August 8

Courtroom No. 4

10:45 AM

Felicity Amaya

~ Witness Testimony ~

~ The Body's Discovery ~

-"When I first arrived at the studios, I got to work by recording everything that was happening. Everyone was counting on me to take care of that, and I didn't want to let them down."

-"The teenagers were all excited, and I was happy to follow after them. I didn't think that anything was wrong at first, but..."

-"James seemed anxious somehow. I think that he was nervous because of what he did. I still believe that he was responsible for the crime."

-"He's known for being a talented actor. He wouldn't have gotten the lead role in the show if not for his skills, and I think that he used them when the body was found."

-"The sign on the door was strange, but I don't think that we can take his surprise over it as evidence that he didn't commit the crime. He knows how to hide things when he wants to."

-"Overall, I believe that he committed the crime. So what if he didn't have a motive? There are some twisted people out there who just kill for the sake of it, and you never know what's going through a person's head in times like this."

"Objection!"

I let out a small sigh as soon as I had called out for him to stop his testimony, and I crossed my arms over my chest. "You're insisting that he killed simply because he could... Still, there have been multiple occasions where he touched upon the fact that he thought of the rest of the cast as his family," I pointed out.

"That's simply because I believe that he could have very much so been lying about his connection with the rest of the cast. What makes you so sure that he's telling the truth in the first place?" Mr. Gassman questioned.

"What makes you so sure that he's lying?" I bit back. "Besides, if you think about it critically, you'll see that this couldn't have been the case in the slightest. You see, James has been part of the show for quite some time, and there are many others who he has come to know because of his leading role. They would all know if he was lying about this, and I'm sure that we would have heard about it by now."

Prosecutor Lin nodded her agreement. "Yes, she's right. I don't think that you're fully listening to what we have to say about all of this. You're trying to push the agenda that James committed the crime, but your evidence seems flimsy at best. Is there any reason in particular that you would think that he's responsible?" she questioned.

Mr. Gassman shrugged. "I just find him to be suspicious. Think about it. He's an actor, so he could have easily lied his way through this, and none of us would be at all the wiser. I think that you're jumping to conclusions when you think that he couldn't have done this," he remarked.

"There has to be something else we can say that will convince him," I told Chrysalis, looking over to the younger girl. "He's been so stubborn up to this point, but there's got to be some proof about who really committed this crime. That's the only way that we're going to get him to accept any other possibilities."

"I don't even know if that's going to work," Chrysalis admitted with a frown. "What we need here is solid proof... Let's think back to the time of the crime... Actually, no. Let's think about the time where the body was discovered and if there was anything that stuck out to us as odd. Are you thinking what I am? I think we might have discovered our evidence."

I paused to think about what she could have meant, allowing the pieces to slide together in my head. I didn't want her to tell me when I knew I would be able to figure it out on my own, so I allowed my mind to race until the facts finally seemed to come into place. A gasp left my lips, and when I looked over at Chrysalis this time, I could see that she was smirking.

"You're thinking about the footprint, aren't you?" I questioned softly to keep the rest of the court from hearing. "The footprint in the makeup powder is going to make Mr. Gassman seem really suspicious if he was the one who left it behind."

"We've already established that James couldn't have been the one to leave the footprint behind. It was too clean for James to be responsible for it. Everybody else who was there at the time couldn't have made it either given how small all of our feet are by comparison," Chrysalis agreed with a light nod. "The only other possibility for who the footprint could belong to is the victim, but I doubt that it could have been him. After all, he would have already been dead by that point in time, and it isn't as if the dead are going to be able to come back to life just for the sake of walking through some spilled makeup. It must have been someone who was among the living."

"And the only person who seems to fit that bill is Mr. Gassman," I concluded with a frown. I looked up to the man in question, my eyes narrowing in response. "The defense would like to temporarily divert the court's attention away from the recent testimony and towards one of the other facts of this case that we've already stumbled upon."

"What fact would that be?" Judge Frost questioned, raising an eyebrow in my direction.

