November 21

Courtroom No. 6

11:15 AM

Yuri Rinko

"I believe that now would be a good time for us to do a brief evaluation on the facts of this case," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke suddenly said, and I glanced up to him with a small frown on my face. He still had that strange sharpness to his voice and posture, and it was weird seeing him so attentive. No matter how many times I saw it, I still found it weird that he was acting like this. After years of seeing him act all sleepy and lazy, this was some serious whiplash for me. "We understand now that we have a potential method for the victim's attack or murder. Even if there are many facts missing, we can use this to our advantage and start to look around for more details about what happened to Eileen Liyle at the time of the crime. Let's recap everything that we've discovered thus far so that it's fresh in our minds."

"The victim entered the building with another person around two hours before the blood pool was discovered," Victoria started. "We know that the woman in question was likely Eileen Liyle given that her physical appearance matches the description offered by the witness. Ms. Razi Lesa was the one to see all of this, and she is confident that the victim was unaware that she was accompanied by a man with white hair. She entered the agency using a key, and the man followed her inside without her consent."

"From there, something happened where a large amount of blood was spilled. That caused the large pool of crimson on the floor of the agency, and it frightened the defendant when she arrived at the scene of the crime," Prosecutor Burke continued. "She called the police as soon as she noticed what it was, but she didn't realize she was going to wind up as the suspect."

"The police thought she was responsible because of her involvement with the discovery of the blood pool, but we now have reason to believe that the man with white hair was involved. We have a theory now that he stabbed the victim using some kind of pocketknife and then hid it underneath his clothes as he attempted to make his escape," Deirdre went on. "Of course, that does leave the hole regarding what happened to the blood splatter that would have gotten on his clothes. Given how much blood there was at the scene of the crime, you would expect there to be some on the clothes of the culprit, but when the man with white hair left the agency, he was completely clean."

"If he did commit the crime, then that also leaves the question of what happened with the victim after he left," I remarked. "I mean, by the time that Lily got there, she was alone. Something must have happened when nobody was watching the agency, and that was probably when the victim decided to make their escape. Either that or the culprit returned to the scene later in the day to retrieve the body and take it with them... But then that makes you wonder about why they didn't just do that in the first place. There are all sorts of questions that we still need to answer about this case..."

"The culprit's behavior is certainly strange, but the one thing that would make it easier for us to narrow down exactly what happened revolves around if we can figure out if the victim is dead or not," Prosecutor Burke commented as she crossed her arms. "I don't think we're going to be able to say for sure what's going on until after we can find that out. It'll change how we look at the case completely due to the two different angles we've been trying to play up to this point."

"We can't exactly find that out right now though," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said with a shake of his head. "If you ask me, we're going to need a bit more time to figure out the details of this case. We barely know anything about our victim, and that's a crucial part of figuring everything else. On top of that, we need to see if we can figure out how the man with white hair ties in with all of this. If he's really the culprit, then what business did he have with the victim? We'll be able to find the source of his strange actions from there with a bit of logic, deduction, and testimony."

"I know what you're trying to imply here," Judge Diaphan said, and her eyes narrowed slightly in his direction. Even with the upper half of her face mostly obscured, I could feel the intensity from all the way across the room. "You believe that this case would benefit from extra time for the investigation."

"I somehow doubt that anybody would object to something like that," Prosecutor Burke declared. She turned her gaze towards where I was standing with Victoria and Deirdre, and I could tell that she wasn't going to be tolerating any objections. Granted, we didn't have any in the first place, but her uncomfortable eye contact was still more than enough to make me feel like my skin was crawling. I forced myself to look away the instant that I felt a shiver run up my spine.

"The defense has no objections to the idea of a second session of investigation," Deirdre announced. I was internally thankful that she was so much better at keeping her composure than I was. I was going to have to get better with this sort of thing one day, but for the time being, I was more than happy to allow her to take the lead.

Victoria cleared her throat before speaking. "I believe that it would be for the best as well. We have figured out quite a bit today, but there are still far too many holes to this puzzle that we still need to fill in. An investigation would be the best way to remedy such an issue, so I can say conclusively that we'd like to have some extra time as well," she announced.

