March 29

Courtroom No. 2

11:00 AM

Pieter Fury

Silence thrived in the surrounding air of the courtroom after the accusation rang out, and Ms. Clayton simply watched Victoria for a long while before she let out a hefty sigh and shook her head. "You don't know what you're talking about," she announced. "How could you? You don't want to accept that your client is guilty, so you're resorting to accusing innocent people of being responsible for the crime. And here you said that you were trying to find the truth. It seems awfully harsh of you, yes?"

"I don't think it's harsh at all. If you ask me, this simply seems to be the proven truth," Prosecutor Shield remarked. "Besides, you haven't been able to offer any evidence to contradict the claims that you have been lying in your testimony, and I think it would be much more reasonable to believe the majority rather than letting a single person's words dictate the outcome of this trial."

"You're going to regret this. That much I can say with certainty," Ms. Clayton frowned. "You may not know it now, but I can say with no doubt in my mind that you will wish that you hadn't done this with time."

"I think we can worry about potential regrets later on," Victoria declared. "For now, we have much more productive things to focus on, and if you ask me, it all starts with hearing what it is that I know about the case at hand... And how you tie in with the grand picture that you've been trying to hide from us."

"You seem awfully confident... Alright. You can have as much faith in yourself as you want, but it won't mean a thing when the truth finally comes out," Ms. Clayton frowned. "Talk. What is it that you think is so conclusive about your understanding of the case?"

"We have come to understand quite a bit about the Emsthorpe family over the course of our investigation," Chrysalis cut in before Victoria had the chance to say anything. "We know that the people who are behind the group are a primary family and then their allies. The main family happens to consist of a father and his children... Most of whom are daughters. I simply find it odd that we're being met now with someone who could have committed this crime-something that would have silenced a former associate of the Emsthorpe ring-just so happens to line up with the ideas that we've been presented with so far."

"Why didn't you mention the notes?" Victoria asked of her softly. "Isn't it important that we say where we got this information from so that the people of the court are more willing to believe what we've discovered?"

Chrysalis shook her head. "If we really are dealing with assassins here, then we're going to have to exercise as much caution as possible, and that starts with not telling the truth about where we got our information from. The last thing I want is to get anybody targeted because of their association with the files that we received yesterday. This has to stay between us regardless of how much it might help out our cause."

Victoria nodded at that, but she wasn't given the chance to follow up on it. Ms. Clayton stole the show again a moment later with a shake of her head. "You sure are certain of yourselves... I would have thought that you would know better than to make such brazen accusations. Besides, this is very easily a coincidence. I just so happen to match up with the gender of most of the people involved with the Emsthorpe ring. There are many women on this planet, and not all of them are involved with a crime ring simply because they are women."

"But it would make sense," Chrysalis pointed out as she crossed her arms. "You appeared seemingly out of nowhere to say that you had witnessed the crime and to accuse the defendant of being responsible even though you have no evidence to back that up. If you ask me, there's a lot more to your story than you've been willing to share. You even admitted to being at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder. It all seems rather clear to me that you must be hiding something, and the truth is plain for all to understand."

Ms. Clayton stared at Chrysalis for a long time, and the air seemed to grow tense and heavy as the two locked gazes. I couldn't say for sure what was happening, but I could tell that Ms. Clayton was clearly trying to understand something about what she was seeing. In the end, she shook it off again a moment later before continuing. "I still don't believe that the evidence that you have presented is anywhere near being enough for you to accuse me of the crime."

"I think that we should think about the timeline of the crime for a moment," Victoria cut in. "You said that you were in the area of the murder when the crime was committed. That's already suspicious, and when you factor in the testimony of the previous witnesses, all of whom claim that the defendant was with them at the precise moment of the murder, it seems clear to me that there's a lot more going on than you want us to believe. You were at the scene of the crime when the victim was killed, and the defendant has an alibi even if it wasn't known when the arrest was first made. I don't see a reason for this trial to continue at all, if I'm being honest. The truth is obvious."