"It's about the footprint that was found at the scene of the crime," I explained. "We already know for sure that the defendant couldn't have left it behind. We're positive of that fact thanks to the use of logic on the footprint. It was far too firm and large for him to have made it, and if he had bothered a shoe so much larger than his regular size, he would have likely slipped on the powder. That means that the culprit, the one who moved the body, must have been the one to step through the powder, and I believe that I've figured out whose foot size would happen to match that one."

The gallery above burst into chatter, but Judge Frost wasn't having any of it, instead raising her gavel and slamming it back down a fraction of a second later to keep everyone quiet. They fell silent almost immediately, and Judge Frost didn't even given them a second glance. "Go on and tell us then... Who do you believe left behind the footprint at the scene of the crime?" she questioned.

"It's none other than the witness, Mr. Lucas Gassman!" I exclaimed, pointing to the witness stand. "I'm positive that he must have been the one involved given that none of the other parties at the scene of the crime could have left behind that footprint. We have only one option, and it has to be him."

Prosecutor Lin placed one hand on her chin in a show of contemplation, but I could tell that she agreed and was simply pretending to consider her options. "That would most certainly make sense... It's the only logical conclusion that we can come to at this point," she agreed before looking over to where Mr. Gassman was standing. "What do you have to say in response to this, witness?"

Mr. Gassman looked around at us for a moment before letting out a sigh and shaking his head. "I don't see what you think you're going to accomplish by being so mean to me... I was just trying to state my thoughts on the matter of the murder. I thought that he was involved, but then you came out here and just started to attack my opinions for no reason," he muttered.

"This isn't a matter of opinion," Chrysalis suddenly cut in, a frown on her face. "This is a matter of life and death for the defendant, and on top of that, we need to figure out who the culprit is so that they don't run free. Also, while we're talking, how about you stop dodging the question and tell the court about your thoughts regarding the shoe and the makeup powder? You know, since you're so intent on sharing your opinions today."

Mr. Gassman actually appeared to have been taken aback by her words, and I have to admit that I was too. I hadn't expected Chrysalis to bite back so hard, but I wasn't mad at it in the slightest. In fact, I was actually proud of the way that she had fought against him given the circumstances. I made a mental note to tell her about such, but until the trial was over, I had other matters to focus on, and Mr. Gassman was at the top of that list.

Speaking of him, Mr. Gassman was staring at Chrysalis in surprise. He soon managed to correct his expression into something that didn't speak of blatant shock, and he shook his head to keep from seeming too surprised by her sarcastic comment. He let out a sigh that seemed like it weighed a thousand pounds. "I don't think that I could have committed the crime," he declared.

I was about to say something about how anyone would say that when they were cornered in this way, but I managed to keep from being too snarky. Instead, I chose to watch silently as Mr. Gassman leaned over and slid his shoe from his foot. He showed off the bottom of it, and just like one would expect, there was no powder there.

I wasn't going to let this stop me though. "The culprit wouldn't have wanted to simply leave the traces of the footprint behind for anyone to find them. You couldn't get rid of the signs that were at the scene of the crime, but you sure as hell could eliminate the other half of the evidence. You could have washed the powder off using water or simply changed out of those shoes. The size is what matters most for the time being. Besides, I believe that we would be more than able to find the shoes in question if we sent a group of investigators out to find them within your home," I announced.

Mr. Gassman gave me a hardened glare. "What is it that you're trying to say?" he asked, but I could tell that he was just as aware of what I was insinuating as I was. He was simply choosing to deny it because he thought it would be easier for him to cope with.

"I think that you're the one responsible for this crime. That's what I'm trying to say!" I declared, pointing one finger towards Mr. Gassman. "We don't have any signs as to where you were at the time of the crime, your footprint appears to match up with the traces left behind in the area, and you've been pretty open about accusing the defendant when there is more than enough evidence to show that he's innocent. This isn't painting you in a very favorable light."

The gallery started to chatter once again, and I looked over to Chrysalis with a smirk plastered on my face. There was pride in her eyes, but she didn't allow herself to be too caught up in it all, likely because she knew that this wasn't over. I was fully aware of that too, but I still found myself happy with what we had just declared. We were getting closer, and that was what mattered.

Judge Frost's gavel suddenly pierced through my thoughts as she hit it against the table before her a few times. She waited for the courtroom to fall silent before turning her attention over to where I was standing with Chrysalis. Her gaze was stern and showed just how solemn of an accusation this was. "You truly believe that the victim was killed by the current witness?" she questioned.

