November 20
Prosecutor's Office
1:00 PM
Yuri Rinko
With very little for us to do at the scene of the crime, we decided to change the target of our investigation away from the agency. As far as I could tell, the best time for us to sort out all of the issues with the keys and such was the present, so we decided to turn our sights on the Prosecutor's Office. Both Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Burke had already shown us that they knew where their keys were, and given that Deirdre, Victoria, and I had ours on us too, that left Prosecutor Lin as the next person for us to talk to. After all, we would have the chance to see Felicity, Sky, and Lily as soon as we went to the detention center later in the day.
We entered the elevator and started our journey upwards to the floor where Prosecutor Lin's individual office could be found. I stared down at the floor, toeing at it absentmindedly as the elevator hummed gently around us. I didn't know where to start with talking to Prosecutor Lin, but we were going to have to figure something out. Plus, she had always been a naturally open person, so chances were that she would be able to tell us what was going on with Mr. Morix. Even though they were different, Prosecutor Lin and Mr. Morix got along rather well, and their connection as siblings always shone through when you looked at them closely enough.
I could hear laughter coming from Prosecutor Lin's office, and I glanced over to Deirdre and Victoria. The latter shrugged while Deirdre's face was overcome with confusion. I shook my head before turning my attention to the door and raising a hand to knock. I let my fingers drum against the surface of the door in a gentle melody before starting to wait.
"Come in!" came the cry of Prosecutor Lin from inside, and I curled my fingers around the doorknob before walking inside. Deirdre and Victoria trailed after me, and all three of us took in the sight that waited for us within.
Prosecutor Lin was sitting on the couch that rested against the wall, and Prosecutor Wood was sitting next to her. The older woman was scrolling through her phone as Prosecutor Wood looked over her shoulder. Upon second examination though, I realized that it wasn't Prosecutor Wood watching her at all. Instead, it was Nevada, and her hair flowed wildly around her shoulders. She laughed at something that appeared on Prosecutor Lin's screen, either not seeing us or choosing to not care.
Deirdre cleared her throat to earn the attention of them both, and Prosecutor Lin glanced up before sliding her phone back into her pocket. Nevada pouted as the phone disappeared, but she didn't say anything as Prosecutor Wood rose to her feet. "Hey there, you three," she remarked. She stretched her arms above her head before allowing them to fall back to her sides as an easy smile rose to her features. "What brings you here? We weren't expecting visitors."
"We have a few questions about recent events," Deirdre explained hurriedly before shifting her attention to Nevada. "I do have to ask though... Is this Nevada?"
"You bet it is!" Nevada cried out, crossing her arms over her chest. Since I was being given the chance to examine her in full, I could see all the little differences that came with her being the one in control of the body. Her gaze was sharper, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She had removed her glasses as before, and her hair was messy beyond imagination, though she didn't seem to mind in the slightest. Her voice was rougher than Prosecutor Wood's was regularly, and her words came out in the lower region of the tonal register than her counterpart's did.
"Is this okay?" Victoria questioned after brief hesitation. "Last that I heard, Prosecutor Wood hadn't yet been made aware of everything that happened with Nevada... I don't want to frighten her."
Prosecutor Lin shook her head. "Don't worry about that. I've already taken care of telling her, and I've made sure that everything is going to be safe for them both here. Niamh normally works here and does work as a prosecutor, but if Nevada happens to come out, I like her to come to my office. It keeps anyone from getting upset with her acting oddly since not everybody in the office has been made aware of this situation. I think it's for the best that way," she explained. "But the short version is that everything has been resolved. Niamh knows about Nevada, and we have a plan for what to do when Nevada is in control."
"Yeah. We were having lots of fun together," Nevada said, a grin rising to her face once again. "I guess that it doesn't matter much now though... You need something from us, don't you? If there's something on your mind, go on and say it. We don't want to spend any extra time talking."
I could tell that Nevada's bluntness came more from a wish to be to the point rather than being at all rude or harsh, so I chose to not let it bother me. I gave a brief look in the direction of Deirdre and Victoria, waiting for one of them to start the explanation, before I took it upon myself to start talking. "I was just wondering about your key to the agency," I began conversationally.
