May 19
Courtroom No. 3
10:20 AM
Yuri Rinko
"What do you think we should do from here?" Judge Diaphan questioned, turning her gaze towards me and Deirdre. "You believe that Stayge Crewe was not present at the time of the crime, yes? Could you go into extra detail about how you think this is?"
Deirdre nodded. "Of course... I believe something like this happened. Stayge Crewe announced that he would no longer be able to participate in the show... Well, I say announced, but it was likely a message to one person that he asked for them to pass on. After all, according to this chat log, it seems as if Stayge's departure was a rather sudden affair. He didn't have the option to tell anyone before he was forced away," she explained. "The person that he told wound up taking on his identity for some reason, though I can't quite say why."
"Who could have done this?" Prosecutor Umber asked, his gaze intense. "I think everyone would love to hear about who you think could be responsible for hiding their true identity behind this alias."
I hesitated before speaking. "I'm afraid we don't exactly know yet... We've been trying to learn more, but our progress was sort of slowed down with all of the attacks from yesterday's investigation session. It caused a few problems for us right off the bat, and we weren't able to figure out who was responsible for all of this," I replied.
"I have to wonder where Hannah Blocker fits into all of this," Prosecutor Lin remarked with a heavy frown. "We spent all of yesterday trying to reach out to her again, but there were no answers to be found. It was a bit of a mess, to say the least. We still haven't found any clues as to where she's disappeared to."
"That's rather peculiar... Given that she was working on the backstage crew with Stayge, you would expect her to have heard about all of this. I mean, if he was leaving, he would want to tell her, his helper backstage, that he wouldn't be there," I frowned. "Even so, she's still just as unaccounted for as she was in the beginning of this mess."
"Would we be able to call the person who has been masquerading as Stayge to the witness stand?" Judge Diaphan questioned, looking over to the prosecution intensely. "I imagine that you still decided to have them on hand just in case we would need to hear their testimony."
Prosecutor Lin nodded. "As a matter of fact, we did decide to do that... It was hard to reach them yesterday though. We didn't get a hold of them until well after all of the attacks had taken place, as a matter of fact," she answered. "But they should be waiting out in the lobby."
"They said that they weren't feeling amazing and wanted to wait out in the lobby unless they were called upon," Prosecutor Umber explained. "This works out perfectly for us. We're going to have to hide what we know for a moment. They aren't going to open up about who they truly are at first. It's all about delicacy here."
"We have to pretend that we don't know the truth to get them to let their guard down, but once we have evidence of all that they've done, we'll strike," Deirdre agreed with a nod. "That sounds like a good plan. The defense has no objections to calling such a witness."
"In that case, I'll go get them," Prosecutor Umber declared. He walked for the doors soon after, and chatter burst out in the courtroom once again.
I took this chance to look over to Deirdre. "Are you thinking what I am?" I questioned. "All of this... I don't know. It's bothering me. It feels like there's something we should be seeing but haven't noticed yet. I don't know how else to describe it, but... You have to know what I'm talking about."
Deirdre nodded. "Yes, I fully understand... I still wonder what happened to Hannah Blocker though. She still hasn't been contacted, and that's a rather glaring issue. We need to hear her testimony, but she's managed to avoid Prosecutor Lin all this time. We won't be able to figure out everything about this case until she comes out of hiding," she said with a heavy frown.
"Here's to hoping that we're able to drag her out of the shadows soon," I sighed. "After all, I feel like she's going to be the key to solving this case, and I don't know how much longer we can wait for her testimony."
Deirdre never got a chance to respond to me. Instead, she was cut off when Prosecutor Umber returned to the courtroom. Stayge was standing at his side, and I couldn't help but frown. I had to remind myself to look normal to make sure that they didn't catch on to what we had discovered. We weren't going to be finding the truth if they were on guard and prepared for any questions that we threw their way.
"Please state your name and occupation for the court," Judge Diaphan said firmly to Stayge once they were behind the witness stand.
"Stayge Crewe. I'm on the backstage crew," Stayge replied, crossing their arms. "What do you want to hear about?"
"Please tell the court what you were doing the night of the show," Prosecutor Lin replied, a smile on her face. "Don't leave out any details, alright?"
Stayge stared at her for a moment before shaking their head. "Are we really going back to this?" they asked. "I thought we were onto other subjects that were far more important."
"Just tell us about what you were doing that night," Prosecutor Umber told them bluntly, a frown slipping onto his face. "We know what we want, and it would be best if you listened to what we ask of you, okay?"