I nodded. "I believe that this is the best way to make all of the pieces slide into place," I confirmed. "He was unaccounted for at the time, and we've already found a way to clear everybody else involved. His firm accusations about the defendant being responsible don't make him seem innocent given all that we've uncovered. There's too much showing that James couldn't have done it, and yet, the witness is blatantly ignoring all of these facts without hesitation."

"You're all picking on me for no reason," Mr. Gassman suddenly declared, his hands held up in mock surrender as he glanced over in my direction. His eyes were wide and fearful, but he didn't seem to mean it. Something about the expression felt superficial, and I got the feeling that he was faking this primarily because he wanted to garner sympathy from the rest of the court.

"If we're truly 'picking on you for no reason', it shouldn't be a problem at all for you to tell us about what you were doing at the time of the victim's murder," Chrysalis told him. Her eyes were sharp and seemed to pierce right through Mr. Gassman, barely seeing him in favor of the sight of justice on the other side of him.

Mr. Gassman once again seemed surprised by her accusation, and he let out a sigh before shaking his head. "I really think that you're being mean to me solely because it's easier than admitting that your client could have done this. You lawyers are all the same. You never tell the truth unless it's in your favor, and I don't think that I'll ever change my mind as long as you're mean to me like this."

"We aren't here for your opinion," Chrysalis said, seeming to be on the verge of verbally snapping at him. "We've asked you for the facts time and time again, and yet, you seem more than happy to gleefully ignore our requests in favor of turning everything around on us. If you're really innocent, then you'll tell us all about what happened at the time of the crime. You have a legal obligation to be honest given the dire circumstances, and I don't think that you want to find yourself on the receiving end of that."

Mr. Gassman looked desperately in the direction of Prosecutor Lin, practically begging her with his eyes to defend him. Still, all she did was smile nervously and shrug, trying to seem relatable and awkward despite how clearly sold she was on the fact that he was involved with the crime. "I think that they're right. You should tell the court about what you were up to at the time. There's no way for us to clear your name unless you talk, and I don't think that you want to wind up in jail for a crime that you didn't commit," she told him.

"Or... Maybe he doesn't have to say anything," I found myself muttering without being sure of where it was coming from. It earned me a sideways glance from Chrysalis, but she didn't openly question me on it. "Perhaps there's a piece of evidence that will tell us if he committed the crime without him needing to talk about it."

Chrysalis continued to watch me, and her eyes suddenly went wide. "You know... You might be right," she whispered. "There's one thing I want to bring up in the video before we completely move on and focus on what this special piece of evidence could be. Do you know what it is?"

I paused, thinking over what she could possibly be referring to, and it suddenly hit me as a smirk appeared on my face. "Let me guess... You're thinking about the sign that was placed outside of James' room to keep everybody out," I said, and when Chrysalis responded with a nod, I knew that I had struck gold without a shadow of a doubt. If she was thinking about it still, then I was willing to trust her judgement and say that there was something else going on there with it.

"If James committed the crime, he wouldn't have put up the sign, but I feel like that's relatively obvious," Chrysalis began. "However, there is one other thing that we should factor in regarding the sign... I doubt that there are any fingerprints to be found on the sign. Perhaps that's just the point that we're looking for at this point though."

I tilted my head to the side with a frown. "What are you talking about?" I asked. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but it still felt like it was on the tip of my tongue and ready to be released. I just needed a tiny push in the right direction.

"James wasn't wearing gloves when he was arrested, and there weren't any gloves found in his room. We would have heard about them by now if there were any gloves," Chrysalis told me. "So that means that somebody else must have committed the crime and worn gloves to keep from leaving behind fingerprints when handling the sign."

"James' costume on the show has gloves," came the sudden voice of Prosecutor Wood. "But all of the costumes would have been locked away in the costume closet, and the key to that was taken at the time of the crime. If he had hidden it at the crime scene, we would have found it by now, and yet, we haven't found anything... He couldn't have taken it with him anyways since it would have been found when he was searched upon being arrested."

