April 12

Umber Manor

2:00 PM

Lily Shield

"The motive behind the case... It's not something that can easily be discussed. I suggest that you investigate through another avenue if you wish to learn more about this case," Prosecutor Umber replied, crossing his arms with a small frown. "I believe that this is something that doesn't involve you, and I'm not going to drag you into it if you aren't already part of this problem."

"You're really not going to tell us?" Sky questioned, a frown forming on his face. "If we're going to find the truth behind this case, we need to know a motive behind why anyone would want to attack her. The more details that you can offer us, the sooner we can figure everything out here."

"I told you that I wasn't going to tell you, and that isn't going to change. For the sake of everyone here, I'm going to have to avoid telling you about what I think the motive could be. You're going to have to trust me on this," Prosecutor Umber told us, his eyes narrowing in anger.

"Do you know anything?" I asked, directing my attention towards Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Cruz this time. If Prosecutor Umber wasn't going to give me an answer, then maybe one of them would. Granted, I wasn't sure if they knew anything, but it was worth trying to ask about it at the very least. Anything that might point us in the right direction was a blessing as far as I was concerned given how clueless we were.

"I'm afraid not. Our investigations have all come up short on the matter," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke told us. He looked at me for a moment. "Ah, um... We should go and take care of things involving this case. I'm sure that you want to investigate other parts about this murder too, so we'll go on and leave you to it. If you decide that you need our help on anything, then all you need to do is ask. We're happy to help you out."

Chief Prosecutor Bespoke walked away soon afterwards. Prosecutor Cruz hesitated before following after him. Prosecutor Umber glared at me, Felicity, and Sky before sighing and shaking his head a few seconds before he rotated on his heel and left us behind.

"What are we supposed to do now? He got all clammy when we asked about what the murder motive could have been," Felicity frowned, shaking her head in disappointment. "Do you have any ideas as for what we could do now?"

"I think that we should focus our attention to something else... Most specifically why he got so tense when we brought that up. There must have been a reason, and I'm willing to bet that it has something to do with what stressed out Detective Umber as well. If we can connect the dots, then we can blow this case wide open. Prosecutor Umber didn't seem up to talking about it with people who weren't already aware, so we can just get ourselves in on the loop by looking around," I explained.

"There's always evidence left behind no matter what the situation is... They can try to hide the truth as much as they want to, but there will be traces left behind somewhere. If we can figure out where those traces are and what they are, then I think our investigation will be greatly benefited," Sky said with a small smile. "For now, where should we start? I don't think there's much of anything for us to look into back in the room with the body..."

"We should try and find the closet that Deirdre said she was pushed into. If we can find evidence that she was locked in there, that will give her an alibi," I answered. "She said that it was on the way out of the building that she was grabbed and pushed into the closet, but it might not be on the beaten path."

"You're right. We have to keep in mind that she doesn't know her way around here like the people who live here do. She could have very easily gotten lost along the way, and that would allow her to wind up in a closet away from the main segment of the mansion, and it would fully explain why nobody's brought it up yet," Felicity agreed. "Let's start looking around. There has to be proof of that around here somewhere. I don't know her that well, but I just don't see Deirdre lying about something like that. She loves the truth and all. If she didn't, she wouldn't be working at the agency."

"The closet was slammed shut behind her, and a chair was shoved under the door handle to ensure she didn't break out. However, she managed to find her way out regardless, so I'm willing to bet that the door suffered some damage in the process. Using raw force like that wouldn't just break the chair... The door would certainly wind up injured as well," I murmured. "That means it's not just going to be a hall closet with the door shut. It's going to stick out a bit more than that because the hinges will likely be off kilter. We can use that fact to help ourselves find the door."

Sky nodded. "You're right... Let's start to make our way back towards the front of the mansion. I didn't see anything that fits that description on the beaten path, but it has to be around here somewhere, and we're going to find it," he declared. He started walking towards the entrance of the manor, gesturing for us to follow after him. Felicity and I did so without a second of hesitation.

I glanced around as we walked through the building. Somehow, it seemed to have gotten even bigger since the last time we were in the hallways. I knew that wasn't possible, but it was still crazy to me that such a large building could simply exist. People lived here, and it was just part of their daily life. Could you imagine such a thing? I knew for sure that I couldn't, and that was exactly why it was a struggle to keep my jaw from dropping too low in my pure surprise.

