September 14
Defendant Lobby No. 5
9:30 AM
Lily Shield
I got to the courthouse early the next morning, but I couldn't stop thinking about what we didn't know about the case. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't banish it all from my memory. I wanted to know why Mukuro had been arrested for the murder despite it being so clear that she couldn't have done it. There was so much evidence to prove that she couldn't have possibly been responsible for it, but that didn't seem to matter to the police in the slightest. Which of them could possibly have such a large grudge against Mukuro that they would want to purposefully have her arrested? Mukuro was one of the sweetest people I knew, and she didn't deserve to have to deal with any of this.
The only real possibility that I could think of was that the culprit was somehow involved with the team investigating the case. Maybe the culprit knew that they wouldn't be able to get away with the murder on their own, so they decided to cover their tracks lazily by pinning it on Mukuro. I could certainly see it as happening, but there was something about that explanation that didn't exactly sit well with me either. After all, why would the culprit be at the school either in that case?
That was the real complication behind this case. We were able to rule out many suspects based on who should have been at the scene of the crime or not. However, since it ruled out many suspects, that left us uncertain as to who could have possibly caused all of this. It couldn't have been any of the teenagers who were trying to show James around the building. They were together the whole time. In fact, Mukuro had been with them for a long time prior to the group splitting up to handle searching for Prosecutor Wood in a more efficient way.
It made sense for all of them to be at the scene of the crime, but they all had alibis. There were others who were at the scene too, but they either had alibis or lacked motive. Then again, everyone involved with this case lacked motive as far as I was able to tell. Nothing made the pieces come together in a way that made the culprit seem to make sense. There were too many holes in our understanding of the murder. It was frustrating, to say the least, and I had no idea how we were supposed to handle it.
I watched as Victoria and Sky walked into the room, and a smile burst across my face. "Hey, you two," I greeted simply with a light wave. They approached me where I was sitting on the couch in the defendant lobby as I continued to speak. "I've been thinking more about who would want to pin this murder on Mukuro, but I keep coming up short. Nothing seems to make sense regarding the people who might want to claim that she was responsible."
Victoria sighed at my words. "I was thinking about that a lot too, but I couldn't come up with an explanation. Barely anybody should have been there in the first place since it was a school after hours. I don't know what motive anyone would have had to be there if they weren't a student or a teacher... That could mean that our culprit is either a student or a teacher, but I don't know what to make of that," she admitted.
"As far as we can tell, there are two potential ways that the culprit could have been killed," Sky began. "First off involves the culprit throwing something at the glass trophy case and causing it to fall apart. That would break the shelves and send the trophy that killed the victim crashing down."
"And the other possibility would have the culprit smashing the glass before getting into the trophy case themselves and picking up the murder weapon from the wreckage," I continued. Sky nodded his agreement as I went on. "I somehow doubt that a student could have been capable of the second unless they were particularly tall, though I suppose that applies to the teachers as well. The victim was huge, so I don't know how any student was supposed to fight them off."
"We won't know until we can learn more about the case's details, I suppose," Victoria shrugged. "I'm not sure about how we can conclude who the culprit is without that. Knowing more about the victim wouldn't hurt either. I somehow feel like that's going to be important."
"There must have been a reason for the culprit to want to kill him. Knowing who the victim is as a person is going to make it easier to figure out what that reason is," I murmured, placing one hand on my chin. "The lack of identification on the victim's person is what really strikes me as strange. There has to be a reason for that, and I'm sure that we're going to hear about it soon enough."
Sky nodded, but he wasn't able to continue speaking. Mukuro walked up to us soon afterwards, a weary smile smeared across her features. "Hey, you three," she greeted in an attempt to seem casual and conversational. Still, I could tell that she was far more bothered by being arrested and suspected than she was letting on at a glance. Everything about her was tense and exhausted, clear signs of stress that appeared in suspects of these crimes. I had come to recognize them in my time as a lawyer, to put it nicely.
"Hey, Mukuro," I told her, giving a wave in her direction. "We were just talking about the case's details, though I suppose that's to be expected given all that we've come across... We're going to make sure that we can free you from the detention center though. You don't need to worry about that in the slightest. You should just sit back and relax while we handle it. Well, it isn't going to be easy to relax, but you should give it a try regardless."
