July 7

Blocker Law

3:00 PM

Sky Amaya

It didn't take us that long to figure out where James had gone off to for a quick nap, though I could already tell by the exhausted look on his face that he hadn't been able to rest for so long. Still, as soon as he noticed us, he put a smile on without bothering to hide just how much he was lying by doing so. "Hey there, everyone," he greeted. "You wanted to hear from me again, hm?"

"We were hoping you would be willing to tell us a bit more about your brother," I said, not wasting a beat in getting right down to the heart of the matter. Immediately, all of James' charm faded away, leaving him pale and shocked. "I'm sorry for having to dredge up old memories, but I think this is what we need if we're going to show that Prosecutor Daegana is innocent."

James thought about it for a moment before sighing. "I should have known this was going to come up sooner or later," he muttered. "Alright. I don't know all the details, but I should be able to tell you more than enough to at least get the ball rolling. It won't be perfect, but I think that's just about the only choice we have."

We all stood silent and attentive as James took in a careful breath before continuing to speak once again. "My father's name was Richard Devine, and he was a defense attorney. It was a long time ago, but he actually defended at an agency here in town... Wattson Law Offices," James began to tell us. "He took on a few cases and did a great job at proving his clients were innocent, but... After the owner of the agency was murdered, everyone began to drift apart, and my father wound up leaving the city to go back to his hometown. That was where he and my mother got together, and he lived there after the fact."

"Somehow, I don't think the story ends right there," Felicity muttered with a shake of her head. "What happened after he moved back home?"

"He was investigating something, but he never let me know what it was. I suppose he didn't want to give up on his old work as a defense attorney, because he was chasing something down with everything he had. He didn't want me to get involved with it as far as I could tell, probably because it was dangerous," James went on. "He... He went missing years ago, no doubt because of his search. He wasn't even close to a major breakthrough or anything. I just... I think the people he was trying to investigate got to him, and that was why he left."

"So, you suspect that he was essentially dead as soon as he went missing," I murmured, hating to admit that this was an idea we were going to have to think about. "I'm so sorry, James... Nobody deserves to deal with something like that."

James shook his head. "It's fine," he assured me. "It's been a long time, and... I like to think that I've come to terms with it, at least as much as someone can come to terms with the idea of their father being killed like that. I don't even know for sure what happened to him. He just disappeared one night and never came back. They never even found a body. I can only assume that he's gone though since... Well, if h e's been gone for so many years, then that feels like the only explanation for it all."

"But just hearing that he was probably gone wasn't enough for your brother, and that's why he decided to reach out and figure out what had really happened," Yuri concluded with a small nod. "I see... That makes sense."

"Albert just couldn't let it go. He was determined to understand just why our father had gone missing even if there was no evidence to go off in the first place. He was just... So sure of himself that he would be able to figure it out," James murmured. "After that, he vanished too, though I felt like he was probably still alive out there even if our father was dead. That was one of the reasons I decided to start acting. I thought that if I became a big enough star, he would see me and decide to come home to me, our mother, and our grandparents. I couldn't just let him leave when he was one of the only family members we had left. It wasn't right. After what happened to my father, I... Losing him was like another punch to the stomach."

"I had no idea you were searching for him so much," Felicity admitted with wide eyes. "It's sweet just how much you were willing to do in order to find your brother though. I'm sure he would be happy to hear about that... You know, once he... Wakes up and all that."

"I hope he wakes up at all," James sighed. "I'm really praying for it, but other people around here are starting to worry that it's not going to be quite so cut and dry. I have no idea what to think of any of it. I... I need to talk to him though. I'm tired of not understanding anything about his actions or reasoning. I need to know exactly why he left and exactly what he was so sure he was going to find."

"He's going to be fine," Yuri assured him. "Everything is going to be okay. We're going to figure out who attacked him and bring them to justice. There's nothing anyone is going to be able to do to stop us."

"We've got a motive in mind now, at the very least," I offered. "Now that we know just how deep this investigation Albert was doing truly ran, I feel like we know what direction we're supposed to be searching in. We need to figure out who would have wanted to attack him for investigating a past case your father had worked on."

