March 27

Blackgate Park

12:15 PM

Victoria von Graye

As one might have expected, the park was absolutely crawling with police officers by the time we got there. Deirdre sighed at the sight and shook her head. "I suppose I should have known that everyone would want to jump at the chance to be involved with this case... After all, it's been ages since the last time an Emsthorpe case took place to the point where people knew they were involved right off the bat. I imagine the police are trying to figure out how the assassins fit into all of this," she announced.

"But instead of deciding that the assassins were suspicious for probably killing their former coworker, they arrested Vito and decided to call it a day," Chrysalis said with a snort. "I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm sure disappointed anyways. How can I have no standards and still be let down when it comes to most of the local police officers?"

"Follow my lead inside. Since I'm a witness, I should be able to get everybody to let us through," Deirdre announced. She gestured for us to follow her before starting to politely push her way through the crowd. Chrysalis was a lot less nice about it because of her lack of verticality working against her, and I could tell that Pieter wanted to go to her side and do what he could to help her. In the end, she didn't seem to want his assistance though, so he maintained his distance.

Once we were able to get out of the haze, we were met with the sight of four people engaged in conversation. I recognized two of them immediately as Detective Abilene Umber and Detective Aidan Healy. I smiled at the sight of them before waving and getting closer. They didn't seem to see me at first, but the first of the other two women with them most certainly did.

The first of the two women had darker hair that matched Deirdre's in color and was seated in a wheelchair. She wore mostly cooler colors, and once again, I couldn't help thinking about how similar she looked to Deirdre. If I had to guess, I would have said that this was Deirdre's older sister. Moira Brigit had been spoken of a few times within the agency, but I hadn't ever been given the chance to meet her. I suppose that luck had simply been working against me in that regard.

The other woman in the area had brown hair that was tied back into a simple ponytail. Her clothes were a bit more formal than I would have expected for someone going to the park, but I decided to shrug it off. She seemed to be watching Moira for the most part, and I could only imagine that this was the caretaker we had heard so much about.

Perhaps the most shocking part of the scene though came in the form of what Moira was holding onto. There were two leashes in her hand, and a pair of dogs ran around rampantly at the end of them. I watched the two with a small smile on my face, and I recognized that these two were probably Kiki and Diablo. Kiki was primarily black with a few tan and white splotches across her body while Diablo was mostly white with a few tan segments. Or, at the very least, that was what I assumed; the white dog had a collar that was outlined in the shape of a devil's head, and I somehow doubted Deirdre and Moira would have done that for Kiki. I silently wondered why a person would name a white dog Diablo, but I supposed there wasn't much I could do to question it now. Who was I to try and understand the inner workings of Prosecutor Cruz's mind?

"I'm back," Deirdre announced. Her words were enough to get the attention of the group where I had failed previously and she smiled to Kiki and Diablo gently. "I'm glad to see that they're still enjoying themselves."

"Kiki knows that this is her day off, so she's doing everything she can to enjoy it," Moira smiled with a light chuckle. She paused at that before looking at me, Pieter, and Chrysalis. "If you don't mind my asking... Are these the friends you're going to be having defend Vito?"

"They are," Deirdre replied with a nod. "Allow me to introduce you to Chrysalis, Victoria, and Pieter. They're going to be taking this case to court tomorrow to make sure that Vito isn't found guilty of murder. Chrysalis, Victoria, and Pieter... Meet Moira, my older sister, and Hiroko, her caretaker."

"Hiroko..."Chrysalis muttered, and I could have sworn that I saw her trying to figure out if she had heard that name somewhere before. She thought about it for a long moment before shaking her head and nodding in the direction of the duo. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. You can rest easily knowing that we're on the case. We'll do everything we can to prove Prosecutor Cruz's innocence."

"Thank you for all of this," Moira smiled. "He's such a sweet man, and the last thing I want is for anybody to think that he did something so terrible... He wouldn't ever hurt a fly, much less a human being. I just wish the rest of the world understood it as well as I did."

"In that case, I take that to mean that you're the defense team on this case," Detective Umber concluded. I nodded my confirmation. "In that case, welcome to the scene of the crime... I don't know how much you're going to be able to find, I must admit, but you'll have a bit of a chance to look around, at the very least. The victim's body is in this area, but there are a lot of officers examining it right now. We haven't had the chance to perform an autopsy yet since the main investigation is still going on, but... We'll get there eventually, I'm sure."

