October 24

Council of Six Headquarters

12:45 PM

Lily Shield

It didn't take us long to track down Detective Wattson after we arrived in the headquarters themselves. She was standing in the room where the body had been found. White tape had come to outline the place where the corpse had been, offering a clearer view of the bloodied floor below. Whoever the culprit was, they hadn't held back at all when it came to unleashing their fury against the victim. The pool of blood left behind was absolutely massive, and it had long since sunk into the carpet. I resisted the urge to cringe at the sight. No matter how many times I went to a crime scene to investigate a murder, it never quite got easier to see.

Detective Wattson was looking down at her phone when we arrived, but she perked up when she realized she had company. "Oh, hello, everyone," she greeted. "I didn't realize I was going to have company. What brings you here?"

"We're here to look around a bit more," Yuri replied. "The trial ended pretty early, so we've got a lot of time to investigate. First and foremost, we were hoping to ask you a few questions about something important regarding this case."

"What would that be?" Detective Wattson asked. "I already fear I might not be able to answer all your questions, if I'm being honest. The investigation has been rather... Slow going, to say the least."

"I'm sure you heard about the phone call the defendant got when this case first started," I began. "Well, we got another one, and we were hoping that maybe you would be able to help us figure out what exactly was going on with all of these calls."

"I see," Detective Wattson murmured with a small nod. "I don't know if I'll be able to track the calls if that's what you're asking for, but I can do a little something else to try and pitch in. What specifically are you hoping to find?"

"Just about anything we can get our hands on," Victoria replied. "We received one of those calls early in the day yesterday, and that was how we knew to come down here to start looking around at all. We got another one while we were outside the building looking for details that could help us out. That makes for three calls now, and we have to figure out what the reason behind them is and who's making them."

"Figuring something like that out would no doubt involve identifying the caller on the other end, and that's going to be difficult," Detective Wattson said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone in a bag. I immediately recognized it as belonging to Pieter as she began to press away at the screen. "I tried to figure out what the story was behind the call the defendant got the morning of the crime. Unfortunately, the caller did everything they could to remain anonymous. Without any hints, there was no way for us to track the call. Beyond that, the one behind it used a voice changer as far as we can tell, and that makes things a lot harder."

"He was definitely using a voice changer when he called us too," Deirdre confirmed. "We haven't found anyone who could resemble the voice on the other end, though I suppose that's to be expected. The culprit has been rather desperate to keep their identity a secret."

"I'm still struggling to put the pieces together behind why they're getting so involved to begin with," Detective Wattson frowned. "I just don't understand it. If we assume that the person behind the phone calls was the one who committed the crime, then they're getting dangerously close to the case. IF they're trying to stay away, then why bother with the phone calls?"

"It's had us wondering too," Yuri confessed. "But we got a call that makes it sound like they were responsible for more than just the murder. While we were outside, we heard from the person on the other end that they knew where Niamh was."

Detective Wattson's eyes shot open. "What?! They know where Prosecutor Wood went?!" she cried out.

"That's what the call made it sound like, at the very least," I told her. "We're not entirely sure of the details, and it could have been a lie, but... They said she was safe, at least for the time being. We tried to talk to her, but they shut us down and said that she wasn't available. I feel like that could have been a ruse to get us off the scent of the case, but I don't know what we're supposed to do with information like this if it's true. Why in the world would the culprit tell us that they have her if they don't want to use her?"

Victoria handed her phone over to Detective Wattson. "I was the one who got the call. My log of past calls says that it was anonymous, so that's going to make this a lot harder for all of us," she explained. "I can't figure out any reason the culprit would have for this, but... I guess there's not much we can do about it now. We'll just have to try and charge on despite it."

Detective Wattson hummed to herself as she continued to press away at Pieter's phone, tucking Victoria's device behind his. "I agree that all of this is rather strange," she murmured. "I want to know who the person behind that call is more than anything. If they know where Prosecutor Wood is, then they're much more involved with this case than they're trying to appear."

"All of this behavior just feels strange... I have to wonder if there's more to this case than meets the eye," Deirdre remarked. "Well, to be more accurate, I have to wonder if perhaps there are more people to this case than we originally expected. Up to now, we've known for sure that there were four people in the building at the time of the crime on top of the culprit. There were three people who received notes saying they should come here. The victim was in the area as well. Last but not least, there must have been a fifth person present as the killer, and later in the night, the defendant appeared."