"You have many other things to prove if you're going to say that I was behind this crime though," Ms. Clayton countered. "You say that I was the killer and that I went there to the scene of the crime to kill the victim because of my affiliation with the Emsthorpe assassins... But I don't think that you have even the slightest inkling of proof to show that I'm actually involved with them at all. You can't prove anything without evidence, and as far as I can tell, you don't have any of it at all... How unfortunate for you."

I frowned at her words, trying my best to ignore the way that I was shaking. I had an awful feeling about all of this, and I knew deep down that there was more to this situation than Ms. Clayton wanted us to know. If she really was an assassin, then I could see why she had come to testify to begin with. She knew that we weren't going to be able to do anything about this, that we wouldn't be able to prove that she was the culprit. She hadn't been in any danger at all when she came here, and she had known it from the outset.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Victoria questioned as she turned to me and Chrysalis. She had seemingly come to the same conclusion that I had, and she knew just as well as I did that this was a fruitless effort. We wouldn't be able to force Ms. Clayton to admit what she had done as long as there wasn't any evidence to back it up.

"We have to figure out something that will help us," Chrysalis frowned. "And if you ask me, I think that we might already have it... When you think about the circumstances of the crime, it seems all too perfect, doesn't it?"

"If you mean the fact that she was at the scene of the murder when the crime took place, then that is convenient, but she's not going to just admit that she did it from that alone," Victoria said. "We need something else that's going to get her."

"Hold on... The scene of the crime might be enough for us to say conclusively that she did it," I murmured, starting to catch on to what Chrysalis was trying to say. "The scene of the crime was a park, specifically in a clearing far from the rest of the public areas. The victim was there alone, and there were no people for over a mile in any direction because nobody heard the gunshot as the victim was killed. The fact that the witness was there to begin with is incredibly strange, isn't it?"

Chrysalis nodded. "That's my point. Plus, the culprit brought the weapon to the scene of the crime, and that proves to us that the crime was premeditated. Somebody went there with the express purpose of killing the victim, and they were hoping to do it without being spotted or caught in the act," she said. She turned back to Ms. Clayton before raising her voice once more. "If you don't mind my asking, witness, just what were you doing at the scene of the murder on the day of the crime?"

"I was walking through the area to enjoy the wonders of nature," Ms. Clayton told her dryly, and once again, I couldn't help but notice just how fiercely her appearance and demeanor clashed. "Do you have a point with asking a question like that? I feel like the reason that I was in the park is rather obvious. What other reason would I have for being there?"

Chrysalis smiled to herself. "You say that you were in the area to simply explore nature, but I find it rather odd that you and the victim just so happened to cross paths or that you just so happened to find the body by mere chance so soon after the crime took place. The victim was out in the middle of nowhere within the park, and you were simply... There."

Ms. Clayton huffed and rolled her eyes. "You say that it was too convenient to be natural, but I would argue that the same is true for the defendant as well," she pointed out.

"Perhaps... But there is one difference between you and the defendant. He didn't come alone, and as such, I think it would have been much harder for him to hide a gun on his person. There were others with him when he got to the park, and I doubt that he would have been able to keep a gun perfectly hidden as long as he was with them, and he was at their sides for quite some time while he was in the park," Chrysalis went on. "You wouldn't have had to hide the gun from anyone."

Ms. Clayton glared at her intensely, and if looks could kill, I knew that Chrysalis would have been dead a thousand times over. Luckily for all of us though, that wasn't the case, and Ms. Clayton only had her words at her disposal. "That seems like a rather flimsy excuse," she commented. "This crime perfectly points to the truth of the defendant being responsible for it, but you don't want to accept the truth. You can simply say that without accusing me of being the one behind the victim's murder."

"We can claim that all of this is mere coincidence, but I believe that there's a bit more to it than that," Chrysalis said. "In order for the crime to have taken place, there was one other factor that would have been crucial... Keeping an eye on the victim's habits in order to pull off the murder at all."

"I think I see what you're talking about," Prosecutor Shield murmured. "The culprit attacked when they did because they knew that he was going to be alone. There wouldn't be any issues with ambushing him at the scene of the crime that day because he was going to be on his own. In order to find a time when he was alone, they would have had to be watching him for a while to make sure that they had a perfect moment to strike."

"And I think that we would be able to show that the defendant didn't commit the crime through that," Chrysalis declared. "If the defendant showed signs of searching for information about the victim, then there would be records left behind."

