August 6

Lady Bird Studios

2:30 PM

Chrysalis Starr

Felicity and I spent about the next ten minutes exploring the building of the crime before I caught sight of something familiar. A smile appeared on my face as I wove in and out of the crowd before popping out once again on the other side. Sora stood towering above me with Niamh at her side. As Felicity joined us, I couldn't help but wonder why I had to be cursed with being so short.

"Hey, Chrysalis!" Sora exclaimed with a wide grin. "It's good to see that you're up and moving around after the case a while ago. I was worried that you weren't going to be able to head out to search for clues if you were put on any investigation teams."

I let out a small snort and shook my head. "You underestimate me, Sora. My shoulder is healing fine, and I told you that the last time you were surprised I was running around too. I swear, you're just as overprotective as our brother is; you just hide it better," I commented, crossing my arms with a frown.

Sora let out a gasp, pressing one hand to her chest in mock offense. "I am wounded by your words, little sister! You say that I'm as bad as our brother? How terrible!" she exclaimed dramatically. Niamh looked up to her with a small frown before she shook her head and laughed it off. "You might have a point there, but I'll never say for sure. Now, how about we get down to business?"

"How much do you know about this case already?" Felicity questioned from my side. I looked up to her before glancing back at Sora. Had I gotten the chance to introduce these two already?

"I know everything that you probably do. Niamh told me about it," Sora explained before shifting her attention to Felicity. "But I don't think I know who your friend is. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Sora Lin, and I'm a prosecutor. This is Niamh Wood, another prosecutor and my adopted daughter."

"It's nice to meet you," Felicity grinned in response, waving madly before getting back to the subject at hand. "So, is there anything you think that we should be aware of before we continue the investigation? We haven't gotten the chance to look around all that much, I'm afraid. Most of our time has been spent at the scene of the crime specifically."

"The victim was shot in the side of the head, and the tour of the building was canceled the morning of," Sora replied. "That's about all that we can tell you. If we had any other details, we would be sharing them, but like I said, we don't know all that much more than anyone else looking around on this case."

"Maybe there's something else you would be able to help us out with then," Felicity suggested. "We're going to need to talk to the witnesses about what happened at the time of the body's discovery, but we haven't seen any of them around here. Could you give us an explanation on where they could be?"

"I bet they're down at the detention center," Niamh answered. "I know that Anton really wanted to make sure that James was alright, and Yuri tagged along as soon as she heard where he was going. I bet that they're keeping him company if he's out of questioning. If he's still being interrogated, chances are they're waiting for him to be let go."

"Even if we all saw the body's discovery, only the two of them are testifying to keep things from getting repetitive," I murmured. "I know that it makes sense, but... I guess it just bothers me that they're stuck just sitting around doing nothing at a time like this. I know it would make me a bit crazy to get up and jump into the fray."

"That's just how everything crumbled. There's no need to worry about it," Sora shrugged. "We don't have an autopsy report quite yet, so there isn't anything that we can do about figuring out more regarding the body and all that happened to it at the time of the murder... It's unfortunate, but that's how it worked out."

"Hey... You've been looking around this area trying to find out more about the crime, right?" Felicity questioned. When Sora nodded, Felicity went on. "Have you found out where the gun could be? We heard that it went missing, but we want to know if you've had any extra luck in tracking it down."

"On that subject, we're also curious about the keyring used by the director. It went missing at the time of the murder, and we're going to need to use it if we want to easily get into his room here on set," I continued.

Sora hesitated before deflating and shaking her head. "I really do wish that I knew what to tell you there, but... I'm clueless, I'm afraid. I've been trying to figure out where both the gun and the keyring disappeared to, but I haven't found anything that could lead us to their locations," she replied.

"That's rather unfortunate," Felicity muttered with a sigh. "Then again, I don't know what I expected. If you had found them, Mukuro surely would have mentioned it when we were talking to her earlier."

"We'll find them both though," Sora assured her. "If we want to find the truth behind the cases, we're going to have to determine where the gun and keyring disappeared to, and I'm not about to let the culprit slip through the cracks that easily. I'm sure that Niamh feels the same way that I do. Isn't that right, Niamh?"

