September 14
Blackgate High School
3:15 PM
Lily Shield
Aidan began to speak a moment later, and I bit down on my lip to keep from voicing how nervous I was about all of this. "You see, the victim is known to have been involved with criminal activity. That's why he had so many false identities. It took us a while to learn more about him because of his previous ties with unfavorable figures. He gets money from unexpected sources, and there's no way of saying what he exactly does for a living. If you ask me, he's probably gotten all of the money that he has on hand through committing crimes for specific clients who pay him after he succeeds in carrying out their orders," he continued.
"That's not a good thing at all," Sky remarked, rubbing at the back of his head as he chuckled nervously. I could tell that 'not a good thing' was the understatement of this century, but I chose not to call him out on it. Instead, I simply waited as he kept talking. "If he was really involved with such unfavorable activity, then why did he come to the school? It's not as if he would have much reason to come into this area. A school doesn't have much of anything to be noted by a criminal."
"We've been trying to figure out the reasoning behind that too, but let's just say that we believe that he was sent here by a client," Aidan went on. "We aren't sure of who would have wanted him to come to the school, but it seems pretty clear to me that the person responsible wanted him to get something done in this area."
"There has to be evidence left behind of his association with this patron. If they contacted one another through the internet, there's got to be proof that they met up. From there, we can meet up with the person that contacted him, and then we can ask what they had him do. I mean, they can fight back all they want, but it's still worth a shot in my opinion," Victoria pointed out.
"We're doing our best. Detective Umber is still trying to figure out what's going on there, but we haven't found any evidence to show who was behind all of this," Aidan sighed with a shake of his head. "As soon as we figure out who told him to do all of this, we're going to tell you. This is a very important fact to keep in mind where this case is concerned, and I don't think that we'll be able to find the truth behind what happened until we can unravel all of that."
"I see," I murmured, closing my eyes slowly. If I was being perfectly honest, all of this talk about the crimes that the victim had committed was rather familiar to me. In fact, it sounded just like the incident with Cormous from the year before. Well, I call him Cormous, but there was something else going on there.
In truth, Cormous had wound up being an assassin who was in contact with the infamous Emsthorpe family. He had been sent our way to try and learn more about Oracle, but he was found out before he could accomplish such. Nevada actually wound up keeping him from causing any further problems by lashing out before he could complete his goal. He had nearly been caught by Prosecutor Luis Cruz, and that was when Nevada showed up.
I didn't want to think that something similar was happening here, but it most certainly seemed possible. I shook my head at the thought and glanced over to Victoria. She had noticed that I was lost in thought, and I got the feeling that she was thinking the same thing that I was. "Reminds me of Cormous," Victoria said softly, just to confirm my thoughts on the matter.
Sky tilted his head to the side slightly, and I remembered that he hadn't been part of the agency as of the time that Cormous first appeared and started causing problems. "He was part of our agency for a while, but he wound up betraying us. We learned that he was an assassin working for the Emsthorpe family. I'm sure that you've heard of them because of how notable they are in causing issues within the legal system," Victoria began to explain, jumping onto the words before I could force my lips to form them.
Sky's eyes went wide in surprise immediately. "You can't be serious," he whispered, but I was sure that he believed us despite his seemingly obvious denial. When neither Victoria nor I disproved her claims, he let out a sigh and glanced down to the ground. "Yeah... I have heard of them. They've been involved with unappealing legal business for ages. They have a grudge against the legal system, and it's caused them to lash out on multiple occasions."
"Exactly," I confirmed. "I know that they operate out of the shadows, and you never really know who you're going to deal with until you come across them personally... It's an unfortunate thing to have to put up with, but I guess that there's nothing we can do about it until after we get past all that's happened recently... It'll take a miracle for us to find out what the Emsthorpe family has been up to, actually."
"We haven't found anything to make us think that he's connected to the Emsthorpe family, but it could be possible," Aidan remarked with a light shrug. "Until we find solid proof though, all we can really do is wait and see how everything unfolds... I'm sorry to disappoint you there. We're going to keep trying to figure out who his sponsor could have been behind all of this. We don't know what could have brought him to the school, but... I feel like we're getting closer."