Mukuro nodded slowly in response, and I got the feeling that she wasn't exactly up for much of anything more than that. Before we had the chance to exchange any further words, we were cut off by a bailiff crying that it was our time to enter the detention lobby. I recognized the voice as belonging to KJ, our favorite bailiff at the courthouse and a good friend of the agency. That prompted a smile to appear on my face, but I didn't say much more about it than that.
"Let's go on in there then," Victoria suggested with a grin. I could tell that she was nervous, but she still did her best to shelve her concern as she turned to face Mukuro. "We're going to take care of everything. There's nothing for you to worry about."
Mukuro nodded in response as we started to stream towards the entrance to the courtroom. I took in a deep breath before crossing the threshold. I had too many questions about this case to count, but I was sure that we were going to learn the truth sooner or later. It wasn't as if we had much of a choice if we wanted to free Mukuro of the false accusations that were dragging her down.
September 14
Defendant Lobby No. 5
10:00 AM
Lily Shield
I glanced across the courtroom once we were fully settled in and ready for the trial. Just as Mukuro had told us the day before, the prosecution consisted of Robbie, Prosecutor Burke, and Prosecutor Cruz. They all appeared to be prepared for the case at hand, but there was something tense hanging in the air around them all. I couldn't blame them for being tense and nervous given all that was going on. I felt much the same way, if I was being perfectly honest.
A gavel fell from the middle of the courtroom, and I glanced up to see Judge Frost sitting there. It was the man out of the twins, and he appeared to be far less tense than anyone else in the area. It was a breath of fresh air to see someone relatively relaxed, but he still knew how to get down to business, I was sure.
"Court is now in session for the trial of Mukuro Erikson," Judge Frost announced. "Are the defense and prosecution ready?" He set his gavel down as he looked over to the prosecution.
"The prosecution is ready," Prosecutor Burke declared, appointing herself as the spokesperson for her team. Her gaze was hardened into a glare, and I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of hers.
"The defense is also ready," I announced after giving Victoria and Sky a brief glance. I didn't know what we were meant to do aside from that, so I allowed myself to fall silent as we waited for the next direction.
Judge Frost smiled to himself and nodded before looking back to the prosecution's bench. "Prosecution, please give your summary of the events of this case," he instructed.
Robbie wound up reaching for a paper that was facedown on the bench before flipping it around so that he could read it. "Of course," he began before clearing his throat and properly getting into the abridged version of the murder. "The killing took place at the local high school. The victim was found with a head injury in the trophy area isolated from the rest of the building. He was killed instantly by a single blow to the top of his head. We aren't sure of why he would have been in the area, but we intend to find out what his reasoning for being there was sooner or later."
"Do you have the name of the victim?" Judge Frost questioned, clearly confused by Robbie's choice of wording. I couldn't blame him for his lack of understanding; Robbie had deliberately avoided mentioning the name of the victim because, as far as I was aware, we still didn't know it. Maybe information like that had come to light since the day before, but I wasn't sure of it yet. We would find out soon enough though, so that had to count for something.
"I think that our first witness would do a better job of explaining that than I ever could," Robbie answered. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to call the leading detective on this case to testify about the specific details surrounding the murder."
Judge Frost nodded his response. "Of course. Please call your first witness to the stand now," he said firmly.
Prosecutor Cruz snapped his fingers together, and he pointed to the witness stand a moment later. "You know who you are," he declared. I couldn't help but frown at his lack of naming the detective. Were we going to be dealing with Detective Umber or Detective Hayes?
I quickly learned that it was the former a moment later as she made her way up to the podium. Her eyes were still shaded with silent guilt the way that they had been the day before, but I still couldn't figure out why for the life of me. As soon as she noticed that I was staring though, Detective Umber shelved her worry and plastered a smile on her face effortlessly.
"Please state your name and occupation," Prosecutor Cruz continued, crossing his arms over his chest.
Detective Umber nodded in response. "Of course. I'm Abilene Umber, and I'm the leading detective on this case. I look into homicide cases most of the time," she explained. She let one hand fall to rest on the top of the podium before her, and her casual smile seemed to grow more genuine than before as she grew used to the mask that she was wearing.