"What if he erased all of the evidence? You would be accusing me for no reason the same way that people like you always do," Ms. Clayton frowned. "If you're expecting to find nothing, then that's not going to be the proof that you think it is."

"No crime is perfect, and no attempts to destroy evidence are flawless. There would be at least something left behind," Chrysalis countered simply. I saw her give me a brief glance out of the corner of her eye, and I resisted the urge to wince. I knew what she was trying to get at with that. When she had first tried to find me after I moved to Germany, I hadn't left behind anything... Aside from an accidental bottle of fluid I used to polish Ikari. She had taken it as far as I could tell, something I had heard from other members of the agency. No matter how hard I tried to cover my tracks, there was something left in my wake, and Chrysalis had taken advantage of that long before I returned to her life.

"You essentially mean to say that if no evidence is left behind to show that the defendant was tracking the victim, then it didn't exist to begin with," Judge Frost concluded, and Chrysalis nodded. "I don't know if we can consider this to be conclusive proof of the defendant's innocence... We're going to need something much firmer if we wish to show that he wasn't the one responsible for what happened."

"But there wouldn't be anything at all for us to use," I said before I could hold myself back. I could see where Chrysalis was trying to go from here, and I felt my stomach twist from anxiety. Something told me that this was going to end incredibly poorly, but I still had to fight through it.

"What do you mean, Mr. Fury?" Judge Frost asked as she turned her attention in my direction. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the court locked on me, and I did my best to shake off the anxiety that crept through my body at the idea. I couldn't lose my footing now, not when I was so close. There was too much on the line for me to back off now.

"I mean that if the witness truly is involved with the Emsthorpes, then we probably won't be able to find anything to show that she was searching for information about the victim," I frowned. "She would have found a way to hide it... Likely because she's not using a real identity to testify before the court to begin with."

"That's a bold accusation, though I suppose I should be used to that from people like you," Ms. Clayton snorted with a shake of her head. "You think that all of this is a false identity? You think that I've been lying to you from the outset."

"It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case," Prosecutor Umber suddenly cut in. "I do background checks for witnesses who come through court under my watch, and I did what I could to learn about you as well, Ms. Clayton... But I didn't find anybody who could have fit the description that you presented of yourself. If you ask me, the evidence seems to point to what the defense is saying. Raelynn Clayton is a false identity, and you constructed it in the name of testifying before this court about a murder that you committed."

Ms. Clayton looked over at him, her eyes sparking into a glare that she didn't even bother to hide. "I would have expected you to say something like that sooner. Perhaps we could have worked this out in a situation that didn't involve an exposure during a public trial," she remarked, though I could tell by the dry tone in her voice that she had no intentions of simply working this out. It reminded me all too much of the cadence that I had heard from the Occisor assassins during my time with them. I bit down on my lip to keep from having to think about it any longer than I absolutely had to, knowing it was just going to make me feel even worse than I already did.

"As a matter of fact, I was hoping that we would be able to get you here before we talked about it," Prosecutor Umber went on. "I honestly had a feeling that it was going to come to this from the start. The circumstances were simply too suspicious for me to not realize that there was something going on, and you came here just as I was hoping, and that means that we're going to be able to make things better for everyone."

"You were planning on betraying me from the outset then," Ms. Clayton remarked. She didn't even wait for Prosecutor Umber to reply, instead simply sighing and shaking her head. "You shouldn't have done that. You're just going to shoot yourself in the foot regardless of what happens in this trial. You're going to find yourself with a reputation that you didn't want, and you'll be the one left to pay with the circumstances of that whether you want to or not."

"You have a lot of confidence, don't you?" Prosecutor Shield frowned. "The only way that we were going to hear the truth out of you was to drag you to the stand and make you testify. It's a shame that you don't seem to want to work with us. You accused us of being uncooperative before for not helping you out, but I don't think that you're doing us much help either."

"You're all fools, you know that?" Ms. Clayton questioned. "You're more than happy to throw away the witness who might be able to show that the defendant did it because you don't want to have to face what I'm saying. If you knew what you were doing-or how to do your jobs, for that matter-then you would have been smart enough to not put yourself in a corner like this, but I suppose you're not the types to listen to logic or reason."