"Thank you for telling us all of this," Victoria told him. "We're probably going to head down to the detention center soon to see Mukuro. We'll be sure to tell her that you say hello!"
Aidan's eyes lit up, and he waved as we retreated from the crime scene. As soon as we had rounded the nearest corner, my smile slipped from my face, and I looked down to the ground. "Something weird is going on here... I wish that we had a way of knowing who was responsible for all of this," I confessed. "I don't know if that's even going to help us in figuring out the truth of this case though. Unless his client betrayed him and decided to kill him, then there's really not much here for us to go off... I mean, it's nice to know that we weren't exaggerating when we thought that he shouldn't have been at the scene of the crime, but that's about all that I gathered from that conversation."
"The unorthodox way of the victim dying makes me think that somebody else was responsible," Victoria commented with a small shrug of her shoulders. "I mean, there's not really any evidence of that given the fact that anyone could have done this if they were given the right motivation. The crime was definitely far from being premeditated. It's easy to see that from a simple glance at the crime scene."
"I want to know more about why Prosecutor Wood feel the need to lie to us," Sky sighed. "You know, unless she really is Nevada, but... I don't know. I'm just bothered by all of this, and I don't know what I'm supposed to think, if I'm being perfectly honest."
"We still don't know why anyone would have wanted to pin this on Mukuro either," I pointed out. "I don't even know for sure if we're going to be able to put the pieces together there. As of now, it's simply a theory, and there isn't exactly any solid proof for us to grasp to as evidence that somebody really did try to frame her."
"We'll have to be careful about how we proceed from here. That much is clear no matter what we do from here," Victoria remarked, nodding to herself. "I feel like that's kind of obvious, but... Whatever. Is there anything else that you guys want to talk about before we head to the detention center to see Mukuro?"
"I'm wondering about the blood found near the body still," Sky said. "I mean, if Chrysalis really was there, that raises a lot of questions. We know that she was here to pick up Yuri, but she shouldn't have wound up hurt in the first place. If she encountered the victim in the hallway and saw that he had weapons, she wouldn't have called him out. Chrysalis is quiet enough as it is, and I somehow doubt that she would put herself in danger upon seeing something that threatening and terrifying."
"Unless the victim was here because of her or something," Victoria murmured with a small laugh. "But that wouldn't really make sense, right? I mean, Chrysalis barely comes by here anymore. There was no guarantee that she was going to be in the area, and if the victim was banking on her coming here, he clearly wasn't thinking things through all that well."
I paused to consider her words before shaking my head. "You're right in the fact that it wasn't reliable, but... Why would Chrysalis wind up hurt when nobody else was? She definitely seems to be acting different too. The last time that I remember her acting so open and empty was back during the case at her theater group's first performance. Chrysalis is pretty good at guarding her vulnerabilities most of the time, but she was pretty open about something being wrong in both cases," I murmured.
"She got hurt back then too," Victoria pointed out. "It's something for us to consider at the very least, and doubly so if Prosecutor Wood really is involved with all of this. I somehow doubt that we're going to be able to get either one of them to open up so quickly though. Well, Chrysalis can't exactly open up if she doesn't remember what happened at the time of the crime, but... Prosecutor Wood probably won't just allow us to swoop right in and get her to talk to us."
"She's nervous and fidgety most of the time, and even if she seems a bit more sure of herself right now, chances are she would go into defensive mode if we said that we wanted to hear more from her," I agreed. "We'll have to wait until we can take her into the courtroom. It's way harder to lie when you're in that sort of environment."
"Until then, maybe we should go on and talk to Mukuro. For all we know, she could have heard about what's been going on. She could have suspicions about if she really was framed for this by some unknown figure too," Sky remarked. "It seems pretty clear to me honestly, but she might have a different perspective that we simply don't have access to... I still don't know who could have wanted to do that, but it hardly seems like the greatest of mysteries regarding this case. There are other things that definitely require our attention first and foremost."
"Let's go over the list of facts that we need to find out for now," Victoria proposed. "The ones that come to mind involve who the victim's client could be, the origin of the blood at the crime scene, why Chrysalis forgot what happened, if Nevada really is back, who the victim's target was, and why he was at the scene of the crime in the first place... Wow. That's a lot more than I was expecting, and that still doesn't factor in Mukuro potentially being framed for all of this."
