January 23

Courtroom No. 2

12:45 PM

Cotoli Morix

~ Witness Testimony ~

~ My Chat with Blocker~

- "I told you that this wasn't at all related to this case, but if you're going to keep complaining..."

- "...I suppose I have no choice but to tell you what we were talking about."

- "I was curious about the Oracle of the Law."

- "He revealed their existence at a press conference a year ago, so I wanted to hear about what he knew."

- "It was just my curiosity on the matter that brought me to his door."

- "See? No funny business going on here. I was just wondering about that woman."

"Are you happy now?" Mr. Asasm asked once he had finished. "I was just asking a few harmless questions. There's nothing more to it, so can I leave now?"

"I still need to examine your testimony," I reminded him. He responded with a roll of his eyes as he crossed his arms and looked down at the floor.

"I noticed something off about his testimony," Venus hissed. "Did you hear it? I think that he knows more than he's letting on. I'm sure of it at this point."

"Hear what?" I asked, a small frown appearing on my face. "I didn't see anything particularly strange about the testimony..."

"When we hear it again, keep your eyes open. I'm sure you'll notice it if you're looking," she said. "Speaking of, let's get on that. Shall we?"

"Please begin, defense," Judge Diaphan instructed. I nodded in response and gestured for Mr. Asasm to repeat his testimony. For what seemed like the twelfth time, Mr. Asasm rolled his eyes and got back to reciting the testimony once more.

~ Cross-Examination ~

~ My Chat with Blocker~

- "I told you that this wasn't at all related to this case, but if you're going to keep complaining..."

- "...I suppose I have no choice but to tell you what we were talking about."

- "I was curious about the Oracle of the Law."

- "He revealed their existence at a press conference a year ago, so I wanted to hear about what he knew."

- "It was just my curiosity on the matter that brought me to his door."

- "See? No funny business going on here. I was just wondering about that woman."

"Objection!"

"You say that there's no funny business going on, but... I sort of find that hard to believe," I said with a small frown. "What you just said contradicts that."

"What are you on about this time? How many times do I have to tell you that I want to get this over with so I can leave? I doubt that this little fact matters as much as you're making it sound like it does," Mr. Asasm sighed. "Go on and tell everyone what's so important so we can wrap this up sooner rather than later."

"You said that you were wondering about 'that woman'," I told him. "However, if you were really chatting about Oracle, that brings us to an important question."

"How did you know Oracle was a woman?" Venus asked, frowning deeply. "In the press conference, Mr. Blocker never mentioned a gender to the spy. He only mentioned that Oracle exists. How can you explain that? Nobody in the public was aware of Oracle's gender aside from their accomplices... And yet... Somehow, here you are, saying it loud for the whole world to see. Do you... Do you know who Oracle is or something?"

I could see something else in Venus' eyes, something I hadn't seen in a long time. It had been over a year since I'd seen that look on her face. The last time was when my mother had died. One of the assault victims was her youngest sister, which had really brought out her dark side. Now, here it was again, now that we were talking about Oracle. I couldn't help but wonder what it was that was causing this reaction... I suspected she knew more than she was letting on.

"There's nothing you can do to prove that and you know it," Mr. Asasm declared. "You can go on and accuse me of this all you want, but without something concrete to back it up, it's little more than baseless conjecture, which isn't tolerated in court. Isn't that right, Prosecutor Bespoke?"

"I must side with the defense here," Ghastly said. "I want to know how you knew the truth on this matter as well. Only Oracle's unknown accomplices would know, but here we are. Let me take a guess at how you figured it out... You pressed it out of the victim when you two spoke, didn't you?"

"Would it matter if I did? There's nothing you can do to prove that I committed this murder. Even if I did talk to him about Oracle, even if I did rile him up by asking him, you still can't prove that I killed him. I know that you want to say that I did it, that I'm the killer, but you can't do a damn thing to show that I did. I didn't touch him. What reason would I have? He told me that Oracle was a woman. That's good enough for most reporters these days. In fact, I'm sure that they'll be happy with just that little bit of information as soon as it hits them," Mr. Asasm frowned. "I don't have a motive, and nothing you can say or do will ever change that. Spout all the nonsense that you want. You can't change the truth of this case no matter how hard you try."

"There has to be something we can do. At this point, it's obvious that he's the one that made the victim get all angry the day of the murder," Venus whispered to me. "All we need is a piece of evidence and a motive... If we can find both of those, we can seal this case away once and for all."

