November 21

Detention Center

3:30 PM

Victoria von Graye

The detention center was much the same way that it was the day before. Felicity and Sky were sitting on one side of the glass with Lily on the other. She was focused on other things as far as I could tell, but her face still lit up as soon as she saw me with Deirdre and Yuri. Lily waved excitedly and gestured for us to sit down as soon as we could. I couldn't help but smile at her optimism despite the notable streaks of darkened skin beneath her eyes. She was tired, but she was still trying to put on a brave face. It was almost twisted how fitting that was of her to do.

When I settled down alongside my coworkers, I could see that Felicity looked concerned. Sky appeared to be much the same way, but neither of them seemed to be ready to openly phrase it. I found my smile faltering as soon as I realized that there was something wrong. I didn't know how to approach the subject, so I simply sat there in the awkward silence.

"What's going on?" Deirdre finally questioned when she was able to get a decent hold on her emotions. Her gaze was intense, and I found myself glancing away to keep from accidentally meeting her eyes.

"Mr. Morix came by earlier," Felicity eventually explained. "He said that he wanted to see how we were doing, and he seemed super tense. I wish I could tell you why he was so upset, but something was going on that he wasn't talking about."

"Mr. Morix simply asked if we knew anything about the case or had any clues as to who the man with white hair was. When he had checked in and understood that we were just as clueless as he was, he pulled away and decided to leave us be for the rest of the afternoon," Sky replied. "I wish I could tell you about why this was, but like Felicity said, we don't know in the slightest what could be bothering him."

I resisted the urge to sigh in frustration. Mr. Morix was certainly starting to bother us with how little he was communicating. I didn't know what to do about all of this, and approaching the matter wasn't going to be easy due to how dodgy he was. "What do we do to make him talk about this?" I questioned softly. I knew that nobody was going to have an easy answer to that question for us, but I found myself asking regardless.

"I don't know," Felicity answered with a loose shrug and a forced smile. "But I don't think that matters much right now. What have you all found out about the case? I get the feeling that you're coming with some pretty intense news."

"We think that there's something going on with the witness, but I feel like that's pretty obvious given how weirdly she's been acting this whole time," Yuri snorted. "I already reached out to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke to try and see if he would be able to check out the subject of the camera that we found. With how nervous she was, I have to wonder if perhaps he knew that something was going to fall apart when we poked the bear of the camera."

"That's certainly suspicious," Sky agreed with a small nod. "I didn't even realized that there was a camera in the area... What exactly is that about? What did you talk about with her?"

"The camera was found on the side of the nearby apartment complex. According to Ms. Lesa, she was hiding in the bushes at the time of the crime, and that was when she saw everything unfold from afar," Deirdre explained. "As soon as she noticed the camera though, she got anxious and ran off as soon as she had the chance to do so. I don't know what do about it all... Something is wrong, but how are we meant to figure out what is specifically causing her panic?

"She must have lied to you about what happened, and the camera was going to blow all that open," Felicity concluded simply. With how casually she said it, you would have been expecting her to talk about something basic like the weather as opposed the key witness of a murder case.

"I suspect something similar," Deirdre murmured with a nod. "But that leads you to wonder about what she was lying about in the first place. I don't know what motive she would have to lie. She's been pretty confident about her words, and it isn't as if anybody else knows about what happened... Her leg injury is something else rather strange."

"We don't know where it came from," I explained. "You see, she claimed to have sprained it, but we suspect that there was something more. The bush that she was supposedly hiding behind didn't fit the description of what she told us about in the slightest during the trial. There were no broken branches either, and you would expect at least something to have fallen off when she tried to pull herself free of the bush."

"Yeah, that definitely makes it sound like she's been lying to you about at least some small things," Felicity muttered as she crossed her arms. "But at least you'll be able to get access to the camera through the prosecution, and that should make it easier for you to poke holes in her story and show that she's been less than honest about all of this."

"That's true," Yuri nodded. "I'm positive that Chief Prosecutor Bespoke is going to come through on this. He's been so intense throughout this entire case, and I feel like he's got a personal stake in this somehow. Given how heavily involved he is, I bet that he's going to find a way to unveil the truth like that to us, and that will make it easier for everything to come to light."

