September 1

Courtroom No. 6

11:45 AM

Lily Shield

"What do you want to know?" I asked, though I was admittedly nervous. He was a good prosecutor, so I didn't want to chance him poking holes in our case. I thought the explanation I proposed was perfect, which meant we were supposed to be in the clear. I was still a bit nervous since he was so good at what he did, but I was hoping things were okay for the time being.

"You stated a ladder could be used to escape the crime scene at the time," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke began to say. "You must mean a rope ladder, yes?"

"Of course, I do. I can't think of how anybody would be able to lug around a metal ladder large enough to reach the fourth floor of a building. It would take a lot of effort, and on top of that, they wouldn't exactly go unnoticed due to the time it would take to move it around," I answered. "Why is that important?"

"One quality of a rope ladder is it must be draped downwards. You can't really set it up from the ground. With a metal ladder, you need to prepare it from the ground, but with a rope ladder, you'll need to throw it out of a window, for example. How do you propose the culprit got the rope ladder set up so they could get into the room? An escape route means nothing if you don't have a way for the culprit to get into the building to begin with," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said with a smirk.

"Oh," I muttered simply, unsure of what else I could really say. I had been so sure my case was flawless, but that definitely didn't seem to be the case now. "I guess I didn't think about that."

"If you can't propose how the culprit got in, all of this means nothing," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said.

Prosecutor Wood tapped on Chief Prosecutor Bespoke's arm with a small frown. "Um... I think I might have an explanation for that... I didn't know how to bring it up earlier, but... You remember D from earlier, right? She was the one O was with until she came up to the fourth floor. While she wasn't able tomake an appearance in court today, she did say something important we might want to go over," she said softly.

"What is it?" Chief Prosecutor Bespoke asked.

"D said she saw Y a few times the day of the crime. She saw Y go up to the fourth floor twice, but she never saw her come back down, if you can believe that," frowned Prosecutor Wood. "Her office is on the third floor just outside the elevator. She said she asked around the office after the body was discovered and realized that nobody else saw her come down on a different floor. In other words, she went up twice but never came back down. That can't be possible."

"I don't understand how all of this could be possible... None of it makes sense," I grumbled with a shake of my head.

"Don't call it confusing too quickly, Lily. There is an explanation for this, and it could very easily crack this case. We have an escape route figured out, but we don't have an entrance. There has to be a reason for this, and what Prosecutor Wood just said could help us find an entrance," Deirdre cut in.

"Why didn't you bring this up sooner?" asked Judge Diaphan with a disproving frown. "This sounds like important information."

"I didn't know how to bring it up... I guess I got a bit distracted too," Prosecutor Wood answered. "I'm sorry about all the trouble."

"It's no trouble at all. This could very easily explain how the culprit got in to begin with," Deirdre said. "This crime was very clearly premeditated. That being said, the killer would have prepared ahead of time how to get inside. Would it really be out of the question for the culprit to disguise themselves as Y to get in without any suspicion? Afterwards, they could kill Y and make an escape through the window so nobody would see their bloodied clothing."

"That would make sense. It would explain why Y was seen going up but never back down. It makes a bit too much sense, actually," Yuri remarked. "In other words, it looks like the entrance has been procured. D even saw the culprit at the time of the crime."

"Would it be possible to call D into court today?" asked Judge Diaphan. "I believe we'll need their testimony if we are to solve this case."

"I don't know about that... D was set to be working on another case. With a bit of pressing, I learned it was interrogation of the agents selling out the company. Should this trial break for a second day, I can probably ask her about it. She's got something of an intimidating presence, so if anybody were to get the truth out of the traitors, it would be her," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke told us. "I don't think it would be easy to get her in here for today, but we can still use Q, O, and N to our advantage."

"Maybe we could go over the case, at least what we know about it, for now. If we run into any issues, we can look into them," Deirdre suggested.

"I think that would be a good idea," I agreed with a nod.

"Sounds good to me," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. I was a bit surprised he was being so cool about it, but I was not objecting.

"He's on our side now. I guess we've earned his respect," grinned Yuri. "He's always after the truth, even if he's a tough opponent. To see him flop over to our side means he probably has some respect for us and is willing to pursue this case through to the end with us."

