November 20
Morix Law Offices
3:00 PM
Deirdre Brigit
"Start from the beginning of what you saw. Every detail that you can tell us will be useful somehow," Victoria said, reaching out to place a hand on Ms. Lesa's shoulder for comfort. The young woman took a step back with something that looked like fear blossoming in her eyes. Victoria pulled her hand back, expression heavy with guilt, before glancing down at the ground.
It took a moment for Ms. Lesa to start talking after that, and it was only after she had blinked a dozen times that she was able to focus herself completely. "I was passing through the area by chance when I first saw somebody walking through too... It was early in the morning, probably around seven thirty. I don't know for sure... I don't really remember all that well," Ms. Lesa continued. Her voice was still sharp, but it was starting to sound distant and foggy as well, almost as if she existed on the other side of a glass wall that nobody had a way of getting through without immense force and determination.
"You saw somebody else in the area earlier this morning?" Yuri questioned. "And that early in the morning too... That was way before Lily was supposed to be at the agency to open up for the day. It sounds like the crime probably took place this morning before she got there. Could you describe the person that you saw?"
Ms. Lesa hesitated before nodding slowly and carefully. "I can try... I think it might have been a man. Tall, white hair... I think. I don't remember exactly... Holding a piece of glass... Seemed angry... I don't know," she admitted. I could tell that she was being honest, but I couldn't help but wonder what could have made her so uncertain. It was almost like the details were hiding from her somehow.
"A man with white hair..." I murmured. That didn't sound like anyone familiar to me. I couldn't remember anyone with white hair aside from Vito being at all significant to the agency. He was tall and generally had an aggressive aura, but he wouldn't have ever lashed out with violence. It simply wasn't in his nature even though he was terrifying at a first glance.
"He was pale too... Really pale, almost unnaturally so..." Ms. Lesa continued. She was lost in thought for another moment before her eyes slammed back into focus, and she shook her head. "I don't know for sure what he could have wanted, but he followed somebody into the agency... It was a woman with red hair. Short, curly hair... Bright red. You couldn't miss it even if you tried."
That description stuck out to me as well, and I shared a brief glance with Victoria and Yuri as I frowned to myself. I didn't know anybody with short red hair that would want to go to the agency. None of us had hair that came anywhere close to this description, and I couldn't think of anyone with a key who would come close to that either. Prosecutor Burke had dark brown hair, and the same applied to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. Prosecutor Lin's hair was bright teal, so that didn't fall into line either.
"The woman with red hair came into the agency?" Victoria questioned. She seemed just as confused as the rest of us, and she shook her head to herself. "I don't think that I know of anyone who could possibly fit that description... None of the people who have keys to the agency have red hair aside from Sky, but... His hair is straight as a stick, and it's pretty clear to me that he's on the masculine side as far as appearances go."
Ms. Lesa nodded. "Yeah... She was wearing a white shirt and a green scarf. She had a key... I think. After she walked inside, the man caught the door before it could shut behind her, and that was when something happened... I don't know what it was though... But when the man came out, he was alone, and the woman was nowhere to be seen. I wish I could tell you more than that, but... That's all I know," she explained.
"You remember a lot about the woman, but you don't know anything about the man... Is there a particular reason for that?" Yuri inquired. I had to admit that she had taken the words right out of my mouth, though I probably would have phrased them more delicately than she had chosen to.
Ms. Lesa shook her head. "I-I don't think so... I don't know. I didn't see much, but... I don't remember all that much about what happened before the day of the crime... I suppose that was earlier today, but... I-I just don't know what's going on..." Her voice began to waver, and I could tell that we had inadvertently struck a nerve.
"What happened? Why don't you remember?" Victoria asked gently. Her eyes were filled with concerned curiosity, and I had to admit that I felt the same way. I didn't know what could have gotten Ms. Lesa so distressed, but I was positive that I didn't like it in the slightest. It was clear that something was wrong here, and I was determined to figure out what it was.