"Hey, let's go down that hallway," Felicity eventually commented, nudging me gently and pointing down a corridor that went off to our left. "We might as well double check it to make sure that it doesn't have the closet we're searching for inside."

I nodded my agreement, and the three of us followed Felicity's directions down the nearby hall. I continued to stare at my surroundings, praying that something would give way to a clue if I glared at it for long enough even if I knew that realistically wasn't possible.

"Look at this!" Felicity exclaimed, pointing nearby. She gestured for us to come closer as she indicated a closet door.

There were splinters of broken wood around the entrance to the closet, and if I looked at them hard enough, they sure did seem to resemble a chair. As for the door itself, the hinges were crooked, especially on the top. The upper hinges were barely holding on, and the bottom ones were jolted to one side. The door was never going to sit properly again, further shown by the door having to lean up against the frame in order to have some sense of verticality.

"It seems that we've found the door," I remarked, looking over the area once again. "There's no doubt about it."

"What do we do now that we've found it?" Felicity asked. "I mean, we don't really have any direct proof as of now that she was the one to break the door like this..."

"I think that we can find proof of that through the power of forensic science," I grinned. "Think about it. If she was locked in the closet, what would she need to do break out?"

"Push against the door," Sky replied. "You're saying that her fingerprints must have gotten on the inside of the closet door when she tried to get out, and that would prove that somebody tried to trap her in there."

"Yes. Why else would she enter the closet unless she was forced inside? Besides, this would also put her inside the closet at the time of the crime, so it would be impossible for the prosecution to say that she killed the victim if she was inside the closet. This little clue will let everything work in our favor," I smiled. "When we head back to the crime scene later on, we can ask Detective Hayes and Mukuro for their help. I get the feeling that they would be happy to aid us."

"I'm glad that we were able to find this place before the trial tomorrow... Imagine how much of a disaster the trial would have been if we didn't stumble upon the closet and damaged chair," Felicity commented. She looked down at the shreds of wood on the floor. "The chair itself is something else entirely... It's been broken up, but... For the most part, the legs were damaged, but the back segment of the chair was able to remain intact."

"Since the chair doesn't have armrests as far as I can tell, that means that the culprit likely used the back of the chair to push it in place and under the doorknob. If we can get the chair tested as well, then chances are that we'll stumble across our culprit," Sky pointed out. "Even if there are no fingerprints on the chair, glove marks would be left behind, and that would show us that somebody definitely pushed her in there."

"And more importantly, the rest of the people in the courtroom would start to believe it as well," I agreed with a small nod. "It's perfect!"

"Well, it seems like we've gotten the majority of what we need from around here," Felicity commented. She pulled out her phone and took a quick picture of the crime scene. "There we go. We can refer back to this should we need it in the future."

"Maybe we should head back to the crime scene now. After all, we're going to need to tell the detectives about what we found so that the forensics team can get on it," Sky suggested.

I nodded. "You're right. Let's do it," I said. We started to walk away from the broken closet door and splintered chair soon afterwards, retracing our steps to arrive back in the hallway we had been in before coming across the chair.

However, we weren't alone this time.

The grouchy police officer from before was standing in the hallway with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked far from happy, and all I could do was frown at him when I realized that nothing I could say or do was going to get him out of his bad mood. I glanced over to Felicity and Sky briefly before walking closer to the man. He hadn't noticed us yet, it seemed.

I tapped him on the shoulder and put on my most pleasant smile with hopes that it would keep him from growing too frustrated. "Excuse us!" I chirped. "Would you mind answering a few of our questions about the case? I promise that it won't take too long."

The officer glared at us for a moment before sighing and rolling his eyes. "What do you want?" he huffed. "I have other business to attend to, such as keeping children like you away from the scene of the crime." He had a thick Southern accent, and it was strong enough to make me step back in surprise.

"We're the defense attorneys on the case. We told you that when we first got here," I reminded him, trying to remain upbeat and chipper despite how much he was already frustrating me. I had a sneaking suspicion that questioning him about the case was going to be far from fun.