"The camera seems to be a key piece of evidence here... The other stuff that we know about is just strange and doesn't seem to add up," Sky remarked. "There's the strange behavior from Mr. Morix and the prosecution, but that's hardly conclusive evidence. We don't know why they're so upset, but we'll hopefully find the truth along the way somehow."

"We can actually add one more person to the list of those who have been acting oddly," I told him. "Detective Umber showed up at the scene of the crime, and she was even more antsy than she was during the previous case. I have to wonder if perhaps she knows something about what's been going on... Maybe it could have something to do with her nervousness from before too. We never figured out what that was about, so you never know."

"I wonder what's bothering her," Lily said, frowning as she glanced down to the floor. "If there's really something nagging at her that she thinks is related to the case, then we have to figure out what it is as soon as possible. It's not like there's all that much evidence to show what exactly is going on here."

"I wish that we had at least one little lead about what we can expect from here on out," I sighed. "It's not going to be easy to figure out the truth, but I just want a starting point that can point us in the right direction."

"If all goes well, the starting point that we need will be found on the camera footage that we get from the prosecution. I bet that Chief Prosecutor Bespoke will have it ready by the time the trial starts tomorrow because of how fired up he's been ever since this case started," Yuri pointed out. "We can hope for that outcome at the very least."

"I can imagine that he'll be ready for it," Deirdre said confidently. "I agree that there's something off about the way that he's been behaving. Prosecutor Burke, Mr. Morix, and Prosecutor Lin have also been acting strangely as of late, and I can't help but wonder if perhaps they're tied in with all of this somehow. I wonder what common thread could possibly connect those four people with Detective Umber... Perhaps there's something that we aren't aware of that links them."

"I would say that I couldn't see that happening, but at the same time, we didn't know about Ms. Liyle, and she apparently had a key to the agency all along," Yuri remarked with a snort. "I don't know what to believe anymore."

I gasped at the memory of our earlier conversation with Mr. Morix. "You know... He said that she had her own key, but that was all that he told us. If you ask me, he was intentionally vague because he was trying to hint at something. How would she have her own key if she wasn't actually given a key to the agency? That appears to be the primary question for us to figure out."

Deirdre shook her head. "I wish that I could answer that, but for the time being, we're going to have to bank our victory on what we can find out from the camera footage that the prosecution is working to gather for us," she declared. "Ms. Lesa is part of this mystery somehow, and we need to figure out how she ties in with it all. Why is she so intent on hiding key facts from us? That's one important thing for us to figure out as soon as possible if we want to find the truth behind this case."

"The victim is another mystery that we have yet to figure out," I reminded her. "We believe right now that the victim is alive. We spoke about it with Prosecutor Cruz when we went to the Prosecutor's Office earlier today, and we are confident that the victim is out there somewhere. We aren't sure of where she is or why she would have left in the first place, but we're going to have to figure that fact out one way or another."

Lily's expression turned to shock, and she let out a sigh. "I suppose that you did say that there was a chance that she was alive... But what's the point of hiding everything if she's alive? There would be an easy way for the culprit to be uncovered if she came forward and said everything that she knew about the case. She would be able to identify the one responsible for her attack, and it's not like we would have a reason to not believe her," she murmured.

Deirdre's eyes went wide, and she met her gaze with mine. I could tell that we had come to the same conclusion based on the way that Lily had phrased her previous inquiry. "What if the victim doesn't know who attacked her?" Deirdre questioned. "All that we've heard so far is that the one responsible was a man with white hair, but the details are unknown. If Ms. Lesa isn't aware of who the culprit is, then there's a chance that the victim isn't sure of his identity either. A man with white hair is hardly a close enough description to say exactly who was responsible for a case."

"If the victim didn't know who the culprit was, then she might have held back for a while until she was able to find the truth behind her situation," I concluded as Deirdre nodded her agreement. "I don't know how we're supposed to prove that though... Then again, we don't exactly have much to work off in this case, so who can say for sure? Maybe we'll just need to propose that idea. That could help everything to work out from there."