"Ah!" Prosecutor Lin exclaimed. She dashed over to her desk and pulled a drawer open. She shoved her hand inside and began to fiddle around, clearly being forced to sift through excessive amounts of unnecessary items. When her fingers finally closed around the key in question, her face broke out into a wide grin, and she pulled the keyring free triumphantly. "Here it is. I don't know why you want to see it, but... I do have it here with me. Why did you ask in the first place? What's going on?"
"A lot is happening right now," Victoria began, letting out a light yet nervous chuckle. "Somebody was attacked at the agency, and we're trying to figure out who could have done it. We've been checking with the people who have keys and making sure that they didn't lose them or anything. After all, if the key was stolen, somebody unexpected would be able to sneak into the agency, and that's the last thing that we want."
"Somebody was attacked..." Prosecutor Lin murmured, clearly trying to come to terms with what had just been said. She considered it for a long moment before shaking her head. "I'm afraid that I can't really help you out there. I don't know anything. I mean, I assume that this happened pretty recently, and I've been here at the Prosecutor's Office since it first opened. Niamh was here with me at first too, but she wound up switching with Nevada, so... She's been accounted for all morning too."
"I hope that you aren't trying to say that I did anything wrong," Nevada cautioned, though there was no malice to her words. Instead, she simply appeared to be pouting as a child did. It was almost strange how different she was behaving compared to the previous trial where I had last seen her. Back then, she had been confrontational and defensive, almost desperate in her wishes to keep everyone at arm's length. It seemed that she had easily slipped into the routine of having others to look after her, and she didn't want to go back after having found such comforts.
"Of course not," Deirdre assured her. "We were simply coming by to check on the key. I'm afraid that we don't know of any other leads regarding who could have one... The only people who we haven't been able to check with yet are either scheduled to speak to us later or haven't yet responded to our inquiries. There really isn't much that we can do about it at the moment, I'm afraid."
"Why don't you give me the explanation of everything that you know so far?" Prosecutor Lin asked. Her expression had grown oddly tempestuous, and I could tell that she was confused by the way that we were dancing around the subject.
Nevada sat down on the nearby couch and watched us with intense curiosity. "I like hearing stories," she commented. Once again, I was left completely astounded by how much she had changed in such a short period of time. I knew that it was entirely because of the environment that she had been forced into, but that didn't make it any less jarring. Before, she had been volatile and quick to anger, but I supposed that was because she had been put on the spot. She was trying to defend herself, and people were known to go to desperate measures if they had to in order to stay safe. This was the true Nevada, and it was rather nice to see her when she wasn't under immense pressure. She seemed so normal, a far cry from the anxious, angry girl that I had initially assumed her to be.
"There was a large amount of blood found at the agency. It wasn't there yesterday, but it had showed up by the time that Lily came to the agency to open it for the day. She was the first one to arrive, so it's something that must have happened this morning before she got to the building. It was so fresh that it likely appeared this morning," Deirdre explained. "That leaves us with a locked room case of sorts. We need to figure out who could have gotten into the building during the period of time in question, and we have to find a way for a culprit to worm their way into the agency."
"Of course, it's easier said than done... After all, the keys that we know about are all accounted for as of now," Victoria went on. "I mean, we still need to ask Felicity, Sky, and Lily about it, but we're going to see them a bit later in the day. Until then, the only ones who we need to talk to are Chrysalis and Mr. Morix, but neither one of them has been responding to our messages... I'm afraid that we wouldn't know where to start as far as talking to them either."
"I don't know where Chrysalis is, and Mr. Morix left the scene of the crime soon after the blood was discovered," Deirdre continued. "He was there before I arrived on the scene, and he left not long after I arrived. He found a small necklace and identification card hiding underneath a candle, and then he left, saying that I should handle the case with the other members of the agency. None of us have heard from him since, and we don't know where to start in talking to him or Chrysalis. She hasn't been answering either."
"It's so weird that there would be a candle there in the first place," I sighed. "I mean, I've known them for a long time. I think that I've been cooperating with Mr. Morix and Chrysalis for about four years now, and they've never liked candles. In fact, Chrysalis has said on multiple occasions that she absolutely hates them. When she sees a candle, she blows it out if she can. I don't know why they would keep something like that in the agency if it so blatantly made her uncomfortable. Mr. Morix listens when something upsets her, so it's not as if he would have a reason to go back on his word..."
