August 7

Lady Bird Studios

1:45 PM

Chrysalis Starr

When we got back to the studios, the first thing I noticed was the overwhelming number of reporters standing outside the building. Cameras were raised in every direction, and there were too many flashes going off to be properly counted. I cringed with each new burst of light, and I wound up raising both of my hands to block out my peripheral vision so that I wouldn't have to deal with them. It was just going to give me a headache if I looked at them for too long.

"Well, this sure is something else, huh?" Felicity questioned with a humorless laugh. She guided me towards the building, an easy smile on her face as she avoided the various microphones shoved in her face.

"I thought it was ridiculous that there were so many reporters at the trial, but it seems that we were just getting started with all of that crap," I sighed with a shake of my head. Felicity managed to get us inside of the building, and I released a slow breath to keep myself from losing it. There were too many people outside, and I wasn't looking forward to leaving the building in the slightest.

"For now, we should head over to the crime scene," Felicity suggested with a smile. "How does that sound? We can talk with Mukuro about if she's found anything in the director's room."

I nodded my agreement, and we started walking over in the direction of our destination. My vision was still dancing with stars from the endless reporters outside, and I couldn't help but frown to myself. I had known that James was famous, but I never expected it to go this deep. I had clearly underestimated how dedicated his fanbase could be. I had always been a fan of his show, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't go crazy trying to get inside. Getting this obsessive over a murder really didn't seem healthy, and the mere idea made me feel sick to my stomach.

Then again, it wasn't as if I had much of a place to talk regarding all of this stuff. After all, I was no stranger to having to deal with reporters who got a bit to excited about my own activities. Granted, it was never quite like this since my identity as Oracle was a secret at the end of the day, but it was still a bit too close of a comparison to feel comfortable.

Felicity suddenly stopped walking, and I realized that we had arrived at the director's room. She opened the door and gestured for me to go inside. I gave her a small nod and murmured my thanks before walking in. Felicity followed me, allowing the door to shut gently behind her.

The director's room was certainly something special, that was for sure. It was far less messy than James' dressing room had been, and I have to admit I was surprised upon realizing this. After all, this was where the crime took place, so how could it have been so clean?

Well, I suppose that clean is a relative term, because there was still blood smeared across the floor on the ground near the computer. There was a chair set up in front of the desk, and both the chair and the surrounding floor were covered in blood. There was a lot more of it here than there had been in James' dressing room, and it was pretty easy to come to the conclusion that we had found the place where the crime had actually been committed.

The rest of the room was nearly spotless though. A large cabinet had been shoved up against the window, and a few skid marks were on the floor. Still, there were no signs of a struggle, and I couldn't help but wonder how the crime scene had gotten to look like this. There was something odd about it no matter how I looked at the situation, and I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Hey, look," Felicity commented, pointing to the blood on the floor. I followed her finger and gaze with a frown. "There are tire marks going through the blood."

Sure enough, she was right. There were two lines of tracks moving through the blood, fading away after a few inches. I already had the sneaking suspicion that I knew exactly what the tracks had come from, and when I looked up to Felicity, I realized that she had come to the same conclusion.

"It must have been the cart," Felicity went on. "I guess that it was originally in here for some reason... Maybe the culprit moved it here ahead of time to make sure to they'd have a way of moving the body, and then after the victim died, they loaded the body onto the rack before sliding it over to James' dressing room."

I nodded my agreement before looking to the rest of the room. Everything was perfectly organized, put in its dedicated spot perfectly. There wasn't a hair out of place aside from the moved cabinet and the blood on the floor. The director was clearly the organized sort, and I had to thank him for it. That certainly made our jobs a hell of a lot easier.

"Hey... Look at the desk," Felicity remarked next, and I was once again snapped out of my daze to follow her advice. She had walked over to the table and was looking at it closely. "There's blood splattered on the edge of the table, and that makes me think that perhaps something happened here... Well, we already know what happened here, but... You know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Yeah," I confirmed simply. I looked at what was on the desk, and I realized that there was a computer set up. The screen was just in front of the chair at the desk, and I realized the reason that the chair was positioned there. The main segment of the computer was sitting on the floor to the side of the desk.