Niamh jumped instinctively upon being addressed, glancing around in a frenzy before sighing as her shoulders fell inward. "Yeah... I do," she confirmed as soon as she was able to figure out what the question was. She shook her head to herself soon afterwards, seemingly disappointed with her own lack of concentration a few moments before.

"Is something wrong?" I questioned. "You seem to be rather... Unfocused." I was positive that there was something bothering her, but I didn't know how else to phrase it, so I simply let the words out and waited for her to offer me an answer.

"Yeah... I guess I am," Niamh admitted. "I've been thinking a lot about the video that we were all part of for the radio station's website. Mr. Gassman's tape has been handed into the police as evidence, and we're going to have to use it as evidence during the trial. It's rather conclusive proof in the eyes of the police looking into this case. They think that James must have done it since the body was found in his room."

"You would think they would have learned by now to not jump to conclusions like that," I muttered with a shake of my head. "Then again, would it really be the local police department if they were using their heads all the time? I swear, only a few people there only ever put in the effort to find the truth behind crimes like this..."

"We'll deal with the video if it comes to that," Sora assured Niamh. "In the meantime, I think we should search more for the gun and the keyring... Both of them are going to be on the smaller side, so it's going to take a lot of looking around if we want to stumble upon them. Then again, that's under the assumption that the killer actually left them behind at the scene of the crime..."

"I can't help but wonder how the culprit managed to get into the scene of the crime at all," I admitted. "I mean, if the killer wasn't part of the cast or crew, then they would have had more than a few problems trying to sneak inside without being caught. You wouldn't be able to get into the building as a whole without a key, and I somehow doubt that the killer would be able to just sneak in without any issues."

"About that... We actually found something interesting while looking around the outside edge of the building," Sora remarked. "It's rather strange, to say the least. We found a window that we suspect connects to the victim's office. James says that it's one of the only windows in the building, so if it's in the general area of his office, chances are that's where it leads."

"The window was broken, and there was glass everywhere," Niamh continued. "But we weren't able to get in through there either. Something had been pushed up against the window to keep people from getting in. As far as I can tell, it's a cabinet of some kind. I don't know what else it could be... The point is that the window was broken, but it's since been blockaded, and we aren't going to be able to get in without the key even with the window broken."

"We have people trying to pick the lock right now, but I don't know how well that's going to turn out," Sora admitted. "I guess that we're going to have to wait until tomorrow or hope that they get lucky enough to break through the door later today."

"Our other option would be to see if the victim's phone has anything. Granted, nobody has been able to get into it yet, but I'm sure that it would be able to help us out if we had the password and could unlock it," Felicity commented with a loose shrug. "If we really can't get inside though... I guess that all we can do is consider our investigation finished for the time being. We can head down to the detention center to wait for James to be let go from questioning."

"There's one other thing that I want to tell you about before you go," Sora cut in. "I mentioned it before, but the tour was canceled only this morning. There was no previous buildup to it, and James is insistent on saying that the victim was intent on going through with it during filming yesterday. I don't know what would cause the sudden change of heart, but it was enough to be responsible for some serious whiplash among the crew."

"Only this morning... That's rather strange," Felicity agreed. "But I don't know what it could possibly mean. Why would the tour be canceled the day of? It's not like anything was wrong with the set. James didn't mention anything being odd or out of place, so that doesn't make sense at all... Maybe it has something to do with the murder. I mean, the victim was likely killed this morning too, right?"

"I'm sure that it has to have something to do with the murder," Niamh said firmly. "I just wish I knew how to connect the dots between the death of the victim and the cancelation of the tour... There was no notice between yesterday and today, so the crew woke up with intentions of coming down here only to be told not to bother at the last minute."

"And the message was sent to everyone aside from James... I feel like that was deliberate for sure," I nodded. "The radio station never told us that the tour was being canceled, so we would have come down here and waited until something happened only to be stuck here all day if James hadn't been informed... I find it odd that only James showed up to the tour."

"Me too," Felicity chirped. "He was the only one who didn't receive the message about the tour being canceled, and then the body was found in his dressing room. I feel like that's a weird connection, and it's a bit too important to this case to be passed off as coincidence. Besides, James has no motive, so why would he kill the victim? He said himself during the tour that the cast and crew were like family to him, and lashing out at someone he cared so much about... It just doesn't feel right."