I nodded my understanding at that before shifting my attention to Detective Umber and Detective Healy. "On that note... What can you tell us about this crime? Is there anything that we should know ahead of time before starting the bulk of our investigation?" I asked.

"The victim of this case was named Lennox Kennedy, and he was found shot to death here in the park earlier today," Detective Healy explained. "As far as we can tell, he used to work with an infamous group of assassins, but he left at some point over the last few years... I couldn't tell you the reason, but it's not hard to imagine why a person would leave a group of assassins. The point is that he abandoned his job, and now, we've found him dead here in the park."

"If you ask me, it sounds like one of the Emsthorpe assassins did it," Chrysalis said bluntly. "But if that's the case, then why have Prosecutor Cruz arrested?"

"That would be because of his history with the Emsthorpes... I guess that motive was enough to convince the officers who first got here to think that he was the culprit," Detective Umber said with a shrug. "Since the Emsthorpe ring killed his father a few years ago, they all thought that he would have wanted to kill one of the assassins to get back at them for what they did. The arrest had already been made long before either one of us arrived at the scene of the crime to investigate."

"Police officers today are so impulsive... And so thoughtless," Chrysalis muttered with a vague snort before she focused in on the conversation at hand once again. "Prosecutor Cruz was also found standing over the victim's body, if I recall correctly. That was another reason everybody suspected that he was the culprit."

"Exactly," Detective Healy replied. "I don't know for sure why he was in the area, but... The gun was found right next to the victim's body. There were no fingerprints on it as far as we can tell, and... Honestly, it seems like the culprit came here, shot the victim, and wanted to leave. I mean, the park is pretty large, so if somebody had fired a gun, there's a chance that not many people would have heard it. This place expands for miles upon miles, and... Well..."

"If nobody was in the immediate area at the time of the crime, then they wouldn't have heard the crime taking place," I murmured before considering his words carefully. "I guess it makes sense that the victim would have wanted to be alone. I mean, if he did work as an assassin at one point, then he would probably be pretty desperate to get away from anybody who might think of him as being guilty. If he avoided people, then he would avoid the risk of being caught entirely. Plus, when it comes to assassins..."

"It's safer to be on your own," Pieter said softly, and I resisted the urge to reach out and take his hand, knowing that it would have been too obvious. He had seen many awful experiences with assassins in the past, and the last thing I wanted this case to do was dredge up too many painful memories for him. He deserved better than that, and I would make sure he knew it no matter what.

"He was probably found while he was out here alone and then killed. If he was trying to be on his own to the point of isolating from others by a mile, then nobody would have heard the gunshot since most gunshots only echo for about a mile," Detective Umber told us. She paused to think about it for a moment before she let out a small chuckle. "That means that if Prosecutor Cruz found the body by accident, then he must have gotten seriously lost compared to the main area of the park. I mean, the body was rather far away from the rest of the park where the people were hanging out."

Deirdre sighed at that before shaking his head. "That certainly sounds like Vito... He's never had much of a sense of direction," she admitted to herself. "But the point of the matter is that he's been arrested now, so we have to do what we can to show that he isn't the culprit."

"If you want to start by looking around in the area of the scene of the crime, you can do that," Detective Healy said. "I think we're going to talk to the witnesses here for a little while longer about what they saw that day."

"On that note... What exactly did you all see?" I asked, shocked at the fact that I had let this slip my mind for so long. I turned to face Deirdre, Moira, and Hiroko with a small frown on my face.

"Vito wandered off to go and get some food from one of the food trucks stationed around the park. He didn't come back for a while, so we started to look for him... And that was when we heard him cry out in shock," Moira explained. "Just as you said, he was pretty far off the beaten path... And there was the victim's body, sprawled out in the grass."

"By the time we arrived, he was already dead, I'm afraid," Hiroko frowned. "I attempted to see if he still lived, but... There were no signs of life from him at all. We wound up calling the police because of what had happened, but they arrested poor Vito for the crime when they arrived. I know that he didn't do it. He seems to have a heart of gold beneath all that rough bravado. He wouldn't actually want to hurt people, much less kill someone."

"I see..." Chrysalis muttered before pushing her shoulders back firmly. "Well, I guess we should try and look at the body next. The sooner we can learn more about the victim, the better off we're going to be, especially if there's not much evidence in the area. We're going to need all the ammunition we can get for when this case goes to the courtroom tomorrow."