"We've got quite a bit to keep in mind surrounding this case then," Sky commented with a nervous laugh. "As of now, we know that the victim is alive, but we aren't sure of where she is or what she knows. The witness could have been lying about the case up to this point, but we don't know what her motivations for such a thing would have been. Plus, she has amnesia, and that severely limits our capacity to learn more from her..."

"There's a lot at play here, that's for sure," I murmured. "The camera footage is going to be where we start tomorrow, and I think that it's a wise place to start our investigation. I don't know where we can even go from here if I'm being honest. There are too many holes in this case, and we don't have the slightest idea about how to start patching them up... I hope that the victim comes out of hiding soon to tell us all about what she knows about the case."

Yuri's expression made it clear that she felt the same way, and she rose to her feet as she stretched her arms over her head. "If you ask me, there's nothing else that we're going to be able to figure out. You said it yourself, Victoria. There are too many holes, and we don't have any ideas about how to start patching them up. Part of me even wonders if there's a way for us to find the truth without speaking to the victim directly. Ms. Lesa's strange behavior as of late makes me wonder if we can even trust her testimony, so we're going to have to be careful to not rely on her words too much."

"It's easier said than done to not count on her words too much given that she's all that we have right now, but we're going to have to find a way to work around it," Deirdre announced as she rose to her feet. She gave a kind smile in Lily's direction. "I hope that the detention center has been treating you well. We're going to find a way to get you out of there soon."

Lily let out a small laugh and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm doing about as well as I can be, but I know that everything is going to be fine soon enough. You're going to figure out what happened, and all of the pieces will start to slide into place," she replied. "You should all go on and get some rest for the trial tomorrow. I can already tell that there's going to be a lot waiting for you, and I don't want you to be unprepared for any reason."

I gave her a nod of gratitude as I started to make my way towards the door with Yuri and Deirdre. She was right about us having a lot on our plates. This case certainly wasn't making it easy for us, but we still had to find a way to figure out what was happening. The agency was counting on it, and Lily was in much the same position. The truth was going to come out one way or another. We were going to make sure of that. It was just a matter of time.

November 22

Defendant Lobby No. 6

9:30 AM

Lily Shield

The first thing that I noticed when I arrived in the defendant lobby the next day was the fact that Yuri was nervous about something.

It wasn't as if this was completely unheard of or anything. After all, many people were prone to getting nervous or anxious about various matters, and Yuri was no exception. However, there was something off about her this time that simply didn't sit well with me, and I couldn't help but feel like there was something I wasn't seeing. She wasn't able to sit still at all, constantly squirming on the couch in the defendant lobby. Granted, it wasn't as if she was the type to stay in one place on a good day, but something about it all just felt off.

"What's going on with you?" I asked as I approached Yuri, Deirdre, and Victoria. Sky and Felicity had been talking in another part of the lobby, but they walked closer upon realizing that I had arrived.

"I got the news back about the camera footage from the day of the crime. We talked about that when we were at the detention center yesterday, right?" Yuri questioned. When I nodded, she sighed and glanced down at the ground before continuing. "I don't really know what to say about it all... But it's not good. I feel like there are too many things about this case that we don't know though, and I'm not sure about how we can even go about figuring out what this lie is even meant to mean."

I felt my heart skip a beat. "What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to stifle the sinking feeling in my stomach. "You're making it sound like the camera footage is going to completely destroy the case as you've been thinking about it up to this point... Please don't let that be the case. I don't know what we could possibly do if that's the case."

"I don't think that I should tell you then," Yuri told me. "You aren't going to want to hear about it... It does change everything that we've been working towards, and it's not good at all. Then again, I feel like you can already see that much. You're smart enough to put the pieces together, but... I don't know what to say about it beyond the fact that it isn't good at all."