"I agree that there has to be something more to it, but we won't have any evidence until we can get into one of the three locked parts of this case," I sighed. "We need to either find the gun, get into the director's office, or find a way to unlock his phone. I'm sure that the police are trying to get into the phone as well as the office, and the search for the gun is undoubtedly already underway. Sora said that she's been trying to find it ever since she got here, after all."

"The gun was on the smaller side, tiny enough to be easily concealed if that was what the culprit wanted to do," Sora commented. "That means that we're going to have a few problems trying to find it... I know that it wouldn't make any sense for the culprit to leave something large at the scene of the crime, but it would certainly make our jobs easier. There's no way for us to find that stupid gun as it is right now."

"We'll just have to keep searching," Niamh remarked. "You two said that you were going to be heading down to the detention center to talk to James... I think you should go on and get to that. We'll be able to handle things here. It was good talking to you."

I smiled and waved to her in response. "You too," I said. She seemed to be more at ease today compared to past cases, and it was rather nice, I had to admit. Of course, I wasn't going to say this out in the open and risk embarrassing her, so I chose to keep my thoughts to myself as Felicity and I navigated our way out of the building.

"I feel like this news is already spreading like mad online," Felicity commented once we were outside. "The star of a famous television show winding up behind bars as a suspect for the murder of someone on the cast... It's not something that others would want to pass up on reporting about."

"It's all the more reason for us to find out who did kill the victim. If we can bring them to justice, James will be released," I pointed out. "Of course, we can't slack off in that task at all. We have a lot left to do, after all."

"And at the top of our list is talking to him at the detention center," Felicity concluded. "Let's get right to it."

With that said, we were off to the detention center. I couldn't help but frown most of the way there, wondering what we could do from there about the case. It seemed like each avenue of investigation had been cut off to us, and I was starting to wonder which was the most likely out of unlocking a room, getting past a phone password, or finding a tiny gun in a giant set. The possibilities gave me a headache less than a minute later, and I prayed that we got at least a bit lucky in figuring out one of them as soon as possible.

August 6

Detention Center

3:20 PM

Anton Burke

I don't know how long I was sitting in the detention center for James to get out of questioning, but I got really anxious after waiting for a while. Yuri wasn't doing any better from her place next to me, and she kept on pulling out her phone and looking at the news before tucking it away and repeating the cycle a few minutes later. I looked over at once to see that she was trying to find out more about James' reputation regarding the arrest, and I suspected that she was looking it up over and over out of curiosity and nerves. I couldn't blame her. I was worried too.

The door to the visiting room opened, and I turned to see Chrysalis and Ms. Amaya walk inside. Chrysalis gave us a wave before speaking. "It's good to see that you two are doing alright," she said kindly before walking to the wall. She pulled up a chair and placed it in front of the glass beside me. Ms. Amaya did the same, but her chair sat on the other side of Yuri.

"We've been waiting for James to get out of questioning, but he hasn't been able to come and see us yet," Yuri explained with a heavy sigh. "Chrysalis, you're so lucky. You get to work on the defense for this case, but I have to be a witness. I really don't see why I have to be the one to testify. I just want to be able to help him out, but I can't do that now."

"You were the one who spoke to the investigators first about what happened, and Anton is there to corroborate your story. It was inevitable, I'm afraid," I told her with a small shrug. "Besides, you're going to be able to hang out here to see him during the second day of the investigation while Felicity and I have to go and see how everything is going down at the studios."

"There's going to be a second day?" I asked her, my eyes going wide. "What makes you so sure of that?" I reached out one hand to take Chrysalis' in my own, squeezing my fingers gently around hers.

Chrysalis looked down at the place where our hands connected with a small yet shaky smile. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by the sound of a door opening nearby. We both looked up to see that the door on the other side of the glass had been pushed open, and James was being escorted inside slowly.

James took his seat, a smile on his face the whole way. I could see the way his grin wavered at the edges though, and I frowned immediately. He deserved better than this. He clearly didn't do it, so why was he being treated like a suspect?