When I glanced back to Prosecutor Lin, I could see that her expression had grown rather dark. She looked almost haunted by my words, but I couldn't figure out why. I hadn't been paying close enough attention to see when there was a shift in her disposition, and I prayed that perhaps Deirdre or Victoria had been able to see what had caused her to change so drastically seemingly out of nowhere.
"Is something wrong?" Nevada questioned, watching Prosecutor Lin nervously. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt, suddenly seeming uncomfortable in the position that she was in. Her gaze refused to meet anybody else's, and I could feel her nerves from a mile away. Once again, the change in her personality caught me by surprise, and I couldn't help but feel bad for her. She was still adapting to everything, and this was the last thing that anyone who was trying to fit in with the rest of society needed to deal with. I had to admit that I probably would have felt the same way in her situation.
Prosecutor Lin snapped out of her trance as soon as she was finished with thinking about whatever had distracted her so much in the first place, and she let out a nervous laugh before shaking her head. "Don't worry about it," she told everyone. She was deliberately dodging the question, and I got the feeling that it was because she didn't have a positive way to respond to Nevada's inquiry. Something was certainly wrong, but she simply didn't want to admit it.
"Thank you for talking to us about this issue," Deirdre told Prosecutor Lin, and a gentle smile appeared on her face. I could tell that she was trying to hide how suspicious she was though, and I knew that this was going to be our first subject of conversation as soon as we were finished here.
"I think that I'm going to look into this case a little bit too," Prosecutor Lin said, heading for the door. "Come on, Nevada. We've got a bit of digging to do. I promise that this will be a lot more fun than the paperwork that you were working on before you came in here."
That seemed to be enough to convince Nevada, and she got to her feet soon afterward. She gave me and the other members of my team an anxious glance on the way by, clearly trying to hide how nervous she was about the random shift in personality that Prosecutor Lin had displayed. Still, Nevada didn't stop after she had started walking, and she vanished through the door after her caretaker soon afterwards.
The trip out of Prosecutor Lin's office was silent and seemed to stretched on forever, and the elevator surrounded us again soon afterwards. The humming sound from before filled the air once again, but I barely noticed it. Instead, I looked over to Deirdre to see that she was lost in silent thought. Victoria was watching Deirdre the same way, and I hoped that this meant that Deirdre had figured out what had earned such a strange reaction from Prosecutor Lin in the first place. She was the most observant out of our little trio by far, so if anybody was going to have this sort of thing figured out, it would be her.
After we stepped away from the elevator, we made our way to an isolated corner of the bottom floor of the Prosecutor's Office. I watched as Victoria and Deirdre both settled down against the wall, and I kept my gaze locked firmly on Deirdre. I didn't say anything, but I assumed that she would be more than able to figure out what I was trying to ask her for.
"I noticed the point in the conversation at which Prosecutor Lin's disposition on the case shifted," Deirdre explained after gesturing for us both to lean in so that we could listen without being eavesdropped on. "It was after we brought up the candle. If you ask me, she's just as aware of Mr. Morix and Chrysalis disliking candles as we are, but I somehow think that there's a bit more to it than you would have expected at a first glance."
"That wouldn't surprise me," Victoria admitted. "Something about the way that she changed made it seem as if she was aware of something that we haven't been told about yet... If you want my opinion, I think that it has something to do with why Chrysalis and Mr. Morix have been acting so strangely. They're all siblings, so it only makes sense that they would know the same thing about what's been going on... But I still don't think that we have enough evidence to identify what the cause of all this distress is."
"Not yet..." I agreed with a sigh and a shake of my head. "I don't get it. If there was really something heavy enough to warrant a reaction that was this drastic, you would have expected them to say something about it. As far as I can tell, this is a pretty big deal, but... It's not as if we're able to do anything about it as long as we're in the dark, and they haven't spoken a word of it to us ever since we were first assigned to investigate this case."
"I wish that we knew where Mr. Morix had run off to," Deirdre murmured. "I suppose that all we can do for now is look around elsewhere and hope that we'll be able to find the evidence that we need in order to search for the truth. If we can find out enough, then we can use it to show Mr. Morix, Prosecutor Lin, and Chrysalis that we know something is wrong. That was how we were able to get Mr. Morix to tell us about the Oracle issue two years ago, and I think that it's our best bet for learning about what's going on behind this case too."