I found myself closing my eyes as I thought over the case once again. There had to be some sort of clue somewhere around here, maybe in what Ms. Burns had told us before... At this point, I highly doubt Oracle's identity mattered, so even if I was curious, I wasn't going to press the matter. The priority here was to prove that Ms. Amaya was not the killer of Mr. Blocker. Anything else could easily wait. I needed to figure out how to defend her first and foremost.

Ms. Burns had mentioned a few times that there were gloves at the scene of the murder, though she couldn't say how. I didn't know how she had gotten her hands on such information, as it hadn't been brought up until her arrival, and on top of that, I highly doubted it was mentioned during interrogation. However, how she knew wasn't important. The fact that there were gloves at all was what I needed to keep in mind. Her testimony had been proven reliable, which meant that I was able to take a gambit and trust her words without feeling like it was too risky.

There were gloves at the scene of the murder, but none were spotted in any pictures of the crime. They would have been necessary to commit the murder using the gun without getting any prints on them, as it's a bit harder to wipe prints off a gun's trigger without firing it off. Getting fingerprints off a ladder used as an escape route would be much easier, as there's no danger of accidentally shooting a gun to remove them. Using a long sleeve would also make it possible to descend or ascend without any issues, unlike using a gun, where lengthy sleeves would only hinder the culprit's movements before the murder.

The area around the building was undoubtedly searched well by the police, as the officers were always thorough in their investigations. Gloves wouldn't have possibly been able to escape. If they had been in a desk drawer inside the victim's office, they would have been found. The gloves likely weren't in another office, as none of our potential suspects (Ms. Amaya, Mr. Amaya, Ms. Burns, and Mr. Asasm) have jobs at the law agency and would have a hard time sneaking the gloves in there. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to do it without coming off as suspicious in some way.

However, if that was the case, where could the gloves be? The culprit could have taken them along, but Ms. Burns' testimony about seeing gloves at the scene of the murder shot that down. They had to be somewhere. If I just searched a little through the crime scene photos, I had to find them...

I pulled up the picture of the crime scene with a small frown. It had to be there... Our last little clue just had to be around here somewhere...

I gasped when I realized what I had been missing all along. The hands of the victim couldn't be seen. Maybe the culprit put the gloves on his hands as a way to hide them. Nobody would be suspicious if the victim was wearing gloves at the time of his death since many people wear them. It would completely escape suspicion and the police wouldn't think to check if there was a sign of somebody else having worn them recently.

"I know how we can prove he did it!" I cried out, slamming my hands on the bench before me. "Your Honor! In the photos of the crime scene, we cannot see the victim's hand. However, we heard earlier from Ms. Burns that there were gloves at the scene of the crime. If you ask me, the victim is the one wearing the gloves that she brought up earlier! We just couldn't tell that due to the angle at which the crime scene photos were taken! The gloves were right there the whole time, but we never took a moment to realize it. I'm sure that you can confirm if there were gloves found on the body, Prosecutor Bespoke. Am I right?"

Ghastly nodded. "Yes... There were gloves found on the body of the victim," he said. "You think those gloves were used by the culprit but were then hidden on the body afterwards, am I correct?"

I nodded. "That's exactly what I think. I'm sure that we can ask Ms. Burns if she saw him wearing gloves before his death. Plus, we could always have the gloves tested to see if there's any signs of Mr. Asasm having worn them recently," I suggested. "Ms. Burns, if you would please..."

Ms. Burns, who was sitting on the witness bench next to Ghastly and Cassidy, stood up. "Mr. Blocker wasn't wearing gloves that morning before his death. I'm sure of it," she announced, her eyes glistening with determination. "You can count on it. He never wore gloves inside of his office."

"Plus, Mr. Asasm might have a motive for killing the victim as well. If you think about it, he could have easily pressed Mr. Blocker for more answers regarding Oracle after hearing he knew it was a woman. Let's say that he grew angry that Mr. Blocker wasn't answering his questions... He could have killed him and tried going through his papers to see if there was any sort of clue. Any evidence he found as to Oracle's identity would be going with him sine he wanted to know. He was even willing to use deadly force to get his hands on that information," I announced. "If you think it would be necessary, I could go through the crime as I believe it occurred just to prove that I've figured it all out. Would you like that, Your Honor?"

Judge Diaphan nodded. "Please proceed, Mr. Morix," she told me.