"I didn't expect to have so many visitors," James commented with a smile. "In all honesty, I'm honored. You'll have to tell me what brings you to this place." He shifted his attention to Felicity next, his smile starting to slip soon after. "I don't think that we've met. You'll have to introduce yourself."

"This is Felicity. She's going to be working with me to free you of the charges that have been placed on your shoulders," Chrysalis replied simply. "We work for a law agency along with Yuri, and we're going to be defending you when this case goes to court tomorrow. I hope that's alright with you."

James' smile somehow only grew wider, and it seemed far more genuine and sincere than before. "Yeah, that's incredible!" he cried. "I didn't expect you to work for a law agency... You should have said something before now. I would have loved to hear about that. I've always been rather interested in that sort of thing."

I couldn't hide the shock that appeared on my face. "Really?" I asked. The difference between acting and law was pretty large, and I never would have expected him to be intrigued by both. Then again, he did seem to be the type to be full of surprises.

James nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes, but I doubt you want to hear about that right now. I know that a few of you came from the crime scene, so... I want to know what you've figured out about my case," he said, and his smile was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. I wanted to make him grin like that again, but I didn't know how, so I sat back silently as Felicity and Chrysalis began to explain.

"We were trying to figure out what had happened at the time of the crime, and we've managed to determine that something odd happened at the time of the murder," Felicity began. "We learned that the window in the victim's room had been broken around the time of the crime, and it was covered up with another piece of furniture. Unfortunately, the room is locked, and we can't exactly ram the door down without risking destroying anything at the scene."

"That's a tricky one," James nodded. "The only one with a key to Mr. Rector's room was Mr. Rector himself. He had a keyring with keys to every door in the studio, but I don't know where it could have disappeared to. I doubt that getting into his room would be a problem if everyone knew where the keyring was."

"You're right in that we don't know where the keyring is," Chrysalis admitted. "But we also know that the culprit wasn't part of the cast or crew. They would have known how to properly use the keyring if that was the case, but we have evidence to suggest that wasn't the case. They were restricted to wandering around the rooms in the building on their own while the door to the costume area was locked."

"It makes a lot more sense in context, to say the least," Felicity chimed in. "Still, that's not very important right now. I want to know how you've been holding up. I know that this sort of thing is difficult to deal with. I've been in your shoes before, after all."

A shudder rose up from the group, and I looked at everyone else in the row of chairs outside he glass. All of us had been arrested at some point, as a matter of fact. I could tell that they all agreed with Felicity in that it wasn't easy to put up with. I know that I certainly did. I was only seventeen when I was arrested for a crime, and it was beyond upsetting to deal with.

James shrugged. "I'm going to find a way to power through. Even if it's difficult, I'm going to press on. I trust that you'll be able to help me out of this dark situation... You have to be good at your jobs. I overheard someone saying that my lawyers work at Morix Law Offices, and even if I didn't know that it was you two, I'm fully aware of how good that team is," he told us.

Chrysalis' smile widened with pride. "I'm glad that you've heard of us... You must be pretty curious in legal affairs like you said," she commented before shrugging. "Still, I suppose that you want to hear more about the case... That's what we came down here to do, after all."

James nodded. "You mentioned that it's impossible to get into Mr. Rector's room at this point in time... Do you think that there's something inside that will make it easier for you to find the truth?" he questioned.

"We do," Felicity confirmed. "Of course, it's going to take a bit more work to get in there and figure out just what the room is hiding, but we're going to try our best. The murder weapon and the keyring have both gone missing, I'm afraid. We found a footprint in the makeup that was spilled on the floor in your room, but we aren't sure who it could belong to yet."

"Then there's the matter of the covered area involving your clothing rack," Chrysalis remarked, placing her other hand, the one that I wasn't holding onto, against her chin. "We learned that there was clothing placed along the bottom of it from other rooms in the studio, but we can't say why that is. The culprit could have been trying to hide that area from us, but we aren't sure of what they're keeping secret at this point, and it's going to be difficult to figure that out, I'm afraid."

"I trust Mukuro with it," Yuri shrugged. "She mentioned that she was going to be the detective on this case before letting us come by here, and if you told her about this, which I'm sure that you did, then I doubt there's anything to worry about. She knows what she's doing."