"Please tell the court about the details regarding this case. To be specific, tell the gallery about the truth of the victim's identity," Prosecutor Burke instructed, her gaze growing sharp and stern.
"Of course," Detective Umber said. She closed her eyes for a moment to center herself before launching into the testimony itself.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ The Victim's Identity ~
-"At first, we didn't know anything about the victim or why he was at the school."
-"We have learned his name since then through some digging. His name is Dale Koontsin."
-"His presence at the school is rather strange, we have to admit. He wasn't associated with the school at all, and yet, there he was."
-"He was killed by a blow to the head as was already explained. The weapon in question was a trophy from the case that he was found in front of."
-"There was nothing to identify him on his person, and his car lacked any signs of ID as well. It was all incredibly peculiar."
-"We don't know why he would have been at the school or why he didn't keep any forms of ID with him... It's all a mystery that we have yet to unravel."
I placed one hand on my chin as I thought about the way that the victim had intentionally hidden his true identity. We had already been aware of his attempts to keep everything hidden, but it still struck me as odd, and I was desperate for answers, if I was being perfectly honest. His secrecy was unheard of, and I couldn't help but wonder what reasons he could have had for being so closed away. It wasn't as if he knew that he was going to die, so what other reasons would he have had to try and keep everything secret?
"I think there has to be some unexpected reason for him to keep all of this secret," Victoria whispered to me. "What if it has something to do with the gun or knife found on him? We never heard back regarding the details of the gun."
"It wouldn't hurt for us to assume that, honestly," Sky commented with a loose shrug. "I can't imagine that the gun and knife are unrelated to his actions. That could be just me, but... I don't think that the victim of this case was anywhere near being a saint. Who brings a knife and a gun onto school property? His being unrelated to the campus is even more peculiar, and I don't know how to react to it all."
"We'll just have to cross-examine the testimony and see," I told the two. At about this time, Judge Frost settled his gaze on us to see if we were ready for what was to come. I nodded in response before raising my hand, gesturing for Detective Umber to repeat her words once again. I knew that something was wrong about this case, and even if I didn't yet understand it, I intended to find out. The victim was the biggest memory of the case, and we had to figure out what his issue was as soon as possible.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ The Victim's Identity ~
-"At first, we didn't know anything about the victim or why he was at the school."
-"We have learned his name since then through some digging. His name is Dale Koontsin."
-"His presence at the school is rather strange, we have to admit. He wasn't associated with the school at all, and yet, there he was."
-"He was killed by a blow to the head as was already explained. The weapon in question was a trophy from the case that he was found in front of."
-"There was nothing to identify him on his person, and his car lacked any signs of ID as well. It was all incredibly peculiar."
-"We don't know why he would have been at the school or why he didn't keep any forms of ID with him... It's all a mystery that we have yet to unravel."
"Objection!"
"I think that I have an idea about why the victim would have wanted to keep his identity secret from the rest of the world," I began. I could feel a firm knot forming in my stomach already, but I knew that I was going to have to keep going with it all. The knife and the gun did not paint a pretty picture, and the idea of the victim intruding on the scene of the crime only confirmed my suspicions that something was wrong here.
"Please go on then," Prosecutor Cruz remarked, a frown forming on his face. It wouldn't have surprised me if the prosecution had already figured all of this out, but since none of this information had come to light the day before, we were clueless, and I thought it was worth going through the motions over.
"The victim should not have been at the scene of the crime by all logical reasons," I began. "I don't know why the victim was there, but I have the sneaking suspicion that something is wrong here. Why would the victim go to a school that he seemingly didn't have a connection to in the slightest? Him bringing along a gun and a knife only makes him seem more peculiar than before... I can't help but wonder if there's something going on here."
"You mean to say that the victim was a criminal in his own right," Prosecutor Burke cut in, and I have to admit that her words caught me by surprise. She was being rather blunt about it all, and my concerns about her and the rest of the prosecution team already knowing the truth were being confirmed before my very eyes. "There's more than enough evidence to show that something like that could easily be possible. It's unpleasant, yes, but it could most certainly be possible with the evidence that we have access to at the moment."