"The morning of the murder, the victim was sitting in his office when he was visited by Ms. Burns. He had asked her to come and see him that day, to which she complied. They spoke briefly before she left him behind. This was earlier on in the morning. Later on, there was another visitor, this time our current witness, one Colin Asasm. He also talked to the victim, though about a much darker subject. He wanted to know all that he could possibly learn about the Oracle of the Law, who the victim revealed the existence of a year ago on a press conference by accident. The conversation left Mr. Blocker in a rather surly mood since he wasn't the biggest fan of such subjects. His bad mood continued throughout the morning, only worsening when he was visited a third and final time.

"The visitor this time was the current suspect, Ms. Amaya, who was there for a job interview. She was applying to join the agency Mr. Blocker owned as a lawyer. However, she made a joke at one point in the interview, which did nothing but set off Mr. Blocker's rage. In his anger, he kicked her out of his office and told her that she needed to be more serious in the future. Ms. Amaya was deeply upset by his words, so she ran out of the room in tears. Her twin brother, one Sky Amaya, was sitting just outside. He went to chase her, but due to Ms. Amaya getting in an elevator before him, she ended up disappearing from his sight.

"One of these three visitors dropped down the emergency escape ladder from the office through the window. The most likely suspect is Mr. Asasm, which I'll get to in a moment. The killer used the ladder to climb up into the office, a gun on their person. They tried to speak to the victim about something. During the conversation, a bullet was fired that implanted itself in the wall of the office. Mr. Amaya heard this from his place down in the lobby. He called the police, but another gunshot rang out not long after. This was the shot that killed the victim. Afterwards, the culprit moved the gloves they were wearing from their hands to those of the victim, leaving the crucial piece of evidence hidden in plain sight. They descended via the ladder to the ground, not touching it thanks to their long sleeves. They had brought the gun down with them, which they placed on the roof of Ms. Amaya's car, before fleeing from the scene.

"A few minutes later, the police arrived, having been summoned by Mr. Amaya's cry. They saw Ms. Amaya standing near the car, holding the murder weapon. She had been trying to remove it from the roof of her vehicle so that she could go home, but was seen by the police, which resulted in her being a suspect for this murder. However, she could not have done it, as we established earlier that she would have no reason to be lifting the gun in plain sight the way she had been if she was the killer. The real murderer must have planted it there. They wanted to frame her for the crime. Lucky for them, Ms. Amaya had a potential motive in the form of her rejection from the agency. The killer's motive was much different from this one though, which I'll go into now.

"The real motive involved the Oracle of the Law. The killer wanted more information on them. They managed to squeeze from the victim that Oracle is a woman but couldn't get much else. They likely killed him to get their hands on any important papers that were in his office regarding the Oracle of the Law. Mr. Asasm already established that he was speaking to the victim about Oracle, which points to one fact..." I raised one arm and pointed it at Mr. Asasm powerfully. "The killer is none other than Colin Asasm!"

Mr. Asasm's hands tightened into fists. He began to tremble with anger as he stared down at the ground. For a moment, I thought he was going to start grunting out of dissatisfaction, but he did something rather different. Instead, he began to laugh. Soon enough, it escalated to be louder and louder. Before long, the sound was filling the entire courtroom as he giggled with glee. He held his hands on either side before slamming them against the witness stand. I didn't know what in the world he could be finding so funny when he was pretty much guaranteed to be arrested for murder, but I couldn't question it.

The next few seconds seemed like a blur. Mr. Asasm pulled out something from his jacket, holding it up to the ceiling in one arm. A sickening bang echoed throughout the courtroom. I heard many screams as I recognized what it was. He had been hiding a gun in there all along and had just fired it off. I felt myself freeze in place. If he had a gun on him, who could say what he would do next? Anybody was dangerous with that sort of weapon on them, especially somebody like him who's already used it to commit murder.

"Listen here, everyone!" Mr. Asasm yelled. "You all heard what this lawyer has said! I killed the victim in this case! He is correct! Blocker wouldn't tell me what I needed to know, so I did him in! The ends justify the means! I already did it and I would do it a thousand times over if it meant learning what I now know! Oracle is here in this very courtroom, hiding right before your eyes! The spy you have all sought is here, waiting to be uncovered once and for all!"

"Bailiffs!" Judge Diaphan shouted. "Disarm and arrest this man at once! I will not have him hurting the people of my court!"