"On the note of this case going to court, I have a question for you," I interjected as I glanced over to Detective Umber. She tilted her head to the side, prompting me to continue. "Do you know who's in charge of this case in terms of prosecution?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Detective Umber smiled. "In fact, you're probably going to find them in the area of the victim's body when you go to investigate it. The three people working on this case are Roberto Shield, my brother, and then... Some odd girl with a scar on her face... She's somewhat rough around the edges too."

Chrysalis' eyes just about popped out of her head at the last description, and she let out a heavy sigh before shaking her head. "Maybe we could avoid the scene of the crime for a while longer then," she muttered. "Surely it wouldn't hurt for us to look around the surrounding area a little bit more before we go to check out the body. After all, we wouldn't want to get in anybody's way while we're looking around."

"You're acting uncharacteristically nervous all of a sudden," Pieter commented, his expression twisting with confusion. "Is there something wrong with the prosecution that you think we should know about?"

For a long time, Chrysalis couldn't bring herself to speak. She simply glanced at the people in the area with something tense mounting behind her eyes, and I could tell that she was trying to figure out if she should say what was truly hanging heavily on her mind. "It's a long story," Chrysalis eventually settled on saying. In other words, Pieter was going to try and get it out of her a little bit later, and I could only hope the 'rough around the edges' prosecutor wasn't around to hear it when the time came.

"Well, whatever you decide to do, I'm not going to fault you for it," Detective Umber said with a loose shrug. "We're going to have to talk to the witnesses about what they saw now anyways, so... Thanks for bringing Ms. Brigit back to us. The younger one, I mean. I was wondering where she had gotten off to..."

"I was securing an attorney for the defendant," Deirdre replied. "But now that I've returned, I would be happy to hear any questions that you happen to have."

"Perfect," Detective Umber grinned. She offered a brief wave in my direction. "We'll see you all later on then! Good luck out there!"

Pieter and I returned the gesture of her kindness, but Chrysalis remained still as could be at our sides. It wasn't until after we had walked away and were well out of earshot that Pieter glanced down to his sister where she was standing in between us. "What happened with you and this 'rough around the edges' prosecutor?" he questioned. "I don't believe I know of anybody who might be able to fit that description."

"Well, it sounds to me like that would be Nevada Wood," Chrysalis said with a sigh. She shook her head before shifting her attention down to the ground, desperate to look at anything but Pieter. "She's... She's the alter of another prosecutor, Niamh Wood. Their situation is complicated at best, though there are many other words I could think of to describe it. I... I really didn't expect to see her involved with an investigation like this though."

"Why exactly are you so nervous around her?" Pieter pressed. "There must be some sort of history between the two of you for you to suddenly shift to wanting nothing to do with checking out the scene of the crime. It's not like you, Chrysalis."

I could tell by the look on her face that Chrysalis was resisting a comment about how Pieter didn't know much about her anymore, but she held it back before sighing and shaking her head. "Well, it was a few months ago now when she did something to save my life. There was somebody trying to kidnap me, and I didn't even know it. She wound up helping me out of that tough spot, and... It ended with the kidnapper being killed, albeit on accident. I haven't talked to her ever since then. It's just going to be awkward to talk to her about it all. I mean, what am I supposed to say? 'Thanks for saving my life that one time! By the way, can I have the autopsy report?' It's not happening."

Pieter's eyes shot open, and he stared down at Chrysalis in endless shock. "Excuse me, what?!" he yelled, unable to hold himself back any longer. "What do you mean, you were almost kidnapped?!"

"It's a long story, and it doesn't matter now," Chrysalis told him with a loose shrug. "We have a crime scene to investigate, and if we're really going to head there right now, then I need to focus on avoiding Nevada too."

"That really shouldn't be the takeaway from this situation, Chrysalis!" Pieter yelped as he tried to chase after her. "We have to talk about this-"

"Hey, there, you three!" I declared in excitement and relief when the trio of prosecutors finally appeared on the horizon. Prosecutor Shield was standing over the body while Prosecutor Umber was crouched beside it. As for Nevada, she was attempting to mimic Prosecutor Shield without even really knowing what she was trying to imitate. If I had to guess, she still didn't have much of an interest in law since she had never expressed one before; she was practically locked into the career path because of Prosecutor Wood, but she didn't seem to want to be there entirely. At least she was having a little bit of fun with it, I supposed.