I pressed my hand against the side of the device, and a gasp left my lips. "Hey, Felicity... The computer is still warm," I told her. "Do you know what that means?"

Felicity let out a gasp. "That means that it was used recently!" she cried out. "But... Nobody's been in here since the murder took place. The culprit locked everything down and then shoved the cabinet in front of the window to make sure nobody could get in."

"That's true, but you're overlooking something," I told her. "The computer would also be warm if the device was still technically in use. Even if the screen is turned off, as long as the console is running, it's going to be warm."

"You're right," Felicity murmured. She looked to the screen on the desk before sliding her fingers around on the side. She eventually found what she was looking for, and she pressed a button that caused the screen to flicker to life.

"Great going," Felicity grinned, nudging me with her shoulder. I looked down with a blush rising in my cheeks, not used to the positive attention. I did my best to shake it off, but Felicity's wide grin wasn't going to let me forget my flustered moment anytime soon. So long as she didn't get distracted by it while we were investigating though, I supposed it was harmless, and I let her keep staring for a few seconds longer.

I looked up to the screen, and a frown appeared on my features before a smile broke out. "There's something open on here," I told her. I slowly moved my finger over to the mouse, cringing at the small amount of blood gathered around its base. I was able to maneuver the mouse around a little bit without accidentally disturbing the blood, and I clicked on the tab that had been left open when the device was last used.

I realized a moment later that the tab that had been left open wasn't just any internet search. Instead, it was the inbox of the victim. An email address for a 'DRector' was written in the top corner, and I knew that this had to be what we were looking for. The announcement about the cancellation of the tour had been sent by email from the victim, so that meant we were going to have to search through the messages that he had sent recently.

I navigated my way over to the recently-sent messages section, and I could see the email that had been sent out to talk about the tour being cancelled. I looked over my shoulder to see that Felicity was watching me intently as well, and I clicked on it. I wasn't entirely sure what we were going to find, but I was going to see about it anyways. It wasn't as if we had any other choice in the matter. We had to see what the victim said about all of this.

"This email was sent in the morning yesterday," Felicity commented. "What do you think we're going to be doing next about all of this? I mean, the email was presumably sent just before the victim was killed, but I still don't know why the tour would be cancelled if that was the case."

"I have another proposal for you then," I said with a frown. "What if the victim wasn't the one that sent the email? We've been assuming all this time that the victim was the person who constructed the message, but that doesn't strictly have to be the case. Think about the nature of emails and how easily they can be manipulated in a given way."

"I think I know what you're talking about... You mean to say that somebody sent the email from this device to make it seem as if he was the one to send the message, but it was really somebody else on his computer," Felicity commented. "The killer would want to send out a message like this to keep everyone away from the crime scene so that they could manipulate it the way they had been imagining."

"And it also explains the reason why James was the only one to not get the email. It was on purpose because the culprit knew that they were going to be trying to frame James. It wasn't a coincidence in the slightest; the killer was deliberately trying to pin the crime on him," I agreed.

"Plus, they could use his fame to their advantage. James is pretty well-known, and there are all sorts of tabloids and magazines that would trip over themselves just to have the chance of interviewing him at a time like this. Regardless of if they really thought he committed the crime or not, he's famous, and that fame could be used as a distraction when manipulated properly," Felicity pointed out.

"Exactly. We already pointed out that there was something peculiar about James being the only one to not get the message about the tour being cancelled, and it's becoming clear why that was," I told her with a small smile. "Then there's the matter of the radio station... I suppose that all of that was on purpose too."

"The video that would be captured by the radio station would make it seem like James did it. After all, having him on camera finding the body in his own dressing room would certainly make him seem suspicious. He's an actor, and the killer was surely aware of this. They could always claim that he was faking all of this in the name of seeming like he didn't commit the crime," Felicity agreed. "There's a lot of dimension to this case, and there's a reason James was used as the scapegoat for this case above anyone else who was part of the show's cast or crew. His fame and acting talents could be manipulated as a way of making him seem wrongfully guilty."

"Speaking of, I suppose that we still need to go and talk to the Mr. Gassman today," I commented. "It would also be nice to speak with Mukuro about all of this... I'm surprised that she hasn't dropped by to see us. I would have expected her to be the first person to try and find us after we got here."