"But if the person on the phone is just an accomplice, then that would answer at least a few of our questions," I finished for her. "I still think it's odd that an accomplice would want to reach out to us over the phone since it would be safest if they could keep their identity a secret, but... I guess it would make a little more sense than the murderer themselves trying to reach out."

"At the very least, the man on the phone has to be aware of the intimate details of this case," Victoria concluded. "I don't know what exactly all of that is supposed to mean, but we have to keep an eye out for all the information we can get our hands on... Especially since this case seems to have a lot to do with the Emsthorpe family. That's already a signal of disaster."

"You couldn't even begin to imagine our shock when we first heard the victim was an Emsthorpe," Detective Wattson confessed with a hollow laugh. "It made a lot of sense as to why we've been having problems identifying her body. We got an anonymous tip that made everything click together... Though I suppose that tip is going to make things much harder for our investigation too."

"Who in the world would know the victim was an Emsthorpe to begin with?" Yuri asked. She thought about it for a moment longer before the gears in her head began to turn, and everything finally clicked into place. "Wait a second! Do you mean to say that-"

"The man on the phone sent us another call?" Detective Wattson finished for her. "That's what it seems like. I wasn't the one who got the call, but others who overheard it said that the person on the other end sounded like they were using some sort of modifier on their voice. It makes for a total of four phone calls if that's the case, and that only makes us wonder more why the person on the other end is trying to get so involved while also staying so far away."

"The person from the phone calls has to know a lot more about this case than they're trying to make it seem," Victoria declared. "If we assume that they were the phone who sent in the call that concluded the victim was an Emsthorpe, then they were probably here that night. I mean, we already know that from Pieter's involvement in all this, but..."

"In my eyes, there's only one explanation to all of this that makes sense," Deirdre interjected. "The victim of this case was a member of the Emsthorpe family. The person on the phone is intimately aware of the details of this case to the point that nobody else involved with the investigation knows the truth. If you ask me, there's a single conclusion to come from all of that, and it's that we've found the son of the Emsthorpe family."

"That would make a lot of sense," Detective Wattson nodded. "We've had a few questions about the functionality of the family over the course of the last few years, and he's certainly one of them. We don't know much about him, but we can say that we have his name and that he's been absent from the family's regular killings for quite some time now."

"His name... That's one detail we haven't heard all this time," Yuri murmured. "I mean, not even Prosecutor Cruz's files about the Emsthorpe family were able to fill in those gaps for us."

"I know all of their names, as a matter of fact," Detective Wattson went on. "It's a recent development, knowing everyone in the family, but I can tell you now. The head of the family is Augustus Emsthorpe, something that's been widely known for a while. His wife, Mabel Emsthorpe, passed many years ago, though we don't know much about her beyond that. The Emsthorpe children in order from oldest to youngest are Balthazar, Raven, Emmeline, and Belladonna. Raven Emsthorpe is the victim of this case."

"Raven Emsthorpe..." I repeated to myself, rolling the syllables over in my head a few times. "I guess she's been responsible for a lot of crimes over the years if she's the second oldest out of the bunch."

"It's hard to say what any of them are like personality wise, but as far as we're aware, Raven and their father were responsible for a strong majority of the family's killings," Detective Wattson said. "Balthazar used to play a part in all this, but he stopped appearing about two years ago. The Emsthorpe family stopped all operations around that time too, so I can only assume that whatever happened to him was significant enough to impact the rest of the family as well. We never found a body despite the suspicious stop in activity out of the blue, so some people suspected he was still alive."

"And now, it's very possible that he's not only still alive, but the one on the other end of the phone," Yuri concluded. "That makes a lot of sense. I don't know why he would vanish and then randomly come back like this though. I mean, his disappearance forced the entire family to stop all operations, so what could have made him want to come back to join the fun again?"

"It's impossible for us to say for sure, but something must have changed," Detective Wattson shrugged. "We're still working out the details. At the very least, I'm going to redouble my efforts to track him down now that we've received another call. Even if the person on the other end isn't him, we have to figure out who's responsible for these messages, especially if they know where to find our hostage."