"Let's start off with what happened a few weeks ago... I'm talking about the reveal that a few agents working in Interpol were traitors. Some of the agents working under M and N were exposed through a letter sent to M and N not long ago to have been selling company secrets to anybody who pays them enough. It was supposedly sent by Oracle themselves, if you can at all believe that," I began to say. "I wonder if we have any information on the letter that could point to who Oracle is. I mean, as of now, the only one who knows is Y, and she can't exactly tell us anymore."

"Regardless of who Oracle is, the fact remains they sent a letter to M and N. After reading over it, the two deemed it a good idea to investigate it. They declared a few agents were traitors and began to snoop as an attempt to weed them out. In the end, their attempts were successful. Most of the agents who had been selling out the company were exposed and arrested for their treachery. However, not much information has been pressed out of the on the matter. They refuse to say who they sold the information to or what they even revealed to outside parties. As irritating as it is, if they've remained firm thus far, it might be hard to get them to open up now," Deirdre went on.

"Maybe we could have N testify about the letter he and M got about Oracle. I'm a bit curious about it. Plus, Oracle has quite a bit to do with this case," Yuri suggested. "I mean, if M's supposed motive is really that he was working alongside Oracle all this time, anything we can learn about them will be helpful. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Even if it serves no purpose in the long run, I must admit that I'm a bit curious as well," Deirdre admitted. She looked up to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. "What do you think of that? Would that be alright with you?"

Chief Prosecutor Bespoke hesitated for a moment. I saw him look up at the gallery, as if he was meeting someone's eyes. I turned around to see who it was, but I didn't see anybody out of the ordinary. Prosecutor Burke, Anton, and Mr. Morix were all sitting above me. Perhaps he was trying to communicate with them... The photo came to mind for a brief moment, but I didn't have time to think through it further.

"Alright," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke agreed with a nod. I got the feeling he really wasn't behind it, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had a gut instinct it was best if I stayed quiet. Besides, if I wanted to question him on the matter later on, I could without an issue. "Is that alright with you, Your Honor?"

Judge Diaphan nodded. "Go right ahead."

"The prosecution calls N to the witness stand," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke announced.

Not long after this declaration, N took Q's place at the witness stand. He glanced over at M nervously, refusing to look at anyone else. He fingered the edge of his jacket silently as he waited to be addressed. With the way he was acting, it seemed to me that he had been in a courtroom before, though I couldn't say for sure. It probably wasn't relevant to the case at hand anyways, so I decided to mentally drop the subject as soon as Judge Diaphan spoke again.

"Please state your name and occupation for the court," she instructed.

N nodded hesitantly. "Alright... My name can't be revealed here to due Interpol's protocol, but I go by the letter N. I work as M's right hand. We lead Interpol together and act as its spokespeople to other important groups," he explained.

"Would you be willing to tell the court about what happened regarding the letter from Oracle? Do you happen to have it with you?" Chief Prosecutor Bespoke asked.

N looked over at M. When M nodded, N began digging into one of his pockets. "As a matter of fact, I did bring it with me today. M suggested that I have it just in case somebody wants to ask questions. This case all ties in with the corruption of Interpol's technology branch since that's how the criminal was likely able to hack into the security system at the time of the crime," he said. After a few more seconds of digging, he produced a small piece of paper. It wasn't full-sized page, instead looking like it had come out of a smaller notebook.

"What exactly does it say?" I couldn't help but ask. "For having heard so much about this note, we haven't heard the exact words on it."

"'Heed my warnings. Inside of Interpol, there are traitors. Agents among you have been selling secrets intended to be hidden out to highly paying parties. I can say not who they may be. Do not brush this aside. Your downfall may come should you fail to root out those who betray you. Be careful of who you trust. Sincerely, Oracle,'" N read, his grip on the note tight. "At first, we were a bit hesitant to believe what the note told us. However, with a little bit of investigation, we realized Oracle was actually right. We eliminated every single agent we found problematic and had them arrested."

"This was around when Y came to you and said she figured out who Oracle was, yes?" Deirdre questioned.

N nodded. "Yeah, you're right. She offered to tell us who Oracle was, but since M was anticipating getting more help from Oracle, he told her to remain quiet on the matter until the issue of traitors was sorted out. She was worried that Oracle was an agent working against us, but M needed her to hold off on exposing them until after we had weeded out the known traitors," he explained.