None of the bailiffs in the room had the time to properly react to Judge Diaphan's instructions. Mr. Asasm darted over to where Ms. Burns was sitting over near the prosecution's bench and grabbed her arm. He put the gun away in his jacket once again. After tearing off the pristine white gloves she was wearing, he tossed them to the ground. A moment later, he pulled out a knife from his pocket, pressing a button to reveal the blade for all to see. "I read a little bit through the papers on Oracle that the lawyer had. It didn't take long for me to learn that Oracle is one Estelle Burns, a teenage student. However, I doubt that a student would be able to pull all this off on her own. Perhaps she's a bit older than she says? Perhaps there are other people helping her? Maybe both?"

"Let me go!" Ms. Burns cried, trying to rip her arm out of his grasp. No matter how much she pulled and struggled, there was no way for her to escape. Ms. Burns was rather fragile when compared to Mr. Asasm, which meant that she didn't stand much of a chance when up against him. It would take external help from a bailiff to get her out of harm's way. That didn't stop her from attempting to get away though, as she desperately tried to pull herself away from him.

"You haven't denied it, have you?" Mr. Asasm asked. "You haven't denied that you're Oracle, because you can't. You can't hide the truth forever. No secret goes completely to the grave. There are always clues left behind. I just managed to find them a lot sooner than you would have liked. Poor little you. Unfortunately, little Oracle isn't going to slip away this time. This past year, you've been a real thorn in my side, you know that? You've been poking your nose where it doesn't belong, trying to hear all you can about that damn factory murder. Well, you can go on and consider what's about to happen your punishment for that."

Mr. Asasm held up the blade of his knife and let it glint in the lighting for a moment before bringing it down on Ms. Burns's wrist. She let out a scream as the blade pierced her skin. Blood flowed down to the ground, staining the carpet. Ms. Burns covered her injured hand with her fingers, tears forming in her eyes from the pain. Her breathing had gone heavy, but I couldn't quite blame her for that. Anybody would be upset at this turn of events.

Mr. Asasm didn't give her a moment to rest. He brought down the blade once again, this time on her other hand. Ms. Burns bit her lip to keep from crying out, though it was clear she was in a lot of pain. Mr. Asasm observed her for a moment before throwing her violently to the ground. Just to ensure she wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon, he forcefully placed one foot on her chest, knocking the air from her lungs. She struggled to get her breath back as Mr. Asasm let out another laugh. "This is your Oracle! This is the one who has done so much to you all this past year! However, the time has not come for her to die yet... No, she will fall soon enough, but my associates demand that she be left alive for just a little while longer. Everything Oracle knows will soon crumble to dust. I may not know who Oracle truly is behind the mask yet, but I will know soon enough, and once that day comes, nobody can keep her from her fate!" he shouted.

With that said, he turned on his heel and ran towards the courtroom doors. He dropped the knife he had been using to the floor and threw the doors open before vanishing from view. A few bailiffs chased after him. One or two remained, both of them hovering over Ms. Burns, who was coughing violently. When she realized they were there, her eyes narrowed. Seizing her gloves, she got to her feet and sprinted as fast as she could out of the courtroom. The bailiffs chased after her, Venus a few feet behind. I noticed that Venus had something akin to fear in her gaze. There was a little something more there as well, but I couldn't say quite what it was. Not only was she scared, but she was also concerned, likely for Ms. Burns. Maybe it was because they were so close, or maybe it was because there was something else there... Regardless, I wouldn't be able to ask her about it until she returned later on, likely after the trial.

The gallery was buzzing around us, but I hardly recognized what anyone was saying. I looked down at my feet, a frown on my lips. Whoever that was, whoever Oracle really was, had really been thrown for a loop today. I knew quite a bit about Oracle, as I had been curious about them for ages, but never had something like this occurred... I would certainly need to note it down for future reference in case I decided to pursue Oracle's identity further, but I wasn't sure if that was really the best idea after what had transpired here today. Ms. Burns' blood was still prominent on the carpet. It would take ages to fade, that was for sure.