"Please explain in detail. I'm confused at the moment, I have to confess," Judge Frost cut in, glancing over to Prosecutor Burke. His eyes were quietly demanding of an explanation, and I couldn't blame him. I felt out of the loop in this case, and I couldn't even begin to imagine how much worse it was for him since he hadn't ever been given the chance to investigate the scene of the crime.
"The victim wasn't involved with the school in the slightest. If you want the truth, he shouldn't have ever been there in the first place," Prosecutor Burke began. "He was also found with a knife and a gun as the body was discovered. The knife was found wedged underneath his body, and it opened an injury on his torso after he died. There was a gun found beneath him as well. Weapons are never allowed on school campuses to ensure the safety of the students, but he still felt the need to sneak the weapons in."
"And it's not as if we can pass this off as being an innocent mistake," Victoria continued. "If he really wasn't meaning to hurt anyone and accidentally brought the weapons along, then there would be no reason for him to hide his identity by keeping his ID away from the scene of the crime. He knew that something was going to happen, and he chose deliberately to not bring any signs of identification along so that it would be harder for the investigators to pin him as the culprit."
Robbie nodded his agreement. "It's unfortunate, but that's how we feel about all of this," he said. He hesitated for a moment before looking down to the bench. "Besides, we found more than just the knife and gun on his person. There was one other weapon that was in the area where the body was discovered, and we think that it could definitely show that something here is wrong with the victim. Well, we already know that at this point, but it proves that he's far from being normal."
Prosecutor Cruz jumped in before Robbie could elaborate on what he meant. "We found a bottle attached to his belt. It was hidden by his shirt, so chances are that he was deliberately trying to keep the truth of its presence a secret from most of the people he encountered," Prosecutor Cruz explained. "The bottle in question contained chloroform, and a cloth was shoved into his boot as well. The cloth tested positive for traces of the drug, so we believe that he used it at some point at the time of the crime to knock someone unconscious for unknown reasons."
"Why would he want to knock someone unconscious? Was anyone found unconscious at the scene of the crime?" Sky questioned. He already knew the answer to such an inquiry, but he asked anyways.
Prosecutor Burke shook her head. "No. We have no idea who his target could have been or why he would have been after them, but we are positive that he had the chloroform on his person when he entered the building. It was hidden, and we didn't know that it was there until the body was taken from the scene of the crime by the forensics team," she went on. "We still need to find a few details regarding the victim in order for all of this to make sense though. We know that he had all of these weapons on his person, but we still don't have any ideas for motive. Something happened to make the victim think that this was a good idea, but we aren't sure about what that thing in particular could be."
"Do you think that the blood found at the scene of the crime could have anything to do with this?" Victoria suddenly asked me, her eyes wide with surprise at her own words. "Maybe the victim attacked someone with the chloroform and knocked them unconscious, and that could have led to their blood being found a short distance away from the body... But I suppose that begs the same question about how said person could have gotten away from the scene. If a person is unconscious due to the influence of chloroform, they wouldn't have been able to run from the culprit either."
"We didn't find anyone unconscious in the building at the time of the body's discovery. We searched every possible corner, and nothing popped up," Detective Umber interjected. "It truly is a mystery, and I don't know where to start."
"We'll simply have to keep looking for details," I said with a light shrug, trying my best to pretend that it didn't bother me as much as it did. Who was the victim really? Why would he want to enter the school with intentions of violence in the first place? It was a bold move of him to walk into the school to hurt someone given how secure most academic campuses consider themselves to be.
"The victim must have thought that he had better chances of going after his target at the school than anywhere else," Sky told me, and I wondered for a brief moment if he was possibly reading my mind. "If he believed that he would only be able to reach the person he was after while at the school, then he would have taken the risk... I'm not saying that it's a good thing. In fact, it's far from being a positive thing, but... It's something that could factor into us figuring out who he was going after."
"We need to know who could have caught his attention in such a way," I agreed with a nod. I had no idea where we were supposed to start, but we were going to have to do what we could to find out what his goal had been. "He went to the crime scene because he was trying to accomplish this goal of going after a specific person... Maybe his target fought back. That could have resulted in his death."
