Thief in the Night

A Lupin the Third fan fiction by Lywinis

Chapter Five: Order in the Kangaroo Court

Cara had always enjoyed debating at school and with her father. She now realized that it had been child's play compared to the questions Callahan was throwing at her. She answered as truthfully as could be expected, considering she actually had committed the crimes she had been accused of. He tried to lead her down multiple paths, tried to get her to admit she'd actually stolen the gems.

She was equally hard on the prosecution's witnesses. When Kenneth Foley took the stand, Callahan painted a portrait of a man who had been blind to the fact that a succubus was lurking in wait to steal the very thing she was there to appraise. Cara, however, painted a completely different character.

"Mr. Foley, please describe to me our parting conversation." She was standing slightly to the side so he could see the jury, and they could see him. He looked from her to Callahan, who nodded imperceptibly.

"I thanked you for a job well done. I was telling you how nice it was to see our monetary backers coming out to personally inspect the project," he replied uncertainly.

"Yes, it's true you did say that. Please, tell me, and you don't have to look to Mr. Callahan for answers, especially since you were there and he wasn't, what you told me after this?" There were slight titters in the courtroom at her sarcastic jab at Callahan, who turned a mottled shade of puce. Judge Danaher tapped his gavel, requesting quiet.

Foley looked ashamed of himself, but he replied honestly. "I told you everything was in order, and then…I asked you out to dinner."

"And you checked the gems I put back?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

"It's standard procedure. Whenever the jewels are removed from their places, they are always checked to make sure they aren't misplaced or mislabeled."

"Did you touch the gems?"

"I think so, yes."

"Thank you, Mr. Foley, you can step down now."

Foley got down off the stand, looking pale and shaken.

Callahan wasn't done yet, however. "Prosecution calls again to the stand Ms. Cara de Brouligiere."

Cara resumed her seat in the stand, looking calm. Callahan held up a thin disk. "Ms. Brouligiere, do you know what this is?"

She peered at the disk, which she knew perfectly well, since she had set them herself. "No, sir, I do not."

"I think you do, since you placed them. These disks are state of the art holograms, designed to show anyone making a casual inspection a gem." He thumbed a switch, and the disk hummed to life, projecting the image of an emerald studded torque. The jury gasped and looked at each other.

"And your point is?"

"You know how it works, don't you?"

"Why would I? My family business is devoted to gem cutting, not technology."

Callahan flushed an ugly color, then flicked the little piece of merchandise off. Cara regarded him with a mixture of amusement and contempt. Her eyes mocked him, and an almost psychic comment floated from her mind to him. You haven't got what it takes to convict me. If you try, I'll just counter you. Check and mate, friend. I welcome you to try, however. I enjoy watching men who think they're good embarrass themselves.

Cara smiled sweetly at him. "Your Honor, might I give my testimony now?"

Danaher waved a hand benevolently. She nodded and began. She told the jury about her day, telling them all about the way she got in, flashing her credentials and appraising the jewels. She admitted she had forgotten her case for appraisal, and had gone out to get it. Her driver had been out back, smoking, and she had tossed him her keys, so that he could go and relax until she called for him.

She finished by saying that she had spoken with Foley before she had left, and that he had asked her out to dinner. The judge allowed her to step down, then asked the prosecutor to call his next witness. Although his questioning hadn't been impressive so far, he hoped he would be able to pull it off with his next witness.

He didn't know how wrong he was.

"Prosecution calls Inspector Detective Koichi Zenigata to the stand."

Cara nearly laughed at Callahan. Oh, this was going to be amusing. Especially if Pops was in one of his neurotic moods, and every mention of Lupin set him off. She made a show of looking upset, and then settled into her chair to watch the questioning.

Zenigata came in, looking disheveled and unkempt. At least his tie was reasonably straight. He took his hat off and sat in the witness chair, looking for all the world like he had been paid a bottle of booze to sit up there and pretend to be the famous Inspector. He looked a little queasy today, and she nearly asked him if he wanted a stiff drink. It was probably nerves, though. He was never comfortable with bureaucracy.

