October 23

Council of Six Headquarters

10:15 AM

Lily Shield

Somehow, the inside of the headquarters were even more crowded and busy than the outside had been, and I hadn't even thought that was possible. It made sense given the circumstances, but I still felt my stomach twist at the idea. We still barely understood what was happening with this case in the first place, and I could tell this was a bad sign in the long run. I shook it off to the best of my ability, instead looking over to Deirdre and Yuri carefully. "So... Who do you think is going to be able to fill us in most about this case?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," Deirdre admitted. "I would like to say that speaking with the people who were here that night would help, but it seems as if that's not going to be happening for a while longer. Chrysalis is still in questioning, the chief prosecutor knows nothing, and the only other person who might be able to fill things in for us is out of the picture entirely. Until one of those facts changes, we're at a bit of a loss for what our next step should be."

I sighed and press my hands down until I saw stars. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised... This is the one place that would have its details hidden for the sake of an investigation," I murmured. "Nobody wants to talk about anything that happens here because of how secretive its employees are on a good day. We're not going to find much luck until we can uncover the truth on our own terms."

"There's one thing I've been wondering about though," Yuri chimed in. "I mean, we heard before that the people who came here only came to the building because they received a letter that wound up being a forgery. Maybe we should go and find somebody who might be able to fill us in about the forged letter. Maybe we could talk to the person who supposedly sent it."

"That's a good idea," Deirdre nodded. "If only we knew how to figure out exactly who that person was..."

"I might be able to fill you in on that."

Robbie came walking over a moment later, and a grand smile spread across my features at the sight of him. "Robbie!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together before I rushed to his side. "What are you doing here? Are you going to be the prosecutor for this case?"

"One of them," Robbie answered. He gestured off behind him where I could see Prosecutor Cruz and Prosecutor Umber engaged in conversation quietly. "The three of us are working together for the case. I'm willing to assume that's what's happening with the three of you too, huh?"

"Not exactly," I admitted with a small laugh. "All six of us are trying to investigate... Everybody from the agency aside from Pieter, Chrysalis, and Mr. Morix. The three of them are busy with everything that happened in this case, but the rest of us are trying to help how we can with the investigation."

"I suppose I should have known it was just a matter of time before you showed up to try and help with the investigation," Robbie said. "I expected you to want to find the truth once you learned who the suspect was, but I didn't think you would end up here so soon. How did you even hear about the case? I was under the impression the police were trying to keep it as quiet as possible for the sake of the parties involved... And because the media would turn this into an even bigger disaster than it already is."

"I guess that's our first question for you," Yuri remarked, and Robbie looked at her quizzically. "We got this phone call from someone we don't know. Deirdre didn't recognize the voice and though it was because the call came from somebody who was using a voice modifier of some kind. They told us that we had to come here because there was something going on here that might 'answer the questions we had' or something. We came here to see if that would help, and... Well, you can see what we wound up running into."

"A man using a voice modifier to call you... That's certainly an odd way to hear about the case," Robbie muttered. "That was one of the last things I expected you to say, but I guess there's nothing we can do about it now. We can just go on and add that to the list of mysteries surrounding this case. It's not like we have much of anything in the way of answers, so what's one more for the list?"

"Maybe you'll be able to answer our first question then," I told him. "We're hoping to learn more about the person who sent the letters to the people who came here at the time of the crime. We heard a few letters were sent out, but they wound up being forgeries."

"They were forgeries... But if you want to hear about the person we thought was behind it, then that's simple. The letters were signed from Ophani Diaphan," Robbie replied.

"I suppose that makes a lot of sense..." Deirdre realized with a small nod. "There's one person who could send a letter talking about wanting to speak with people in the Council of Six's headquarters without anybody asking questions. She works here, after all, so she would be able to get away with that easily."

"But the letter wasn't from her," Robbie clarified. "Somebody signed it with her name, but she wasn't the one who wrote it. The handwriting samples had next to nothing in common, as a matter of fact. We still don't know who was behind it, but I suppose that's a question for another time."

"I guess you're right," I murmured, letting one hand come up to cup at my chin. "I can only imagine that the letters were sent by the real culprit. Who else would want to do that?"