"We're here to find the truth, and you've been pushing against us this entire time," Victoria countered. "You don't know what you're doing, but I think you should surrender now and admit the truth of what you did. Everybody in the courtroom knows that you must have done something that day, and we're going to make sure they understand it if they don't already."

"If you think that you can bully me into confessing, then you're going to be sorely mistaken," Ms. Clayton told her with a sigh. "You're not going to push me into admitting to something that I didn't do. You might be alright with that since it's convenient for the sake of your jobs, but I'm not going to let myself be pushed along by those who don't understand what they're doing at all."

"In that case, then you shouldn't mind us trying to figure out what happened with Prosecutor Cruz and his potential investigations into the truth of what took place that day," Chrysalis interjected with a small frown on her face. "After all, if he was trying to learn more about the victim, then there would have been evidence left behind, and if we try to find it, then the pieces should come together. If he was the one responsible for the case, then we can prove it by trying to uncover everything that he would have needed in order to have the victim killed. If we don't find anything, then we're going to have to find you suspicious here."

Ms. Clayton shook her head again a moment later. "You're all grasping at straws. There's just not enough evidence here to convict me of the crime that you claim. I didn't have anything to do with what happened that day, and you can't push me to admit that I was the culprit when we all know better than that," she declared. "An absence of evidence is not direct proof that he didn't do it, and you can't change that fact no matter how hard you try."

"In that case, you shouldn't mind explaining the truth of why you appeared under a false name to begin with," Victoria smiled to herself. "After all, if we all know that your name right now is a false one, then there must be a reason behind it, and perhaps we can put all of this in the past if you're willing to simply answer our questions and give us the chance to understand what it is that you've been up to."

"I am under no obligation to share that information," Ms. Clayton told her with a glare. "I'm here to help you figure out what happened on the day of the scene of the crime, and my personal business is not on trial here. I am fully allowed to act as I so please, and I think it would be best if you didn't forget that."

"May I remind you of the circumstances of this trial, Ms. Clayton?" Judge Frost suddenly cut in. "This is a murder trial, and if we have to push you a bit in order to find the truth behind someone being killed, then so be it. I think that you should answer the question now to make sure that we all know what exactly your reasoning was. Any details would be much appreciated... And as soon as possible, preferably."

Ms. Clayton glared up at her at that, and she didn't even bother trying to hide her enmity. Her grip was growing tighter on the pinwheel in her hand, but she did her best to not let her anger show outwardly, at least not physically. She shelved it a moment later before pulling herself back up to her full height. "I think it would make a lot more sense if you focused on the defendant here. He's the one on trial, and no matter how much you wish that I am the culprit, the truth remains the same. He was the one who killed the victim, and you'll have to face the truth of the matter soon enough."

"Right now, everyone in this courtroom thinks that you did it though. Even if there's no direct evidence like what you've been clamoring for this entire trial, we all know better than to be sucked in by your words," Chrysalis frowned. "In fact, I would say that the lack of direct evidence makes you even more suspicious here. If you were involved with the Emsthorpe crime ring, then you would have been fully aware of how to cover up something like this. After all, it's in your direct job description."

"The defendant wouldn't have had any time to alter the scene of the crime to make sure that it seemed as if he was innocent. If he was the culprit, then he would have known better than to let himself be caught at the scene of the murder," I said next, speaking before I could hold myself back. My heart was screaming in my chest, clearly not too happy about the circumstances of speaking to someone who was so clearly an assassin, but I did my best to calm down. "In the end, it all seems to come down to what we know happened at the time of the crime."

"Testimony is flimsy, and you can't believe it quite so easily," Ms. Clayton pointed out. "You have no way of being certain that the previous witnesses were telling the truth, and yet, you're staking your entire case on what they had to say. It's a shame that you don't seem to know better about what happened. You should be thinking about this more carefully than you are, and yet... That just doesn't seem to be on your mind."

"I believe that we should take your words to heart then," Victoria told her. "You're right in saying that testimony is flimsy, and if there are multiple other people who can counter what you have to say about the time of the crime, then we shouldn't hold much faith in what you've said up to this point. It's easy for people to lie and fabricate testimony, and it seems to me as if you've been doing that this entire time."