Stayge looked down, shaking their head. "Fine," they grumbled, their tone sour. "If that's really what you want, then I'll get on with it."
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ The Time of the Crime ~
-"I was working to set up the show backstage. There are a lot of moving parts that go into it."
-"I saw Chrysalis and Saya leave the backstage area together, and they didn't seem happy with each other."
-"Afterwards, Chrysalis walked out of the bathroom, but Saya wasn't with her. Isn't that suspicious?"
-"There wasn't anything particularly off about her, so I didn't say anything. I had more important things to take care of."
-"My job was to make sure that all of the props were accounted for, so I did one final check for them all."
-"Everything was in the backstage area. There were no real issues from the time of the crime. See? There's absolutely nothing to worry about involving me."
After the testimony, I looked over to Deirdre. It was clear that there were a million things wrong with this testimony, and that might have even been undershooting a little bit. The second we got the chance to talk about it, Stayge's words were going to be blown wide open.
"Why didn't you mention any of this during the investigation?" Prosecutor Lin questioned, her eyes narrowed. "I recall talking to you about what you saw at the time of the crime, and none of this was ever brought up."
Stayge shrugged, the motion jerky and unfocused. "I was worried about what she would do to me if she found out I talked. You don't know what someone like her is capable of. She already killed Saya, you know," they muttered bitterly.
"I definitely think Stayge is lying," I hissed to Deirdre. "In fact, it's so obvious that none of this is honest. There are so many different ways we could prove this as false, and from there, maybe we'll be able to get them mad. They could slip up when angered."
Deirdre nodded her agreement. "Yes, you're right... The defense is ready to begin the cross-examination," she declared, determination glinting in her eyes.
Judge Diaphan nodded. "Of course. Witness, please repeat your testimony for the court," she said firmly.
Stayge let out a sigh and shook their head, clearly not fond of the idea. Even so, they muttered a brief agreement before starting over from the beginning, unaware of what was coming to them.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ The Time of the Crime ~
-"I was working to set up the show backstage. There are a lot of moving parts that go into it."
-"I saw Chrysalis and Saya leave the backstage area together, and they didn't seem happy with each other."
-"Afterwards, Chrysalis walked out of the bathroom, but Saya wasn't with her. Isn't that suspicious?"
-"There wasn't anything particularly off about her, so I didn't say anything. I had more important things to take care of."
-"My job was to make sure that all of the props were accounted for, so I did one final check for them all."
-"Everything was in the backstage area. There were no real issues from the time of the crime. See? There's absolutely nothing to worry about involving me."
"Objection!"
Deirdre was frowning heavily when she spoke up once again. "There are many issues with this testimony... First of all, you said that Chrysalis and Saya left the backstage area together, yes? Why would they walk together if they were clearly in the middle of an argument? Any backstage prep that they would have had to work on would not be in the region of the crime scene," she began. "Also, you were the only one to see all of this. That's rather peculiar as well... Then there's the matter of what you say happened when Chrysalis returned."
"Chrysalis would have come back covered in blood," I pointed out. "You didn't say anything about that though. There wasn't really any other point in time for her to be covered in blood before the show... In fact, it wouldn't be possible for her to come out of the bathroom at all. Medical analysis shows that Chrysalis got a concussion shortly before the show started, likely while she was in the bathroom. She couldn't have walked out of the bathroom if she was unconscious from the head injury she received."
"Finally, there's the matter of the props... You said that all of them were accounted for, but there are two issues with this. First of all, the prop transportation bag was used to move the body, so it would not have been backstage at this time. You would have noticed it was missing at some point," Deirdre went on. "From there, I need to bring up the issue of the knife. The prop knife in the backstage area was taken, and its handle was switched out with the knife that was brought in from the outside world to commit the crime with. The knife wasn't in the area at this time either."
Stayge was silent throughout all of this, not daring to meet anyone's eyes. They rocked back and forth on their feet as a way of passing the time, though I could tell that they were starting to panic.
"If you ask me, this all points to one fact... You weren't backstage at the time of the crime at all. You were elsewhere, and you're saying all of this to distract from where you really were when the murder took place," Deirdre declared.
"Where was the witness when the murder took place then?" Prosecutor Wood questioned. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she already knew exactly what we were going to say.
Prosecutor Wood pulled up a map of the theater area and held it up for the court to see. Deirdre smirked to herself as she pointed in the general vicinity of the place in mind. "Right here... The set of bathrooms where the crime took place," she replied. "If the witness was in this area, then one key fact would make sense. All of the props would be held accountable through his perspective. After all, he would have had the prop bag on hand, ready to use it to transport the body. The knife would have been there as well, and he would have been prepared to switch out the handles as well."