Judge Diaphan let out a small hum as she reached for her gavel. "I suppose that settles that matter then," she whispered under her breath. When she next addressed the courtroom at large, she held her regular aura of power that commanded the attention of every single person in the space. "There will be another day of investigation that is to be used to find out more about the victim. Attention will also be dedicated towards finding out the true identity of the man with white hair and how he ties in with this case."

"There's the matter of the keys too," I whispered to Deirdre and Victoria. "We still don't know how this Eileen Liyle character got her hands on a key to the agency, and I think it's pretty important that we figure that out as soon as possible." They both nodded their agreement before shifting their attention back to Judge Diaphan. I took that as my cue to follow their lead and do the same.

"Without further ado, court is adjourned," Judge Diaphan announced next. She slammed her gavel down, and the entire courtroom seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief. We were free, at least for the time being, to find out as much as we could about the case. I hoped with everything I had that we would find something helpful as soon as possible. Heaven knew that we needed it.

November 21

Defendant Lobby No. 6

11:35 AM

Yuri Rinko

I let out a heavy breath as we arrived back in the defendant lobby, and I didn't hesitate to practically throw myself onto the couch nearby as I shook my head. "Looks like that's all been taken care of for the time being," I said, watching as Deirdre and Victoria came to gather around me.

"I don't know how we're supposed to go about this, if I'm being perfectly honest," Victoria sighed. "I mean, we know that we have to find out more about the victim, but that's far easier said than done. Then there's the matter of getting Mr. Morix to talk to us about the key that he gave to Ms. Liyle. We've already been able to take out the idea of it being stolen, so that leaves only the one possibility of her getting a key at some point."

"That creates a connection between them, and if we're going to figure out who the man with white hair is, that would be a good place to start," Deirdre commented. "If Mr. Morix is aware of who Ms. Liyle is, then that means that he could very easily be aware of who the man with white hair is. We can ask him as soon as we're able to figure out where he disappeared to."

"You're still planning on talking to Mr. Morix?"

I glanced past Deirdre's shoulder and saw that Felicity, Sky, and Lily were all gathered behind her. Sky was the one who had spoken before. Both Deirdre and Victoria turned to face them, and a smile appeared on Victoria's face. "It's nice to see you three," she told them as she bowed her head gently. "For the record, we are. Of course, it'll be easier to say that we want to talk with him than to actually pull it off given how secretive he's been, but... With a little bit of searching, maybe we'll be able to figure out where he is now."

"Chrysalis would also probably be able to help us out," Lily said. "I mean, she and Mr. Morix tell each other just about everything. If he knows somebody, then chances are that she's aware of who they are too. It's how they've always functioned."

"If we can't find either one of them, then we can always resort to talking to Prosecutor Lin," I pointed out. "I don't think that she's as close to the center of their little circle, but she still knows things. The fact that she got so tense when we tried to talk to her about everything that happened with the crime proves it loud and clear to me that she's aware of something in this case that most other people wouldn't know about."

"As of now, there are three things keeping us from digging any deeper into this case, and those are the victim, the culprit, and the key," Deirdre announced. "We should try to figure out how we can work out the truth behind one of those facts. From there, it should be easier for us to confront the truth of the others."

"If you want my opinion, there's something going on with that Razi Lesa character too. Her explanation of tripping when she was walking around just doesn't sit well with me... Something has to be going on. Her claiming to have amnesia isn't exactly helping her case, though I suppose that if I brought that up, I would be airing on the rude side," Felicity remarked.

"I would be lying if I said that I thought she was being completely honest with us," Deirdre confessed after a measured pause. "There's something about the way that she speaks that strikes me as odd, and I believe that we're going to have to do a bit more investigating before we can get her to open up to us."

"We'll be sure to put our attention towards that then," Victoria told us confidently as she nodded. "I think that the prosecution will be looking into what's going on with the victim, so maybe we can leave that subject alone at first. Our priority should be to figure out where Mr. Morix is so that we can ask him about who the victim is and how she ties in with all of this. The fact that she has a key is something that we need to keep in mind given how stingy he's previously been with handing out stuff like that."