"The fake letters having next to nothing in common with the actual letters make you ask a few questions too... Why didn't the culprit put a bit more effort into making the ruse feel like it was real?" Yuri asked. "I mean, it would have at least bought the culprit some time if they had tried to copy her handwriting a bit more directly."

"If you ask me, that would be because it wouldn't have mattered," Robbie answered. "If I had to guess, I would say that last night was part of some greater plan. Forging letters to get people in here and then trapping them... That was what the chief prosecutor said, at the very least. It took him a while to find a door that had been open so he could leave. He didn't know there was anyone else in there either. As far as he was aware, he had received a letter asking him to come to the building, but when he arrived, he found that Judge Diaphan had stood him up. Then, after a bit more digging, we realized that she hadn't sent the letters in the first place, and all our questions only kept piling up more."

"There's certainly a lot going on here... And I think it would be best for us to try and go over this case from the start," I suggested. "What do you think we should know first and foremost?"

"Three letters were sent out from someone who claimed to be Judge Diaphan, but when the people in question arrived here, they found nothing. One of them went missing after the fact, but we have no idea how that could have happened," Robbie began. "We're still searching for Prosecutor Wood now, but... We have no idea where in the world she would have gone. The chief prosecutor didn't know about any of this until after he had left the building. The only person who was still in the building when morning came claims to have no memories of whatever transpired here last night."

"There's something we didn't know yet," Deirdre remarked, her eyes going wide. "We just heard that Chrysalis was in questioning and wouldn't be able to talk to us for quite some time because of it."

"I mean, she's not going to be able to talk to you even when she gets out of questioning. She doesn't remember a thing that happened last night, and no matter how many times we try to ask questions, we come up short. It's like the case is a massive blank spot in her memory for some reason or another," Robbie sighed. "In other words, we're having a lot of problems with this right now. We're going to try and learn as much as we can before the trial starts tomorrow, but that's much easier said than done."

"I'm glad to hear that we're all having a great time here," Yuri sighed, pinching at the bridge of her nose before crossing her arms. "Whatever. We're going to make progress soon enough, I'm sure. For now, we've got a lot to look around at here, and I think we should get right down to business."

"Oh, hey, Deirdre."

Prosecutor Cruz and Prosecutor Umber had finally realized there were other people in the area, and they walked up to us casually. Prosecutor Cruz had his hands shoved in his pockets, and even though he was trying to make it seem like he was sizing us all up from behind his glasses, I could tell he was primarily staring at Deirdre. She hadn't bothered with elaborating on what their relationship was supposed to be no matter how many times I asked, but I could tell by the way he was watching her that it was certainly something. I don't know what I expected after he wound up arrested while they went out on a date-even if he didn't want to call it that-but I could still tell where this was going.

"Hello, Vito," Deirdre smiled. She was trying to make this seem like a purely professional matter rather than being anything she was excited about, but I could see the truth. I had come to know her too well over our years of working together to let something this blatant go.

"I guess you're here as part of the defense, huh?" Prosecutor Cruz asked, and Deirdre gave something between a shrug and a nod to show that seemed to be the case, at least to some degree. "Well, we're glad to have you here. That's going to make things a lot easier for us going forward. The truth is that we could really use all the help we could get around here."

"Only if you answer a few questions for us first," Yuri cut in, crossing her arms with a frown. Prosecutor Cruz looked down at her in confusion, seemingly having not expected her of all people to start making demands like that. "I want to hear everything you know about this case, if you wouldn't mind sharing it."

"He probably doesn't have anything else special to share with you aside from what I already said," Robbie pointed out. "Everybody is lacking in answers right now, and if you want us to help you out, then you're going to have to give it a little bit more time."

"What about Pieter then?" I asked. "Would you be able to fill us in on why exactly he was arrested as the suspect for this case?"

"When morning came and the building was found once again, he was there when the police arrived," Prosecutor Cruz replied. "He said that he received a call of his own suggesting that he go to see what was going on there, and he wound up following its idea. When he arrived, he entered the building and tried to look around, but since he was the only one in the area who didn't have an alibi for the night before, he was arrested on the spot."