He stuck a finger in his collar and stretched it, looking decidedly green. Callahan hoped the old guy could handle it. He was the chief witness. He stepped up.

"Inspector, I apologize for taking your time like this, what with you chasing Arsene Lupin and all. Will you tell us what happened the night of Ms. Brouligiere's arrest?"

"Uh, sure…" he looked almost scared of the lawyer, but he launched into a fairly accurate recounting of the night he tried to capture her.

Cara stood for her line of questioning. "Inspector Zenigata…can you tell me why you're after this Lupin the Third?"

Zenigata looked dumbfounded. Actually, he looked like he had never considered the question. He seemed to think about it for a moment. "I guess because Interpol assigned me to it."

"Are you sure that's the case? I hear that the International Criminal Police Organization has taken you off of the case several times."

He sputtered. "I was—well, I was taken off the case for several reasons."

"One of which was recorded as being mental instability?"

"Yes, but I don't see—"

"My point? My point, Detective Inspector, is that Lupin is much more than a case to you. It has turned into an obsession which, I am sad to say, I have seen firsthand."

"Objection! She has no grounds for this. She is not a licensed psychologist."

"Actually, Mr. Callahan, I hold a doctorate in psychology from Oxford."

"Where are your credentials?"

"Right here." She opened up her briefcase and showed him her certificate she had earned and the letters of recommendation she had gotten from her teachers. She also approached the bench and placed a copy before the judge, who smiled at her. His eyes crinkled at the corners in a recognizable way. She nearly stopped dead in her tracks. Lupin?

Then she understood. He was here to bail her out if things went wrong. She didn't appreciate him thinking she couldn't do it on her own, but she appreciated that he would make an appearance. She nodded in acknowledgement and turned back to the table. Callahan was looking at her credentials as if he could somehow prove they were false, but he could find nothing wrong with them. She wasn't surprised. The only ones who could probably find the glaring errors were Lupin, Jigen and Goemon.

In fact, she turned to the jury and saw two suspicious jurors, now that she knew what to look for. Jigen had shaved. That nearly threw her for a loop, but she saw the sympathy in his eyes. Goemon was the jury foreman. He nearly grinned at her, but his training came in handy. She watched Jigen out of the corner of her eye. With his beard gone, he looked a lot younger. She didn't know about the look, though. He just didn't seem like...Jigen.

She turned to Callahan. "Are my credentials enough for you?" When he nodded sullenly, she turned back to Zenigata. "May I return to my line of questioning, your honor?" Lupin waved a hand, nearly smirking. Instead, it looked like he had indigestion.

She turned to the Inspector, who very nearly flinched. "Now, Inspector Zenigata. What about your personal life? Do you have a wife, a child?"

"Yes. I am divorced now."

"Really? Why was that?"

"I was working too much. Lupin ruined my life."

"How many times have you caught this 'Lupin'? Why isn't he behind bars by now?"

"I've caught him over a hundred times, but he's always escaped."

"Perhaps he's only in your mind?"

Callahan nearly strangled himself. His tie caught on the edge of the table as he leapt out of his chair shouting, "Objection!"

Zenigata's translator was working overtime explaining to the Inspector exactly what was going on. He couldn't speak English very well, and he was getting more and more confused as to what was going on.

Cara turned to the judge. "May I speak to the witness in his own language, please?"

"What, you speak Japanese too? You happen to have a doctorate in that?"

"No, I'm self taught. I spent a few years in Japan as an overseas director for my father."

Lupin banged his gavel. "Enough with the side chat, you two. Ms. Brouligiere, make it quick."

She began speaking rapidly to Zenigata in Japanese. "You know for a fact that I'm going to win this, Pops. Why did you drag me out here for this?"

Zenigata got irritated. "Because you and Lupin are working together! I'm going to catch him and he's going to go down!"

The translator didn't catch what was said to Zenigata, as Cara used a slang dialect, but she certainly caught the gist of what the Inspector was shouting. She looked at the judge, frightened.