"I think that I have an idea for where we should start with all of that, as a matter of fact," Sky suddenly cut in. He had one hand placed on his chin as he stared at the ground in thought. "Pardon me for interrupting, but... You mentioned that he and Chrysalis are both close with Prosecutor Lin. It would be worth looking into her if possible. Given that you seem sure that she is somehow aware of what's happening, that's a good place to start for now."

"You mean to say that there's a chance Mr. Morix will go to talk to her about the details behind this case," I realized as his words dawned on me in full. "I think that would make a lot of sense... We just have to catch him at the right time... For all we know, he was watching the trial from the gallery. If that's the case, then he's probably going to want to go there right about now since the courtroom just left its session. I didn't think to look for him, but reflecting back on it, I really should have."

"None of us thought that this would be the case," Deirdre assured me, placing a hand on her shoulder. The regular sense of steel determination that I had come to expect from her settled in a moment later. "I think that we should go to the Prosecutor's Office as soon as we're finished talking here. I doubt that Mr. Morix would simply swing by for a few minutes and then leave. That's never been in his nature due to how formal he is. I would say that we at least have a chance to end this conversation."

Lily raised her hand to get our attention. We all turned to look at her as she let out a grounding sigh. She smiled once she was finished, though I could see worry glittering beneath the surface of her bright blue eyes. "I just wanted to thank you all again for what you've been doing to help me out. I really do appreciate it," she told us. "I understand that this is how we would all treat each other in this sort of situation, but I still wanted you to know that it really does mean a lot to me."

"Of course," I assured her with a wide grin of my own. I began to lean forward, my elbows pressing against my knees as I looked up at her. "You've done all sorts of stuff to help the rest of us, and other people outside of the agency, out of situations like this. It's the least that we could do for you. Besides, it seems pretty clear that you weren't the one responsible for this. All we have to do is figure out who this man with white hair is, and then we should be able to clear your name no problem."

Lily's face flushed, but she didn't say anything. The rest of the agency's members seemed to agree, and when she glanced around to them, they all gave her nodding gestures that didn't hesitate to make her embarrassed a short while later. She fumbled for her words for a while longer before letting out a sigh and glancing down to the floor, seemingly having given up on anything that related to eye contact. "Thank you," she murmured, clearly struggling to keep from melting into a flustered puddle of human on the floor.

Deirdre cleared her throat to change the subject, and everyone gave her their attention to keep it away from Lily. "If you ask me, I think that the man with white hair is going to wind up showing himself sooner or later," she said. "I suppose that you can simply call it an instinct. The description that we received from the witness was incredibly distinctive, and it should be easy for us to pick him out from a crowd, especially given the fact that Mr. Morix could very easily be aware of who he is."

"Well... Maybe," Sky sighed with a shake of his head. "Remember what Ms. Lesa said? She made it pretty clear that the man with white hair trailed the woman into the agency without her noticing that he was there. For all we know, the man just showed up and decided to follow her. I want to think that Mr. Morix will be able to help us, but I also don't want to get too excited if something winds up keeping that from being the case."

"We'll figure it out," Felicity assured him, placing a comforting hand on his upper arm. Sky gave her a thankful glance as she continued to speak. "I have to say, the fact that we haven't heard about this woman before now is really starting to bother me. If she's got a key to the agency, then she has to be important. Instead, we have no idea who she is, and she just showed up seemingly out of nowhere as soon as this case started. We should try to figure out why she and Mr. Morix know each other in the first place. Maybe they met at some point and we just weren't aware of it at the time."

"It's weird to me too, but I guess that all we can do for now is get ready to go and talk to him about it," I declared. As much as I hated to say it, we were going to have to get going sooner rather than later, and I fished my phone out of my pocket to check the time. I cringed when I realized how long we had been talking for, and I dropped the device back in its regular place. "I think that we should go on and wrap things up here. We have places to be, and most importantly, bosses to talk to. You know, assuming that he actually winds up deciding that he wants to discuss this with us."

Deirdre pulled out her phone as well, and she typed out a brief message before sending it. She turned to Lily, Felicity, and Sky after she was finished and bowed in their direction. "Forgive us for running off now, but we'll be back in the detention center as soon as possible to give you updates on how the case is going," she told the three of them. She gave a wave as she made her way to the door, and I took that as my cue to leave as well. I pried myself free of the couch and walked out alongside Victoria and Deirdre, unsure of what was coming next but hoping that it wound up being favorable for the outcome of our case.