"What does he say he was doing at the time then?" Deirdre asked. "I doubt Pieter would leave behind his life to go and investigate a random building in the middle of the night. He doesn't have much of a link with the scene of the crime, so what could have motivated something like this?"

"He says that he was asleep, but since he has his own room in the apartment he shares with a few others, we can't verify that," Prosecutor Umber said. "We were able to contact one of the two people he lives with. It was an older woman, and she said that she thought he had been there all night, but when she checked his room while on the phone with us, he was gone."

"That must have been Victoria's mother then," Yuri realized, her eyes going wide. "I bet Victoria only barely managed to avoid being asked to talk to the police about all of this... Luck and all that."

I nodded my agreement. "I guess we're going to have to talk to her about that when we get the chance... I can't imagine she'll be able to fill in many details for us if she was asleep all night and didn't even realize that Pieter was gone, but we can still ask," I agreed. "If anything, I can't believe she didn't say sooner that she didn't know where he was. I would have thought she would have told us if she thought he was missing, but she didn't say anything about that today..."

"It was supposed to be his day off though," Deirdre pointed out. "She probably thought he had just gotten a head start on his day to himself. It's not like she would have had any reason to believe something else. There was no evidence of him having left in the middle of the night to investigate something she hadn't been aware happened."

"Where is Victoria anyway?" Prosecutor Cruz asked. "I would have thought she would be here trying to investigate if she heard her boyfriend had been arrested. Why in the world is she gone?"

"The rest of us at the agency decided to divide and conquer when we heard about the case," I explained. "She went with Felicity and Sky to speak with Pieter in the detention center because she was worried about him. We're still not entirely sure who's going to wind up being the defense team when all is said and done, but I'm willing to guess that she's going to want to be involved with it somehow."

"I see... Well, as long as you're here and can keep looking around in the area, we can take you to somebody who might be able to answer a few of your questions," Robbie suggested. "You said before that you wanted to hear more about the letters that were sent out about last night, right? Well, Judge Diaphan is still here, and I'm sure she would be more than happy to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. She doesn't entirely understand what's happening herself, but it wouldn't hurt for you to at least ask her a few questions about it."

I looked to Deirdre and Yuri at that, and they both nodded their agreement. "That sounds great," I smiled. "Thank you for the help, Robbie. Lead the way."

October 23

Detention Center

10:30 AM

Victoria von Graye

I didn't think I had been this nervous in years. The only time I could think of that would even come close to competing with this was when I had been the one arrested for murder, but that was in the past now. The pain and worry that came with Pieter being arrested was all too immediate, and it made my stomach churn as I paced the length of the waiting room in the detention center, occasionally letting out worried whines from between gritted teeth.

"It's going to be okay, Vicky," Felicity assured me. She was sitting in one of the chairs against the wall, one hand being used to keep her head up. I didn't think I would ever get used to seeing her look so apathetic and lacking in energy after knowing what she was really like. Even after all these months of her barely even understanding what was going on in her head, it still caught me off guard, and today was no exception.

"I know," I said softly even though I wasn't entirely sure if I believed it. We were going to give this case our all and do everything we could to defend Pieter. That much I knew without a shadow of a doubt. Still, I had an awful feeling about all of this. How could I not? He had been arrested for murder, we didn't even know who the victim was, and we probably wouldn't understand what was happening with the case until it was too late. This investigation was moving too fast, even more so than most other cases, and I was desperate for everything to just stop for a moment.

I didn't say all of this out loud though, knowing that my thoughts would outpace my lips before I could even start talking. Instead, I just kept pacing, Sky watching me travel in either direction with a small frown on his face. He looked even more anxious than normal too, always peering at Felicity out of the corner of his eye. I had no idea why he was so worried, more so than usual, now of all times. On one hand, I thought it could have been because Pieter had been arrested, but he hadn't even been this worked up when Lily was arrested previously. It wasn't a matter of somebody he knew being accused of murder. This issue ran far deeper than that, and it was scaring me half to death.