"We're the closest to figuring out where the blood comes from, but there are still a few questions about that. We need to get some conclusive evidence to show that it's from Chrysalis," I said with a small nod. "It wouldn't hurt to know why Prosecutor Wood took Chrysalis away from the scene of the crime in the first place. Then again, I suppose that ties in with the matter of if Nevada is back or not, so... It might have to wait a while longer."
"We'll get there eventually," Sky assured me, but I got the feeling that he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to get the point across to both me and Victoria. "I don't think that there's much of anything else that we can do around here though..."
"Oh, I just remembered!" Victoria cried out. "We don't know what the weapon used to break the glass was either. It would have had to be something heavy yet portable to keep anyone from noticing that someone was carrying around something so large... I suppose that everything there will come into place around the time that we figure out who the killer is, but..."
"There are so many unsolved loose ends in this case... I feel like finding out what happened during that encounter between the killer and the victim is most important. If we have to wait on learning more about what happened between the victim and his client, then so be it. As long as we're able to clear Mukuro's name, then we'll have done what matters most," I told them.
"Maybe the client was somehow involved in the incident where Mukuro was framed," Sky commented. "I mean, it's not as if I have any evidence, but... Their goal would be to keep all eyes off the victim since the truth about his criminal activity coming out would track back to them in the long run. If they shifted the focus away and towards somebody else, then nobody would want to pay attention to the victim's past transgressions."
"That certainly sounds possible," I agreed. "If that's the case, then the client must hold some serious power within the legal system. I somehow doubt that Mukuro would have been arrested over an anonymous message that came from someone completely uninvolved with the case. However, if the rumor came from somebody who held power within the legal world, then Mukuro's sudden and irrational arrest would make a lot more sense."
"Detective Umber might know something... Maybe we'll run into her down at the detention center. If we do, we could ask her about it," Sky pointed out. "Still, I guess we won't know until after we go and see what's going on down there, so... Let's get to it. I think that we've summarized about everything that we need to discuss regarding the case now anyways."
"Perfect," I agreed with a nod. "In that case, let's see what the detention center has in store for us... Hold on for just a little bit longer, Mukuro. We're going to find a way to get you out of there as soon as possible. I can promise you that for sure."
September 14
Detention Center
4:30 PM
Victoria von Graye
I slid into my seat once we arrived in the visiting area of the detention center, and I began to tap my foot against the ground as a way of passing the time. I counted the number of times I hit my toes against the floor below. The number rose quickly, but I didn't mind. It kept my mind busy, and it ensured that I wasn't worrying more than I already was about everything that was happening involving the unsolved loose ends of this case. It was the distraction that I desperately needed.
Mukuro arrived on the other side of the glass soon after, a weary smile on her face. "Hello, you three," she greeted casually, but I could tell that she was far more bothered by everything happening than she was letting on. "It's nice to see you back here... Did you manage to find anything during the investigation?"
"We've learned some new information about the victim that we think could help to pull the full picture into perspective," Lily told her with a conversational smile. "It's not exactly good news, but... We heard that the victim was involved with a lot of criminal activity in the time leading up to his death. He was likely hired by an unknown client to go to the school on the day of the murder, but we don't have any reasons in mind for why that would have been his destination."
"There aren't any clues about who his client could possibly be either," Sky said next. "We know that the client has to be involved with all of this somehow, but we aren't sure of how specifically. As soon as we're able to figure it out though, we'll be sure to tell you. Detective Umber is supposedly looking into it, but we haven't seen her at all today, so it isn't as if we can simply ask her if she's found anything yet."
"She was here earlier, actually," Mukuro remarked. "She wasn't in the detention center for long, but she decided to swing by and see how I was doing. I guess that she got worried about me... There seemed to be something on her mind though. It was as if she couldn't fully focus on the situation at hand, though I don't know why that could possibly be."
"I find that rather odd, I have to say," Lily murmured. "Maybe this is just me jumping to conclusions, but I don't think it's really like Detective Umber to be distracted to that degree. If we happen to see her again, we'll simply have to ask if there's anything going on there."
Mukuto nodded her agreement. "Yeah, but that can wait for now. For the time being, how about you tell me about everything else that you found out? I'm seriously curious about the details, and it's not like I have anything else to do in this place," she commented before letting out a hollow laugh.