Judge Diaphan's gavel hit the bench before her. She looked over the courtroom for a moment before beating the gavel once again. She ended up needing to repeat this process a few times before the gallery finally managed to calm down. Everybody seemed to have something to say about Mr. Asasm's change of heart and his attack on Ms. Burns. I couldn't stop thinking about our young witness. I had thought her to be normal, and yet, she was none other than the Oracle of the Law. I would certainly need to look into the Oracle business now that I knew this. Looking back on that, it seemed so obvious. She had something to tell us, that something being that there were gloves at the scene of the murder but couldn't say how she knew. It likely was because she had learned about it while using the power she possessed as Oracle, but she couldn't say anything in case she ended up being exposed for it. Even if she kept quiet about where she had learned it, Mr. Asasm figured it out anyways, which was most certainly a surprise. I almost wanted to ask her about it all, but I doubted I would get the chance. I got the feeling she wasn't going to be coming back for quite a while, which meant my questions would have to remain unanswered.

Once everyone was quiet, Judge Diaphan spoke up. "This has been quite the trial," she remarked, seemingly unsure of what to say otherwise. "After seeing what we have seen here today, one fact seems to be rather clear. The defendant, Ms. Felicity Amaya, is not the murderer in this case. I'm sure that the bailiffs are working now on catching Mr. Asasm. Once he is found, he will be arrested so that he can be put on trial sometime within the next few days."

As if on cue, a young man with purple hair appeared in the courtroom doorway. I recognized it as KJ. I had seen him quite a few times while at the courthouse for trials, so I knew him well enough by now, but he was a lot closer with Venus than he was with me. I didn't think that he was working today since he hadn't called us into the courtroom as he usually was, but I supposed I was wrong. He could have easily just been working another trial at the same time.

"I'm afraid he has escaped," KJ declared. "A few other bailiffs have gone in pursuit of him, so they sent me here to pass along the message. They also mentioned a young woman. She has also mysteriously vanished, as if she went into thin air. The other bailiffs are searching for her as well."

"Thank you," Judge Diaphan nodded. "I am sure that he will be found soon enough. The point is that the suspect on trial here today is not the killer. Mr. Blocker was murdered by Colin Asasm, which means that it's time for me to deliver my verdict, assuming that there are no objections from the defense or prosecution."

"The defense has no objections, Your Honor," I declared. I almost turned to the side to see if Venus had any issues with this, but I remembered that she wasn't here. She had gone after Ms. Burns, which made me wonder about how things were going with her. If Ms. Burns really had disappeared 'into thin air', then had Venus seen anything? If so, maybe she'd be able to tell me something. Anything she could say at this point would be a help. While we had proven that Ms. Amaya wasn't the killer, two of the three witnesses, one of them the murderer and the other an infamous spy, had disappeared. Unless both were found soon, this was going to be a hot subject on the news for quite some time. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to forget what had transpired during this case.

"And the prosecution?" Judge Diaphan prompted, turning to face Ghastly and Cassidy. "I trust that you have no issues with me handing down the verdict."

Ghastly was frowning as he stared down at the bench before him. Cassidy didn't say much of anything, but upon realizing he wasn't going to be responding to Judge Diaphan anytime soon, she nudged him lightly. Ghastly snapped out of his trance and glanced around. It took Cassidy hissing Judge Diaphan's question to him before he could formulate a response. "N-No, Your Honor," he said nervously. That was definitely out of character for him. Ghastly was scarcely nervous about anything. The last time I had seen him get so worked up was a year ago. He had been the suspect in the case where my mother died, which scared him a considerable amount. Aside from that, Ghastly had always been confident and tough, if not a bit lazy at times when it came to paperwork.

"In that case, it's time for me to announce my verdict," Judge Diaphan announced. "This court finds Felicity Amaya not guilty. While this case cannot yet be considered closed due to the killer having escaped, we can at the very least free this innocent woman from her place at the detention center. Once Mr. Asasm is caught, he will be put on trial, but for the time being, this is all that we can do. Court is adjourned."

Judge Diaphan brought down her gavel once again. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as KJ opened the doors out into the two lobbies. After pulling together all my papers, I made for the defendant lobby, hoping to find Venus out there, but I was distracted by a gesture from Ghastly. He seemed to want me to come into the prosecution lobby. I didn't see any issues with doing so. I nodded to him before walking his way, briefly noting the uncharacteristically solemn expression on his face. He definitely wanted to talk about this case, but I doubted he was going to be his typical self while doing so.

Well, I started school yesterday. Not fun.

I'm still hoping to have two updates per week. As of now, next week will have Evolution Adventure and the start of case four here on QATH. I'll bring up the case name in the next update. For now, I'm going to disappear. Farewell. I hope you enjoyed.

- Digital