When Pieter appeared on the other side of the glass, it took everything I had to keep from running up to him and trying to touch him across the barrier. Instead, I walked up to him closely, tears starting to cloud up at the corners of my eyes. "Pieter!" I cried out, unable to keep the word inside. "Are you okay? What's going on? Is there anything I can do?"

Pieter sat down slowly, and I realized around this time that his sword had been taken off his person. It felt strange seeing him without Ikari, and I frowned intensely at the empty place where the blade was supposed to be. "I... I'll be alright, Victoria," he told me even though I was sure he knew better than to think we were going to believe him quite so easily. "I didn't realize you had even heard about this yet. I was planning on calling you when I got the chance, but before I could use my one call, I was told I had visitors."

"Funny enough, we heard about all of this because of a phone call," Sky said. "It was a man that none of us recognized. Or, at the very least, Deirdre didn't recognize him. He was using some kind of voice modifier to hide who he really was."

Pieter's eyes went wide at that, his gaze flashing with recognition. "Hold on... A person using a voice modifier?" he echoed, and when Sky nodded, Pieter clenched his fingers into fists. "I... I might be able to tell you a thing or two about that."

"You can?" Felicity asked, her eyes going wide. She leaned forward in her place from her chair near the wall before realizing she could get closer to the glass at the center of the room. She curled her fingers around the base of the seat before waddling over to the central table and sitting down just in front of it.

"Yeah... A phone call from a strange person I don't know is how I wound up here too, in a strange way," Pieter replied. "It was early this morning, long before anyone else would have been awake... Three-thirty or so, if I had to guess. I received a call, and I answered it since it woke me up. The person on the other side told me that something bad was happening and that a family member needed me. They pointed me to the Council of Six headquarters, and when I got there, I started looking to see what was going on, and... That was when I found the body of the victim. From there, the police found me, and I was arrested."

"I guess the person on the phone knows a lot about what's happening then," I remarked to myself with a small nod. "But how does any of this make any sense? How would an outside party know what was going on? Why would a killer send a call like that? Just who in the world is our mystery man supposed to be?"

"I have no idea, but he... He was right," Pieter started slowly. "Chrysalis was there. I didn't see her while I was walking around, but I did hear that she was there for some reason or another. She said that she received a letter from someone asking her to meet there, and she followed the directions. I didn't get to talk to her though... I was taken away for questioning before I had the chance to find her."

"We haven't been able to speak with her either," Sky frowned. "We heard that she was being questioned herself about everything that happened last night, so she's been out of our reach too."

"That makes sense, as much as I hate to say it... As far as I can tell, she's probably going to be the best person to help us unravel the answers we're looking for here," Pieter sighed. "I don't understand any of this though... I don't know who the man on the phone was or why he wanted to call me. It seems like every part of this is just opening up more questions, and I have no idea where to start with answering them."

"Luckily for you, that's not something you need to worry about anymore," I assured him. "We're going to do all we can to defend you, and it starts with hearing what you know about the case. Deirdre, Yuri, and Lily are down at the scene of the crime trying to look around for answers about other things with the case."

"Have you run into Cotoli yet?" Pieter asked, and I shook my head. "He should be around there somewhere. As far as I can tell, Chrysalis called him as soon as she realized something was wrong earlier this morning. He can probably fill you in on at least a few details, though I doubt he knows much more than you do at this point. There's so much hidden just out of reach for all of us, and I have no idea how to unravel it."

I nodded to myself. I was going to have to make a mental note to talk to him when we got there, assuming the other three didn't get to him first. For the time being though, as long as we were with Pieter, I decided to ask as many questions as I could. First though, I had to resolve something personal. "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving this morning? I know you probably had a lot on your mind at the time, but you didn't need to just... Run off without telling me something was wrong. Really. We would have been happy to help you... Me and Mom, I mean."

"I... I didn't think there was time," Pieter admitted. "I also didn't really think of it. I was in so much of a hurry to get out the door that I didn't bother with saying anything, and I was too frazzled to think of leaving a note. I just knew that if somebody I loved was in danger, I had to get there as soon as possible. I've failed too many people in my life to let that happen again. I panicked, and in the end... I paid the price for it."