"Witness, were you in the bathrooms at the time of the crime?" Judge Diaphan questioned, her gaze intense from behind her mask.
Stayge shuffled nervously and hesitated before shaking their head. "You don't have any evidence that I was there. I thought the prop bag and knife were backstage when they weren't. I messed up. What about it?" they questioned.
"The prop bag is too large to just miss," I pressed. "The container is more than large enough to hold a person. In fact, it did hold a person yesterday. After Satoki was attacked, he was shoved into the bag to keep him out of sight. That bag is simply too large to gloss over and miss. You must have known it wasn't in the backstage area."
"You're trying to say that this witness committed the crime then," commented Prosecutor Umber. He had a heavy frown on his face as he spoke. "If that's the case, then there are a few questions that still need to be answered."
I frowned at his words. Why was he doing this? It seemed like he was trying to get in our way, but that didn't make any sense. It was so clear that something was going on with this Stayge imposter, but he still didn't want to accept it! Hiding their identity was fishy enough, but we were only proving further that there was something wrong, and he didn't want to accept it!
"What are you talking about?" I questioned, still frowning heavily. "This witness is very clearly suspicious, and you can't exactly deny that."
"I have one question first of all... Why would the witness have wanted to kill the victim?" Prosecutor Umber questioned. "It makes no sense. There are no negative feelings between the two as far as we can tell."
As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point there. I didn't know why this imposter would want to go after Stayge in the slightest. There weren't any signs of hostility between them, and if there had been, someone certainly would have mentioned it by this point, so what was going on?
"Next, the victim was killed in the girls' bathroom," Prosecutor Umber went on. "Even if the witness was in this area, why would he go into the girls' restroom? After all, we've been under the impression this entire time that Stayge Crewe is a young man, and I doubt that he would want to go into the other restroom."
Deirdre closed her eyes in thought before a gasp left her lips. "I... I might have an explanation for that," she murmured. "The defense has an answer to the question posed by the prosecution."
"Then what is it?" Prosecutor Umber questioned, his eyes narrowing in impatience. "Don't hold back. We're all listening."
"Habit," Deirdre replied, a frown setting on her features. "I believe I've figured out the truth behind this case."
"What are you talking about?" I questioned, looking up at her uncertainly. "Habit? I'm afraid you lost me here."
Deirdre perked up at my words. "I think that I've figured out who the imposter behind this version of Stayge Crewe is," she declared. "And I think I know the reason why they would want to go into the girls' restroom at the time of the crime."
"Imposter?" Stayge questioned, features suddenly alight with anger. "What the hell are you talking about?! I'm Stayge! I always have been!"
"We found a phone conversation that says otherwise," Deirdre explained. "The chat log said that Stayge went out of town for a funeral. Satoki Amaya sent Stayge a text message asking how he has been holding up with all that's happened, but Stayge said that he hadn't been in town for days. A sudden family issue came up, and he was forced to leave at the last minute. He couldn't stay around for the show, according to the text messages, but that's rather suspicious... After all, you're still here."
"I'm the real Stayge. I don't know what you saw, but it can't be true," Stayge said, their eyes practically turning red with fury. "It must have just been a mistake."
"Hannah Blocker hasn't been contacted in ages, and I think I've finally figured out why," Deirdre went on. "I think that Hannah has been hiding under the name of Stayge while the real Stayge is out of town. It's been said that Stayge became far quieter around the time of the show starting, and I believe this is the reason why. The imposter didn't want anybody figuring out the truth behind who they really are. They've been lying from the very start of this murder to keep their real identity a secret."
"Then who are you saying that the imposter is?" Prosecutor Umber questioned sternly. "Quit dancing around the subject and tell us already!"
"Hannah Blocker," Deirdre declared. "Nobody's been able to contact her for quite some time, and it would make sense that Stayge would tell her that he couldn't participate in the show. After all, the two were working together on the backstage crew, and she would need to know how to adjust her work backstage in order for the show to be executed successfully."
"You think that I'm Hannah? That's ridiculous," Stayge told us sourly, glaring intensely at Deirdre. "Why would I want to pretend to be someone that I'm not?" Stayge's voice was slowly starting to get higher, and I got the feeling they weren't able to keep up the ruse with their increasing anger holding them back.