Besides, as long as it got Chrysalis and Pieter to stop bickering, I was glad to see her and the other prosecutors. I really didn't want to have to listen to them any longer than I already had. We could work this whole thing out after the case ended as far as I was concerned, but for right now, we still had a job to do, and we couldn't afford to get distracted or deterred from it now.

"Hey. You must all be the defense team," Prosecutor Shield remarked. He crossed his arms, and beside him, Nevada did much the same. "I had a feeling we would see members of your agency here to take care of this. After all, you know the person who got arrested this time around."

"Prosecutor Cruz, yes," Chrysalis said with a nod. She refused to make eye contact with Nevada even as the other girl watched her intently. I could tell that Nevada was just trying to make a new friend given the circumstances, but Chrysalis' fears were too much for her to risk a glance in Nevada's direction. "We're going to make sure that we find the truth behind what happened to him that day... So I have to ask... What all do you know about the victim?"

"In all honesty, not much," Prosecutor Umber told us with a shake of his head. "I would like to be able to say that we've uncovered a lot about him, but we're just as clueless about all of this as you guys are. He left behind the Emsthorpe assassin ring at some point within the last few years, but after that, he kind of disappeared from the public eye and wasn't seen for quite some time... Not until he resurfaced dead here today, that is."

"I guess that makes sense," I murmured, letting one hand come up to cup at my chin. "If he was really on the run from people like that, then he would want to do everything he could to make sure that he wasn't caught. I mean, I can only imagine that the punishment for letting his past catch up to him was pretty gruesome. Given the fact that he's dead now, well..."

"We can all see how it ended," Prosecutor Shield finished for me, and I nodded my confirmation. "I don't know for sure who could have killed him, but there weren't all that many people in the area. I'm going to assume that you came here after speaking with the detectives, and that means that you know just how desolate this segment of the park was up until the time of the body's discovery. Now... Well, everybody's hanging around here because of the victim's death, but if I had to guess, I would say that he chose to hide himself away from the rest of the park on purpose as long as he was able to do so. He was trying to make sure that his history didn't catch him, so it's natural that he would do everything he could to avoid contact with people who may have been able to out him."

"Do you know of any other people who may have been able to figure out what his past was like?" Pieter questioned of the prosecution trio. "Any information at all would be helpful to our case at this point."

Prosecutor Shield shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We've been trying to figure out who all could have figured out what was happening, but we're just as at a loss as you all are. Prosecutor Cruz was the first one to discover the crime scene, and because of how much of a loss we're at, we have no choice but to go along with him being the suspect so that we can figure out what actually happened," he said with a heavy sigh. "I don't think he was the one who did it. I mean, you've met him before, so you know that he probably wouldn't have it in him to hurt anybody like this... Even if they were connected to the group that murdered his father. He's just not this sort of person."

"He's a cool person," Nevada remarked with admiration spreading across her face. "He's got a motorcycle and really cool sunglasses... Though I guess the police took away his sunglasses when he was first arrested. I don't see the point of that... Do they think that he committed the crime with sunglasses? I don't think it would be possible to kill anybody with those even if you tried."

"Besides, we know that the victim was shot," Pieter agreed. Nevada immediately began to smile at the fact that somebody had acknowledged her rambling, and her gaze dropped to Pieter's sword. Her eyes lit up like she was a kid in a candy store, and she seemed to want to reach out for the blade and admire it herself. It was only thanks to Prosecutor Shield sticking one arm out to hold her back that she was kept from snatching up the sword on her own terms. She pouted up at her superior at that before returning to mimicking his posture for her own amusement. Prosecutor Shield didn't seem to mind it at all, and i was glad that the people who were looking after her at least knew what they were doing with her strange demeanor.

"It was certainly an act of confidence for the culprit to have brought a gun here that day," Chrysalis agreed. "After all, it's not as if this is the sort of place where you would expect a shooting to take place. The park remains a public place even if you retreated to the most private and secluded corner of the area. Bringing a gun here was a massive risk, and the culprit must have been incredibly sure that they would be able to get away with this crime if they brought something like that as a weapon."