"I heard that you were talking about me."

I turned to the door, and a smile appeared on my face as I saw Mukuro walk into the room. She had a bright grin on her lips, and she shot us a brief wave. "Hey, you two," she greeted simply. "I'm glad to see that you were able to get in here without any issues. Controlling the crowd outside is quickly proving itself to be nothing short of a nightmare, and the last thing I would want for you would be for this to be problematic for you."

"Yeah, we're fine," I assured her. "Is there anything that you've found out about the crime? We could really use any details that you have for us. I don't mind if it's tiny or huge, but I suppose that if it was large, you already would have mentioned it..."

"Well... I suppose that we did get into the victim's phone a moment ago," Mukuro said with a shrug. "But we didn't find anything of use. His phone was opened up to his inbox, but it didn't exactly give us any new information that we didn't already have."

"His inbox is opened up on his computer too," Felicity commented. "And we think that perhaps the victim wasn't the one who sent the email blast out at the time of the crime. What if the culprit was the one responsible for it instead? That would make a startling amount of sense, wouldn't you say?"

Mukuro nodded. "Come to think of it, that would make sense... I'm afraid that we won't have a conclusive way to prove it though. The range of the victim's assumed death... It's not precise enough for us to know exactly when he died. The range written in the autopsy is about fifteen minutes, and if the email was sent in that window, then we can't say for sure if one person or another sent it out," she frowned.

"As unfortunate as that is, I don't think it's going to destroy our case completely or anything," I murmured. "I think that we can use this to our advantage, as a matter of fact. We were easily able to prove that something was wrong with James not receiving the message during the trial today, and I believe that we'll be able to point this out as well."

"This means that we've opened two of the avenues for our investigation as of now," Felicity remarked. "We got into the victim's room and unlocked his phone, but the murder weapon is still hiding from us. I was really expecting the gun to be hidden somewhere in here, but... I don't see it."

"We've been scouring the entire building with hopes of recovering the murder weapon, but it feels like we've searched through everything multiple times," Mukuro told us with a frown and a shake of her head. "We also got the chance to look through this room before you arrived, and there's nothing out of place in here. I wish that I had an answer about what's going to be next, but... We just need this clue to surface, but there are no hints to be found."

"Maybe the killer took the gun with them," Chrysalis remarked. "We're also still missing the key to the director's office. I bet that the culprit took it along when they left, and we're not going to be able to find it until we can manage to corner the culprit and show that they're responsible for all of this."

"You're probably right, but it's still unfortunate," Mukuro sighed. "I don't know where we're supposed to find the gun, but I'm sure that it'll come up sooner or later. Until then, we're going to keep searching. There are bound to be a few clues that we simply aren't seeing quite yet."

"Is there anything else that you think we should be aware of?" Felicity questioned. "Right now, our next step is going to be to go and speak with Mr. Gassman about what he was doing at the time of the body's discovery. He was recording everything, and that's bound to be helpful to us."

"I don't think that there's anything else notable," Mukuro answered with a light shrug. "You should totally talk to him about what he found at the time though. I'm sure that will help your case out quite a bit..."

"Anton said that there was something that bothered him about Mr. Gassman's bag. I can certainly see why, I have to admit. Anton is a nervous person by nature, and Mr. Gassman's bag is absolutely huge. It's incredibly chaotic as well, and I bet that it caused him some anxiety. The heaviness of the equipment most certainly did not help, and I suppose that it frightened him," I told the other two.

"Poor thing," Felicity cooed. "I hope that he's alright with James and Yuri. I know that they're both nice people, but I know that the crime scene and all that's happened can be scary as well for him... I feel awful for the kid."

"We'll have to go and talk to him after all of this is over," I said firmly. "I know that I want to check in on him as soon as possible, but before we can do that, we have work to take care of. Now, how about we try to find out where Mr. Gassman went? I don't think there's all that much around here for us to use, as much as I hate to see it. This room being locked impeded our process before, but we don't really need it as much now."