November 21

Prosecutor's Office

12:15 PM

Deirdre Brigit

The Prosecutor's Office was much the same as it had been the day before, and I glanced up at its full impressive height before making my way inside. We were moving quickly in our hopes of catching up with Mr. Morix even if there was no way of confirming that he was inside. Still, this was our best shot at finding him, and I wasn't going to let it slip through the cracks when we didn't really have any other options.

"I saw a car that looked pretty similar to his in the parking lot," Victoria commented, easily earning the attention of both me and Yuri with her words. "If that is his, then he's here. I don't know how we're supposed to find him, but we might be able to ask around. Worst case scenario, we can wait out in the lobby and see if we can stop him when he's trying to leave."

I nodded my agreement, and we fully entered the building in question. I glanced around the entryway, and I found myself letting out a gasp when I recognized a familiar figure was standing nearby. The sound was more than enough to get the person in question to glance up in my direction, and my gaze was met with sunglasses and white hair.

"Prosecutor Cruz!" Victoria cried out, her jaw dropping. "What are you doing down here? I didn't realize that we were going to be expecting company... Then again, it's not as if I know the way that this place functions all that well since I don't work here, so..." Her cheeks flushed when Prosecutor Cruz quirked an eyebrow in her direction. "Shutting up now."

Prosecutor Cruz shrugged and shook his head before settling his gaze on me. "I heard that you came by here yesterday, and you didn't even drop in to say hello," he commented as he crossed his arms. "That's unfortunate. I got a dog recently, and I would have totally shown you pictures if you had come by to greet me yesterday."

I snickered and rolled my eyes playfully, somewhat used to this brand of humor from him by now. Our relationship had expanded to something a bit more than simply being rivals in the courtroom, not that I would ever admit it openly. We spoke quite a bit outside of the working environment, and we had even shared dinner together a few times. I wouldn't have tolerated this sort of casual conversation if it was coming from anyone else at the Prosecutor's Office, but I didn't particularly mind it when he was the one responsible.

"You got a dog?!" Yuri shrieked in surprise. Prosecutor Cruz nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket as Yuri boldly cried out that she wanted to see. He found a picture of a small blonde chihuahua and handed her the phone. Yuri's eyes went wide, and she immediately began to fawn over the small creature with a soft expression. If she had the option, she would have reached through the screen to pet it then and there.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to come to see you yesterday, but we were actually here on business," I explained. "We're investigating a case at the moment, and we were hoping that perhaps someone here would be able to answer our questions about it. Unfortunately, we didn't wind up finding the solutions that we were looking for, and the case has only grown more complicated as a result. We were crunched for time, but I think we can stay here and chat now as long as we remain here in the lobby."

Prosecutor Cruz's expression hardened at the mention of a case. "Let me guess... It's the same one that has had the chief prosecutor freaking out for the past day or so," he commented. When I nodded, he snorted and rolled his eyes. "Of course. He's been stressed ever since he heard about it. For once, he's actually not slacking off. He can't stop running around and working on it. After he finished with the investigation, he came back here, and I don't think that I've ever seen him looking so tense before. That's normally something for Prosecutor Burke or Prosecutor Shield. We all know that they're both very good at that, but it's not as much of a pattern for Chief Prosecutor Bespoke."

"We're here because we were hoping that we would be able to talk to Mr. Morix," Yuri explained. "We think that he dropped by here, and we really need to ask him for details about this case. He's been busy and hasn't had the chance to talk to us before, but it's really important." She continued to slide through the collection of photos that Prosecutor Cruz had pulled up of his dog, and she let out a small cooing sound when she found one that she particularly admired.

"He was here earlier," Prosecutor Cruz said with a nod. "He passed through the lobby about fifteen minutes ago. If I had to guess, I would say that he was going to talk to Prosecutor Lin. I don't have any specific evidence of that, but it seems like as good an assumption as any."

