping to cheer up the guard. Somehow, it seemed to work as Willis soon lifted his head from his hands. A bright expression appeared on his face as an idea popped into his mind. "I think I have a way of making it up to her right now!" he shouted happily as he quickly left his station.

Just then, Phoenix and Maya heard footsteps behind them and turned around to find the last two people they'd expect to see. "Edgeworth? Franziska?" Phoenix asked, highly confused as to why the two siblings were there.

"You seem surprised, Wright." Edgeworth replied, slightly amused by his old friend's reaction. "I am. What happened to the 'other matters' you had to attend to?" Phoenix asked. "This is the other matters. We've come to help with your investigation." Edgeworth responded bluntly.

"Why?" Maya asked curiously. "We couldn't risk letting some foolish fool to foolishly search the crime scene for new evidence and foolishly miss something vitally important." Franziska said, crossing her arms and clutching her whip threateningly. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Phoenix thought, feeling a little deflated.

Soon Willis returned with a small silver key, looking very pleased with himself. Unfortunately for him, he was whipped by Franziska as soon as he entered the reception area, causing him to almost drop the key. "You're the foolish guard who foolishly testified against my sister in court today and slandered her name with that baseless accusation of theft." Franziska said angrily, readying her weapon to strike him again.

"I know and I'm sorry. I feel terrible so I got this to make up for it." Willis said, seemingly unaffected by the prosecutor's sudden attack. "What is that?" Maya asked, looking curiously at the silver key in the guard's hand.

"This is the key to that locked cupboard in the warden's office. He gave it to me and asked me to look after it right after the police left." he said excitedly, handing it over to Phoenix. "Are you allowed to even give this to us?" Phoenix asked cautiously, not wanting to get the guard into trouble.

"No, but I'm sure that whatever the warden's got in that cupboard could really help you with the trial tomorrow. The warden's out right now talking to that weird prosecutor guy so he'll be gone for a few hours. While he's away, you can look around and maybe you can find what you're looking for." Willis said happily, gesturing towards the office.

"Thank you, Mr. Willis. We owe you one." Phoenix said gratefully as he looked what would hopefully be the literal key to the case. "Oh, just one more thing before you go." Willis said. "What's up?" Phoenix asked curiously as he looked up from the key. "While you're in there, could you look for my camera?" Willis requested nervously. "Your camera?" Maya asked in confusion.

"I bought a pocket-sized digital camera a few weeks ago for a hobby of mine. I'm a big birds of prey enthusiast and there's a forest about a hundred miles from here so a lot of eagles and owls fly over the prison and roost on top of the fences." Willis explained. I guess everyone need some way to pass the time here, Phoenix thought.

"So why do you need us to look for it?" Maya asked in confusion. "Well, I brought it with me on the day of the murder. I wanted get a picture of some Lesser Horned Owls that one of the other guards said they'd seen recently but, while I was calling the police for Mr. Jacobson, both my ID card and my camera had disappeared. I paid so much money to get it and it was a great piece of technology for something so small. You could take the flash off so you take pictures at night without spooking the owls. Please help me find it! My membership at the National Bird-Watchers Society depends on it!" Willis pleaded desperately to the group of four in front of him.

"Okay, okay. We'll keep an eye out for it." Phoenix said reassuringly. "Oh, thank you, Mr. Wright. Good luck in there." Willis said, waving cheerfully as they left. Perfect, Phoenix thought, clutching the key he had been given tightly in his hand as he, Maya, Edgeworth and Franziska headed towards the crime scene, now we'll get to see what Jacobson is so keen to hide.

January 12th 2019 05:00 PM

Los Angeles State Prison

Warden's Office

Phoenix walked boldly into the warden's office and donned white forensic gloves that had been handed to him by Detective Gumshoe as he and Maya left the station along with a letter written by von Karma requesting Elise as his defense attorney.

With the key in his hand, Phoenix made a bee-line for the locked cupboard. Unlocking the one part of this room that had been bothering him from the very beginning of this case gave him no small amount of satisfaction and what he found inside was even more pleasing.