"You know us too well," Chrysalis commented with a light smile before looking back to James. "The point is that we're struggling to get into the director's room at the moment. We also can't get into his phone, which is already proving to be a bit of a problem. We suspect that there was foul play behind the cancelation of the tour."

James' eyes went wide. "You... You think so?" he asked. "But what do you think happened? As far as I'm aware, somebody tried to cancel the tour, but I was left off the list by complete accident. You think it's more than that?"

"We do," Felicity replied. "Think about it. You were the only member of the cast or crew to show up for the tour, and when you do, the body is found in your dressing room. It seems to me like the perfect chance to frame you for the crime. Besides, you already supposedly mentioned how much the cast and crew mean to you, so why would you kill the victim? Even if you did do it, you wouldn't leave the body in your dressing room."

"Everything that we did earlier today was at your command," Yuri pointed out. "You wouldn't take us by your dressing room if you were hiding a body inside. That wouldn't make any sense. Instead, somebody probably dropped it off in there as a way of trying to frame you. Of course, they didn't realize that we were going to figure out each part of their devious little scheme."

I couldn't help but cringe at Yuri's words. She was right in that the tour had just been earlier in the day, but it was almost hard to believe. After all, so much had happened, and I felt as if it had been at least ten years since we walked around the set while following James around. The murder really had distorted my perception of time, and I didn't like it at all.

"We caught all of your talk about caring for the cast and crew on camera too," Chrysalis pointed out. "Think about it. There was a cameraman from the radio walking us around the area, and we were able to have him record the entire tour. That includes our encounter with the body."

"I wonder if he's going to be called as a witness," Yuri commented before shrugging. "I suppose that it doesn't matter all that much. We're going to figure it out sooner or later, and when we do find the truth, it probably won't impact the case in the long run. After all, he was hanging out with us the whole time, and he saw the exact same scene that we did."

"This cameraman really did get everything on tape, huh..." Felicity muttered. "I think that we're going to have to talk to him at some point about what happened. Even if he didn't see anything new, it wouldn't hurt to at least ask him about it."

"We'll inevitably run into him in the future," Chrysalis assured me. "I mean, we're going to wind up with a second day of investigation at this rate. If we can't get into the director's room, there's no way for us to find the truth behind this case. The fact that the window is blocked off seems like perfect evidence that something was wrong in his room, and we have to figure out who could have broken that window."

"The fact that the window is broken could play right into our hands," Felicity commented. "I mean, why would James break the window of the director's office when he has a key to get into the building? Even if he was trying to get into the director's room specifically, it seems a bit weird. Why not just wait for the director to come around? I don't get it at all. It seems to me like the police's logic is already showing some serious flaws."

"We don't need to understand it though. All we have to do is disprove it," Chrysalis pointed out before looking back to James. "I think that's all we learned today. I apologize that it couldn't have been a bit more, but there you have it. Is there anything else you're curious about?"

James shook his head. "I have faith that you'll be able to handle it," he assured her. "After all, your agency has gained quite the reputation over the past few years or so, and I trust that you'll be able to handle my case with ease. You already seem to have it all under control, and I'm willing to trust your judgement there."

"Thank you," Felicity beamed. She pushed herself out of her chair before Chrysalis did the same from a few seats down. "We're going to head out now. Sorry to leave you like this, but I want to do some planning before the trial starts. There's a lot waiting for us tomorrow, after all, and we wouldn't want to be caught by surprise."

We waved farewell to Felicity and Chrysalis as the pair walked from the room, and I watched them go before turning my attention back to James. I smiled to myself and looked over to Yuri before speaking. "J-James... How would you like t-to talk about something a bit happier?" I proposed.

"You know, as a way of distracting yourself," Yuri followed up. "I think it would do you some good. The detention center is a draining place, and we'd be more than happy to help make it a bit less miserable."

James smiled in response. "That would be lovely," he replied, and that was all he needed to say before Yuri and I launched into another conversation with him. He grinned the whole way through, and by the time we were finished, I was absolutely positive of one thing.

James was absolutely amazing.

I wish I was still asleep it's too early to be up

-Digital