August 31
Interpol Headquarters
5:00 PM
Deirdre Brigit
I let a frown form on my features after hearing what Yuri said about our rival. I had only ever heard of the prosecuting prowess possessed by Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, but from what I had been told, he was a formidable opponent to say the least. Mr. Morix had gotten that much across when he told us about the case from a year ago. He must have gotten his high position somehow, and I assumed it was because of how good he was at his job both in and out of the courtroom.
"It sounds like we're going to have our work cut out for us," Lily sighed with a shake of her head. "I bet that he's prosecuting because of the nature of this case. It's an exclusive case involving a spy and an organization meant to be closed off from the rest of the world. It's probably going to make our jobs a lot harder than they would be otherwise… The evidence stacked up against M isn't going to make it any better, but we're going to have to go along with it. It isn't like we have much of a choice otherwise…"
"Speaking of M, I think that we should go and talk to him. The detention center will be closing soon, and he asked us to go by and tell him what we found," Yuri suggested. "I'd rather not face his unbridled wrath, if that's okay with you guys."
"I think we should head down there now," I agreed. "We didn't get any major evidence, but it will still help us out to hear more from him. Admittedly, I'm a bit nervous about this, but we need to assure him things will be okay so his faith in us doesn't wither."
"After we see M, we can drop by the agency for a little while. I'm sure that Mr. Morix can give us a few tips on how to handle the case as well as how to face Chief Prosecutor Bespoke in court. The two of them have faced off countless times," Yuri said. "I've seen them battle it out, but I think he would be able to provide more substantial advice. I hope he decides to watch us tomorrow. I'm sure he would be happy to give us tips during recesses should we ask for them. He's like a wise old owl when it comes to courtroom battles."
"In other words, we should get going," Lily nodded. "The sooner we can see M, the sooner we can ask Mr. Morix for help. If you ask me, we're seriously going to need it. Our previous cases have been child's play in comparison to this level of difficulty… I can't say for sure if we're going to be up for it, but we need to try at the very least."
"I agree. I don't know who our culprit could be, but I believe in M. One of us would have picked up on it if he was lying about his innocence," I told them.
"Yeah, so we're in agreement that he didn't do it, but we need to prove it. It's a bit difficult to find evidence with how messy this room is and how stacked the case is against us," Lily went on. "It's not going to be easy, but it'll be fine. I have faith that we can press on through this and show who the real culprit is! Let's go, Team Morix! We can do it! With wit, perseverance, and some other third trait that I can't think of a name for at the moment, we will succeed!"
Lily pumped her fist into the sky and let out a triumphant yell. Yuri followed suit. The two of them dashed out of the room not after. I couldn't help but smile to myself as they disappeared from sight. I didn't know how they could be so chipper despite the dark and dreary situation we were faced with, but I welcomed it with open arms. It certainly helped to ease my worries, even just a little.
August 31
Detention Center
5:30 PM
Deirdre Brigit
To my surprise, N was still sitting on the side of the glass for visitors when we arrived. He and M were deeply engrossed in conversation, but their voices were far too low for me to be able to tell easily what they were saying. I didn't want to intrude upon their privacy, so I waited for them to stop talking before making myself known. Lily and Yuri were standing just behind me. "Hello," I said simply, unsure of how else to start up the conversation. I was praying that I wasn't interrupting them at all. It wouldn't sit well with me to know I had bothered some of the most important people in the area.
M looked up and nodded when he noticed me. N turned around and shot us a small and awkward wave. He moved the chair he was sitting in to the side, sharing a longing glance with M as he did so. I could sense some relationship between them they weren't talking about, but I didn't linger on it. I wasn't going to intrude any further than I likely had already.
"What did you find out while you were down there?" asked M, regarding us with serious eyes. Lily and Yuri pulled up extra chairs while I sat in the seat already set up on our side of the glass.
"We didn't find much in the way of proving your innocence," I admitted. "However, we still believe that you are innocent. I'm not going to leave you behind when we know that you didn't commit this crime."
"We heard that you were in the power room when the power went out," said Yuri with a frown. "Is that true?"
M hesitated before nodding. "Yes, I was," he told us. "I didn't turn off the power though. If you ask me, the system must have been hacked to turn off the power."