Inside, he discovered that the mysterious white paper he had seen during his first investigation were paper overalls, complete with the same type of gloves he was currently wearing. They were all covered in blood and, from the crumpled state he found them, had been hastily stuffed into the cupboard in a obvious effort to hide them.

However, what he found behind the overalls and gloves is what made him feel like he'd just won the lottery. There, he found a torn page that was clearly from the warden's appointment book, dated as the day of the murder and showing both Elise's and von Karma's appointments with the warden, and several newspaper articles, some about von Karma, some about Elise, Edgeworth and Franziska and a few about their whole family.

One particular article caught his eye, dated a week before Edgeworth had been adopted and which read 'Legendary prosecutor Manfred von Karma and wife Clara welcome third daughter! Prosecution Office offers it's congratulations to the couple'. Then there were two more articles dated about twenty years ago; one read 'Victory again for Manfred von Karma as demon doctor is found guilty!' while the other article, dated six months later, read 'Doctor found guilty of hospital murders killed by cell mate in vicious stabbing!'.

Deciding to read through the articles in his own office later, Phoenix pulled out another small piece of evidence, this time much heavier. It was one of the warden's many awards, except this one had three long silver-blue hairs caught on the base. Probably from when Elise's assailant hit her with it, he thought as he put it into one of several evidence bags Gumshoe had also given to him and laid it next to the other evidence he'd already collected.

"Wright, you might want to take a look at this!" Edgeworth called from the desk nearby as Phoenix closed the cupboard and locked it again, his investigation finished. Walking over to the desk, Phoenix's attention was immediately drawn to some documents that Edgeworth was holding. "I found these in a hidden compartment in one of the desk drawers and they reveal some very interesting new information." Edgeworth said as Phoenix carefully read what was on the first document.

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked in shock, immediately recognising the symbol of the Los Angeles Police Department at the top of the page. "Yes, it's the missing page from the case file in Elise's briefcase; the details of the doctor convicted in the case von Karma prosecuted. It seems Warden Jacobson has more to do with this case than we originally thought." Edgeworth said as he focused on the page he was holding. "How do you mean?" Phoenix asked in confusion. "Look at the name of the defendant." Edgeworth replied, showing his old friend the page.

"No way!" Phoenix said as he read the name. The name of the doctor convicted of the hospital murders was Alfred Jacobson. "So that doctor was related to the warden?!" Phoenix asked, making the connections between that case and the murder of the man who prosecuted it. "His older brother. Apparently, they were very close." Edgeworth said in seriously, a motive for the warden murdering von Karma forming in his mind.

"So that provides a motive for the murder but why frame Elise?" Phoenix asked, still confused as to why someone would frame a person for murder over something that happened four years before they were born.

"Elise was defending the prosecutor for that case. If she could prove that her father had not tampered with the trial, then there would be no chance of Jacobson having the verdict overturned at a later date. With von Karma dead and Elise imprisoned for his murder, he could easily claim a miscarriage of justice and have his brother posthumously declared innocent of his crimes." Edgeworth explained, the pieces of the puzzle coming together with each piece of evidence that was found.

"There's also this." he said, showing Phoenix a medical file. "Wait, is this real?" Phoenix asked skeptically. "Indeed it is. Manfred von Karma was already a dying man when he was murdered. I also found transfer papers for a hospital not too far from here." Edgeworth revealed, picking up and looking over said papers.

"So it seems the warden wasn't happy that the man who sent his brother to be murdered in prison would not be sharing the same fate." Phoenix said understandingly. Neither Phoenix nor Edgeworth agreed with revenge. They firmly believed that no matter what a person did during their life, no one deserved to be murdered.

"Nick, Mr. Edgeworth! Look what I found!" Maya suddenly called out excitedly, holding up the clay cat statue and shaking both men from their thoughts. "What is it, Maya?" Phoenix asked as he, Edgeworth and Franziska rushed over to her. "I was looking around for clues when I noticed that one of the cat's eyes was blinking red. So I picked it up and when I turned it upside down, I saw this." She said happily, showing them the bottom of the statue, where a visible outline of the base could be seen.