I glanced up to Victoria and Deirdre, ready to ask if they knew what she was talking about, but Victoria cut me off with a shrug before I could even form the words. "I don't know what it is that has her so worried. She hasn't said anything about it beyond what she just told you. She says that it's really bad, but she hasn't told us what it is specifically," she explained. I could sense the tension in her voice, and I resisted the urge to bite down on my lip in anxiety. I already had an awful feeling about all of this, and all I could do was hope that it ultimately amounted to nothing and that Yuri was just being paranoid all of a sudden. She could be easily swept up in her imagination at times, so I prayed that was all that this was, but I think that a little part of me already knew that I was hoping for too much.

"As of now, we still want to assume that the victim is alive and somewhere out there," Deirdre told me, effortlessly changing the subject when she noticed how uncomfortable Yuri was. We were going to be hearing about what the cameras had shown soon enough, likely after the trial got into session, so there wasn't much of a reason for her to push it. I doubted that there was anything that we would have been able to do that would work around whatever it was that had Yuri so worried in the first place. If it was really as bad as she was making it sound, then we were going to have to just wait to see what happened when the trial started properly.

"I feel like we're going to have to figure out where the victim is and why she hid all of this first and foremost," Victoria concluded. "That's a nice place for us to start in figuring out everything that's going on with this case... Of course, I don't know where we're supposed to start in all of that, but it's something to at least know where we're going to be headed with all of this, right?"

"The victim not knowing who the culprit is could be an interesting angle to look at this case from, and there's a chance that it could be correct," Sky interjected. "I think that it's at least worth considering. It's not as if the victim would have been able to say who attacked her if she wasn't aware of the truth in the first place, you know? That would have left an awfully large hole in the idea that we already came up with regarding if the victim was alive."

"The victim being alive and not knowing who the culprit is could certainly make sense," Felicity agreed with a nod. "I don't really know what we're supposed to do with that kind of information though... I mean, unless we can find out where the victim has been hiding out all this time, that sort of knowledge probably won't do much to help us out. There's so much that we have to figure out regarding this case, and the victim is probably our best point to start with when it comes to finding the culprit. It's a shame that she's been so elusive ever since the attack took place in the agency..."

"We could also start with the footage that was on the camera," Yuri snorted with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes. "Actually... No. That's not a good way for me to phrase it. I should say that it's about the footage that wasn't on the camera. That's far more accurate given the circumstances of everything that's happening at the moment."

"Something wasn't on the camera that should have been," Deirdre concluded, closing her eyes as she was absorbed in her own thoughts. Her eyes shot open a moment later, and she winced at the realization. "I think I know what you heard about... You heard from Chief Prosecutor Bespoke what was on the camera's tape, and it isn't a matter of what could be seen through the video feed. Something important was missing from the video, and I'm willing to bet that I know exactly what it is."

Sky's jaw dropped, and he shook his head. "No way... That would be..." He didn't try to mount a defense beyond those simple few words, seeming to realize that there was nothing he would be able to do to fend off the truth. He let out a sigh, and his shoulders sagged forward. "As much as I hate to admit it, that could be the truth..."

"If you're trying to say that you don't think Ms. Lesa was on the video feed, then..." Felicity began, her eyes as wide as saucers. "I don't get it. Why would she lie about all of that? She must have a reason for it. She has to know that she's our only hope to figure out what's goin on in this case, but she still decided to lie to us about everything. Why would she do something like that?"

"There has to be a reason," Deirdre concluded, frowning as one of her hands moved up to cup at her chin. "And finding her motives for such a thing has to be our priority. We need to know why she would want to lie about something so crucial. She's the only witness that we have for this case, but she still lied about being at the scene of the crime at the time of the attack. There has to be a reason for all of it. I somehow believe that this is the most important fact of the case, and if there's no other fact that we have to figure out, then we need to know this. At the very least, we have to find the truth behind why she wanted to lie so much about such an important subject."

I nodded my agreement. I already had an awful feeling about this, not that I wanted to say anything about it out loud. Everyone else was stressed enough as it was, and I didn't want to add to that if I could avoid it. If Ms. Lesa was lying about being at the scene of the crime, then why had she decided to falsify so much of her testimony? I somehow doubted that this was all just for kicks. After all, her description of the victim just so happened to match up perfectly with the appearance of Eileen Liyle, the woman whose name was provided by the anonymous tipper.