"We were wondering if you could tell us more about the case," Felicity piped in. She was smiling as well. A quick glance out of the corner of my eye said that Sky was grinning as well in an attempt to counteract the officer's dismal behavior and harsh demeanor.

Now that the officer wasn't shooing us off to the crime scene, I was able to get a better look at him. He wore the regular uniform for all officers, and he had dark brown hair that hung somewhat low over his eyes. There was something about his dark eyes that had me uncomfortable, and I had to seriously resist the urge to back away, if not run away, entirely. I couldn't quite describe it, but he made me beyond uncomfortable. I did my best to avoid direct eye contact with him, praying that he didn't take that as an affront to his authority. I knew that some members of the force could be a bit uppity, and I was hoping that he wasn't an example of such.

"What's your name?" Sky questioned, snapping me back to the issue at hand.

"Ray Scott," the officer drawled. He uncrossed his arms and rose to his full height, and it hit me just how much taller he was than me. I nearly had to crane my neck to meet his gaze, and it certainly didn't help that he had this weird way of smirking down at me. He relished in the power he had over us, and he wasn't going to let us forget it as long as we were in his presence.

"So, Mr. Scott," Felicity began, "I was just curious as to what you heard about the case. Is there anything you can tell us? Don't hold back any details."

Mr. Scott rolled his eyes. "Alright, I suppose it wouldn't hurt... The victim was stabbed to death last night. The defendant did it. That much is obvious," he told us. "There's no evidence to the contrary, so she must have been the one to kill him."

"Do you know of any potential motive that the defendant would have against the victim?" I inquired. I already had a feeling that I knew the answer, but I figured that I might as well try to get a bit more information out of him while we were on this subject.

"Not everyone kills because they have a motive. Sometimes, people just do it because they like to see other people suffer. Isn't that good enough? Besides, even if there's no motive, it doesn't change the facts. She was the one who killed him, and I don't care how good you are at your jobs. There isn't anything you can do to prove otherwise, so you might as well give up and stop trying. This case is personal for quite a few people involved... Staying away from it is in your best interests," Mr. Scott answered bluntly.

"What do you mean by that? How is this case personal for a few people tied up in it?" I questioned, trying to stay as friendly as possible despite my growing frustration. Couldn't people just tell us what they meant rather than speaking in riddles? Forgive me for getting a bit annoyed that we were going to have to put the pieces together when we shouldn't have needed to go that far.

"It's none of your business. I don't have to tell you anything," Mr. Scott said with a loose shrug. "The point I'm trying to get at here is that the culprit of the case was the defendant. That's all that you need to know. Maybe you can plead guilty and get a lighter sentence when this case goes to court. At this point, that's all you can really pray for, because innocence is out of the question."

"We heard that you were here the day of the crime," Sky jumped in next, trying to change the subject. "What would you mind telling us about that?"

"I was here to visit the victim. It's that simple. We have a bit of a history, and I was glad to come and see her when she asked to speak with me. That's all there is to this. I suggest that you back off and avoid from snooping further. There's no point in digging any deeper than you already have, so you should leave this alone and move on," Mr. Scott told us. "There's nothing complicated about this case, but by barging in here and being rude over all of this for no reason, then you're making it more complex than it is. You should just shut up and keep walking. It's for your own good."

"You really don't want to talk to us then," Felicity murmured.

"Where did you get that impression?" Mr. Scott drawled, his tone deadpan as he rolled his eyes. "Listen, if that's all that you wanted to talk to me about, then let's wrap it up here. In case you haven't already noticed, I'm in charge of this case, and I need to make sure hooligans like you don't get inside of this place."

"We have the confirmation of the chief prosecutor that we can be here," I told him with a smile that was far too sweet for how much I wanted to slap him in that instant. Can you blame me for getting a bit upset that he was actively keeping us from finding out the truth of this case? I'm guessing not, because anybody in my position would be more than a bit frustrated with his behavior.

"Fine. In that case, don't break anything, and we'll be fine," Mr. Scott huffed. He walked away soon afterwards, leaving me alone in the hallway with Felicity and Sky.

I waited until I was sure that he couldn't hear us anymore before I let out a heavy sigh and shook my head. "I somehow don't think that he likes us," I murmured.