"There's one thing that I want to ask you," I began. When Mukuro turned to me with attentive eyes, I continued to elaborate. "I was wondering if you noticed anything strange about the way that Prosecutor Wood was acting around the time of the crime. We know that she never showed up to speak with you as was planned, but... We want to know if she started acting oddly before that point. Did you happen to see her doing anything strange?"
Mukuro shook her head. "Nope. I didn't see Niamh at all on the day of the murder. She just wasn't there when she should have been, but I still don't know why. Is there any reason that you asked that?" she questioned.
"We just think that Prosecutor Wood's behavior has been suspicious, and we were wondering if you had any details," Sky told her before I could explain our thoughts on Nevada. I wasn't planning on it in the first place, but I appreciated Sky's attempts to keep Mukuro safe from our theories regarding the truth. The last thing that I wanted to do was stress her out more when it came to this case, and I could tell that she was anxious enough as it was. Anyone could see the nervous way that her eyes darted around the visiting room if they looked closely enough. Mukuro would find out the truth if she had to, but until then, I was more than content to keep it on the down low.
Mukuro nodded slowly before turning her attention to the ground. "I understand... How about the murder weapon? Have you managed to find out anything about what was used to break the glass at the scene of the crime yet?" she asked next.
I shook my head. "I'm afraid not. We're probably getting closer to finding out what happened, but we still haven't managed to find the evidence that we need to fully unravel the truth about what broke the glass. I'm hoping that we'll have it all figured out in time for the trial tomorrow though, so you'll find out then," I answered.
"I understand," Mukuro murmured, more to herself than any of us. "Is that all that you wanted to tell me? I don't want to keep you if you're still planning on going to speak with Detective Umber before the day is done."
All three of us on the defense team glanced over to each other to check for signs that there was something we had missed. When we didn't find anything, I turned my focus back to her. "No, I don't think so," I told her with a kind smile. "Thank you for talking to us about all of this, Mukuro. We'll be sure to do everything that we can with the information that you've given us so that you can get out of here as soon as possible. I promise."
"I'm counting on you," Mukuro replied. She waved to us as we all moved away from the visiting room. I could see her being escorted from the room as I passed over the threshold into the hallway outside, and I hoped that Mukuro would be alright overnight. We were closer to the truth than ever, but it still felt as if there was more uncertainty than there should have been at this point of the investigation. There wasn't anything that I could do about it, but I still found it to be rather unfortunate.
Luckily, the universe gave us a blessing to make up for the crummy way that it had been treating our investigation thus far, and I gasped in surprise as a familiar figure appeared in the hallway. It was none other than Detective Umber. She was looking down at her phone and swiping through something, but I could tell that there was something on her mind. She barely seemed to be paying attention to what was happening about her, and I could certainly see where Mukuro was coming from when she said that Detective Umber was distracted for seemingly no reason. It was a stark contrast from the bubbly optimism that I had gotten used to hearing about regarding her, and I wasn't entirely sure of how to approach her.
Lily decided to take over the job for me, and she casually walked up to Detective Umber with a smile on her face. "Hey, Detective Umber," she greeted. "Is it alright with you if we ask you a few questions about the case? We're still looking to tie up a few loose ends, and we believe that you would be the best person for us to gather this information from."
Detective Umber seemed to snap out of her trance upon hearing Lily's voice, and she plastered a grin upon her features recklessly to try and cover up the nerves that were clearly settling in. "Sure!" she exclaimed. "I take it that you guys came here from the scene of the crime. After all, I know that you tend to visit your client after you're finished investigating for the day."
I couldn't help but wonder why she had access to such information, but I chose not to call her out on it since I was unsure of where it would lead us. Given how distracted she was, she would have likely claimed that it was a slip of the tongue, and for all I knew, that was all it was. Maybe she had jumped to conclusions because she was still uncertain about the case.
My thoughts were disturbed by Sky nodding at her words. "We did," he replied. "We just finished speaking with Mukuro, as a matter of fact... We heard from Detective Hayes that you've been looking into the victim though, and we were wondering if perhaps you would be willing to share any of the information that you've found with us."