Speaking of them, who in the world were they? I was positive that they had to factor in with all of this somehow, but I didn't have even an inkling of where to start when it came to finding a suspect. If Ms. Lesa knew who the victim was, then why didn't she just say so? She had amnesia, so that could have explained why she didn't know the victim's name, but that meant the person who sent in the tip was completely different from the witness who was posing so many issues for us. I wasn't sure about what I was supposed to do with this information, but I was positive that it was important. Everything about this case was confusing and a pure mess, but it had to come together somehow. There had to be a common thread that linked all of the different pieces of this case, and we had to figure out what it was as soon as possible.

"Who in the world sent in the anonymous tip about the victim's identity?" I questioned. "I don't think that the culprit would have wanted to do that. It doesn't make sense for the culprit to expose their victim if it would have made it clearer that they were involved with the case. It would have made it easier for the truth to be unraveled, and I don't think that any kind of culprit would want something like that."

"I wish I could tell you," Victoria answered after a brief pause and a shrug of her shoulders. "I have no idea myself. I get the feeling that the one responsible for it is heavily involved with this case though. I can't imagine that they're completely unrelated to everything that we've been investigating. That doesn't mean that I have any ideas, but... Still, it's something for us to think about."

"We're going to just have to try and figure it out one way or another," Yuri announced. "There's so much that we don't understand, and it's starting to seriously drive me crazy. The fact that Ms. Lesa wasn't on the camera footage is really annoying, and I don't know what to think about it. There has to be an explanation, but where do we even start when it comes to finding it?"

"We'll find a way to uncover the truth," I assured her, but I was trying to fight through my own unease as I said it. I wasn't sure about how we were going to figure all of this out, but we were going to have to find a way to find the truth. All of the facts that were just out of reach had to be connected by some common string, and all we had to do was find it. Of course, that was easier said than done, but it wasn't as if we had much of a choice in the matter if we were going to solve the issues of this case. I was desperate to be freed from the detention center, but that wasn't possible until we could find out who the victim and culprit were.

"The victim being alive somehow connects with the fact that Ms. Lesa wasn't on the camera. The culprit is out there too, but we aren't sure of who he is beyond the white hair and pale skin that we already heard about. Then again, we don't even know for sure if everything that Ms. Lesa has told us has even been honest given the history of her telling the truth," Victoria said. She let out a sigh after she was finished speaking. "There's a lot that we still have to work with."

"And that doesn't even factor in all of the facts that we know about the anonymous tip... Granted, we don't know much, but we still have to keep it in mind. Then there's the fact that Ms. Lesa has been claiming to have amnesia since the case started, and that could easily be relevant too... We'll have to stay on our toes from here no out," Yuri announced.

Before Deirdre could say anything in response, a familiar bailiff with purple hair let out a cry that it was time for us to enter the courtroom. I showed a nervous smile to my coworkers before glancing over in the direction of the courtroom's entrance. "I guess that it's time for us to go inside," I remarked, realizing belatedly that such a fact was obvious given our instruction from a few moments before.

"We'll do everything that we can to find the truth behind this case," Yuri assured me, placing one hand on my arm. "I don't know how we're going to do that, but we'll find a way. After all, we've done that in every other case leading up to this point, so we've got a great track record going. Anyways, I'll see you after the case ends!"

Yuri waved as she led Deirdre and Victoria into the courtroom. I turned to Felicity and Sky as well, and they gave me a thumbs-up and a nervous smile respectively. I returned the gesture, trying my best to hide my anxiety better than Sky had, before making my way in the direction of the courtroom. This case was certainly proving itself to be an interesting one for better or worse.

I had confidence that they would find a way to unravel the truth behind it all though. Yuri was right in that we hadn't had any issues with finding the truth behind various cases before, and I doubted that we were going to start now. We had solved cases that seemed impossible at a first glance, and we were ready for this. Everything was going to be fine.

That was what I hoped for, anyways.

School? Nope

-Digital