"I might be able to provide a bit of insight into that... Specifically with the case that made my father leave the city in the first place," James said. "It was... Well, it was the case that ended with the owner of his defense agency being killed. She was investigating evidence forgeries, and she was murdered the instant the forger figured out what she was up to. From there, the trial played out, but the one who had killed her didn't stop after her death. Instead, he wound up killing the judge of the trial too just after the verdict for the sake of keeping everything quiet."

"A judge was killed in the middle of a trial?" Yuri echoed with wide eyes. "I didn't even think something like that was possible. Shouldn't the security be way too high for somebody to even think of pulling off something on that scale?"

"It shouldn't have been possible, but since the killer was a high-ranking prosecutor, he was able to sneak the gun inside. He wound up pinning the crime on another man, and... It ended in disaster," James sighed. "The man was found guilty of murder because the new judge that took over the case was bribed into staying quiet. The verdict was declared as guilty, and the man was sentenced to execution. He was executed before anyone knew what had happened in truth, but many people tried to investigate the truth."

"I can certainly see how a case wound up in so many secrets would lead to so many problems for everyone later down the line," I muttered. "Something like this certainly sounds like a disaster... And I know why your father would have wanted to investigate it if the case ended... Like that."

"What happened to the judge after all of that?" Yuri asked. "If he was bribed into staying quiet and to accepting a guilty verdict even though the truth was that the man was innocent... He needs to pay for his crimes as soon as possible."

"I don't know. I tried to figure that out, but I was only able to put together so much," James replied with a shake of his head. "A few years later, the criminal behind the case was caught and put behind bars... Alphonse Clarence."

The gears in Yuri's head seemed to turn before everything clicked together. "I remember that man!" she cried out. "He was the victim in a case at the prison a few years ago. He had been killed for his involvement in..." The pieces came together a little bit more, and she nodded to herself. "Oh. He was killed because of his involvement in this case. That's it, isn't it?"

"That's what I think," James agreed. "I wish I could tell you much more than that, but... There's not much else to say. The prosecutor responsible for this entire mess did everything he could to erase the evidence after the case was over, and it was only thanks to a miracle that he was actually caught. He was locked up by a prosecutor names Luis Cruz and then a defense attorney named Bernadette Rivera. Afterward, he was sentenced to life in prison, and I suppose he did live out a life sentence... Until he was killed."

"Do you think the prosecutor of the case killed your father after realizing that he was trying to dig a bit deeper into it all?" Felicity asked. "That would certainly make sense. If he was desperate enough to kill so many people around the murder, then he probably would have wanted your father out of the picture too."

"I don't know... But I don't think he was involved with it," James said with a shake of his head. "He had already been locked up by the time that all of this started. I don't know what happened to my father, but it was something that took place after Alphonse Clarence had already been killed. It's been a mystery for ages to me as to why my father could have died, but... He never let me in on any of the details of his investigation since he said that it wasn't anything that had to involve me. I wish I could tell you a bit more about everything that happened though. I feel like that would make all of our lives much easier."

"It's alright, James. You've already told us more than enough to be helpful," Yuri promised him. "Though I do have to wonder about this defendant behind the case... Do you know anything about him?"

James thought about it before he shrugged. "I don't remember the details... I'm sure Albert would do a much better job at filling you in after he wakes up, but... I do know that the defendant had a really strange surname. As soon as I saw it on the case file, I was at a loss for what to think of it, and I didn't know how to say it either," he replied. He thought about it for a moment before pulling out his phone and starting to type away on the notes app, trying to figure out how he was supposed to spell the name. "What was it again...? I know I would recognize it if I saw it again..."

"Take your time," I told him. "You don't need to push yourself. In fact, I think you've already told us more than enough in terms of helpful information about this case. Everything you've said up to now is... It's a lot to take in, but I agree that it has to be the reason for all of this happening."

"There it is!" James cried out. He turned his phone around for us to see, laughing loosely to himself along the way. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know how to say it out loud. I hope that reading it will do something for you."

I don't know what name I was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn't the name I saw.

Emsthorpe.

"You can't be serious!" Yuri yelped, her eyes going wide. "The defendant of that case was an Emsthorpe?!"