"In conclusion, there's no way that he could have handled the sign to keep everyone out. Besides, why would he tell himself to stay out only to walk in on himself?" I agreed with a nod. "Somebody else must have handled the sign, and there's only one person who would have been able to do that. Mr. Gassman... You mentioned that you're a rather opinionated person, so how about you offer your input on the situation?"

Mr. Gassman shrugged. "I think there has to be something here that you aren't seeing. I want you to think critically about the case. There's got to be a piece of evidence to make it clear that the defendant was responsible for this crime. He wouldn't have been arrested for the crime if he was perfectly innocent," he replied. "Why don't you think back to everything that you've been saying thus far?"

"He's still not going to give in," Chrysalis frowned. "We've got so much evidence, and we're pushing so much harder than we have on anything else this case, but he's still refusing to admit that he could have done it. He's turning everything around on us too just to make sure that we don't step out of line. He's calling us the bad guys when there's evidence to show that he could have killed the victim. It's blatantly manipulative, but he's still turning it around to try and make us seem like the bad guys. We're just lucky that the judge isn't buying it."

"We're going to find a way to get him to shut it soon. I promise," Felicity assured me. "Now... How about we think about this in a different way? In a way, I suppose that it all leads back to the keys, and to a lesser extent in this situation, the gun. We have to find them, but they've been missing for ages, and there's nothing we can do to just drag them out of hiding."

"The keys and the gun... There's got to be some location where they could be hiding in, but I don't have any ideas. If they were still in the building, they would have been found already, but we still haven't stumbled upon anything. If James had them, they would have been confiscated when he was arrested, and he didn't exactly have time to sneak off and hide them somewhere before the tour began... It's ridiculous," Chrysalis murmured. "Unless the keys and gun have been in plain sight this whole time and we've just been silly... I don't know what we're supposed to do."

As we spoke, Mr. Gassman began to rock back and forth between his heels and toes. It was distant, but I could hear the clicking noise once again, and I focused on it with every part of my brain, trying to pull some answers out of thin air. The sound penetrated my every thought, and I found it difficult to think about anything aside from the stupid noise. I still didn't get what could have been causing that noise, and it had been there for ages. Since the beginning of the case, this had been an issue-

Wait.

It had been there since the beginning of the case.

The clicking noise had been there since the initial discovery of the body, and we still didn't know what could have been responsible for it. He wasn't allowing us to look into his bag, and that was only adding to my suspicion about the whole situation. There was something going on, but he wasn't going to allow us to actually say what it was.

The clicking combined with the lack of the gun and keys left me feeling incredibly strange about the whole situation, and it was only until after I started to realize that all three of those facts were connected that the pieces started to finally slide into place. The clicking could have easily been caused by something else, but given that he wasn't letting us look into his gun to say for sure, I was thinking that it had to be involved with the two missing objects.

"I figured it out," I whispered, and Chrysalis looked at me with a small frown. I couldn't even bring myself to look over at her as I stared down at the bench before me. The answer had been staring us in the face from the beginning, and we simply hadn't realized it. The culprit's nervous habits were going to show us everything that we were going to need to know. If not for Mr. Gassman's anxious actions, we never would have found the truth behind the case.

Before Chrysalis had the chance to ask me what was happening, I was addressing the courtroom as a whole, and there was a light smirk on my face. "I've figured out what happened to the keys and gun used in the crime. We've been trying to find out the truth for quite some time, but it's been staring us in the face for just as long, and I think that it's time for us to uncover the truth," I announced.

"What do you mean?" Judge Frost questioned, her expression set in a frown. "You believe that you've found the location of the gun and keys... If that's the case, then you must tell the court at once what happened to them."

"They aren't at the scene of the crime, so that means they must be somewhere else," Prosecutor Lin murmured, tilting her head slightly to the side. "We haven't been able to expand our search any further than the building where the body was found though. There aren't any other locations that have seemed relevant to our search."

"That's because the gun isn't to be found in a simple other location," I replied. "In fact, it's been here with us all along. If you will recall, we mentioned hearing a clicking noise as the witness moved during the video taken as the body was discovered. Said clicking noise could also be heard yesterday as we spoke with the witness in the parking lot of the studios. If you listen closely, we can still hear this noise right now as the witness moves back and forth between his feet."