Ms. Lesa swallowed dryly before sighing. "I have amnesia," she murmured. "I don't know all that much about what happened to me before... Everything that happened after I first woke up is a blur. I do know that I saw a man walk into the agency, and he followed a woman with red hair, but... That's about it. I didn't see anything else, so I can't tell you more than that. I can't even say what I did yesterday. For all I know, Razi Lesa isn't even my real name. It's just what I've been going by until I can figure out who I actually am... This is a lot to hear about all at once, and I don't know what to do about it."
I would have been lying if I said that her her words didn't catch me by surprise. I glanced over to Victoria and Yuri to see that they were both just as shocked as I was. Suddenly, Ms. Lesa's hardened gaze and simultaneous nerves made perfect sense, and I found myself nodding my understanding. She didn't know much about who she had been prior to her memory loss, and as far as I could tell, she didn't have any leads on how she was meant to find the truth about her past either. That would have rattled anyone, and I certainly couldn't have blamed her for being upset over something like this. I undoubtedly would have felt the same.
"What you have said already is more than enough," I assured her. "Is there anything else that you think we should know about? We don't want to keep you longer than we have to." Ms. Lesa's blatant insecurities had already started to shine through, and the last thing that I wanted to do was rub salt in the wound and make it harder for her to express herself when this was a difficult enough situation as it already was.
Ms. Lesa paused to think before she shook her head. "I-I don't think so... I guess I'll see you tomorrow in court," she said. When she turned to walk away, I could see fear rising in her gaze again, and she vanished into the crowd a moment later. Something was most certainly wrong, but I didn't even know where to start as far as figuring out what it could have been was concerned. She was trying to pull through a difficult situation, and this wouldn't be an easy thing to handle. Drawing information out of her was going to be hard, and I wasn't sure of how we were meant to pull it off.
"I think that there's something here that we're missing," Yuri remarked as soon as Ms. Lesa had vanished into the crowd. "I mean, everything that she said... It's not like we have a way of contradicting it, but... If you ask me, there's got to be something that made her so nervous. The description of the man and woman in question is strange to me. It's not like we know anybody who would fit the bill."
"The only person with white hair that I can think of is Prosecutor Cruz, but his skin is pretty tan, so it's not as if he fits the description of having pale skin as well," Victoria commented. "Having only one of the two qualities that Ms. Lesa mentioned won't make him into a suspect, and it's not as if we have any reason to believe that he's connected with this in the first place... As for somebody with red hair, the only one we know with short red hair is Sky. However, he's most certainly not a woman, and his hair isn't curly at all. The description of a white shirt and green scarf wouldn't fit with him either."
"I think it's odd that she remembered so much about the woman while the man's details were so minimal," Yuri said, clearly wondering aloud. "I mean, if she saw them at the same time, you would expect her to remember about as much about one person as she remembered about the other. Instead, we have one really descriptive image of a person that she saw, and the other is as barebones and minimal as it gets. It's not like we can use that sort of thing to figure out who could have done all of this."
"Then there's the matter of neither of those parties having keys. If we don't know who they are, we have no way of figuring out how they could have gotten into the agency. The woman with curly red hair having a key is strange to me, and I can't help but wonder if perhaps there was a way for her to sneak inside without needing one of the keys that we're aware of... Maybe Mr. Morix printed off another one," I told my companions.
"But if Mr. Morix knew who the victim was, why would he run off and leave it for us to figure out? There has to be a reason that he just bolted from the scene of the crime without offering any extra information. It's not like him to just leave us out to dry like that... There has to be some sort of reasoning behind his actions. I'm not saying that I know what it is, but I'm sure that it exists, and we won't be able to figure out what his gamble is until we can find evidence that he was aware of this at all," Victoria murmured.
"If you ask me, Ms. Lesa's testimony that she saw a woman with red hair enter the agency through use of a key is enough for us to catch his attention. If we say that we heard about that, then we can bring up that he must have given out a key that we aren't aware of. If that's not the case, then we're going to have to find out how an outside party could have possibly gotten their hands on a key to the agency," I pointed out. "It's all going to be in his response. If we can figure out a way to learn what we need to in order to draw this information out of him, then we may be able to figure out who the woman with red hair is."