"Hacked?" Lily echoed. "What would lead you to believe that it had been hacked? Is there even any evidence that could indicate there was outside interference with the system? Then again, knowing Interpol, there is a lot of fancy equipment for everything, so that could change things..."
"There's a few systems in place to keep the company's data from being hacked. The programs are very difficult to put into place and even more difficult to decode. No average hacker would ever have a chance of getting through. However, the system was still broken through somehow, which indicates a very talented hacker," M continued to say.
"I spoke briefly with our main man in technology, Q. He said that somebody who would have been able to hack the system must have known well what they would be in for. In other words, they had prior knowledge as to what they would need to break through our security," N told us. "I'm sure you already know where I'm going with this. We already told you about the invasion of privacy taking place when our agents began to turn on the company to leak information in exchange for cash."
"So, you're saying that the information was sold to someone who had a motive to break into Interpol, kill the victim, and then turn off the power to cover for their escape," I concluded with a frown. "The agents selling out the company are responsible for this then."
"That wouldn't surprise me," N admitted. "They were probably fully aware of what they were doing and how it would impact the company, but in the end, they kept doing it for the cash. We don't even know for sure if all of them have been weeded out. I hope they have been, but none of us can say for sure. It's stressful, to say the least... Anybody who you see could very easily betray you. The threat is always there, but we're more on edge than usual since we know for sure it's going on."
"I don't even want to imagine how stressful that is," sighed Yuri with a shake of her head. "Not even being able to trust your friends... It sounds like a life you wouldn't want to endure. I hope that sort of thing never happens to me."
"Do you think that the information Y had was somehow leaked?" I asked next. "We looked at all of the paper in her office. It looked as if it had been thrown about in a wild manner. The culprit could have made that mess while looking for the papers that proved who Oracle really was. That would make sense, wouldn't you agree?"
M nodded. "It does sound plausible. If it got out that Y had the information regarding Oracle's true identity, she was in a lot of danger. I'm sure that you've heard of Occisor, the group that's been killing anybody they feel is a threat to their quest for Oracle's true identity. They could have a part in this. Of course, nobody can say for sure... It's hard to figure out what's going on given how this case is structured," he frowned.
"In other words, this is a mess," Lily grumbled. "That could be a potential motive though. With all that information being sold elsewhere, then anybody could have been told Y knew and broke into her office to get the files she had spent so many months putting together."
"I wonder why O wasn't a target. After all, she was Y's partner in the case. She hasn't seen any trouble recently though," I remarked. "There's also the matter of her strange argument with Y. I don't know where it came from, and apparently, O doesn't have a clue either. It seemed to come out of nowhere... I wish we could ask Y what happened, but that doesn't seem to be possible at the moment."
"It would probably be in our best interest to avoid channeling her, if you want the truth," Lily said. "I don't want to be in danger since I have the power to summon her and thus confess who Oracle really is... It's a risk that I don't exactly want to take. I'm sorry if it's at all inconvenient, but I'm afraid I don't have much of a choice in the matter."
"Don't worry about it, Lily. For now, we should focus on proving that M didn't commit this crime. It sounds like it's going to be hard, but it's our best bet at the moment. Plus, the proposition regarding a potential hacking taking place could help us out. The selling of information could help us out by providing a potential motive for other people. The prosecution will probably have an idea as to how it could be refuted, but it's a start, and I'm going to be happy with that," Yuri cut in. "Is there anything else of note you think we should be talking about in court tomorrow? Do you think the prosecution will bring anything else up that we haven't already mentioned?"
"They could try and ask more about Oracle. I don't know," M said bluntly. "Funny enough, when Chief Prosecutor Bespoke was in here earlier, he was pressing about if I knew, but when I said I didn't, he backed off and stopped asking about it. He then acted like he had never asked a thing about it to begin with. I've always heard that he's a little bit strange, but that in particular struck me as odd."
"I don't get it," I whispered, though my head was racing with thoughts of the picture and our suspicions of Oracle. He definitely fit into this puzzle somehow, even if we didn't quite know how. It would take a bit of digging to figure it out, but I got the feeling the truth was destined to be released at some point during this case for better or for worse.