"It's so weird... Everybody involved in this case has been getting so tense the second we ask them about if they know anything. It's strange... How are we supposed to find the truth if everyone is being so hostile?" Felicity asked.

"There seems to be a difference between how Detective Umber and her brother are acting when compared to Mr. Scott though," I pointed out. "In the case of the Umber twins, they seem to be more concerned about the case... Mr. Scott just seemed annoyed that we were speaking to him and wanted it to stop. Even if these incidents are related, I feel like it's in a unique way. I hope that makes sense."

"I get it. You're saying that the Umber twins likely didn't collude with Mr. Scott to keep things hidden. Chances are they talked with each other about not opening up to others, but that didn't apply to Mr. Scott," Sky concluded. "While they're more concerned about something involving the victim, Mr. Scott just doesn't like us... I'm curious as to why he hates us so much, but... I feel like sorting out the twins should be our main priority right now."

"I must say that I agree. We can deal with Mr. Scott tomorrow in the courtroom. I don't think that he'll be able to keep up being all hostile and rude when we have him standing on the podium with the prosecution there as well. Everyone will be against him, and that sort of pressure might get him to loosen up. I'm hoping that it does, because without his testimony, then this case isn't going to turn out well," Felicity frowned.

"I'm sure that we'll be alright. Chief Prosecutor Bespoke isn't going to let Deirdre wind up in jail for something that she didn't do. It's not in his nature. He's worked with our agency enough in the past to know that she wouldn't do something like this, and he's going to side with us when push comes to shove," I assured her. "For now, let's go back to the room where the body is and see if we can get anything out of the Umber twins. If we can get a bit more information, we can use that against Mr. Scott later on and hopefully get him to open up a shred more."

The other two agreed, and we began walking back to the room of the crime. I frowned to myself as we walked, and I couldn't help but wonder what it was that the twins were hiding. It had to be something important if they were being so insistent on not telling anybody, but I was still concerned about it. I didn't know what we were going to do if we couldn't get them to open up and tell us about what they were aware of. The trial was going to get a lot harder if they didn't say at least something to us.

We finally arrived back at the room, and I held up my hand to tell the other two to stop when we got close. I peered in the doorway, realizing that the doors were nearly all the way shut now. I frowned and tilted my head to one side.

"I only see the Umber twins in there," Felicity whispered. "I guess everyone else went to explore the rest of the mansion."

"Maybe we'll be able to hear them say something important while we're here," Sky suggested. I nodded my agreement, and we all fell silent immediately.

Detective Umber's voice was the first one that I heard. "So many people are asking questions, and I don't know what to say... I know exactly why someone would want to kill Mom, but what am I supposed to say? I can't tell them, because if I do, everything will fall apart. We'll become the next targets of whoever killed her, and I don't want that. We can't find justice for her if we wind up on the bad side of the culprits," she said nervously.

"We're going to have to figure something else. I don't want them to get away with this. It would be disgusting to have a killer get away with killing her. We know why, but... Ugh, this is awful," Prosecutor Umber sighed. "We'll find a way to keep our secrets, alright? For the sake of everyone involved with this case, we can't do anything risky. Just do your best to stay out of the line of fire. That's the most that we can do until we know more about the killer."

I couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about. It sounded as if they knew exactly why their mother died, and not just that, but they were convinced that it would put them at risk as well. I frowned to myself and prayed that their conversation would shift in a direction that gave us the information we would need to learn more on the matter.

"We can't do anything that might put Father in danger," Detective Umber murmured. "I don't want him to suffer anymore after all that's already happened. He's been through a lot, and if people realize that he's still out there, then we'll be the next target."

"They don't know that we're just as clueless as we are regarding where he is," Prosecutor Umber grumbled. "Asking us about Cade Green is going to end in a roadblock, but they don't seem willing to accept that. It would mean that they actually have to do some thinking of their own, and heaven forbid something like that is necessary."

"Cade Green?" I gasped. Were they talking about the same Cade Green from the previous case our agency had taken on? If memory served correctly, he had once been the head of Interpol, but he wound up having to leave and go on the run when his true identity came to light.

If that was the case, then that only made things even more ridiculous. Detective Umber and Prosecutor Umber were saying that they were his children, and if that was the case, then everything made sense. The reason the victim died had to do with her previous involvement with a former head of Interpol who people have been searching for since he first went missing. Everyone figured that the first natural step to learn more about him would be to go to the woman that he once spent most of his time with, but then that plan fell apart when others realized that she didn't know anything.