"Ms. Lesa also said that she didn't see the victim leave the scene of the crime... You know, assuming that the man with white hair was the culprit," Yuri interjected. "Think about it. We never saw the victim in the agency, and we should have. The police would have searched through as much of the building as they possibly could have when doing a search, though I suppose that they would have been locked out of a few areas due to the way that Mr. Morix is so secretive... The point is that nobody is hiding in the agency. That simply wouldn't make sense. The victim must have left at some point, but we don't know when or how that could have been."
"Maybe it was after Ms. Lesa left but before Lily arrived," Victoria suggested. "That would certainly make sense... Plus, if the man with white hair had blood on his person, then Ms. Lesa certainly would have noticed it. The woman must have been the one who was attacked."
"I believe that the victim was the only one to have a key to the agency," I said next. "The man with white hair wouldn't have needed to catch the door to get inside if he had a key, and I somehow doubt that there was another outside party who managed to get their hands on the keys to the agency. In fact, I'm unsure of how even the victim was able to get inside, but I suppose that it can't be helped. We need to take what Ms. Lesa said and try to use it from here on out. It's not as if we have any other leads on who the culprit could have been."
"I bet that the prosecution is trying to track down the man with white hair now," Yuri remarked. "I mean, they already said that they were finished talking with Ms. Lesa by the time that we arrived, so it would only make sense that they were heading out to see if they could figure out more about what she had told them."
"For now, I think that our best option is to go and talk to Lily, Felicity, and Sky. If there really was an issue with the keys, then Felicity and Sky may know something. If one of them lost a key, then we're going to have an explanation for how the woman with red hair got into the agency. If not, then we've got another round of investigating ahead of us," I suggested.
"You're right... I think that coming to talk to Ms. Lesa has only made the key thing an even larger issue than before, and I didn't even think that was possible," Yuri commented. She let out a small laugh at her words before realizing that neither myself nor Victoria was giggling along with her. "Tough room. Let's go."
I nodded and started to walk around the agency, questions swirling in my mind about Ms. Lesa. I couldn't help but wonder who she could have possibly been. If Razi Lesa wasn't her real name, then just who was she? How was she connected to this case, and how had she lost her memory? I was sure that these answers would come with time, but until that moment arrived, I would be left to deal with the consequences of my own curiosity, and I found my impatience rising more and more with each passing moment.
November 20
Detention Center
4:30 PM
Victoria von Graye
I could hear the distant echo of laughter as I made my way into the detention center's visiting area. I smiled when I recognized the voice in question as Lily. She sounded weary, but I got the feeling that she was enjoying herself. In other words, Felicity and Sky were already there and likely working hard to accomplish the objective that they had been given to talk to her and cheer her up. I glanced over to Yuri and Deirdre, seeing that they were just as happy as I was to hear such gentle and cheerful sounds.
I walked into the room and held the door open for my companions. Sure enough, I could see Felicity and Sky sitting in chairs on the near side of the glass while Lily was on the other end. She was laughing, and I could tell that she had been crying but had moved past her woes. She rubbed at her eyes, and I realized that perhaps her tears had come from laughter given the maniacal look on Felicity's face. Sky seemed ready to combust out of pure embarrassment, and none of them noticed us at first.
"Hey!" Lily finally exclaimed after she had managed to look through the fog of glassiness that her tears had left behind. She waved enthusiastically and gestured to the chairs that were pushed up against the nearby wall. "You should go on and sit down. I think that we should talk about the case, at least as much as we know about it. I mean, that isn't precisely very much, but... It's still a good place for us to start."
None of us objected as we slid our chairs over to the spot that Lily had gestured to. I sat off to Felicity's left while Deirdre and Yuri took a place on Sky's right. We were in a long row, but I didn't particularly mind. There wasn't much space for all five of us in front of the glass, but we made it work anyways, and none of us wound up having to back away for the sake of added room.
"We have a few questions for you all if that's okay," Deirdre began, getting down to business quickly just as always. "I want to know what happened when you first stumbled upon the scene of the crime, Lily. Any details that you can tell us will help."