"In the end, Y died before she could explain the truth..." Chief Prosecutor Bespoke murmured. "Did you receive any other letters from Oracle?"

"We got four others after the original. They were mostly similar, with Oracle saying they were doing some digging on their own time to figure out who was turning against Interpol. Each time, a name would be sent on the letter, saying one person who they knew had turned traitor. When a name was revealed, we'd do some snooping. Each time, they were right. Because of how helpful they were, M wanted to hold off on revealing who they were," N went on.

"Supposedly, Y had papers on who Oracle was sitting on her desk... That does make me question one thing though," I said. "We already know M couldn't have killed the victim since he was stuck in the power room at the time of the crime and the power outage came from outside. That means the proposed motive for him no longer works as we suspected it would... Maybe we can get one step closer to the killer by thinking through a motive that would work for somebody else."

"That sounds good to me," Yuri nodded. "I can't really think of any one person in particular a motive would work for... I mean, the files Y had on Oracle were stolen, so it's clear it had something to do with them. However, there are so many people that are after Oracle these days. I mean, you've got individuals with a bone to pick, Occisor, hired killers... There are way too many people I can think of. Unless we can narrow it down, it's going to be really hard to find one person who would want to kill Y so they could get their hands on those files."

"I can't help but agree... The agents who were arrested because of tips from Oracle would have a grudge, so they could have hired somebody to go after them. Anybody who feels their security is threatened by their existence could have gone after Y for that information. Finally, there's the matter ofOccisor, who has been trying for months now to track Oracle down to kill them. I mean, we've already seen other people fall to their greed, and as far as I'm aware, they're all still at large," Deirdre continued. "Those are just a few examples of the many who could want to know who Oracle is. Plus, there are curious souls out there who want to know just for the sake of knowing. Pick which group you feel is most likely. They all have a chance of being responsible for this. It's nearly impossible to narrow down with purely evidence and no guesswork."

"In other words, we're in trouble," I sighed with a shake of my head. "N, do you have any ideas? Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, if you have any other suggestions, please chime in. We're a bit desperate at this point, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"I don't know... I tend to stay away from Oracle business. I avoid things I think are particularly dangerous. It freaks me out to think about, so I choose not to involve myself in it," N admitted. "Up until we got the letters, I was acting like it didn't even exist. I didn't want to risk ending up too deep in a rabbit hole I didn't want to know existed in the first place."

"I'm afraid I don't have many ideas either. I know stuff about it, but I don't have any excessive details," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said with a shrug. "Sorry about that. I hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience."

"It'll be okay. I'm sure there's evidence lurking somewhere that hints as to who the real killer is. I mean, as Prosecutor Wood mentioned, this D agent saw somebody who looked like the victim go upstairs twice but never come back down. That's rather fishy. I'm sure one of them was the culprit, so we can ask around about them should we break for another day of investigation," I declared. "As it stands, I don't really think we have enough evidence to completely clear M of the proposed crimes. After all, we need to show who really did it to get him off the hook. If it's alright with both of you, maybe we could go on and stop the trial here to investigate the case more. The culprit disguising themselves as the victim could work in our favor, but only if we can find out a bit more about it."

"I don't think we should really stop now. There are a few other things we need to figure out that we can still do for today. We should try to get as much done as we can. If we hold it off until tomorrow, something could easily end up slipping through the cracks," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. "Are there any objections to that?"

As much as I wanted to break for the day to learn more about the culprit dressing up as the victim, I knew he was right. Putting things off until tomorrow wouldn't help anyone. The more we could get done today, the better our case would be. "Alright, that sounds good with me," I declared after sharing a glance of agreement with Deirdre and Lily.

"Are there any particular subjects you want to bring up now?" Deirdre questioned.

"We could continue our breakdown of the case as we were doing before. We started talking about the case from start to finish, but we got sidetracked and started talking about the letters," Yuri suggested. "Does that sound good to you?"

Chief Prosecutor Bespoke nodded. "Alright. Where were we?"