"In that case, it would have been a case of justified self-defense," Victoria cut in. "That wouldn't put our culprit in the place to be thought of as guilty. They would have had to fight back if they wanted to survive, and that can't be pushed on them in the slightest since the victim would be the one to blame."
"We'll just have to try and figure out the truth behind why the victim was there," Sky murmured with a shake of his head. "I don't know how exactly we're going to be able to do that, but I'm not complaining. After all, we finally have the victim's name, and that's what matters most in my opinion. It was a major blockade before, but it should open up new avenues of investigation now."
"We don't know that much about the victim aside from the fact that he was at the scene of the crime," Detective Umber confessed. "His occupation is unknown, assuming that he had a job at all. There's limited information about him, so we have no idea where to even start. I guess that's going to be where I start when I return to the scene of the crime to look around for new details."
"We trust that you'll return eventually and tell us about what you've learned," Prosecutor Burke told Detective Umber. The detective in question nodded in response before glancing up to Judge Frost, silently asking if she could step down from the witness stand. Judge Frost nodded his confirmation, prompting Detective Umber to leave the courtroom a moment later.
"We still need to figure out a bit more about what happened at the time of the crime," Robbie frowned. "It's clear that the victim's encounter with the culprit was something strange, but we have no way of uncovering the details as of now."
"The victim going to the school for unfavorable reasons makes me think that there's a lot more to this case than meets the eye. Why would he go to the school unless he knew a lot about his target? He was going out of his way to go after the person who had captured his attention, and they were at the school the day of the crime," Victoria murmured. "It's clear to me that he was killed before he had the chance to fully carry out the crime that he had been planning prior to his arrival at the school, and I think that it's almost for the best."
"It's a harsh thing to say, but if he was really planning on kidnapping someone at the school that day, it's good that something got in the way of him carrying out his mission properly," Sky agreed. "I wouldn't want the person that he was after to be hurt. There's something going on with this case, and I wish that I knew what it could be... I guess that the only way we're going to find out though is by waiting for further details to come to light."
"There is one last thing that I want to mention before we go any further," Prosecutor Cruz suddenly said. He was fiddling relentlessly with the sunglasses on his face as he spoke. "The knife that was found under the victim... It was mostly covered in his blood, but there was a small patch of it that matched the sample of the other stain found at the scene of the crime. It's easy to assume that the victim's knife was also used to cut at whoever was at the scene of the crime."
"That could have been the culprit," I murmured. "But it could have also been the target, now that I think about it. There's no way for us to know for sure what happened at the scene of the crime until we can uncover a few other details."
"We should shift our attention to something else," Prosecutor Burke suggested. "I think that we should call a witness to the stand to testify about what he saw at the time of the crime." Her gaze suddenly seemed tense and strained, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew exactly why that was. She cared a lot about Anton since she was his primary guardian, and she would naturally be defensive of him if she didn't think that it was a good idea for him to testify. I knew how anxious Anton got when he was placed in situations of high pressure, so it wouldn't have been a good plan for him to talk about the crime in detail.
Judge Frost nodded his agreement to Prosecutor Burke. "Please call your second witness to the stand," he told her. He picked up his gavel and began to spin it between his fingers just to give himself something to do as he was waiting for the arrival of the next witness.
Prosecutor Burke didn't even wait to look over at the other two working alongside her. She simply pointed to the stand, her gaze still pinched and heavy. "The prosecution calls James Devine to the stand," she announced before allowing her hand to fall back down.
In all honesty, I was relieved that Anton wasn't the one being asked to testify because of how nervous he got when forced into these sorts of situations. James would definitely be able to handle it better even if he was a few years younger than Anton. The possibility of Anton being called to the stand still appeared to be stressing out Prosecutor Burke, so I made a mental note to avoid calling him if it was at all possible.
Until then though, there was only one thing that we could really do. James made his way up to the stand, and I took a deep, measured breath. The time had come for us to hear in detail about what happened when the body was discovered. We needed everything that we could get, and I was sure that this would be our first step to uncovering the truth. I hoped that such a suspicion was correct with everything I was. I didn't know how we would possibly be able to continue without new details on this case, to be honest...
I'm tired but it's okay take update
-Digital