Lily hesitated at first before shrugging. "In all honesty, I really don't know what to tell you. I arrived at the agency this morning with plans of opening up for the day, but... It didn't exactly wind up going that way. Instead, I was left to stand over the pool of blood that had been left behind by our unknown victim. I called the police to report it, but that didn't exactly end well for me. I mean, I'm pretty sure that you can see that given the fact that I'm on this side of the glass while you all are over there... The point that I'm trying to make is that I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. There were no people nearby, and there weren't any traces left behind that I could see to say who the victim was," she explained.
I frowned at her words, though I would have been lying if I said that this wasn't to be expected. I should have known that this was going to happen given the details that we were already aware of. It certainly seemed to fit in place with the details that we had heard from Ms. Lesa earlier on in the day, but that didn't entirely work in our favor. Lily having not seen anything left us only with the vague clues that had been left behind by Ms. Lesa's prior testimony, and I wasn't sure if that was going to be enough to round out everything that we had yet to figure out. We were certainly going to need a few extra details before the truth made itself apparent.
"It sounds to us like the crime took place earlier in the morning," Deirdre said next. "We heard from a witness who said that the culprit was likely a man with white hair while the victim seemed to be a woman with red hair. I'm afraid that we don't have many details beyond that, and we don't know for sure how the woman could have gotten into the agency in the first place. According to the witness, the victim had a key that she used to get inside, but we don't have a reason to believe that Mr. Morix gave her a key in the first place. None of us know anybody who would fit the description that the witness gave us, so we're left at a loss for what to do next."
"I agree that it is all rather odd..." Lily murmured, shifting back and forth in her seat uncomfortably. "I don't know what could have happened. It's not as if there was anything weird going on last night. I just walked in and then it was all there on the floor. The victim and killer being people that we don't know only adds another layer of mystery to all of this, and I really don't think that's what we need right now. Pardon me for being a bit critical, but that seems to be a bit too much on top of everything that we're already putting up with."
"You're telling me," Yuri snorted with a shake of her head. "But that doesn't matter right now. For the time being, we want to hear about all of your keys to the agency. I assume that you haven't lost them or anything, but we need to make sure that every single key is accounted for before we start to jump to conclusions about who this woman with red hair could have been. If you have your keys now, then it's easy to say that you probably had them this morning when the crime took place. After all, it's not as if any of you guys would have been out and about at the early hour that the witness described to us when she said the crime likely took place..."
Felicity spent a moment messing with her pockets before she pulled out her key, a wide smile on her face. "I still have mine!" she cried out. "I know that I'm a bit clumsy when it comes to losing things like this, but I still know where it is, so I don't know how that woman could have gotten into the agency. I know that Sky has his too."
Just to prove Felicity's words, Sky pulled out his own key and dangled it in front of his face before putting it back away. "You have no idea how easy it is for Felicity to lose things... It's like she has no way of remembering where objects are when they leave her line of sight. Plus, her room is an absolute mess, so it's pretty easy for just about anything to wind up buried under the giant stack of stuff that she has in there."
Felicity stuck her tongue out at him before pouting. "It might look like a mess to you, but I'll have you know that I know exactly where everything is. It's an organized sense of chaos that I'm able to understand perfectly well, Sky. You don't want to believe that there are other ways of going about life aside from being constantly tidy, but it's true," she declared.
Sky opened his mouth to speak before deciding that the impending argument wasn't worth it, so he shook his head and glanced over to Lily. "I assume that you know where your key is, Lily. I mean, you would have to know where it is if you were going to get into the agency this morning, and I somehow doubt that you managed to lose it between then and now," he told her.
"I didn't lose it, but it was taken in by the police after I was arrested," Lily sighed. "I wish I had proof, but I must have had a way to get into the building, so you're just going to have to take that as fact for the time being. I know that it isn't exactly convenient, but the police aren't exactly mindful of that sort of thing."
"We trust you," I assured her before looking down at my lap in confusion. I really didn't understand what all of this could have meant. If Lily, Sky, and Felicity all still had their keys, then what did that mean for the woman with red hair? It wasn't as if she could have gotten into the agency on her own, and yet, she seemed to do so regardless. It was all a mystery to me. She must have had a key, but where could it have come from?