"We can figure that out later. He's always been a bit on the weird side anyways. I mean, what normal person falls asleep in their office on a daily basis?" Yuri asked jokingly. "I'm sure that it's just Chief Prosecutor Bespoke being himself. I don't think we really need to worry about it... At the very least, I hope we don't need to worry about it. I don't know about you guys, but I don't think that we have the time to focus on that stuff so long as we're trying to figure out this case. We don't need any other bits of messiness to add to the pile."
"I agree. For the time being, let's focus on what we need to take care of in this case," I nodded before turning back to M and N. "I'm sure that there's something else that can help to prove your innocence... An alibi, false motive, anything..."
"Well... Maybe there is something," Lily cut in. "Think about it. If we have proof that there was a hacking to cause the power outage, then... Maybe we can use that to our advantage. If a hacker from the outside hacked the system, then it means you couldn't have turned off the power. That would at least count for something. Plus, I think that the prosecution will try to press that the culprit caused both the murder and the power outage, which we can definitely use here."
"In that case, I guess that we can call that lucky, at the very least," Yuri smiled. "I think that we should go by and talk to Mr. Morix soon, assuming that we're all wrapped up here. Are there any other questions that need to be asked?"
Yuri let the silence serve as her answer. Satisfied, she grinned and looked at M. "Thank you for everything. We'll show that you didn't do it tomorrow. I promise," she assured him.
"Thank you," nodded M before turning to N. "You should go home and get some rest too. I don't want you getting yourself sick from staying here too long."
N looked ready to argue, but he didn't say a word. Instead, he nodded. "Alright, M... I'll see you tomorrow. Can you try to stay out of trouble until then? I don't know if I'll be able to take it if you get tied up in an even larger issue..." he whispered.
"I'll be fine, N. Don't spend too long freaking out about it," he said with a dismissive gesture of his hand. "I suppose that I'll see you all later on. I believe that the trial will go well since you seem to be confident in your skills to prove my innocence. I'm putting my faith in you, so, not to be rude or anything, but don't blow it. I don't trust in people this way often."
I smiled despite his harsh phrasing. "I'll see you then," I told him simply, leading Yuri and Lily out of the detention center.
When we were outside, I turned to my companions. "It's time to head back to the agency," I said.
Yuri nodded her agreement. "Sounds good to me. Mr. Morix will be glad to see us, I'm sure... Wait, I just remembered something," she remarked, a frown creeping onto her features. "I got so caught up in the investigation... I completely forgot we had stuff to do after we finished up looking around down at Interpol..."
"What is it?" Lily asked. She thought for a moment before letting out a gasp. "The paperwork we procrastinated on! We never finished that!"
"Correction: you two never finished it. I took care of it earlier," I told them with a small smile. "You should have worked on it sooner... Granted, I suppose you didn't know we would end up having a case, but it pays to get things done earlier rather than later."
Lily let out a sigh and shook her head. "Let's just get back there. I can at least try to throw a little something together before Mr. Morix decides to roast the two of us," she murmured, making a mad dash for the car. I couldn't help but smile as Yuri ran after her. I trailed after them by a few feet, eager but still somewhat nervous regarding how Mr. Morix would respond to their behavior. I hoped and prayed internally they wouldn't get in trouble, but some deep part of me told me that was inevitable.
August 31
Morix Law Offices
6:15 PM
Yuri Rinko
When we got back to the agency, Mr. Morix was on the phone. He was pacing around the lobby area, talking quietly into the speaker. "So, you're going to be okay? Are you sure? Come on, you don't need to lie to me... You can't leave anyways, huh? That sounds dreadful... Alright, alright, I trust you. Just try to stay out of trouble, alright? I don't want to have to drive down there to dig you out of trouble... Alright, night. Get some sleep if you can. I'll be here if you need me," he said. Mr. Morix pulled the phone away from his face and pressed the button on the screen to end the call.
It wasn't until I spoke up that he noticed us. "Hey," I cut in simply.
Mr. Morix looked up and smiled. "Ah, hello," he greeted kindly. He looked to Lily and Deirdre with a nod. "Did you two end up finishing that paperwork for me?"
"We still need to do a little bit more," I admitted, feeling my cheeks flush red. "We'll get it in though. Promise. The investigation just threw us off a little bit. It's going to be okay."
"Just so long as you get it done as soon as possible, that's fine," Mr. Morix shrugged, sitting down on the nearby couch. He placed one arm on the top of the couch and gestured for us to sit down as well.