"That's the strangest part of all of this, I feel," Deirdre frowned. "Throughout all of this, Prosecutor Wood has been missing, but we haven't received a single ransom message about her disappearance. She's still out there somewhere, but we don't know what's going on or why she was taken. If the Emsthorpe family took her, then why hide it? They could be broadcasting this everywhere for the sake of attention or getting something else out of it, but they've been keeping the truth a secret... Assuming they have her, that is."

"If she's not a hostage, then I don't know what they could possibly want from her," I confessed. "None of this case seems to make any sense. If we assume that there were multiple members of the Emsthorpe family here on the night of the crime, then how did one of them end up dead? It's not like anyone from the ring would want to stab their own family in the back. That just doesn't make sense. Why pick the night of the crime of all nights to do something like that if you were going to be violent?"

"It's impossible to say for sure," Detective Wattson sighed. "We're still trying to figure out where all the pieces rest in this case, and I can't answer all your questions for you, at least not yet. If you want to hear more about the Emsthorpe family, I would suggest that you go find the prosecution. I know Prosecutor Cruz has some files about the family that he's been sitting on quietly for a while. He might be able to fill in a few gaps for you, but I wouldn't put too much stock in that idea. He could very well have run into a wall the same way we have."

"I guess that's our next destination then," Yuri declared. "Thank you for all the help, Detective Wattson."

"Are you going to need my phone for a while longer?" Victoria asked. "I know I was the one who got the call, so if you need to dig into it a bit more, you can. I trust you to not snoop around in any of my personal affairs."

"I'll probably need to hold onto it for a while longer, yes," Detective Wattson confirmed. "You got a call down at the agency too, right? Would it be possible for me to swing by there later on to examine your phone there?"

"Sky and Felicity will be there, and I imagine they'd be happy to help you," Deirdre replied. "Just tell them why you're there, and they'll be able to show you to the phone."

"Perfect," Detective Wattson said with a decisive nod. "I'll get back to all of you as soon as I find something. In the meantime, do your best to stay out of trouble. I don't know what's going on with this case, but I have an awful feeling about it, and I don't want you to get caught up in the wrong crowd."

"We'll be fine," I assured her even though I wasn't anywhere near as confident in that conclusion as I would have liked to be. "Thank you again for the help!"

Detective Wattson nodded and walked away with that, leaving us alone in the room with the tape outlining the victim's body. I let out a sigh before glancing to the rest of the group. "So... I guess we should take a look around here to see if we can find anything out of the ordinary," I concluded. "We didn't get the chance to investigate this room yesterday, so we might as well take this chance while we have it."

Yuri crouched on the ground beside the white tape around the body's outline. She winced as soon as she got too close, pinching at her nose with one hand. "I see the smell of blood is just as rancid as always," she muttered. "I don't see anything here that could help us out though."

"I would have expected a weapon used to inflict a massive injury like what the victim has would have left behind a trail of blood," Deirdre remarked. "If she was stabbed with a long weapon that pierced her entire body, then that would have left behind a lot of blood on the weapon. I would expect something like that to leave a few signs of where the criminal went after the fact. If there was so much blood, then it only makes sense something would be left behind, but..."

"We've got new clues about that," Victoria finished for her. "I agree that it's pretty weird. In all honesty, the fact that there was a long weapon like a sword here at all is really strange. I mean, it's not like most people carry around a sword everywhere they go."

"Pieter does it," Yuri said around her pinched nose, her voice going nasally from her restricted air intake.

"Pieter isn't normal though," I countered, and Yuri let out a small snort at that. Victoria looked like she wanted to protest, but she found it pointless a few beats later, so she just let out a heavy sigh. "Most people wouldn't want to take a weapon with them everywhere they go, much less a massive sword. Pieter is the exception rather than the rule, and we already know his weapon wasn't the one that took the life of the victim."

"The wound in the victim's back didn't match up with Ikari," Victoria agreed, and I couldn't help thinking of how odd it was that she both knew the name of Pieter's sword and referred to it regularly enough that she could say its name like it was an old friend. "But that just opens more questions. If it wasn't Ikari that left behind the injury, then somebody else had a massive sword here that night. If that's not proof there was some premeditated part of this crime, then I don't know what is."

"I don't know where we're supposed to start when it comes to uncovering how the crime took place though," Yuri huffed as she pushed herself to her feet. "The culprit probably cleaned the sword off and then took it with them when they left just to make sure nobody realized what they were up to. That's the main explanation I can think of for why there was no blood trail found here in the room with the body."