James thought about it for a moment, tilting his head to the side in confusion. "I'm afraid I dont' understand... Am I supposed to know what that name means?" he questioned slowly. "I haven't ever heard of anybody going by that name, but you make it sound serious."

"The Emsthorpe family is serious business," Felicity confirmed, an unexpected sharpness creeping into her gaze. I forced myself to look away when guilt began to climb through my stomach at the sight of it. "They're dangerous assassins who kill people involved with the legal system. Anybody who does something they don't like has the potential to be targeted. They've done a lot over the years, and they've been especially active recently."

James' eyes only seemed to get wider with each word as he clung closely to Felicity's explanation. "No way..." he murmured. "But what in the world could all of this mean? Do you really think that the Emsthorpe family had something to do with my father's disappearance? But he would have been on their side after he defended someone with that name... I don't understand what the problem could possibly be."

"I don't know what happened in detail, but I think it's safe enough to say that we've got a massive case on our hands, and it all ties back with the Emsthorpe family," I frowned. "I bet they're the ones behind all of this now too. Who else could have done it? They're incredibly dangerous, and..."

"They could have been responsible for it if they were trying to silence someone who was looking into them," Yuri finished for me. "But I don't know why they would have wanted to stab someone like Albert in the back... All of this is supposed to change the way we look at everything that's happened up to this point, but I don't know what to think of it at all. I mean, even if Albert was investigating them, I... I don't know. I guess I would have thought that they would have wanted to stay on the side of the people who had tried to defend one of their own."

"I think this is something we're going to have to wait to hear answers from Albert about, but for now, we've got enough of a basic set of details to press on with our investigation," I said. "We know that there was a case a long time ago where a member of the family was arrested for killing a judge. After the fact, he was found guilty, and everything seemed to spiral out of control from there."

"I still think there's a lot here we don't really understand, but it's a step in the right direction, and at least we understand a bit more of the potential motive now," Felicity murmured. "It sounds to me like the culprit we're supposed to be looking for is a member of the Emsthorpe family. That feels like the most likely outcome."

"But if the Emsthorpe family is really that dangerous, then..." James trailed off, seemingly afraid of having to entertain the idea of his brother getting tied up in something like that. He did his best to shake off a shiver, though he ultimately failed in his endeavor. "I guess all we can do is be thankful the bullet didn't strike any closer to Albert's heart. He probably only managed to survive something like that because he got lucky, especially if this family is full of trained assassins out for the blood of the people they dislike within the legal world."

"I can't believe we keep running into them," Yuri muttered bitterly, trying my best to maintain my composure even though I was fully aware of just how much I was failing. "It seems like they're waiting for us around every corner no matter what we do."

"That's their nature, I suppose... They're always trying to get in the way somehow," I said softly, my voice going dark before I could even register what was happening. I stared down at the ground for a few beats, trying my best to shake off the thoughts quickly starting to creep into my mind, before focusing back in on the conversation at hand. "If we really are dealing with an Emsthorpe assassin here, then we need to be as careful as possible. I imagine that they couldn't have gone too far. They tend to stay close to the scene of the crime when they do something unsavory, so the culprit has to be somewhere close by..."

"I don't think we should be considering that a good thing though," Felicity said with a shake of her head. "In fact, I have an awful feeling about the assassins being close to here somehow... I mean, it would make sense if they were nearby, but..."

"I understand. If that's what they were able to do to Albert, then... I don't want to imagine what they're willing to do in order to get away after we find them and try to narrow down the truth," James whispered, almost as if he was afraid of the words he was speaking. "I don't want to do anything that could possibly upset them and prompt them to do anything worse than what's already happened, but at the same time, we need to make sure that everyone else is kept safe too. We don't want the assassins roaming free, but getting close is dangerous too..."

"We'll find a way to work everything out," Yuri assured him. "I know things are scary right now, but we've managed to get this far, right? We're going to keep pushing forward and make sure that everything is safe along the way. Those Emsthorpe assassins might think that they'll be able to get away with any crime, but we're going to stop them and show that's not the case. We just need you to stick it out with us and try to stay calm, okay, James?"