"Who were you talking to just now?" Lily asked. "You don't have to tell us if it's an invasion of privacy, but I'm a bit curious..."
"It was Chrysalis. I'm sure you remember how she left this morning to go out of town, yes?" Mr. Morix questioned, to which we all nodded. "Her plane ended up getting delayed until tomorrow due to a bad storm where she was set to land. She's stuck at the airport overnight, but the staff don't want anyone to go home in case they miss the flight, which is scheduled for the crack of dawn now. She's not too happy about it, but she doesn't have much of a choice in the matter."
"That's no good," I frowned. "Do you think she's going to be okay?"
"I'm sure of it. She can handle herself on her own for one night," Mr. Morix replied.
"Where is she headed?" Lily asked. "I don't think you ever properly told us.
"She's headed to Germany, if you can believe that. It's for a school trip," Mr. Morix explained. "She's been looking forward to it for quite some time now, so you can imagine how upset she must be that she's being delayed."
"I guess it's good that it's a school function," I remarked. "I mean, that's better than her being in the middle of a strange airport all by herself. That would terrify me completely. I don't know about her, but I feel like she would be at least a little nervous too."
"You make a good point," Mr. Morix nodded. "Anyways, how did the investigation go? I didn't hear very many details on the matter, so anything you can tell me would be great to hear."
"Honestly, it isn't going well," Lily frowned. "We've run into nothing but incriminating evidence. On top of that, we're going up against the district's chief prosecutor. If we can't figure out what we're doing soon, we're as good as screwed, and I'm not exactly looking forward to telling our client that the case is too hard for us."
"Ghastly's in court... I didn't expect that," Mr. Morix murmured. "He hasn't been on the prosecution for a trial in quite some time. The paperwork has been getting to him. Being the chief prosecutor and all, he doesn't get very much time to investigate cases of his own free will between all the paperwork and assignments given to him."
"Do you have any advice for going up against him?" Lily questioned. "I don't want to get wrecked when we face him. Our client is kind of a big deal, so I'd rather not get in trouble with him. We're defending the head of Interpol, for crying out loud."
"Well... He's obviously very good at what he does, but I'm going to assume that you already knew that," Mr. Morix began. "He's the type to point out any inconsistency he sees, even if it doesn't benefit him and his case. He values the truth above all else."
"Good thing we don't need to worry about corruption then. I know that a lot of prosecutors have an obsession with getting a perfect win record. I'd assume that it's some matter of pride for them, but I don't get that. I mean, why brag about something that was at the expense of others?" Lily mused. She shook her head and sighed. "I guess I'll never get that. I don't need to though. I mean, that's on them, and I don't want to get into that if I can help it."
"Let's focus on the case at hand," I suggested. "We have a lot of things to worry about because of all the evidence stacked up against us."
"Can you give me more specific examples? I might be able to help you out if you tell me what it's all about," Mr. Morix said, much to my satisfaction.
"Okay!" I chirped excitedly. "The murder took place earlier today in the hours of the morning. An agent at Interpol was found dead in her office, having been killed when somebody slammed a vase into her head. She was known to be investigating Oracle and was rumored to have figured out who the spy really was behind the disguise. Nobody can confirm nor deny those rumors aside from her employer and our client, M. He said that she came to him a few weeks ago to say she had figured out the truth."
"There was a power outage shortly after her death, though it took a while for the body to be discovered. The two witnesses on the case, agents N and O, were out in the hallway when the power outage took place, causing all of the doors to automatically shut for security reasons. They had heard a loud noise coming from the victim's office and had gone to investigate," Deirdre continued. "They were in the hallway for a little while until the power came back on. They went to the power room to look around and found the defendant inside, having been locked in when the power went out. O went into the office of the victim and saw the body, prompting her to call the police for help and head outside of the building to wait for backup. They didn't arrive for quite some time, but N and M were together the entire time O was gone."
"I see... Did anything else of note happen at the time? Even if it seems insignificant, it can ultimately seal the coffin of the culprit if it winds up being vital enough. Anything and everything can be important at the end of the day when it comes to murder trials," Mr. Morix told us.
