Things were not looking good for Ema.
"I had no idea that Ms. Skye was such a clever, conniving plotter!" marveled the judge. "She looks so innocent. Who'd have thought it was nothing but a mask covering the heart of a ruthless murderer?"
Yeah. Definitely not good.
"Y-Your Honor!" I spoke up. Time for some damage control. "This is nothing but the prosecution's baseless conjecture! How do we even know if Ema knew the victim?"
"Um, actually, Mr. Wright, I did know the victim."
"What?"
"But I didn't know he had anything to do with the SL-9 Incident, I promise!"
"Do you have anything to offer besides constant denials?" Payne said. "This is a court of law, and evidence is necessary to prove a case."
The judge nodded.
"The prosecution is correct, Mr. Wright. If the remainder of your cross-examination cannot reveal some positive proof of your client's innocence, then I will have no alternative but to hand down a 'guilty' verdict."
Gee, not like there's any pressure or anything.
"Yes, Your Honor."
Randall Bartlett sat smugly, full of intellectual superiority. The evidence was all on his side and he knew it. Payne looked like he wanted to rub his hands together like a movie villain, he was so eager to see me go down in flames. They couldn't be right, could they?
"Mr. Bartlett, you've testified that the gun found in Detective Bosc's pocket was the murder weapon, and that the surgical gloves tested positive for gunshot residue, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's so."
"So what were these items doing in the victim's pocket?"
"I'm not sure that I understand you."
"Did Detective Bosc put them there?"
"Of course not. You've seen the autopsy report. He died instantly, shot in the heart from behind."
"So if the killer, say, dropped the gun and gloves on the floor, Detective Bosc couldn't have put them in his pockets?"
"Certainly not!" Bartlett snapped. "It's a scientific impossibility."
"So how did they get in the victim's pocket?"
"Objection!" Payne interrupted. "This witness is a scientific investigator, not a clairvoyant! He can't tell what the defendant did with the evidence!"
"Objection! The prosecution can't just say the witness can't testify, then go and make claims about what the defendant did!" I shot back.
"I didn't claim what the defendant did!"
"You claimed it was the defendant who did something, though!"
"W-well, who else could it be?" Payne stammered.
I grinned triumphantly, resting my hands on my hips.
"That's exactly what I want to cross-examine this witness about, Mr. Payne!"
"Hmm," mused the judge. "You have a point, Mr. Wright. The prosecution's objection is overruled."
"Is that really such an important point, Mr. Wright?" Ema asked.
"Actually," I admitted, "I was just fishing for something to ask."
"What?"
I mulled it over.
"But now that I think about it, Payne was fighting awfully hard to keep me from going there. Maybe...I'm on to something here?"
I pointed at Bartlett.
"You heard the Court. Answer the question!"
"I really can't say. I can only guess the murderer put them there, since the murderer is the one person whom we know had the gloves and gun."
"Exactly! But why did the murderer do that?"
"I couldn't guess, Mr. Wright. Of course, no sensible killer would want to be caught with a murder weapon in her possession. A conviction would be almost automatic."
"So you think the murderer put the gun and gloves in the victim's pocket to get rid of them?"
Bartlett shrugged and spread his hands.
"That seems like a reasonable hypothesis."
"Are you really thinking scientifically?" I barked, slamming the desk. "Your suggestion makes no sense! This is vital evidence, and the victim's pockets are the one place where it would be guaranteed to be found. A scientific investigator in training like Ema would know how much could be learned from these items. She'd never have put them in so obvious a place! Why not open a window and just throw them out?"
"O-objection!" stammered Payne. I'd managed to put a crack in his arrogance at last.
If it was Edgeworth prosecuting, he'd have had a glib explanation to cut the legs out from under me, but Payne doesn't have that kind of quick wit.
"She...she didn't have time to throw them out the window!" he exclaimed, then grinned and straightened his glasses. "Yes...yes, that was it. When she screamed, the conductor was there in seconds. He was in the very next compartment. Opening a train window takes time, and two hands. She couldn't spare the time!"
Or I could be wrong.
"That does make sense," the judge told me.
You would think that, wouldn't you?
"Of course it makes sense," agreed Bartlett. "She had to get rid of the evidence fast, do she shoved it out of sight, perhaps hoping that we'd mistake the gun and gloves for Bosc's own items." He smiled arrogantly. "She has met Detective Gumshoe, after all, and knows how he thinks."
Poor Detective Gumshoe. It's pretty harsh when they accuse murderers of planning on police stupidity!
"So your theory is that when Ema screamed, she didn't have time to do a better job of getting rid of the evidence." I'd hit a wall on this line of questioning...or had I? "Wait a minute! If that's the case, then why did she scream?"
"Is that the best you can do? She's a fifteen-year-old-girl--"
"Almost sixteen!" Ema protested.
"--without experience in life or crime. It's one thing to plan a murder, but to have the body fall at your feet is quite another. She squealed in surprise, ruining her plans."
He spread his hands in the classic "see how obvious it is, you silly defense attorney" pose. He had a point, too.
"That sounds perfectly reasonable," agreed the judge.
"But it's not true!" Ema protested.
I sighed.
"The problem isn't what the 'truth' is, Ema. It's whether we can prove it. What they're saying...fits the evidence."