"And if the culprit cleaned the sword off, then they would have had to bring something they could clean the sword off with. That once again points to the crime being premeditated in a lot of tiny ways," I chimed in. I placed one hand on my chin. "It sounds to me like this was a case of multiple accomplices in the same crime turning on one another. That's likely the way the victim ended up dead and how the crime was framed in such a specific way."

"And the accomplice that killed the victim had been planning on turning on her from the start," Deirdre finished. "The only people who would have a way of uncovering this information would be other members of the Emsthorpe family, but that once again opens the question... Why would somebody else from the Emsthorpe family crime ring try to stab someone like her in the back? They would have been working together."

"It's certainly a strange thing to think about," I agreed. "But I don't know what it's supposed to mean. I feel like this would all be a lot easier if the other siblings in the family were accounted for, but we don't know anything about the other two daughters or where Augustus Emsthorpe himself is. He's probably the most terrifying part of this entire equation."

"We've run into the other daughters at least a few times each because of the last few cases all having disguised women as the killers, but we haven't seen Augustus Emsthorpe since the case at the prison a few years ago when he killed the one responsible for the establishment of the Emsthorpe ring," Victoria frowned. "He could be anywhere waiting for the right moment to strike, and that honestly just makes all of this worse."

"We're going to figure out where he is though," Yuri declared. She placed her hands on her hips and glanced around the rest of the room. "But that starts with figuring out what happened here that night, and I'm determined to figure it out."

Yuri continued to scan the area for a few more seconds before confusion spread across her features. Her eye had caught something intriguing, it seemed, and when she went to investigate, she crouched down next to a plant sitting in the corner. It was a simple indoor plant that had tragically been the witness to the crime at hand, but that wasn't what had caught Yuri's attention. Instead, she started to sift through the dirt, her fingers eventually finding something that she pulled out with wide eyes.

"What in the world...?" Yuri whispered. "This isn't what I think it is... Right?"

The rest of us gathered around Yuri to see what it was she had found, and my jaw dropped on the spot. Sitting in Yuri's hand was a small turquoise stone. Beyond that, it was a familiar stone, something we had all seen many times.

"It's Chrysalis' Magatama," Deirdre whispered, her eyes going wide. "But why in the world would it be here?"

"Now that I think about it, Chrysalis hasn't been wearing her Magatama since this case started," Victoria realized, horror dawning on her face. "I guess we were all too distracted by everything else going on in the case to notice it, but... I didn't see it on her before."

"Because it was here hiding in a plant," I concluded. "But that doesn't make any sense. The only reason this would have been here would be if Chrysalis was in this room the night of the crime, and if she was..."

"She witnessed something related to the murder," Deirdre finished, her gaze going dark. "That's the only explanation I can think of. Chrysalis lost consciousness at some point over the course of the night, something that didn't happen to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. Who wants to bet that the reason for the disparity comes from Chrysalis being here at the scene of the crime while he was away from the victim's body?"

"There's more it to than that to," Yuri pointed out. "Let's say that Chrysalis saw something and wound up asleep afterward. How in the world did her Magatama end up buried in the dirt of this plant? She wouldn't have done that herself. I know for a fact that she would have just brought it with her if she thought something was wrong."

"The string on it is ripped too," Victoria remarked as she pointed down to the stone. Sure enough, the thread that kept the stone attached to its necklace had been ripped in the back like somebody had torn it with all the force they possessed. "I don't think this is just a case of Chrysalis dropping it. Somebody must have taken it off her for some reason or another."

"And this is what's going to lead us to the truth behind this case," Deirdre concluded. "We have to find Chrysalis and show this to her as soon as possible. Prosecutor Umber said he was going to be taking her throughout the building to see if she could recover her memories from the night of the crime. I bet this will stimulate at least something in her mind."

"We should try to catch up to her while we're here then. After we're finished around here, we can go to the Prosecutor's Office to try and talk to Prosecutor Cruz and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke," I suggested. "Plus, I bet Prosecutor Cruz is going to be with Prosecutor Umber, so we can pick him up then to ask him about the files he can show us."