"Well, some of the agents in the technology branch were revealed to have been selling information to high payers outside of the company. Oracle sent them a letter to expose the truth a few weeks ago. M and N have been firing anybody they deem to be a spy before having them arrested for selling out government secrets. It's always possible that one of the spies sold information to the culprit, so they would know how to break into the building and not get caught. We can't say if that happened for sure, but it's certainly something to consider just to be on the safe side," I explained.
"It sounds like this case is certainly something special," Mr. Morix murmured.
"We have a suspicion that a hacker caused the power outage from the outside. The technological expert of the company said that the firewalls that keep the company's data from being hacked had been eliminated after the power outage, so the possibility of a hacking is very much present. If we're lucky, he'll end up testifying in court tomorrow on the matter. If he does, we can declare that anybody from the outside who was given the information mentioned could have committed this crime with the proper accomplices," Deirdre went on.
"I think that will help you out at the very least," nodded Mr. Morix. "Anything that you can use to even propose that the defendant didn't do it. This is something of a locked room murder since it would only make sense that the culprit caused the power outage and killed the victim. With the defendant trapped inside the power room, the prosecution is certainly going to try and push for that. If they insist the defendant did both, the chance that somebody else hacked the system to cause the power outage can help you poke holes in the case."
"That's what we were thinking of, yeah," Lily said. "We were just wondering if you had any other advice for us tomorrow."
"For one, ask to hear the testimony of the technological expert you mentioned before. He can tell you more about the power outage than anybody else involved in the case can if he was able to tell that much about the firewalls so easily," Mr. Morix told us. "After that, see if you can press for a second day of investigation. I can't say for sure if Ghastly will have covered this base, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to talk to the arrested agents who exposed the company's secrets to outsiders. With a bit of interrogation, I'm sure that you'll be able to hear who they sold the company out to. They're already in a whole lot of trouble, so maybe the prospect of getting out early by telling the truth will excite them. That's your best chance of finding out the truth."
"Another thing to note is that they didn't want anybody from Interpol working on this case because the police seemed to think the culprit was somebody within the company," Deirdre remarked. "With the information regarding who they sold the company's secrets to, we can narrow down who the culprit is outside of the building. It's going to be difficult to track them down assuming the culprit was not part of the company nor there the day of the crime."
"In other words, our case is all based around hypotheticals and people outside the building," I sighed with a shake of my head. "We didn't hear anything about people there the time of the crime that shouldn't have been. In other words, there weren't any visitors that could have killed the victim. That makes this a lot harder than it would be if we had names like that, but I guess we're just going to have to go with it..."
"Your main point tomorrow will be to show that M didn't turn off the power from his place in the power room. From there, the rest of the case should easily fall apart," Mr. Morix told us. "If you're lucky, you can see about a potential record being kept for who enters the power room. You didn't have much time to investigate, so you wouldn't have been able to learn about that unless somebody directly told you."
"We didn't even get the chance to check out the power room," Lily told him. "It wouldn't surprise me if there was a record given how secretive Interpol has always been. That's the only way they can keep their secrets hidden from the general public, after all. If we can get our hands on a copy of the record, maybe we can see if M was in the power room at the time of the murder, that would make it all fall apart. If he was already in the power room before the victim died and didn't leave..."
"It would mean that he couldn't have hit her with the vase!" I cried out. "That's brilliant!"
"Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Morix," Deirdre smiled with a bow of her head. "
"No problem," Mr. Morix told her. "Now, I'm going to head up to my office to fill out a few more papers before retiring for the night. Try to finish up your own paperwork before we close, okay? I don't want to have even more to finish up on."
I saluted him sternly. "On it, sir!" I exclaimed, dashing over to the couch nearby where my papers were sitting. They hadn't been moved since we left the agency that morning, so I still had just as much work to do as I had before we left... Great.
"I guess I should leave you to it," Deirdre commented. "I'm going to start taking a few extra notes based on what Mr. Morix just suggested to us. I'll see you all tomorrow at the courtroom, just in case we don't meet up again before the agency closes tonight."
"See you then!" Lily chirped. She waved as Deirdre left the room, leaving just the two of us in the room. She sat down next to me and picked up her own stack of papers. "Time to start on the bane of my existence... I'd almost rather solve a nearly impossible case than fill these out."
I laughed. "I can't help but agree."