"We were saying how Oracle sent letters about who the traitors to Interpol were," I explained. "We should probably move on to talking about Y's research next. After all, that's probably the motive behind this case, regardless of who killed her. I mean, the files on her desk were stolen. I can't think of any other reason brought up so far that would explain why Y would have to die and the files would go missing. This is the only explanation that makes sense."

"Then let's continue," Yuri nodded.

"Y was looking into the Oracle of the Law case alongside O, another agent of Interpol," Deirdre continued. "After searching for months, Y finally came to a conclusion regarding who Oracle was, but she didn't tell O. Shortly after, the two seemed to get into some sort of argument. O doesn't even know what happened. Y stopped talking to her for whatever reason. It seems as if there was a falling out O wasn't aware of. Maybe Y grew angry at something O said without telling her?"

"I have no idea what could have caused this sort of falling out," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. "I questioned a bunch of people on the matter after hearing what O had to say on the matter, but none of them had any ideas. It seemed as if this grudge lived and died with Y herself, and now that she's gone, it will be nearly impossible to hear what it was about."

"Maybe we could have O come and testify for us about it," Yuri suggested. "She might not know about it, but if she gives us an in-depth analysis, maybe we can figure it out on our own. I don't know for sure if that will work, but it might be worth a shot, right?"

"I don't know if we'll be able to do that. O probably won't be able to help us figure out much of anything. Any hints she can give likely won't do us much in the long run. In other words, we might just want to leave her be until we need her for something else," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. "However, if we get a bit further into the trial and find that we still need her for this, we can call her in."

"In that case, let's just go further in our summary of what we know so far. Like you said, we can always call in O a bit later if we need her," Deirdre nodded. "I think we're getting closer to the actual time of the crime now."

"We are. That being said, let's start from the beginning of the day of the murder," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke announced. He looked over to Prosecutor Wood and nudged her gently with his arm to prompt her to speak.

She looked up from her excessive paper shuffling in shock that she was being addressed. Prosecutor Wood met his eyes with something akin to horror, but when he nodded, she sighed and began to speak. "The day of the crime, a field agent who goes by the letter D saw Y go up to the fourth floor twice, but she never came back down. Questioning other agents revealed that she didn't go to other floors that day either," she explained, her voice shaking. I felt kind of bad for her...

"One of these copies of Y could have been the killer in disguise. That's the main explanation I can think of. After all, if nobody saw her come down, she must have stayed up. The actual Y went upstairs to her office, where she was later killed by the real culprit. The other Y, the fake one, went upstairs as well to kill her, but this one used a ladder suspended from the window of Y's office to escape. The killer would have been covered in blood from slamming the vase onto her head and wouldn't have wanted to leave by normal means. Leaving through the window would have eliminated the potential of being seen by third parties and labeled suspicious," Deirdre continued. "Do you have any other details about either version of Y, Prosecutor Wood?"

"I didn't get very much information from D, but I'll gladly share what I do have," Prosecutor Wood nodded. "She said the first Y was carrying a large bag and didn't respond to D's questions about what was inside the bag. D ended up brushing it off since Y had been acting strangely in general ever since figuring out who Oracle really was. The second Y waved to her and they held a short conversation before she went upstairs."

"What did they talk about?" I asked next. "Do you think it could be relevant to the case at all?"

"D asked her what was bothering her. Y didn't really give a straight answer, instead dodging the question where she could. She ended up remarking that there weren't many people you could trust at Interpol. After that, she headed for the elevator and went upstairs for the last time. D tried to pursue her, but Y wasn't in the mood for conversation. She made notes of the conversation, which she then shared with me during yesterday's investigation segment," Prosecutor Wood continued. "She didn't give me a copy of them or anything, but I could ask for some should the trial end up breaking for further investigation."

"The first version of Y not saying anything makes it sound like that was the fake one. The second Y was rather conversational with D and didn't try to dodge talking to her. While she was still acting strangely, I get the feeling D would have realized it if her voice sounded different all of a sudden," Yuri remarked. "In other words, it sounds as if the killer got up to her office first and waited for her to come back."

"The first Y was carrying a large bag too. She could have easily had a rope ladder with her in that bag at the time of the crime. That way, she could make her getaway without anybody seeing her covered in blood," I pointed out. "I'm already getting a much better idea of how this case played out thanks to this information from D. It's a shame we can't have her testify here today..."