"We know that the crime took place here, and I think that's what matters most at this point," Felicity shrugged. "We can see the bloodstains everywhere, and that's certainly conclusive proof about what we're going to be worried about from here on out... I'm not sure there's anything else in here that we can use. The room is so clean and organized. The culprit clearly came in here with a mission, and there was no struggle."

"The victim was shot in the side of the head at point blank range, so I suspect that the culprit snuck in here and caught the victim at his desk. From there, they threatened Mr. Rector with staying still or dying, and then they decided to go on and kill him anyways. They rolled the cart past, getting it through the blood on the way. The body was set on the rack and moved to James' room. The bloodstains were cleaned away, but various articles of clothing were used to cover the place where the blood would have been to ensure that nobody found it," I concluded.

"But the culprit doing that only made it seem more suspicious," Felicity grinned. "And we were able to learn about the way the body was moved sooner as a result. We wouldn't have realized that the killer used the rack until after we got into the director's room and saw the tracks in the blood, but we figured it out early because of the killer trying to cover the truth up with the clothing."

"They certainly made a mistake there," I agreed. "Still, I think that we have a major problem right now... We still don't know what the motive could be. James doesn't have a reason to hate the victim in the slightest, and we don't have any ideas on a reason that others would hate him either."

Mukuro hesitated before gesturing for us to lean in closer. "Actually, I might have found something that could be of use for us regarding a reason the victim would be hated. Of course, it's something that we'll have to keep quiet until the trial starts, but I think that you're going to need to hear about it," she told us. She started to leave the room, and I knew that she wanted us to follow her. I looked over to Felicity, seeing the uncertainty in her eyes before trailing after the young detective.

Mukuro led us away from the director's room and towards a secluded corner of the studios. The gentle din of investigators and invasive reporters could be heard in the background, but it was secondary to the pounding of my own heart in my chest. I looked around nervously, my teeth threatening to bite down on my bottom lip at any moment. Mukuro's sudden shift to solemnity was unsettling, and I wasn't sure of what I was supposed to think about it all.

"I've figured out more about the director's past, and I think it's exactly what we need to know about," Mukuro went on. "You see, he wasn't always involved with the theater industry. In fact, he started out doing something a bit more... Intense, for lack of a better term. He was an Interpol agent at first, but he wound up leaving the force behind soon after the disappearance of Cade Green, the former leader of Interpol."

I frowned and looked over to Felicity. Cade Green sure had been involved with quite a few of our cases as of late. Granted, it had only been two cases, but it was still enough to earn my concern. I wasn't sure of what we were supposed to think about it, but I felt my stomach begin to twist from nerves.

"Cade Green wound up leaving Interpol when his true identity was exposed, right?" Felicity questioned. "I know that there were a lot of people who were loyal to him leading up to his departure, and there are still people out there who wonder about where he could have disappeared to."

"Yeah. It seems that the victim of this case was one of the people who would follow him anywhere, because as soon as Cade Green was gone, Mr. Rector was too. He spent a few years doing odd jobs before eventually finding a place in show business. He's been working on various shows for a few years, but this is easily his most intensive and popular project," Mukuro continued.

"If he was really involved with Cade Green at one point, then that certainly gives us a reason that some people would hate him," I muttered with a shake of my head. "There have already been a few people who got violent over his disappearance. It's been an issue for years now."

"Mr. Rector never talked about his days as part of Interpol though. I spoke with a few members of the show over the phone, and none of them were aware that he was ever part of the force. He kept that secret under tight wraps, and I can certainly understand why. Having information like that get out can be a huge risk, and I know it's something that most people would rather not worry about," Mukuro told us.

"We have a potential motive figured out, but I don't know if that's going to do us all that much good until we figure out a person who would want to hurt him over this," Felicity muttered. "I really wish there was more for us to do with this information though... I mean, hearing about a motive like this is huge, and we have to do something about it sooner or later, but... Who would know about this? He kept it a secret and was clearly trying to move past that phase of his life, so I doubt the culprit was somebody he told of his own free will. Maybe they somehow found out on their own."

"There are lots of people out there who find out ways of receiving information they aren't meant to have," I told Felicity solemnly. I didn't dare to meet her gaze or Mukuro's, so I chose to stare down at the floor instead. I instinctively began to fiddle with the fingerless gloves on my hands out of anxiety.