"You don't have any evidence that I was the killer though," Ms. Clayton declared with a shake of her head. "You have no way of proving that I was behind it, and even if you did have evidence, it wouldn't be enough. You won't be able to have me arrested, and you're just going to have to face the truth of the matter."

"I still believe that everybody knows how they feel about the case, and the judge seems to agree," Chrysalis said nonchalantly. "You were at the scene of the crime, and you even admitted to being there when the murder took place. Even if testimony is flimsy, I'm inclined to trust three people above the words of a single person who has done nothing but act contrarian this entire trial. You should face what you've done and own up to it all as well. You're not going to be able to get away with what you've done."

"Bailiffs, I believe this witness merits further questioning," Judge Frost announced. "The truth of this trial is clear as can be, but there's still a lot that we don't understand about the identity of who killed the victim. I think it would be for the best if we simply had this woman taken in for questioning and then handled the verdict now. After all, we all know how this trial is going to be ending."

Ms. Clayton's expression shifted to shock, and her grip on her pinwheel continued to increase in intensity. "You can't possibly mean to do all of this," she murmured. "You're going to realize how much of a mistake you're making soon enough, and even if you haven't figured it out yet, you'll have to wake up soon enough."

"For now, we can say with certainty that the defendant is not the culprit, and your testimony needs to be examined in more detail at a later date. That is how I feel about the case, and we should follow through with that," Judge Frost announced. "Bailiffs, you know what must be done."

Ms. Clayton snapped the pinwheel in half with her grip, and she dropped both halves of it to the ground a moment later as bailiffs surged around her. "You're going to regret this!" she shouted as she continued to fight them on her way out of the courtroom. "You have no idea what you're doing, and it would be for the best if you dropped it now! You still have a chance to go back on this!"

"I've made my decision, witness. We'll hear more from you at a later date after we've released the defendant from the detention center," Judge Frost announced. She continued to watch as Ms. Clayton was dragged out of the courtroom, and everyone else stared along with her as silence fell over the gallery. I didn't know what to say, so all I did was stare and wait for my senses to start returning to me.

It wasn't until after Ms. Clayton was gone that I allowed myself to breathe once again. "Given the circumstances, I take it that the defense and prosecution do not object to the circumstances of the trial's conclusion," Judge Frost declared as the silence finally shattered. I turned to look at her and saw that she had reached for her gavel, no doubt her silent way of saying that she was ready to end the trial.

I nodded. "The defense has no objections," I announced, trying to seem a lot stronger than I felt, though that was much easier said than done. Everything inside of my body felt nauseous, like my nerves were trying to rise up and kill me after all that had happened. I still couldn't believe that it had ended that way. I had figured for a while that Ms. Clayton was the culprit behind this case, but given the lack of evidence, I had no idea how we were supposed to pin her down.

"The prosecution has no objections either," Prosecutor Shield agreed with a nod, and I could see the tension in his shoulders from across the courtroom. He was shocked that Judge Frost had so readily ended the trial that way even though he knew the truth just as well as everybody else did. Ms. Clayton must have been the culprit, and the strange circumstances surrounding her sudden appearance made it obvious even if there was no solid evidence.

"In that case, I see no reason to draw out these proceedings any longer," Judge Frost said. She lifted her gavel a bit higher as Prosecutor Cruz walked up to the stand, his movements slow, no doubt because of how exhausted he was after the intense argument that had just unfolded. "This court hereby finds the defendant, Vito Cruz, not guilty. Court is adjourned!"

As Judge Frost's gavel came down, I let out a heavy sigh, staring down at my hands all along the way. My stomach was still twisted with anxiety, and I had no idea how I was supposed to del with this. I had always been hoping that I would never have to deal with assassins again, but here I was, and I had somehow managed to survive the trial without completely crumbling. It felt like a miracle and a half, if I was being honest, but at least I was still standing. That had to count for something.

For the time being, all I could do was hope that Ms. Clayton's guilt was proven at a later date, but I was happy to relish in this victory for at least a few moments longer.

Character based cases /pos

-Digital