"That sounds like a plan to me then," Yuri declared with a nod. She brushed a few more pieces of dirt of the Magatama before shoving it into her pocket. "If I had to guess, I would say the dirt probably rubbed off most of the fingerprints that would have been on this thing. Besides, if the culprit was so desperate to hide themselves in a premeditated crime, then they would have hid the fact that they were here at all by using gloves. All of this was planned pretty far in advance as far as I can tell, and that includes wearing gloves. I doubt me touching it is going to matter all that much."

"You're probably right," Victoria agreed. "And we're not judging you for pocketing it. We have to get it to Chrysalis somehow, especially if this is going to help us figure out what's going on with the crime."

I opened my mouth to ask where we should look first to try and find Prosecutor Umber, but I was cut off by the sound of a voice getting closer outside the room. Someone was on the phone, but before I could call out to ask who it was, Detective Umber entered the room, her eyes going wide at the sight of us. She said something else into the phone, but it was too quiet for me to hear. Afterward, she hung up the call and walked toward us. "Hey there, you four," she greeted. "I didn't think you would be in here... Unfortunately, you're going to have to leave."

"What's going on?" Yuri asked.

"Anthony's about to bring the witness in here to see if she remembers anything from the night of the crime," Detective Umber replied. "He's been taking her all over the building, but nothing has happened yet. She just doesn't remember anything from the night of the crime."

The four of us shared a knowing look at that, and Yuri nodded. "I guess it's fine if they come here. We were just about to finish up in here anyways," she said. "Though we need to talk to the two of them as long as they're in the area."

Detective Umber raised an eyebrow in curiosity, and Yuri began to rock back and forth on her feet, still not saying anything about the Magatama. "We just might be able to help her remember. I mean, we've known Chrysalis for ages, so if anyone is going to be able to push her in the right direction, it would be us," Yuri explained, and for a long minute, I couldn't tell if Detective Umber was going to buy it or not.

So I decided to cover Yuri's tracks with a clear of my throat. "So, how has the investigation been going?" I questioned. "We didn't realize you were going to be helping out with this at all."

"This case has made quite a splash, as I'm sure you can already guess," Detective Umber explained. "My brother was hoping to have a few extra hands on deck when it came to investigating the witness' memories. He and the rest of the prosecution split up to handle different parts of the case. Prosecutor Cruz is back at the Prosecutor's Office, and Prosecutor Shield is helping with the search for the missing girl right now. There's a lot going on with this case, so a bunch more people than usual have gotten involved for the sake of keeping everything together. You know how it is."

"I guess keeping the media out of all this has been a circus too," Victoria frowned. "I can only imagine that another case taking place here is making things difficult with how many people want to dig up the details."

"You can say that again. Security has ramped up massively in about the last hour because journalists are so interested in hearing the scoop. Unfortunately for them, this is one case we want to keep secret for the good of the public," Detective Umber went on. "We don't want the assassins to start targeting any civilians, and knowing the Emsthorpe family, they would absolutely do that if they were rubbed the wrong way. It's a preventative measure, though it's not working out anywhere near as well as we would have liked because of just how... Well... This case the murder has decided to be. It's complicated."

"At least we have a bunch of great people on the case to make sure it all turns out okay," Yuri smiled, clearly still trying to keep her intrigue as inconspicuous as possible. She wasn't doing the best job of it since the weight of the Magatama was still clearly bothering her from where it rested in her pocket, but at least she was putting in the effort.

Detective Umber smiled, about to accept the compliment, when Prosecutor Umber rounded the corner with Chrysalis and Mr. Morix in hot pursuit. Chrysalis still looked completely exhausted, and when I looked down to her neck, I realized that her Magatama was, in fact, gone. We were fight about it being buried in the plant after being taken away from her, though the reasoning behind that was still a mystery. It was something we would have to look into in the next few hours, I suppose.

"And there's the company," Prosecutor Umber murmured, and I could only assume Detective Umber had been on the phone with her brother earlier to talk about bringing Chrysalis here. He didn't seem all that upset about having us around though, likely knowing that trying to get rid of us would just be a waste of time. As long as it let us help with the search for information, who was I to complain?

"Are you ready, Chrysalis?" Mr. Morix asked nervously. He was just as anxious about the truth at hand as anyone else, and he was doing a horrible job of hiding it. We had no idea what we were going to find, and that was absolutely terrifying.

Chrysalis took in a careful breath before letting out slowly and miserably. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."


update is a bit late since i got sick this week but it's here now

-Digital