For a few beats, James seemed shocked that he was hearing words like this from Yuri, but he shoved his surprise aside quickly before nodding. "Yes... Of course," he agreed. "I'll do what I can to help you out. I might not have been able to do anything to help my brother when he was attacked, but I can do something now to try and make up for that. I owe that much to him and to myself."

"You couldn't have known this was how it was going to end. I don't want you blaming yourself for something that was well out of your control," I told him, shooting a fleeting glance at Felicity out of the corner of my eye. She didn't seem to notice, and if she did, she didn't bother with looking back at me in return. "We're going to do what we can, and as long as you're willing to work with us, everything is going to be fine. This isn't something that rests on your shoulders. The only person responsible for everything that happened here last night is the criminal, and we're going to find them one way or another. That much I promise."

"Speaking of the criminal, I don't know what we're supposed to do about all of that," Felicity admitted. "I would like to think that we can just catch them and reveal the truth of everything they've done, but if they're part of the Emsthorpe ring, it's not going to be that easy... I mean, we don't even know what the whole situation is like as far as where they are. That's an even bigger problem."

I nodded at that. She was certainly right about us not knowing where the criminal was being a massive problem we still had yet to solve. I didn't know what we were going to do about all of this, but we had to at least try to figure out something... But where were we supposed to start? We were searching for a criminal who must have escaped the scene of the crime at some point, and yet, there was no way for the criminal to have gotten away at all. How were we meant to unravel a mystery like that when it seemed as if the answer simply didn't exist?

"You know... I have to wonder where the killer disappeared to as well, and it makes me think... Perhaps we're not looking at this properly," James suggested. "My father didn't get to impart much of his knowledge from the courtroom onto me, but he suggested that when things seem impossible, the best thing to do is to turn your thinking around and try to change the way you address the situation."

"Then where do you think we should be looking at all of this from?" Yuri asked. "We're all stumped on what could have happened for the culprit to get away, and that's not a problem we're going to be able to solve easily no matter what we do."

"Then let's think about it this way. If the culprit couldn't have escaped, then what would that mean?" James questioned.

"It means the culprit is still here in this building," Felicity concluded. She took a few seconds to think the words through before her eyes went wide. "What if the criminal really is still hiding out in here?! There have to be all sorts of places to hide as long as you know what you're supposed to be looking for! The culprit could have slipped into one of the rooms on an upper floor when they realized they weren't going to be able to get away! It hasn't been long enough for them to be desperate to get out, so they could still be there!"

"We should go and tell the rest of the investigation team about this then!" Yuri exclaimed. "Even if this doesn't go anywhere, as long as the possibility exists for the criminal to still be here in this building, we have to chase it down and milk it for all it's worth!"

"Then let's go and find Mukuro and Aiden," I said firmly as we all started to walk away with James taking up the rear. He seemed to be as alert as ever now, though I could only assume that was because of the adrenaline from everything that he had just heard and explained. He probably hadn't expected to hear of a group of deadly assassins being after his older brother when this entire incident began, and that would give a shock to anyone's system. I just hoped he would be alright with facing down against whatever else it was that we were going to find...

It didn't take us long to track down Mukuro and Aiden though, and the two of them were chatting with a few police officers. I could already tell by the tension in the air that it was far from being a simple or polite conversation, and Mukuro's confrontational stance only hit the point home harder. Aiden was the first to notice us, and his face seemed to be hit with a tidal wave of relief as he waved us over. The police officers he and Mukuro had been talking to walked away at that, leaving the six of us to talk without interruption.

"I didn't realize you would all be back so soon," Mukuro remarked, her eyes going wide. "Were you able to find anything else that you think could help us out with the investigation?"

"We might have figured something out, but first, I want to know what all of that was about," Yuri said as she elevated herself onto her toes to look at the retreating police officers. "I'm not used to seeing you look all cross like that. Did the officers do something to get on your nerves or something?"

"If by 'getting on our nerves' you mean 'continuing to insist Prosecutor Daegana is the culprit regardless of how accurate that actually is,' then yes, they are getting on my nerves," Mukuro sighed. "We've been trying to keep the investigation afloat for ages now, but the officers who got here first just want to get the arrest over with. They don't seem to care about if they're right or wrong about who they think the criminal is. They want the glory of being able to say the case is solved even though we know better than that."