"I'm inclined to agree... Though I can't say for sure who could have brought it. The gun had no fingerprints on it, and there was only a single bullet fired as far as we can tell. In other words, it was used for committing the fatal deed and nothing else, though that does make sense. The culprit knew the risks of bringing a weapon like this to the scene of the crime, and they did it regardless. The least they could do was reduce their chances of risk by only firing it a single time."

"The culprit knew that they were going to commit this crime though," I announced. "I saw a sign on the way in that says weapons are not allowed in this area, but the culprit brought one in regardless. I doubt that anybody who just wanted to have a weapon with them would have gone so far in the face of regulations that would have pushed back against that. It would have been too much of a risk that they would be caught if they let themselves bring something so critical along."

"The murder was premeditated, yes, and the presence of the gun does prove it," Prosecutor Umber agreed. He paused for a long moment before shaking his head. "But we don't have much else in terms of other suspects to go off right now. The only other people who arrived here at the scene of the crime were with one another at the time of the murder, and they all had a firm alibi."

"Unless the crime took place much earlier than we realize," Chrysalis pointed out. "After all, the autopsy report hasn't been taken care of quite yet, and that means that there's a strong possibility that the crime took place earlier in the day before anybody recognized what was happening. The defendant stumbled onto the murder by accident hours later, and just like that, he was suspected, but since there hasn't been an autopsy report yet, it seems as if he was the culprit."

"It's probably going to be a while before we'll have the chance to do much in terms of an autopsy report though," Prosecutor Shield sighed. "Apparently, the forensics team has been kicked into overdrive lately by an uptick of crimes... There have been a lot of cases lately, and if the Prosecutor's Office has been stretched thin, then I can promise that things are even worse when it comes to autopsies and forensics analysis."

I glanced to Pieter, and he stared back at me in confusion and surprise before we both looked back to Prosecutor Shield. "What do you mean?" I asked, already sure that I wasn't going to like whatever answer he had in store for us.

"I mean that a lot of murders have been taking place recently... A lot more than usual, that is," Prosecutor Shield told us with a shrug. "The Prosecutor's Office has been doing its best to handle everything, but there are still a lot of cases with next to no suspects, and that means that we can't really take them to court. In other words, there's a massive pile of unresolved cases waiting for us after this trial is over, and that's one reason this trial is happening so soon. We finally have a suspect for once, and it seems like this is one boon that we can't just let go so easily. We've been waiting for a case like this for ages, you know."

Chrysalis frowned at that before shaking her head. "In any case, it sounds to me like there's a lot more at play than any of us could have ever expected when we went into this mess," she remarked. She fell silent for a long moment before looking back up, and once again, she did her best to keep from meeting Nevada's gaze. "We should try and find out what other information we can gather when it comes to the crime. It seems as if the crime scene really is as desolate as we were lead to believe."

"Unfortunately, yes," Prosecutor Umber muttered, though I could tell he wasn't happy about having to admit it. He shook his head before correcting his posture again a moment later. "Thank you for talking to us, I suppose... We'll do our best to find out a bit more about what we should be doing next. The trial should reveal at least something that can help us out... As long as we get lucky enough, that is."

I did my best to hold back a shudder at that comment before I nodded. "Alright," I agreed. I started to take a step backwards, admittedly not sure about where we were going to be heading next. Maybe we would be able to talk to the witnesses. We were going to need more detailed testimony from them if we were going to make any progress in all of this, after all, so we might as well get started with that.

"I'll talk to you later!" Nevada chirped enthusiastically, waving after us. Chrysalis simply nodded without looking up at her before turning around, no doubt her method of avoiding the awkwardness she had feared so much previously. Nevada sighed at the sight of Chrysalis refusing to directly acknowledge her, though Pieter was quick to help her feel better by waving in her direction. Nevada's eyes went wide with a grin, and she wound up dashing after us as soon as Pieter looked at her the right way. This was probably her method of trying to get her hands on his sword, but I couldn't bring myself to mind. She seemed to be wanting to help us out when it came to the investigation, or at the very least, that was what she was going to claim if anybody asked her about it.

I didn't want to protest. If Nevada wanted to come along, who was I to stop her? Besides, I couldn't exactly spend too much time trying to talk her out of it. We had a case to solve, and as long as we were able to keep her out of trouble, everything would work out fine.

Well, aside from Chrysalis' awkwardness, but I guess that was just something she was going to have to deal with.

I felt her glaring at me out of the corner of her eye.

This is a good case for character growth

-Digital