"Maybe we should go down to the detention center next," Victoria suggested. "If Lily is out of questioning, she'll be able to explain to us what she saw when she first found the scene of the crime, and I think that's our best bet as far as figuring out what's going on. Maybe she noticed something that was out of place when she was there at first. I mean, I would have expected to hear about something that really stuck out like that, but it wouldn't hurt to ask, especially when we don't have any other options."
"That sounds like a plan to me," I agreed. I could feel something buzz within my pocket, so I frowned to myself before shoving my hand inside. When I pulled it out, my fingers were curled around my phone, and I could see that the screen had lit up from a new notification. Deirdre and Victoria both glanced down to the device to see what could have earned my attention.
Victoria smiled at the sight of my phone's lit screen. "It looks to me like Felicity and Sky are able to talk with Lily now," she said. "According to this text, she just got out of questioning. I guess that everything is lining up perfectly for our investigation. That's exactly what we need, so we shouldn't hold this off any longer than we have to. It's not as if there's much of anything else for us to do at the moment."
"We can ask about the issue with the keys too," I pointed out. "Felicity and Sky probably have their keys, but if anybody is going to lose something like that, it would probably be Felicity. I feel like we're all aware of how clumsy she can be sometimes."
There were no objections to that, but we were ultimately cut off in our endeavors to head towards the detention center when Deirdre's phone let out a shrill ring. She frowned as she produced the device before pressing the button onscreen to accept a call. "Hello?" Deirdre asked into the speaker. She took a small step away and faced the wall for a little bit of privacy, but that didn't exactly hinder my ability to listen in. Victoria pretended to not pay attention, but I could tell that she was just as curious about all of this as I was.
"Ah, Chief Prosecutor Bespoke... You really found someone?" Deirdre questioned. I could hear the shock in her voice, and it made me yearn for answers more than ever before. She nodded as she went on. "I understand... We'll be down there as soon as possible. Thank you for the update." Deirdre ended the call before putting her phone away and turning around to face Victoria and me.
"What was that about?" Victoria asked. I got the feeling that the gears in her head were already beginning to turn based on the look on her face. I wished that I had been blessed with such deductive abilities in all honesty. Instead, I wound up feeling anxious and jittery about what we could have been missing out on. I didn't think that I had enough evidence to put the pieces together about what the call with Chief Prosecutor Bespoke had been about.
"The prosecution has found a witness to the crime," Deirdre replied. "He said that we should come down now to question her. He didn't say much more than that, but he seemed rather flustered. I think that something happened involving the witness to make him nervous or otherwise upset about the case... I don't know if that's what happened for sure, but it's something to keep in mind for the time being."
"If we have a witness to talk to, then I don't see why we're still standing around here!" I proclaimed with a bold gesture. "Why don't we head on down there and see what this mystery girl of ours has to say? It's a good place for us to start. Felicity and Sky can keep Lily entertained while we wrap up this loose end. Besides, we'll only be crunched for time at the detention center if we go to see her now."
The other two agreed with my proposal, and we immediately made our way to the entrance of the Prosecutor's Office. I couldn't help but wonder what could have been going on with this odd witness that Chief Prosecutor Bespoke had mentioned to Deirdre. He was a rather relaxed person, but given his strange behavior as of late, it wasn't completely out of character for him to suddenly be jittery and nervous. In all honesty though, that just made all of this worse, and I found myself silently desperate to figure out what in the world was going on.
November 20
Morix Law Offices
2:45 PM
Deirdre Brigit
As soon as we got back to the agency, the first thing that I noticed was that the crowd had thinned out significantly. As a result, the area was far quieter than before, and that made it way easier than it had been to think without needing to retreat to the backside of the building. I let out a small sigh of relief before I started to scan the crowd for signs of the prosecution.
My gaze finally managed to find Chief Prosecutor Bespoke after I spent a short while looking, and I must admit that I only managed to pinpoint him because of his incredible height. I began to move closer to him, gesturing for Yuri and Victoria to follow me. They did so without hesitation.
As soon as we slipped into place beside the prosecution, I noticed a girl standing beside Prosecutor Burke. The young woman in question was on the shorter side, seeming to almost disappear into her dark clothing. She wore a black hoodie that almost swallowed her torso, and her legs were covered by baggy sweatpants. Black boots were on her feet, and I could see light brown hair streaming in around either side of her face. The hood of her jacket was up, masking her face from view without issue. I couldn't see much regarding her eyes due to how avoidant she was to meeting my gaze, and I couldn't help but frown at how blatantly nervous she was. Something about her almost felt hollow, almost as if the woman herself was somehow incomplete. That's a weird way of phrasing it, but that's how I feel she can most accurately be described.