Detective Umber hesitated for a second that seemed to stretch on for a generation. There was something more going on with her than she was letting on, and it was already starting to bother me. She wound up shrugging as she glanced down at the ground. "I don't think that there's much that you know that I don't, if I'm being perfectly honest... I'm still trying to figure out who the victim's client was, but we're coming up short no matter where we look. There simply isn't enough evidence to put the pieces together right now. I'm sorry to disappoint."
"What about his other criminal ties? If he was involved with other darker affairs, there has to be evidence. Are you sure that he isn't involved at all with groups that target specific parties?" I questioned, trying to seem as casual as possible. I could tell that there was more to this than met the surface, but I didn't want to distress Detective Umber by letting her know that.
Detective Umber shook her head. "I'm afraid not. We don't know anything about the victim," she said softly. "We have a name, but that's honestly all that we've got access to. I wish that there was more for us to look at, but we're still not able to find anything of value."
"There's one more question that I have, if that's alright," Lily said. I could tell that she had also picked up on Detective Umber's odd behavior, but she was choosing not to comment on it for the time being. "I was wondering... What process led to the arrest of the defendant?"
Detective Umber fell silent for a moment after that, and she continued to stare down at the floor, seemingly unwilling to meet any of our gazes. "I'm not sure," she answered. The air seemed to grow heavier for a moment before she looked up to explain further. "I can say for sure though that there was a phone call that came in for one of the leading officers who first arrived at the scene of the crime. The person on the other end said that Mukuro was suspicious, and that was why she was taken in as a suspect. I was forced to take her into custody, but I don't think that she actually did it. Somebody else must have been responsible for all of this."
Lily nodded at her words, and another false smile appeared on her face. "Thank you for your help, Detective Umber," she told the other woman. "That's all we wanted to ask you. I'm sure that you have to get back to the investigation, so we won't keep you. We'll be looking forward to seeing you again."
Detective Umber flashed us a grin that was so obviously fake that it almost hurt to look at. "Okay," she replied quickly. She didn't even bother with saying anything else, instead choosing to pivot on her heel and walk away, leaving me, Sky, and Lily alone in the hallway.
Lily waited until she was sure that we were alone before gesturing that we both lean in. She seemed ready to whisper something to us, so I followed her advice willingly. "I can tell that she was lying about that. Something is going on, but I'm not sure what it could possibly be," she murmured. "My Magatama reacted and indicated that she was hiding something, but... She was only lying about part of the truth."
"What do you mean?" Sky questioned, and I saw his expression fall as he realized that this was going to be another situation similar to what we had already encountered with Nevada. "If she was lying about part of the truth, then that means that she knows something about this case. I don't know why she would want to lie, but..."
"She was lying when she said that she didn't know why Mukuro was arrested, but everything else was honest. She didn't receive the phone call from the unknown figure, but I suspect that she has ideas about the identity of the person who accused Mukuro in the first place. If she had proof, she likely would have opened up about it from the start. She's probably so distracted because she's trying to put those pieces together," Lily explained.
"I don't think that we're going to be able to get the truth out of her unless she testifies during the trial tomorrow, but... What reason would she have to get up on the stand anyways?" I asked softly. "We're simply going to have to figure out the case without knowing the truth of what she's aware of... I'm hoping that it will go well like that, at the very least. Then again, I suppose that we won't know until we try..."
"For now, I think that our investigation is finished. We have our suspicions about this case, and we're going to be able to talk to Chrysalis and Prosecutor Wood during the trial tomorrow. We should meet up again tomorrow and see if there's anything new that we can press out of them," Lily declared. She straightened to her full height since there was no further need to be quiet, and she gave us a brief wave. "I'll see you two tomorrow."
I waved as Lily left before doing the same for Sky. Detective Umber's strange behavior had certainly left a strange taste in my mouth, but I couldn't quite say for sure what was happening. Even if she simply had suspicions about who the anonymous caller was, why didn't she talk about them? Was there something keeping her quiet? Regardless of if we found out the answers easily, I was determined to figure out what had happened with this case. Mukuro was counting on us all to act in her best interests, and I was going to do just that no matter what got in my way.
I was going to find out who the culprit was, and Mukuro was going to be freed. That much was a promise.
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