"The only people that we haven't checked with yet are Mr. Morix and Chrysalis," Yuri suddenly said, snapping me out of my daze. "Then again, I kind of doubt that they would be the ones to lose their keys... Those two are so organized and methodical that it's almost kind of ridiculous. Then again, I suppose that they are the ones who are in charge of running the agency, so it only makes sense that they would know what they're doing most of the time. If they weren't sure of how to keep things managed, I would be kind of worried."
"I agree that it's unlikely that they would lose their keys, but... I still don't think that we should count it out quite yet," Deirdre told her. "After all, it's not as if anybody else has shown signs of having issues keeping track of their keys. Those two are the only options that we have left, and as soon as we get the chance to catch up with them, we're going to need to at least ask. Posing the question won't hurt, and then we can let them get back to whatever business they're currently up to."
"Just for the sake of clarification, neither one of them has come by here," Sky remarked. "I don't know what could be happening with them, but... I'm sure that you've realized that they haven't been messaging the group conversation at all today either. I don't know why they've been avoiding us, but they haven't been just leaving you all out of the loop. We're just as confused as you are, and I wish that we had an explanation to show why they're not talking to us right now."
"There's got to be something going on that we aren't aware of, but it's not as if we can really get them to talk about it without evidence," Deirdre said, and her eyes took on an unexpected dimension of shadow that I knew had to do with her previous experiences with the secrets that Mr. Morix and Chrysalis held. "We can think about that when we next cross paths with them. For the time being, I believe that we're going to try and prioritize the search for the man and woman that walked into the agency early in the morning at the time of the crime."
"The witness never saw the victim leave the building," I murmured. "She said that she saw the culprit depart, but the victim is a different story, and there's not really an explanation for that. It's unfortunate, but I think that we're going to have to figure out that whole issue a bit later."
"Before we finish things off here, I think that I have one last question for you," Yuri declared, shifting her attention to Lily. "I have to ask... Did you see anything suspicious at the scene of the crime? I mean specifically the candle that was found on the desk. There was something near it, and that was what made Mr. Morix act so strangely in the first place, but we don't know what could be going on there."
"We're going to figure that out eventually if you don't think that you saw anything, but we'll keep it in mind regardless," Deirdre assured her. "There's no need to panic if you don't remember anything, but we'd certainly find any information that you have to give us useful."
Lily hesitated before shaking her head. "I didn't even see the candle that you're talking about... It must have been on the lower portion of the front desk. I was too panicked to bother looking around the area in detail, so I'm just going to trust you when you say that you saw something there," she told us, shrugging loosely with guilt painted into her features. "I wish there was more I could do to help, but... I don't know anything else beyond that."
"It's okay," Deirdre told her. "We're going to figure out what's happening no matter what happens. If we have to track down Mr. Morix and force him to talk to us, then we'll find a way to work that out. For the time being, we're probably going to leave. We don't want to bother you for any longer than we already have, and the visiting hours are going to be ending soon."
Lily sagged at Deirdre's words, likely because she hated the idea of being alone. "Okay..." she murmured before glancing back up. "I'll see you all tomorrow. I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out what we need to know in order to find the truth behind this case, but until then, I'll just be waiting here. I mean, it's not as if there's anything else for me to do. I can't leave the detention center, so even if I wanted to do something else, I don't have that option."
I gave her a small laugh in an attempt to help her to feel better as I rose to my feet. "We'll do everything we can to show that you didn't do this. As soon as we find other details, we're going to expose them. That much is a promise," I assured her. Lily smiled in response, and she waved as I began to slide my chair back against the wall. I returned the gesture, and I could tell that everyone else was doing the same.
In the minutes that followed, we all left behind the detention center to head our separate ways for the day. We weren't sure of what we were going to be doing in order to prove that Lily was innocent, but we had to find a way to show that she didn't do this. The man with the white hair was our biggest mystery, and I wished that we had even the smallest lead as to who he could have been. For the time being though, all we could do was wait, and I absolutely hated it.
Update time!
-Digital