"Because you're the culprit behind this case," Deirdre replied simply. "You didn't want anyone to know the truth of who you truly were, so you decided to hide behind the name of Stayge Crewe. It would take you out of the running as far as being a suspect is concerned. People wouldn't look to Hannah with suspicion since she wasn't around, and you were planning on framing Chrysalis anyways. You could use this as a chance to fly under the radar until the case had ended."
Stayge looked to her angrily for a moment longer before letting out a sigh. "You know what? Fine." Their voice had completely slipped away, now being much higher than it ever had been. Stayge reached up and curled their fingers around their hat, pulling it away from their face dramatically. They dropped the cap to the ground, and brown hair fell away from their head in a thick curtain.
"You caught me," Stayge, or, more accurately, Hannah, declared. Her gaze was filled with enmity, but she still didn't seem to care that all eyes were on her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a container of gum before popping a piece in her mouth. She blew a large bubble before letting it pop, and she picked up her chewing a few seconds later. "I'm Hannah Blocker."
The gallery burst into chatter all around, and I looked to Deirdre with a grin. "Great deducing there, Deirdre! I know that it wasn't easy to figure that sort of thing out, but I'm really glad that you did. After all, we would have been in a lot of trouble if not for that information," I told her.
"I wouldn't let up your guard yet," Deirdre told me sternly. "I know that it's not over. She's not going to be giving up that easily, especially since there are still a few holes in our case. We don't know why she would have wanted to kill Saya yet, and that's the one thing we need more than any piece of evidence."
Judge Diaphan slammed her gavel down before I had the chance to respond. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. We were going to need to find a motive if we wanted to have any chances of proving that Hannah was the culprit behind this murder. I didn't know how we were supposed to figure something like that out, but I prayed that we found an answer as soon as possible.
"Order in the court!" Judge Diaphan declared. "Witness, the court demands an explanation at once! Why did you hide your identity as the other stagehand involved with the case?"
Hannah popped yet another bubble with her gum before offering a response. "It's rather simple, actually... It all has to do with reputation," she answered. "I was simply doing a nice thing for Stayge. He wants to go into producing professional theater, you know, and I didn't want his reputation to take a hit since he had to back out of this show at the last minute. I decided to dress up as him just to make sure that nobody got mad with him. I don't want to have a career in this field, so it wouldn't have mattered much if I pulled out suddenly."
"I don't think that's the truth at all," I muttered with a shake of my head. Still, I didn't have any evidence of such, so I stayed quiet and didn't openly object.
"You still have to realize that this is a serious offense," Prosecutor Lin piped in. "It's a crime to impersonate somebody, especially in a court of law. You may claim to have had his best interests in mind, but that's not enough right now."
Hannah let out a sigh. "I know, I know... You don't have to lecture me about it when I already get it," she huffed.
"If she really got it, then she wouldn't have lied in the first place," I commented to Deirdre. I turned my attention back to Hannah soon afterwards, frowning to myself. This certainly explained the shift in Stayge's personality, but there was still something I didn't get. Hannah hadn't wanted to be involved with the show at all, but I didn't think that was reason enough for her to go so far as to commit murder. If she didn't want to be involved, there were other solutions to pull out, but murder seemed a bit extreme. On top of that, there was this strange anger that she was hiding behind her eyes, and I couldn't help but wonder what the source was.
"The defense has a request for testimony from the witness," Deirdre declared before anyone could speak up. "If the court doesn't mind, that is... The defense would like to hear about the witness' relationship with other people within the show."
"Of course," Judge Diaphan nodded. "Witness, you heard what the defense requested... And be honest this time. Lying can easily bear heavy consequences, and you don't want to have to face the punishment for such."
Hannah let out a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes. I had a feeling we were going to be seeing a lot of that throughout the rest of the trial, and I knew that I was not looking forward to it in the slightest. "If that's really what you want, then fine," she muttered. "I don't know why you want to know about this, but I guess it won't hurt... Okay. I'll get started."
Even if Hannah didn't know what was going on, I had a pretty good idea of what Deirdre was shooting for. She was hoping to hear about if Hannah had any negative relationships with members of the cast. If that was the case, then we could potentially piece together a motive. All we knew was that the crime was premeditated since the knife was brought into the venue from the outside world, but that didn't really count for anything conclusive as far as finding a motive for Hannah. Hopefully, her testimony would be able to fix all of that. I didn't know what I'd do if that wasn't the case.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ My Relationships With the Cast ~
-"I didn't really talk to all that many members of the cast. I just didn't really see a need to bother."