"I'm sure she'd be happy to come by and tell us about what she saw tomorrow," Prosecutor Wood said, shuffling more through her papers. "For now, all we really have is what she told me yesterday. Luckily, it sounds to me like she had quite a bit of information at her disposal. I guess we can use that to our advantage when it comes to working out who the culprit is."

"Speaking of the culprit, what exactly do we know about them as of now?" questioned Deirdre. "They must have had a similar physique to Y for D to think they were the same person. Y looked to be about five feet and six inches tall, so I'd assume our killer was the same. They'd have a similar figure to hers as well."

"If you ask me, we're probably looking at a female culprit then. Y was pretty chesty, I must say," I commented. "Of course, I can't say for sure, but I guess it's a good place to start. If there's anything else we can figure out, that will narrow it down even more."

"No suspicious people seemed to enter Interpol the day of the crime," Yuri remarked. "I guess nobody would be suspicious to see an agent enter the building... I would find it odd to see them come in twice though. It makes you wonder how the killer managed to get away with that."

"I can't say how they pulled it off either, but we should probably try and figure it out," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke remarked.

"Actually... Y was sort of known for taking random breaks during the day. Because of her investigation into Oracle, she was in and out of the office a lot, so her coming in twice wouldn't be too strange. It could very easily be passed off as security not seeing her leave. Y does a lot of moving around because of her position," N cut in. I had completely forgotten he was still up at the witness stand with all that was going on. I hope that doesn't sound too mean...

"In other words, it wouldn't be too out of the question to see her come in twice," I murmured. "I guess that solves that issue. Now, we're pretty much up to the time of the murder. Let's go over what happened with the killer's interactions with Y. We know a lot more now than we did back when this trial began, so it wouldn't hurt to recap it all."

"The culprit went up to Y's office after being spotted by D. They waited in Y's office for them to arrive. They could have very easily messed with her files a bit beforehand. After all, that's the reason they were there," Deirdre began. "Y came in and was attacked by the culprit. She was hit on the head with a nearby vase, which shattered on impact. At the time, they were the only two people on the floor, so nobody overheard them."

"The crime took place earlier than the autopsy stated. The power outage that took place caused a disturbance in temperature. The actual time of the crime was roughly an hour earlier than stated, but because of the drop in temperature, we assumed it was later," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke cut in. "Continue."

"After the attack, the killer continued to rummage through her files. Due to Y's messy handwriting, it took a while for them to find what they were looking for. In the end, they found the stack with the information they needed and fled by use of the rope ladder they suspended from Y's window. The window slamming shut was heard a few rooms down on either side by N and O, both of whom had come onto the floor. M had also entered the floor, though he was in the secluded power room at the time," I went on.

"We assumed at first this slamming sound had been the vase hitting the victim's head when this was not the case," cut in Yuri. "Instead, it was the window from when the culprit made their escape. This was another factor that threw off our suspicions on when the crime took place."

"N and O left their offices to investigate the random loud noise. They went to enter Y's office, but they were stopped when a power outage occurred. Due to the nature of the security system at Interpol, the doors all slammed shut instantly, locking them out. M was also trapped in the power room. The power outage went on for quite some time. When the power returned, M was alone in the power room. N spoke with him for a while. O went off on her own to call the police. She met them out front. Shortly after, the murder of Y was revealed to the world," finished Prosecutor Wood. "I think that's a good summary of the case, at least from what we know so far..."

"I can't think of anything else in particular we need to go over as of now. Maybe we should call O in now," suggested Deidre. "I feel as if her testimony is the next piece to this puzzle since we can't talk to D today. How about we break for a recess briefly to call her in? I doubt she'll be fully prepared to testify at the moment."

"We can do that soon, yes," Judge Diaphan nodded. "I think it would certainly be wise to call her to the stand. We need to figure out what happened between her and Y a few weeks before the crime. Even if Y's secret on the matter died with her, the closer we can get, the better."

"In that case, are there any other things we should discuss before going to recess?" I asked.

"I want to theorize a little bit about what happened between Y and O with what information we have, if that's alright," said Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. "Is that alright?"

"I think that's fine," I nodded. "Let's get to it."

She's posting early this week too dang she's on top of it

*she says after forgetting to post for a week*

-Digital