As soon as he was called out on it, Mr. Gassman stopped moving, and he set his expression in a stony glare in my direction. "What are you talking about? I'm afraid I still don't understand what you could be getting at," he commented. He was playing innocent, but I could tell that he was fully aware of what I was trying to imply. He was simply denying it, but that wasn't going to work on me forever, especially since I had figured out the truth behind the case.

"I've figured out where the clicking sound is coming from," I explained. "When there's noise from your bag, you deny it and say that nothing is wrong. I'm not going to allow that excuse to pass any longer, so how about we get right into it? Your bag is holding the secret of this case, and I'm tired of you passing everything off as if nothing is wrong. You've been keeping it all to yourself, but that isn't going to fly any longer. How about you open up that bag for the whole courtroom to see?"

Mr. Gassman frowned. "I don't see how my bag could possibly be related in the slightest to the truth behind this case. It's only filled with camera supplies. I had to record a video of the tour, so I had to make sure that I had all of the objects necessary for an impressive shot," he told us.

"And yet, you've refused to open the bag for us. If it's really nothing notable, then it'll be fine for us to take a look inside. If you would please do us the honor of opening the bag, it would be very much so appreciated," I said.

"Why are you asking me to do this?" Mr. Gassman questioned. "It's really feeling like you're going to try and accuse me of stuff I didn't do anymore. I think that you're being overly dramatic to try and pin this murder on me rather than accept that your client is guilty. I'm honestly disgusted at how rude you're being, and I don't know what I can even say on the matter. You're trying to manipulate me and pin this murder as my fault."

"Just open up the bag," Chrysalis snapped. "If it's not a big deal, you won't try to fight it. We think that you could have been involved with a murder, and that's serious grounds for us to investigate what's going on with you. If it's truly nothing for us to worry about, then this shouldn't matter in the first place. Quit making a big deal about it and just open the bag."

Mr. Gassman looked surprised at her outburst, and he couldn't even formulate a response out of shock. He sputtered wordlessly before letting out a sigh and looking down at the ground. He was silent even after his point of focus shifted away from Chrysalis.

"All this time, we've been wondering about what could have happened to the gun and keys. However, I mentioned that the answer has been right in front of us, and it's quite literal as of right now," I explained. "When the witness shifts between his feet, a clicking sound can be heard. He's passed it off as being involved with the camera materials that he uses when recording videos, but... I believe that there's something more to it than that because he's been ignoring the idea of taking accountability."

"You can't possibly mean to say that..." came the whispered words of Prosecutor Lin. Her eyes had gone wide, and I knew that she had come to the same conclusion that I had. I could tell that she was wondering how she hadn't figured it out for herself up to that point, and if I was being honest, I felt the same way that she did.

"The keys and the gun have been hiding in his bag all along," I answered with a firm nod. "The clicking sound that we've been hearing is involved with both of these objects. It's the gun and the keys, both buried deep within the camera bag, slapping against one another. He didn't realize that there was a sound at all. Most people don't notice it when their nervous habits cause subtle noise, and he didn't see it much like those others, but it's going to be his downfall. I'm positive that if we open up that bag, we're going to see everything we could have asked for regarding the objects that have gone missing!"

The gallery immediately exploded into chatter, and I looked over to Chrysalis with a light smile on my face. She seemed shocked about it all, but after she realized that I was right, she grinned in return. "This is exactly the break that we've been looking for. All that we have left to do is explain what happened at the time of the crime, and we can wrap things up from there. I'll leave the explanation to you," Chrysalis said.

I grinned in her direction, silently thanking her for her trust in me. I shifted my focus back to the rest of the courtroom, remaining quiet as Judge Frost raised her gavel and slammed it down to earn the attention of the viewers. This was going to be our chance. We had come so far to prove that James hadn't committed the crime, but we still had to seal the deal, and this was our way to reach that point.

I waited until the courtroom had fallen silent, and then I cleared my throat, earning me the attention of all those watching. "If it's alright with all of you, I would like to tell the court about the series of events leading up to and including the murder," I declared. When I got a nod from Judge Frost in return, I took in a deep breath. At long last, this nightmare was going to end.

Oh boy I hate school

-Digital