-"I talked to Stayge every once in a while, and I thought he was cool enough. He never seemed to want to chat with me though. Shy kid."
-"I'm sure you really want to know about Saya, but there's nothing going on between us there. I didn't ever talk to her."
-"In fact, there's not really anything going on between me and any members of the cast. There were a few I liked, but they're not involved with this."
-"To be honest, I don't see why you're pestering me about this subject... It's so obvious that Chrysalis did it, so why don't you just lock her up?"
I looked up to Deirdre, unable to hide my own frown. I was already nervous about how this was going to turn out, and I had a bad feeling that we weren't going to be able to figure out the truth. Her testimony really didn't give us anything to work off, and without a crucial clue that we were still missing, we couldn't connect her potential motive to anything that happened that night. Her hiding her identity was still fishy, but without a motive, what were we supposed to do with that information? There just had to be something that we were missing, but what the hell was it?
Deirdre didn't seem to share my concerns though. Instead, she looked up to Judge Diaphan sternly, determination shining in her eyes. "The defense is ready to begin the cross examination," she declared.
"Go right ahead," Judge Diaphan responded with a simple nod.
I nudged Deirdre in the side. "What are you talking about?" I questioned. "I didn't see anything of note in that testimony. All she was doing was saying that she didn't talk to anyone and that Chrysalis did it, but we know that's not true. There's nothing to latch onto."
"There's one thing that she keeps coming back to. It happened in her testimony earlier, and it's an issue this time around too. If you ask me, she gave us all the evidence that we need," Deirdre told me. She looked back up to Hannah and gestured for the girl to repeat her testimony. She rolled her eyes before following the direction, and I frowned to myself. What was going on in Deirdre's head?
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ My Relationships With the Cast ~
-"I didn't really talk to all that many members of the cast. I just didn't really see a need to bother."
-"I talked to Stayge every once in a while, and I thought he was cool enough. He never seemed to want to chat with me though. Shy kid."
-"I'm sure you really want to know about Saya, but there's nothing going on between us there. I didn't ever talk to her."
-"In fact, there's not really anything going on between me and any members of the cast. There were a few I liked, but they're not involved with this."
-"To be honest, I don't see why you're pestering me about this subject... It's so obvious that Chrysalis did it, so why don't you just lock her up?"
"Hold it!"
"There's one thing I noticed about your testimony, witness," Deirdre said with a heavy frown. "You keep on coming back to the subject of Chrysalis. You claim that she committed this crime, but she couldn't have. After all, she was attacked during yesterday's investigation, and we still believe that there was one culprit who committed all of these crimes. On top of that, she was in the detention center at the time, locked up and unable to leave the building."
"Still, she's the one with the motive against Saya. Those two hated each other. All you need to do is ask someone in the show. They were always at each other's throats," Hannah answered, crossing her arms as she popped her gum once again. "Nobody else hated Saya the way Chrysalis did. Why would anyone else want her dead when Chrysalis was the only person who she regularly got into arguments with?"
"That's where my idea comes in," Deirdre answered. "I don't think that the culprit behind this case has a motive against Saya at all... I think the killer was originally meaning to go after another target."
"Another target?" Prosecutor Wood echoed, her eyes going wide. "I... I don't understand what you're talking about... Who was meant to die that night?"
"This witness has a grudge against the defendant. You can see this in the way that she continually brings up the defendant's name and insisting she committed the crime despite the evidence to the contrary. I believe that you have picked up on such a fact as well, yes?" Deirdre prompted, looking over to the prosecution with a tilt of her head. "I believe that the witness was originally planning on killing the defendant the night of the crime, but something got in her way. To be more specific, the victim got in her way, and plans shifted. That's why Chrysalis specifically was framed for the crime as well. Everything was specifically targeted at her, and it's because the culprit had a strong dislike for her."
Hannah stared at Deirdre for a moment before letting out a laugh. The noise was shrill, and it pierced my ears unpleasantly enough to elicit a cringe from me. "Really? You think that I have a grudge against Chrysalis?" she questioned. "I mean, we never liked each other, but that's not proof that I would want her dead!"
"It's funny that you say that given that you were using the same logic for the defendant committing the crime a short while ago," Prosecutor Lin pointed out. "Witness, the court would like to hear you testify about the full extent of your relationship with the defendant."
Hannah glared at her before rolling her eyes. "Alright... If that's what you want, then I'll give it a shot..." she grumbled unhappily.
Wow this update is pretty cool huh
-Digital