"I didn't really think much of it when you weren't there this morning... I guess I just assumed you were already out for your day off," I whispered. "I didn't ever think you were going to end up here of all places..."

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this," Pieter murmured. "I didn't anticipate this was where it was going to end up... But now that I'm here... I... I'm sorry, Victoria."

"You don't need to apologize for anything," I assured him quickly. "I'm glad that I know the truth now. After all, this means that I can do something to help you. It's going to be alright. We've got this."

Pieter sent me a small smile, though I could tell he was still afraid. How could he not be afraid? There was so much happening all at once, and if I was in his position, I would have been terrified. Hell, I had been there once, and it had been terrifying. I could only hope there was something I could do now to make all of this even a little bit easier on him. He deserved that much, even if it wasn't as much as I would have liked to offer.

"What else do you think you can tell us about the case?" Sky asked. "You said that you had seen the victim when you first discovered the scene of the crime. We heard while we were at the headquarters earlier that nobody knows who the victim is, so if you can fill in any details for us..."

"I'm not entirely sure who she is myself, nor do I understand why she was there," Pieter admitted. "Her face was turned away from me, and I didn't really have time to check what she looked like. Her hair was long and black though, and as far as I can tell, she died because of a stab through the chest. And when I say 'through the chest,' I really do mean it. The blade went in one side and came out on the other."

We all looked to one another nervously at that, and I swallowed back as much of my anxiety as I could. "I guess that's why you don't have Ikari on you anymore, huh?" I asked. "The police probably thought it was suspicious if the victim was stabbed with something long and sharp before she died."

"The wound doesn't match up with Ikari. They already tested that much. The wound that was left behind is much too thin for it to have come from Ikari. Still, it was suspicious to them, and they decided it merited investigating further," Pieter replied. "I wish I could tell you more about it, but... I don't really know what can be said."

"Where was the body?" I questioned. "I mean, we're going to have to look around the scene of the crime sooner or later, so it wouldn't hurt for us to know where we're supposed to be headed in the first place."

"It was in one of the large meeting rooms on the third floor," Pieter answered. "There was nothing odd about the room though, at least not at a first glance... Though I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye at the time."

"You thought you saw something out of the ordinary, but you weren't able to investigate it before you were arrested," Felicity concluded, and Pieter nodded his confirmation. "I guess we can look around in the area when we go back there. Until then, I think we've got a lot of great new information on our side."

"Yeah... I think so too," Sky agreed, one foot bouncing anxiously. "Though I have to wonder if maybe we should leave everything at the crime scene to the others. They're already there, and I don't want to add more stress onto their shoulders by making them show us around at the same time. They've got it all under control, and we can look around at other places instead."

"You don't want to go back there," Felicity suddenly declared, and Sky looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "You've been trying to hide it all this time, but I know the truth. You're afraid of going back there. Why are you so nervous, Sky? It's okay. We're going to be fine."

Sky glanced back and forth between all of us, trying to find some kind of out. In the end, he just coughed into his hand, trying to pull attention away from himself even if it was just for a few brief moments. "I... Well... It's nothing," he said. "Don't worry about it."

Felicity looked at Sky dangerously, and I glanced back to Pieter. "I think that's our cue to go," I told him slowly. Sky was acting too suspicious for us to ignore it at this point, and we were going to have to try and break through his shell. He had been making this hard for us up to now, but that was all going to end today. He wasn't going to talk in such a public space though, so that meant we would have to push through on our own.

"Okay," Pieter eventually agreed, seeming to catch on to what exactly was being implied. "Be careful out there. I have no idea what happened or why the criminal acted the way they did, but... You have to be as cautious as possible. For your own sakes, I'm begging you."

I nodded with a reassuring smile. "I promise." I pushed myself to my feet and started for the door. Felicity grabbed at Sky's hand to pull him along before he could try to protest, and I waved to Pieter over my shoulder before stepping out into the hallway. The last thing I saw of the visitors' room was him returning the gesture and waving back.

Once we were out in the hallway, I turned to Sky. This was it. After all this time he had spent hiding, we were going to learn the truth. He wouldn't be getting away this time. I was sure of it.

i'm a sleepy little writer today

-Digital