However, getting close enough to the victim to ask was a risk in of itself, so if they thought she was suspicious, they would have to lash out. That explained everything. The pieces were starting to come together, and if we knew all of this, then we could use it in court when questions started to come up.

"She didn't know more about him, but people don't seem to get that," Detective Umber huffed. "How frustrating. You'd think that if they were going to put in the effort to find someone who disappeared years ago, they'd at least do a little bit of research, but I suppose that's a bit too much to ask. People sure are frustrating when it comes to this stuff, huh?"

"No objections here," Prosecutor Umber said with a snort. I could hear him rolling his eyes even if I couldn't see it due to his back being turned. "Now, let's go on and get out of here. We have other business to take care of, and I don't want anyone to ask too many questions."

I gasped at the mention of them leaving the room. I gestured for Felicity and Sky to follow me as we dashed away from the door. I leaned up against the hallway about three yards away and began to talk to them as a way of covering our tracks.

"So, what do you think of Mr. Scott?" I questioned. I heard the door creak open from down the hallway, and footsteps followed.

"He's an odd one," Felicity replied, catching onto what I was trying to do. "I guess that only time will be able to tell how things work out for talking to him though. We can see how things fare in court, but until then, all we can do is wait."

Sky didn't get the chance to say anything, as all of us stopped talking to watch as Detective Umber walked alongside her brother down the hallway. We waited for them to disappear from view, and I let out a small sigh once they were gone. Felicity and Sky did the same.

"It looks like everything is starting to come together," Sky remarked.

"It sure is, but we're going to have to be careful. We can't exactly use what we just learned in court tomorrow. We learned it through eavesdropping, and we don't have any solid proof of such. However, we can use this to get them to talk, and that will make finding the truth much easier," I told them.

"For now, we should try to find the detectives and see if they would e willing to help us out as far as finding fingerprints on the closet and chair are concerned," Felicity suggested. "We can deal with everything else when the case goes to court tomorrow. How does that sound?"

I nodded my agreement. As if on cue, Mukuro and Detectives Hayes rounded the corner, prompting me to put on my biggest smile as I waved enthusiastically to them. "Hey, you two! We were just wondering where you got off to," I began kindly. "If you don't mind, could we ask you for a tiny little favor?"

"What is it?" Mukuro asked, tilting her head to one side in curiosity.

"We found a closet that was sort of... Messed up," Felicity began, rubbing at the back of her head with an awkward smile. "We were wondering if perhaps you would be willing to check the area for fingerprints. I feel like the police probably missed it since nobody was checking out the area when we arrived. On top of that, nobody mentioned it, so... It seems a bit fishy."

"Where is it?" Detective Hayes questioned, glancing around nervously. "If we missed something like that, then we're going to get in a lot of trouble..."

"It's down that hallway. It's a bit out of the way, and since this building is so large, I can understand how you might miss it on accident," I replied, pointing to the direction from which we came. "We can wait until tomorrow on the results, but we think that we might need them for the trial."

"We'll take care of it!" Mukuro exclaimed, saluting us with a bright grin. "Come on, Aidan! We have investigating to do!" She wrapped her fingers around her partner's wrist and began to drag him along. While he was hesitant at first, he seemed happy to be with her once he was in a less awkward position, and a smile appeared on his face as well as they disappeared around the corner towards the hallway with the damaged closet.

I turned back to Felicity and Sky, a smile on my own features. "It seems to me like we've finished our investigation for the day. It's time for us to head back to the agency and get some rest. We've got a lot to prove in the courtroom tomorrow, and we can't afford to slack off while we're there," I told them.

"In that case, let's go on and call things good here," Felicity suggested. "I know that I'm going to want to rest a bit after all that... I feel less stressed now that we know where we're going with this case, but it's still going to be a handful."

I let out a small laugh. "I understand that. Now, let's get out of here." With that, I turned and started walking back towards the front of the mansion. I didn't know what the trial was going to throw at us, but I was going to face it head-on. This case wasn't going to stop me from helping out Deirdre no matter what awaited us!

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-Digital