"It's nice to see you three got here in a timely manner," Prosecutor Burke said, crossing her arms over her chest. She gave a brief tilt of the head in the direction of the young woman, and I saw that the girl was having trouble standing still. Her gaze was glassy and transparent, almost as if she was barely able to pay attention to the situation at hand. Her fingers were hidden behind dark gloves, which only really added to the general image of something being almost off about her.
"Allow us to introduce you to Razi Lesa," Prosecutor Burke went on. "She's our witness for this case, and I get the feeling that you're going to want to talk to her." For a moment, nobody said anything, prompting Prosecutor Burke to nudge the witness gently with her shoulder. Ms. Lesa snapped out of her trance before glancing around in a panic, almost as if she had forgotten where she was. Her eyes finally came into focus, and I saw that she had an intense gaze that almost seemed to pierce right through me. I never would have expected that given how anxious she appeared at a first glance, but I supposed that people had the ability to surprise you.
"It's nice to meet you," Ms. Lesa said. She broke off the eye contact as soon as she realized I was staring, and I saw a brief flicker around her eyes. However, I didn't have the chance to identify what the cause of the light could have been. Part of me thought that it was perhaps some sort of reflection, though I wasn't sure of the cause.
Instead, my attention was drawn when Victoria glanced between the prosecution and Ms. Lesa. "We're going to have a few questions to ask her, so... If there's anything else that you three need to get done, feel free to go ahead. I think you know us well enough by now to be sure that we aren't going to cause any problems here," Victoria remarked, letting out a small laugh.
"We've already finished talking to her anyways. Take your time," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. There was that strange sharpness to his eyes again, and I had to resist the urge to openly shudder. I didn't like the way that he was acting at all, and I found myself desperate to figure out what the cause of his sudden behavioral shift could have possibly been.
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke was the first one to leave, and Prosecutor Burke trailed after him. Anton stayed for a moment longer, staring at Ms. Lesa with a strange sense of curiosity on his features. When he realized that the others had left, he turned on his heel and dashed away after giving us a brief wave. I watched as the trio disappeared into the crowd, leaving me and the rest of my team alone with Ms. Lesa.
She had dropped her gaze to the ground once again, and she appeared to be studying the concrete intensely enough to break her other focus. It wasn't until after Yuri coughed that Ms. Lesa remembered to glance up, and she blinked her eyes a few times to try and center herself. In all honesty, her unsteadiness and general anxiety made me think that she was exhausted or sleep deprived somehow. That would have certainly explained why she seemed so hollow, as if someone had ripped out her best qualities and left only the empty shell of her body behind.
"You must have seen something at the time of the crime for you to be summoned here in such a way," I began, knowing that we would have to keep the conversation going if we wanted to ensure that Ms. Lesa didn't lose her focus. It would be best if she kept talking the entire time, as getting her focus back would waste precious time that we couldn't afford to lose. Plus, her focus would undoubtedly offer us better and more accurate information, so we didn't have much of a choice but to keep her entertained.
Ms. Lesa didn't say anything, instead simply nodding. Her gaze was once again hardened yet hollow, and I couldn't help but wonder what could have been going on in that head of hers. There had to be something bothering her to cause such sudden bouts of inattentiveness, but I couldn't figure out what it was for the life of me. When she looked up at us, she barely seemed to be paying attention, almost as if she was simply going through the motions due to some sense of obligation that I had no way of understanding yet.
"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Yuri questioned. "I mean, I take it that you saw something. You wouldn't be here if you hadn't seen anything notable, so it would be for the best if you simply told us the story from start to finish. I think that it would help us out and get you out of here as soon as possible."
That grabbed Ms. Lesa's attention. "Okay," she replied. Her voice was low and rolling, possessing a smooth sort of roughness that came with years of experience in life. She seemed both young and old at the same time, though I wasn't sure of the cause for this.
If Ms. Lesa noticed that I was examining her, she let it go when she released a slow, careful sigh. It sounded as if she was trying to keep herself grounded, almost like she feared that she would drift off into the atmosphere if she wasn't careful enough. Once she was finished, she posed the question. "What do you want to know?"
Update time!
-Digital