"And it's getting in the way of the entire investigation," I finished for her, and she nodded in return. I winced, though I wasn't entirely surprised that this was how it had all ended up. It seemed like a lot of arrests happened solely because of negligence and a hurried investigation, and even in a case where it seemed like we might be able to prevent that, there was still pushback. I suppose we should have known it wasn't going to be that simple.

"I hate the fact that they have an arrest quota to meet at all, but I guess there's nothing I can do to stop that right now," Mukuro sighed with a shake of her head. "Whatever. We're going to do what we can to try and fix all of this, and that means investigating whether they want us to or not."

"The perfect way for us to proceed is to start with the thing that you said you found," Aiden said, putting us right back on track again. "What is it you think you might have uncovered?"

"If the culprit couldn't have gotten away without being spotted or otherwise exposed for their involvement with the crime, then it could be possible that they're still here in the building," I explained.

Mukuro and Aiden's eyes went wide. "Y-You can't be serious," Aiden stammered even though I could see in his eyes that he already knew the truth of the matter.

"I don't like it any more than you do, but I feel like we just have to face reality at this point and recognize that if there was no escape route for the culprit, then there must be some other options... Including the possibility of the culprit still being hidden somewhere in this building waiting for the time to escape," I went on. "I think we should try to have a thorough search of the building taken care of as soon as possible just to narrow down the possibility."

"I agree," Mukuro nodded. "I'm really hoping that this isn't the case, but... Well, we're just going to have to see where this takes us. Let's go and get this taken care of so that we can at least rule out the possibility... Or get another suspect on the table."

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of activity as Mukuro and Aiden dashed off to order the start of the search. Felicity, Yuri, James, and I wound up trailing after the detectives once the order had been distributed, and we did what we could to contribute to the search as well. Said contributions ultimately brought us to the top floor of the building, specifically in the same room that had once been used as Jackson Blocker's office back when he was still alive. The mere idea sent a shiver up and down my spine. So much had changed since then, and looking back on it felt like a punch to the stomach.

"Alright... We should get to searching," Mukuro suggested. "There has to be something around here that could help us out... I bet that Albert was planning on coming up here at some point in his investigation so that he could find out what really happened all those years ago, so there needs to be at least one piece of evidence."

I nodded, though I wasn't entirely paying attention to her words. Instead, my gaze fell on a pile of files stacked up against a nearby cabinet. I could already tell what that meant, and my mouth went dry from fear. James had been right; I knew exactly what was happening here. Everyone else caught on as well when they realized I was staring at the cabinet, and the room fell perfectly silent in anticipation of what was going to have to come next.

That closet had a person in it, and we were going to have to open it.

We all remained silent until an officer passed by outside the door. Mukuro leaned out and gestured for him to come inside, and I recognized him as one of the people who Mukuro and Aiden had been arguing with before. She pushed all of that aside though, instead pointing to the cabinet. The officer raised an eyebrow at her, and Mukuro bit her lip before glancing down to his gun. We had no idea what was going to be waiting for us inside the cabinet, and if the criminal had shot Albert already, the rest of us could have been next. We had to be ready.

As soon as the officer was in position, Mukuro curled her fingers around the right doorknob of the cabinet. Aiden did the same on the left, though I could see his hands shaking visibly. Nobody wanted to have to deal with this, but it was our only option. If there really was a criminal waiting inside, then we had to drag them out and make sure they faced justice as soon as possible.

Especially if it was an Emsthorpe.

When the doors finally opened, I watched carefully as a woman stepped out. Her hair was dark, and everything about her disposition was as well. Her exhaustion was clear to see, almost as if she hadn't gotten more than four hours of sleep a night for at least the last few nights. She couldn't seem to hold her shoulders tall and proud, and as she looked around the room slowly and carefully, I realized that something about her felt familiar in a way I couldn't quite put a finger on.

The woman blinked at all of us in poorly masked confusion. "Hello."

forgot to post this sorry

-Digital