Judge Lupin wasn't going to let Zenigata get out of this one. "Bailiff, restrain that man!" The bailiff, not the childlike one, but a burly man of about middle age, grabbed Zenigata from behind. Zenigata struggled. "One more outburst from you, and I'll hold you in contempt!" Zenigata paled as this was translated to him, and he went limp. The bailiff let him go, but his credibility was already shot.

"Thank you, Inspector, you can go now." Zenigata slouched out of the courtroom. Callahan didn't even have the heart to reexamine him.

Callahan was getting extremely belligerent now. As they made their closing arguments, he attacked Cara, saying that she spoke Japanese and she had a doctorate in Psychology. What kind of person did that? Someone who was lying, that's who. He delivered a blistering rhetoric, venom behind each and every word.

Cara stood, calm and possessed. "I was arrested at my home in England," she began, her voice clear and heard in every corner of the courtroom. "I wasn't read my rights, and I wasn't allowed to plead my innocence. I was hit over the head after fending off Inspector Detective Zenigata." She held up her hands, the wrists once elegant and slender, now swollen and chapped. "I was in captivity for two weeks, sitting in a cell for days. I didn't take bail, because I was sure this would be a misunderstanding."

Lupin and Goemon looked outraged at her wounds. Jigen looked even more upset. She continued, feeling like she had the audience's sympathy. "I've traveled a long way to be here today, because I knew I would get a fair trial here. My being at the scene of the crime was a coincidence, a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I want to go free. I want to live my life again. I'm not a bad person, but I'll bow to the whims of the court. If you think I am guilty, then I will respect your judgment and serve my sentence. But I know this jury will make the right choice."

She sat down. Fujiko was in the back row, on the edge of the uncomfortable bench. The girl had given a better show of herself than expected. She wasn't worried, though. That's why God made backup plans, as her lover was fond of saying.

If she wasn't going to get convicted, there were other ways of dealing with upstarts.


The jury came back sooner than most expected. Cara looked at the clock. It had taken a while. The trial had started at eight, and it was nearly five. The trial seemed to have taken only an hour or so in her mind, but the clock didn't lie. She felt exhausted. She sat at her table and put her head on her arms; since she was in custody, she wasn't allowed to leave the courtroom.

As the jury filed in, she could see the look on her friends' faces. She wasn't sure about the outcome, but she knew she had done what she could. Compared to most people, it was a hell of a lot more than normal.

She looked at Callahan. "Whatever happens, I have to admit, you were one of my hardest debaters."

He looked sour. "I hope you get gang-raped when they send you to prison."

"Wow, someone's bitter."

Callahan just sneered.

"Please rise for the verdict."

Cara stood, her heart pounding in her ears. She looked at Goemon and Jigen, but they couldn't give her an idea of what the verdict was either. She wouldn't break their cover. She was still, though. She wouldn't show weakness. She couldn't.

Lupin looked as tense as she felt. "Jury, have you reached a decision?"

"We have, your honor." Goemon's smooth English diction belied that he was a modern day samurai. She very nearly applauded the performance.

"Bailiff, if you will." The slip of paper was quickly delivered to Lupin, and he unfolded it, reading it once. He read it twice. She nearly walked upand slapped him as he read it a third time.

He finally looked up, a small smile on his face. "Not guilty."

She allowed herself a small gesture of victory. She pumped a fist into the air once, her way of congratulating herself. Callahan looked pissed enough to bite iron and spit nails. His nostrils flared and he stood to go.

He didn't get very far. A small "thunk" noise was heard as he passed her, and he fell at her feet, quite dead. A dart protruded from the side of his neck. A woman in the jury gasped; Jigen was looking frantically to see if Cara was all right. Goemon and Lupin had disappeared. The bailiffs were shunting people out of the room, especially her and the judge and jury. She lost sight of Jigen, and she was worried for the first time in her life. Was that dart meant for her?

She didn't know anymore, and she cursed to herself. She was in trouble again, and she could spell trouble only one way: L-U-P-I-N.


AGH! I had this finished days ago. If anyone knows what went down with the server, I was going nuts trying to log in. Anyway, Chapter Six is halfway through.

Till then,

Lywinis