"In other words, we're doing the right thing by waiting here for him to come down. He's going to have to pass by the lobby in order to get back out to his car," Victoria grinned. "In the meantime, do you think that there's anything we should know about this case? I doubt that you know anything out of the blue given that you aren't exactly involved with the investigation, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

"I don't know anything detailed, but I can say that there's been a lot of tension between Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, Prosecutor Burke, and Prosecutor Lin running around constantly. They've been really stressed about this case, but I don't know why. They haven't wanted to talk about it with anybody outside of their little group, and I have to wonder what could be so important in the first place. Then again, if you guys are on the case, chances are that it's going to come out sooner or later," Prosecutor Cruz remarked with a shrug.

"We heard that an anonymous tip was delivered to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke or somebody else involved with the investigation team... It was about the identity of the victim," Yuri said, still not looking up from Prosecutor Cruz's phone. "Would you happen to have heard anything about that?"

Prosecutor Cruz shook his head. "I don't think that I've stumbled upon anything that would be useful there. It must have been passed on directly without any of us finding out. Maybe that's part of the point. It isn't often that Chief Prosecutor Bespoke jumps on a case like this. He didn't hesitate at all to get involved with this, and given how much other work that he has to take care of, you wouldn't think that he would have time to prosecute cases directly these days," he said with a heavy frown. "I wish I could tell you what's been going on inside of his head, but he's hard to read at best and downright impossible at worst."

"But you've noticed that he's been acting different lately," I concluded. "That has to count for something... I don't know what we're supposed to do with this sort of information, but I have a bad feeling about all of this. His sudden shift in behavior must have something to do with this case, but we're going to need to do a bit more digging to find out what it is specifically that's bothering him."

"The last time that he jumped into a case like this was the case where Callie Umber was murdered," Prosecutor Cruz commented, crossing his arms. "That made sense given that she was an important high-ranking prosecutor here for a long time. Her death surprised all of us, and she had been responsible for some pretty important cases leading up to her murder. Chief Prosecutor Bespoke hasn't been involved with any cases within the trial segment since then because of how busy he is with his other duties. That should really tell you how strange this is."

I could feel my stomach starting to twist into a knot, and I glanced down to the ground. Perhaps we were asking the wrong questions. We wanted to know why Chief Prosecutor Bespoke was acting so strangely, but there was a chance that we were going about this the wrong way. For all we knew, the best way to come at this issue would have been to ask about why he was so interested in this case in the first place. It wasn't going to be an easy question to answer, but it was a shift in perspective that, while subtle, I thought could wind up being important in the long run.

Before any of us could say anything else, the elevator let out a small ding, and I realized that somebody was coming down through the lobby. I looked over in its direction and saw none other than Mr. Morix walking out of the small room, his hands shoved in his pockets as he watched the ground. He didn't even seem to notice that we were here, and he seemed perfectly content to simply walk past us without so much as a greeting.

Prosecutor Cruz took his phone back from Yuri, and silence fell over our entire group with the arrival of Mr. Morix. Prosecutor Cruz tucked his phone away as Yuri cleared her throat, and Mr. Morix finally shifted his gaze away from the floor below. Shock overcame his features before he managed to correct his expression back into neutrality. The brief flicker of panic that I saw in his eyes made me feel nauseous.

"I didn't expect to see you here," Mr. Morix told us conversationally. He was clearly going for the strategy of pretending that nothing was wrong, and I had to say that this was on brand for him. He was still a master of hiding the truth, and he had been forced into such by the difficult job that he had taken on. His expression was unreadable, and all signs of surprise had been sealed away carefully.

"We were hoping to talk to you about the case," I explained. "We were hoping that we would find you here, and I'm glad that we did. Would it be possible for you to answer a few questions for us?" I kept my expression halfway neutral while making sure that he knew that we weren't going to be tolerating it if he declined our request.

Mr. Morix seemed to understand that resisting wasn't going to have much of a point, so he nodded. He pressed his shoulders back in a false display of confidence, and I could tell immediately that he was getting down to business. Whatever had triggered this shift in him was serious, likely far more so than any of us could have guessed starting out. "If that's the case... What is it you want to know?"

This is the last of the bonus Tuesday updates we're going back to Thursday only updates next week

-Digital