"We'll just have to ask everybody involved with the case and see if they know anything," Felicity suggested, not seeming to pick up on my moment of serious behavior. "Of course, we can't be upfront with it, so we'll be as sneaky as possible with hopes that somebody will slip up and say something they shouldn't be aware of. Nobody's mask is perfect, and there are bound to be some cracks in the armor if we press hard enough and in the right ways."

"There aren't many suspects of that right now though," I pointed out. "At this point, the only person who we could possibly find suspicious is Mr. Gassman. After all, the rest of us have alibis. I was with Mukuro, Anton, Niamh, and Yuri before we got here the day of the crime. James doesn't have a motive. Mr. Gassman met us here, and he was following us around the entire time. We're going to have to see if he's aware of anything involving the crime. He might know something about the Interpol involvement between the victim and Cade Green... It's a long shot, but we don't exactly have much else to go off."

"We can talk to him about his bag when we see him too," Felicity said. "We'll have to be careful about approaching him though... You know, just in case there is something about him that we need to keep in mind. It's best to be safe rather than sorry, and we wouldn't want to be suddenly unable to solve the case because he got violent."

"He seems so meek and normal," Mukuro remarked. "That's how he was when we first met him, anyways. I know that killers can hide their emotions in an attempt to seem innocent, but... He seems so regular."

"His awkward behavior could be a mask," I reminded her. "We'll just have to see, but we're going to need to be careful to not fully corner him. That's what the courtroom is for. It's so easy for someone to confess to something outside of the courtroom, but there's no evidence if that happens, and we're forced to find a roundabout solution to reveal the truth."

"I guess that we're just going to have to go and find him now," Felicity commented. "We don't know all that much about the Interpol incident either, but we can use that to our advantage. If something strange is mentioned during the conversation, we'll keep it in mind and call him out on it tomorrow. If he thinks that he's safe, he isn't going to know to cover it when he makes a mistake. That should make it easier for us to put the pieces together."

"Thank you for all your help today, Mukuro," I told her with a small nod in her direction. "If you find anything else out that we should know about, please get in contact with us. We can use any information that you send our way, so there's no need to hold back."

"I'll tell you as soon as we find out anything else critical," Mukuro assured us. "We're going to keep looking for the gun, but I'm not sure if we're going to find any success in it given how unlucky we've been already. If the killer really did take the weapon with them when fleeing the crime scene, then... Well, we're sort of being left out to dry, and I don't know if there's anything we can do about it."

"I'm sure that we'll figure it out sooner or later," Felicity smiled, wrapping an arm around Mukuro's shoulders to comfort her. "Now, I guess it's time for us to get going and see what we can find out by talking to Mr. Gassman. Thanks for all your help, Mukuro. We'll be looking forward to seeing you again."

Mukuro was practically beaming when she pulled away from Felicity. "I won't let you down!" she exclaimed, her eyes glittering with excitement. "I'm counting on you two to find out the truth behind this case! I'm going to find Prosecutor Lin and Niamh to tell them about what I've uncovered, and then they'll be able to work with you to figure everything out. Until we meet again!"

Mukuro waved before dashing off, and I watched her go with a fond smile on my face. Once she had disappeared around the nearby corner, I let out a small sigh before looking up to Felicity. "It seems like we have our next mission figured out, so we had better get on it," I said. I started to walk away from the small corner we had been talking in, and Felicity trailed after me.

I wasn't sure where we were going to be finding Mr. Gassman, but I was determined to figure out more about what he had been up to prior to our arrival at the scene of the crime. Judging by the look on Felicity's face, she felt the same way. I watched her carefully for a moment before looking back down to the floor.

Something about this case was giving me a bad feeling. Maybe it was the fact that all of this was involved with Interpol, and I didn't exactly have fond memories of anything to do with Interpol. I did my best to hide the shiver that sprinted up my spine, but it wound up escaping anyways. I was lucky Felicity was looking away at the time and didn't see. I hoped that the rest of the case would go in our favor, but there were no promises. I knew that better than anyone. All we could do from then on was try to investigate the case and uncover the truth, but that was certainly easier said than done.

I wish I didn't get distracted so easily wow

-Digital