Ema turned her head.
"I've always believed in scientific investigation," she said. "Eyewitnesses can be unreliable. They trick themselves, or can be confronted by police and attorneys into saying what someone wants to say. Hard evidence established by scientific tests can't lie or be tricked. Now, though, it's turned against me! Even the proof I believe in thinks I'm a killer."
I wanted to say something, to cheer her up, to give her hope, but I was fresh out of either; I couldn't think of a thing.
"I...I guess it's like that book Lana gave me said."
"What book?"
"Scientific Investigation, remember? I showed it to you! The introduction said that scientific evidence was the strongest kind we had, but you have to see it all in the correct viewpoint to understand it."
That was true enough. Obviously I was missing something.
"Mr. Wright?" I heard the judge ask, but I wasn't really paying attention. Something had to be wrong with what was being said, something I could show was wrong.
"I hate to interrupt the defense's heart-to-heart talk, but there is a court case going on," sneered Payne. "I think we all are ready for the verdict, Your Honor."
We all... I thought.
You have to see it all.
"All! Yes, all!"
"Um..." The judge blinked in confusion. "Does anyone know what the defense is talking about?"
"It's the evidence, Your Honor!" I cried excitedly. "It's true that scientifically analyzed evidence is the most reliable and decisive. But! We can't get an accurate picture of the crime until all the evidence is introduced!"
The spectators burst into an excited buzz--for the first time today at something I'd said! Of course, with my luck, they were probably saying, "What's that spiky-haired cretin babbling about?" but it was something.
"W-what are you saying?" stammered Payne. "What do you mean, 'until all the evidence is introduced'? Are you accusing the prosecution of concealing evidence?"
"I'm saying that there's a vital piece of evidence that no one has mentioned in their testimony!" I spun to Bartlett and pointed directly at him. "Witness! Why don't you testify about the silencer?"
Bartlett jerked back, his right arm sweeping up the side of his lab coat across his face like he was Dracula and my finger was a cross.
"Objection! No one has mentioned a silencer! How can you cross-examine him about that?"
"Objection! That's exactly why I'm asking about it!"
"Did anyone else follow that?" wondered the judge.
"I certainly didn't!" Payne said.
"Nor I," contributed Bartlett, resuming a more normal pose.
"Um..." Ema said, tapping her lip with the eraser end of her pencil, "I'm afraid that you lost me, too, Mr. Wright."
Oh, great...
"Mr. Wright," the judge stated, "you seem to be indicating that the prosecution's witness has held back details about a silencer, but so far we haven't heard anyone mention anything about it."
I nodded firmly.
"Exactly."
"In that case, I'm going to have to ask you for evidence that this silencer you speak of actually exists before I can permit you to continue on this line of questioning."
"It's in the testimony of the prosecution witnesses, Your Honor," I declared firmly.
"Ehhh?" Payne stammered.
"The prosecution's theory of the case is that the defendant lured the victim to her compartment, then shot him, then screamed when the body fell at her feet. The scream alerted the conductor in the very next compartment, who rushed to the scene. The conductor's testimony contained one important omission, however: he never mentioned hearing a gunshot!"
"What...but that..."
"Clearly there was no sound to be heard. He couldn't have missed it, being in the very next compartment."
"He...he could have mistaken it for an ordinary noise of the train," Payne attempted to argue, but I shot him down fast on that line.
"Hold it! A conductor of Mr. Macintosh's expertise knows every sound the train makes! You can't expect us to believe he would have missed the sound of a shot!"
"That's a good point, Mr. Wright. If a shot was fired in this courtroom, I wouldn't mistake it for my gavel banging."
"Objection! There's no evidence to say the shot happened immediately before the scream!" Payne went for his second line of defense. "She could have fired the shot when the conductor was in the next car."
I gave Payne my best imitation of the von Karma finger-wag. Man, I have always wanted to do that!
"In that case, then why didn't any of the other first-class passengers hear the shot? If they had, they'd have been called to testify! But more than that, if the shot was fired well before the scream, it knocks the entire theory of the prosecution into a cocked hat!"
"Note to self: defense attorneys have an obsession with outdated headwear," Ema said.
"Ehhh?" Payne jerked back as if he'd been punched.
"The prosecution's case hinges on the fact that evidence against Ema was found in the victim's pocket. The excuse they offer is that after shooting Detective Bosc, Ema became scared and screamed, so she didn't have a chance to properly dispose of the evidence. But if the killing happened well before the scream, there was plenty of time! There would be no reason to leave the evidence in such an obvious place!"
I think I'm finally starting to figure this out...
"Now, Mr. Bartlett, tell us about the silencer!" I demanded.
"We didn't find one."
"What's that?"
He smiled thinly.
"While I'm sure you'd like to turn this into another 'evidence-forging' scandal, the prosecution isn't holding anything back. There was no silencer found at the crime scene."
"Heh...heh heh heh," Payne laughed weakly, then straightened back up. "That's right, Your Honor! This is a nice theory the defense is offering, but it's only a theory. There could be a hundred reasons why Mr. Macintosh didn't hear the gunshot. The fact remains that the only solid evidence before the court is the defendant's fingerprint. Unless the defense can explain away this decisive proof, he's just dragging this trial out with entertaining but pointless storytelling."
