DISCLAIMER: Phoenix Wright belongs to Capcom. All names of my friends' names, real or screen, used in the following chapters are used in a ficticious manner and the characters based on those names are not an accurate representation of their personalities. Ayame Sohma and anything else Fruits Basket-related that appears in this chapter belong to Natsuki Takaya.
Chapter 4 - Investigation and Distraction
When they arrived on the scene, the corpses of the victims were still there. In a corner of the living room, two small children's bodies lay crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood. Their heads were smashed to pulp. Blood and brains were splattered across the two walls that met in the corner. A metal baseball bat inscribed with the letters B.A.N. was lying on the floor beside the couch, also covered in blood and brain matter.
The parents, Nu Ascom and Odin Asib, were arrested immediately. There were five other witnesses found in the playroom across the hall from the murder scene: the four remaining Asib children and Odin's sister, Phoenix, who had made the call that reported the murder.
With the evidence and a brief statement from Phoe, the police were able to piece the night's events together as follows: Phoenix Asib was babysitting the three younger children, Cat, Mushroom (twins, 3 years old) and George (2 years), while Nu was at work. Nu arrived home at 4 p.m. with the older boys, Sparda (7), Sparky (5)and Raven (4) who she had picked up from school on the way home. Odin, who was Nu's boyfriend but not married to her or living in the house, had arrived at 9 p.m. to take the children to his house for the night. A mini-war had broken out between the children while packing for the trip to Dad's house, and Phoe had separated the main combatants by taking the larger of the two little armies into the playroom. Mushroom, George, Sparda and Sparky went with her, leaving Cat and Raven in living room. After multiple attempts to shut up her crying children, Nu beat them to death with the baseball bat in a fit of rage. Odin had not attempted to stop her in any way, and would be charged with accessory to murder.
Franziska felt sick just looking at the bodies. Instead of cracking her whip and shouting orders while the police officers gathered evidence, she stood off to the side, desperately willing herself not to throw up. This had to be the worst case she has ever worked on.
Once they had gotten everything they could from the scene, everyone returned to the police station to file the reports and start the forensic testing. There was nothing else that Franziska needed to do, really, although normally she would hang around and harass the police while they worked. She still carried her whip with her, but she hadn't felt inclined to use it lately. Could this be what they call "depression"? No, of course not. A von Karma does not get depressed.
Franziska was on her way out of the police station when Detective Gumshoe approached her. He had that sad-depressed look on his face, the one that seemed to be his natural expression most of the time. He really did look miserable, and somehow she restrained herself from venting her frustrations on him. "What do you want?" she said quietly. "I don't need to be here right now. I'm leaving."
The way she calmly spoke those words was scarier than when she yelled or cracked her whip and Gumshoe almost lost his nerve right then, but he managed to gather his courage and ask, "Um, were you ever planning on giving that coat back, pal?" Ah, yes. The infamous coat.
"...do you mind if I keep it?" She hadn't meant to say it and mentally kicked herself as the words slipped out. She wouldn't consciously admit it, but she did want to keep the detective's coat. Its presence comforted her somehow.
"That's kind of the only coat I own..." Gumshoe hedged, looking more depressed than ever. He was reluctant to turn her down outright, because (for reasons he could not begin to imagine) she seemed to honestly want to keep it.
"I'll buy you a new one."
When Franziska von Karma and Detective Gumshoe left the police station together that night, the rumors that had been flying only intensified. The term "date" was bandied about quite a bit. Speculation as to the prosecutor's reasons for taking an interest in the detective had her on a power trip, using the possesion of his trenchcoat to mark him as her property. Whispers of "What does she think she's doing, leading a grown man on like that? She's only eighteen years old..." and "That poor guy...getting suckered like that..." could be heard all around the police station.
When she said she would buy him a new coat, he didn't think she meant right now. Apparently he was mistaken. Franziska dragged the detective to a small clothing store in the warehouse district. The sign stated simply, "Ayame." A smaller sign advertising "hand-crafted romantic fantasies" had been taped crookedly in the window beside it. It was after midnight so the detective was surprised that a little store like this would be open.
A man with long white-blonde hair was leaning against the counter. He looked up when he heard them enter.
"Back so soon, Ms. von Karma? What can I do for you this time?" he asked, smiling broadly.
"Mr. Ayame Sohma," Franziska replied, calling the shopkeeper by his full name. It's an annoying habit she can't seem to break... "I am in need of a coat."
Ayame's smile faded a bit. "What happened to the one you bought last week? That was some of my finest work..."
"It isn't for me."
It was then that Ayame noticed Gumshoe, who was hovering several feet behind Franziska.
He stepped out from behind the counter and said, addressing the detective, "I think we may have something that suits you. If you'll step over here-" He directed Gumshoe to a rack in a back corner of the store. Franziska followed the two men to supervise the selection of the detective's new coat. She was the one paying for it, after all.
"Isn't it a little strange to keep your shop open so late, pal?" Gumshoe asked as Ayame searched the rack, apparently looking for something in particular.
The shopkeeper replied without looking up, "I had someone coming in to pick up a special order anyway, so I figured I might as well keep the shop open for the duration." He finally found what he was looking for and handed a long black coat to the detective. Ayame frowned as he watched Gumshoe trying on the coat. "We may need to alter it a bit..."
"You think?" Gumshoe answered with an embarassed smile. Ayame quickly fixed what needed to be fixed and had Gumshoe try it on again. As it turned out, the coat fit him well, and also actually looked pretty good on him.
"There, that's another wonderful job I've done. Be sure to return if you should ever find yourself in need of any of my creations again!" the shopkeeper told them cheerfully.
Franziska paid for the coat and they left. Once they were outside the shop, the detective turned to her and asked if she wanted to go to the circus with him. "This is their last night in town and I've been meaning to go," he explained. "We should be able to make in time for the last show..." That sad-depressed look was back in full force. "I'd hate to miss it, especially since I had Mr. Wright get the tickets for me." From the look on Franziska's face he couldn't tell what her answer was going to be, but for some reason he really wanted her to go with him. "Come on, it'll be fun! You like fun, don't you?" Franziska wasn't sure she had ever had anything that qualified as fun in her life... "Besides," he added. "It'll take your mind of the case for a while."
He noticed. He had noticed how uncomfortable she was at the crime scene tonight. When she thought about this revelation, Franziska felt a flutter of some unfamiliar electric feeling. She sighed. "When you put it that way... how can I refuse?"
for those of you who aren't board friends of mine: Notes on names- They are all taken from the boards at Adult Swim, where my friends and I frequent the Incoherent Babbling folder. Asib, obviously I just took AS and IB and ran them together. I used Ascom for Nu because she needed a different last name than Odin and Phoenx and I only ever see her in the .com folder, so... Nu, Odin and Phoenix are moderators. (yes, Phoenix has the same first name Phoenix Wright, but we call her Phoe for short, so there will be very little confusion during the trial) Raven is psycho-raven, Cat is short for my screen name (we both got banned by SwimMod-Nu, hence the murder by "banstick") Mushroom is Caffeinated-Mushroom, who was my IB twin for a while. (same rank, same avatar on the boards) Sparda is LDK-SPARDA (who has somehow become my online onii-chan), Sparky is Kagome-Naked / SwimPsyco, George is ViciousLovesYou or Vincents-twin, I'm not sure which one's real name that is...