"A false bottom?" Phoenix said curiously, carefully taking the statue from the spirit medium. Thinking about what he had discovered so far, Phoenix cautiously pried the base of the statue off to reveal a small camera and a flash drive.

"A hidden camera!" Maya said in shock. "But, why?" Franziska asked, not understanding what a camera would be doing in a statue. "I think I know what this is all about." Edgeworth said as he looked over the camera. "Well, would you like to enlighten the rest of us, Miles?!" Franziska asked irritably, ready to strike her brother for being so vague.

"I've heard from both the guards and the inmates that there have been several verbal altercations between Warden Jacobson and von Karma. They said that shortly after von Karma arrived at the prison, the warden kept trying to get him to talk, almost like he was trying to get a confession out of the prosecutor who convicted his brother. This must be what all those arguments were about. Apparently, one incident got so out of hand, the warden was brought before a disciplinary committee and given one final warning; he plagued von Karma any further and he would be out of the job. It should be fairly easy to get a copy of the report from that hearing." Edgeworth explained, his understanding of the case becoming clearer and clearer.

"It's probably in the incident reports I got from Robert Willis too." Phoenix said, making a mental note to check the reports later.

"So he had this little camera set up to get one last confession out of von Karma?" Maya asked worriedly. "Cameras." Franziska corrected suddenly, her gaze fixed upward. "Huh?" Maya asked, confused. "Cameras. Look." Franziska replied, pointing towards a ventilation shaft nearby.

Looking at the vent, Phoenix, Edgeworth and Maya could just make out another flashing red light. Edgeworth grabbed one of the red fabric and metal chairs in front of the desk and carried it to the vent. Placing the chair below the vent and climbing onto it, Edgeworth easily took the cover off and, after taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, reached into the vent, pulling out another camera and flash drive moments later.

"This camera was pointed towards the panic room. With this and the camera found in that statue, we should be able to get a full view of what transpired on the night of the murder." Edgeworth said, knowing that the four of them had cracked the case together. "Great. This'll get Elise proved innocent for sure." Phoenix said confidently.

"Don't celebrate just yet, Wright. The footage on the cameras will need to be thoroughly processed first if you wish to present it as evidence in court tomorrow. I also recommend asking one of the inmates or the guards to testify about the arguments between the warden and von Karma. It could be useful." Edgeworth said as the four of them left the office with the evidence they had collected.

January 12th 2019 06:10 PM

Wright and Co. Law Offices

Phoenix stared intently at the latest evidence he had brought back to his office. The rest had been taken by Edgeworth and Franziska to the police station, where it would be processed for the next day. However, processing the footage from the hidden cameras could take hours and Phoenix worried that it would not be ready in time for the trial.

Let's just hope the forensics team works fast, he thought, we need that evidence if we have any chance of catching the real killer. Shaking the worries he had over the recordings the warden had made, Phoenix refocused his attention on the the newspaper articles he had found in the locked cupboard.

Unfortunately, with each article he looked over, Phoenix was liking the warden less and less. Not only did he find it more than a little disturbing that Jacobson had apparently been researching the entire von Karma family since his brother's conviction, he also thought that the warden was in need of some serious psychological help.

The man had collected newspaper articles about every single case that had been prosecuted by Franziska and her father, most of which were in German, every story about Edgeworth since his adoption and every part of the von Karma sisters' lives. To Phoenix, this wasn't just Jacobson's revenge, this was his obsession.

Phoenix felt unnerved by the extent to which the warden had taken his grudge against Elise and her family. He had clearly been the one who murdered von Karma and he was now doing everything he could to have Elise convicted of his crime. It made Phoenix worry what he planned to do to Franziska and Edgeworth.

All the defense attorney could hope for was that the police could process all the evidence they had found at the warden's office quickly and that what he showed in court tomorrow would put an end to Jacobson's insanity.

And thus, the evidence for Elise's innocence has been found. If only all of the culprits in the Ace Attorney universe were so courteous.

As stated above, I do not own any characters in this story except for Elise, her mother Clara, Marcus and Alfred Jacobson and Robert Willis.

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