All of the Ace Attorney characters belong to Capcom, not me. I only own Rebecca and a few others
Chapter 9
A/N: New chapter, yay! Don't worry guys, I'm not dead; I'm right here with another update. Enjoy! Also, since it is now Easter and I'm off school, expect new updates every 3-4 days, only for the next 2 weeks though, then my update schedule will be every 2 weeks again (I promise). Consider it making up for my awful schedule recently.
The trial started relatively smoothly; the judge was very calm and patient as he usually is with newbies and did his usual ask-the-rookie-questions-to-see-how-prepared-they-are thing, which Phoenix got through without many problems (thank God).
However, I did panic for a second when he forgot the victim's name but luckily, the Chief pushed him back in the correct direction by making him check the Court Record again to remind himself.
(Phew, thanks Chief. It's like you're reading my mind; you're doing exactly what I would have done.)
Payne then gave his outline of the case within the prosecutions opening statement and presented the murder weapon, which appeared to be a miniature version of the famous 'The Thinker' statue.
Then, the questions began, with the defendant himself taking the stand for a bit more information about his past with the victim. He was wearing a confident yet twitchy smirk on his face, having finally stopped his crying. Immediately, Payne began to interrogate him.
"Mr Butz, is it true that the defendant had recently dumped you?"
(...Not a good idea Payne...)
"Hey, watch it buddy!" Larry burst out, his mouth widening significantly and his voice rising into a heightened shout.
"We were great together! We were Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony!"
My head fell into my hands with a frustrated sigh.
(Um...they all died, dumbass..)
Phoenix was clearly thinking something similar as he suddenly facepalmed at the defence bench, creating a slight echo throughout the room.
"I wasn't dumped." Larry continued, his face turning back to normal. "She just wasn't returning my phone calls, or seeing me. Ever." Then, his face suddenly transformed back into rage-mode.
"WHAT'S IT TO YOU ANYWAY?!"
Then, Payne spoke my thoughts at that moment. "Mr Butz, what you describe is generally what we mean by 'dumped.' In fact, she had completely abandoned you...and was even seeing other men!"
I gasped in shock at Payne's last statement, having never expected anything like that. (She was seeing other people too? What a backstabbing bitch! Poor Larry...)
Larry was extremely shocked by this; it seems like he had no idea of what she was doing behind his back, poor guy. According to Payne, these men were 'sugar daddies' and she had just returned from being abroad with one of them the day before she was killed. Larry, of course, rejected all of this information, not accepting any of it.
"Lies! All of it, lies! I don't believe a word of it!" He yelled, clearly clinging tightly onto the hope that Payne was wrong.
However, after presenting her passport that proved that the victim was in Paris until a day before the murder, Larry's attitude to what Payne was saying dramatically altered.
"Dude...no way..." Was all that he could utter when the passport was revealed.
After a little more talking Payne dared to ask the question 'What do you think of her now?' as Larry started to get more and more worked up. I felt my fist clench subconsciously as he spoke, feeling the desire to act on Larry's behalf; Payne was overstepping the mark here. However, before I could, I noticed Mia turn to Phoenix on the other side of the courtroom and whisper something to him that I couldn't hear properly. Phoenix acted fast.
"My client had no idea that the victim was seeing other men! That question is irrelevant to this case!" He yelled at the top of his voice, using the powerful finger-pointing gesture that I taught him. I felt myself start to smile with pride. That was something that he learnt from me; I couldn't help but feel honoured that he actually used it.
Payne winced a little at his unexpected yet fair response, hunching over and beginning to sweat profusely. I mentally celebrated a little as my smile widened.
(Heh, take that you ass!)
"Dude! Nick! Whaddya mean 'irrelevant?'" Larry retaliated. "That cheatin' she-dog! I'm gonna die. I'm just gonna drop dead. Yeah, and when I meet her in the afterlife, In going to get to the bottom of this!" As he finished speaking, the entire courtroom's volume decreased until no one, me included, dared to speak, probably due to plain shock.
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, the judge quickly moved the trial along, with Payne now focussing on Larry's presence at the crime scene.
Larry was a pretty stupid guy, I realised, because he kept trying to avoid answering questions, responding with dumb things such as 'Well, maybe I did and maybe I didn't' in order to save himself without putting any trust in Phoenix or the truth.
(Just trust your friend, dammit! It's what he's there for!) I ran my fingers through my hair as Larry attempted to deny his presence at the crime scene yet again.
Phoenix, obviously becoming frustrated too, decided to send him some odd signals that I assumed was some sort of friendship language..thing that they'd developed as children. Either way, I had no idea what Phoenix was trying to communicate to his friend through the gestures that he was using.
Fortunately though, Larry did.
"Er...Yeah! Yeah! I was there! I went!" He confessed, triggering a lot of commotion within the gallery as people discussed this new development. However, they were swiftly silenced as the judge called for order once again.
Larry, starting to look flustered again, attempted to talk himself out of this new bind by claiming that the victim wasn't home when he visited therefore he couldn't have murdered her.
Payne, however, objected to this (in his screechy, worse-than-nails-on-a-chalkboard voice that grinds through me everytime he opens his mouth) and said that he could prove that Larry was lying here by calling a witness, the man who found the victim's body.
This set the crowd of spectators off once more, people around me debating with each other over who was right whilst I simply remained silent and believed in Larry.
(I can tell he's not guilty; Phoenix wouldn't put so much faith in him if he knew that the man had really done it. I trust my friend's judgement.)
As the judge regained order with his trusty gavel, Payne summoned his witness, who was some odd dude called Frank Sahwit (unfortunate name), sporting a purple suit and an EXTREMELY cheesy grin that was clearly fake.
I could tell by the way that Sahwit was swaying and apparently shaking that he wasn't an ordinary, innocent witness. I studied him closely, glaring down at him from my position in the gallery like a hawk studying its prey.
(Hmm...I'm calling it right now that he's the real murderer in this case. No question, he just seems too nervous to be totally innocent.)
He gave his testimony, explaining how he noticed Larry leaving the victim's apartment and looked in through the half-open door and discovering the corpse. He seemed pretty confident in himself, clearly believing that there was nothing wrong with his version of the events. Mia quickly went over cross examination for the final time and then, it was all up to Phoenix.
Personally, I noticed the contradiction right away; the autopsy told that the time of death was 4-5pm whereas Sahwit claimed that it was at 1pm. However, it took Phoenix a little longer to figure out. Eventually though, he did make the right connection, screaming 'OBJECTION!' as loud as he could before pursuing his point.
"You found the body at 1pm. You're sure?"
Sawhit remained calm. "Yes. It was 1pm, for certain."
Phoenix slammed his desk with a large amount of force, creating an echo throughout the courtroom. "Frankly, I find that hard to believe! Your statement directly contradicts the autopsy report. The autopsy notes the time of death at sometime after 4pm. There was nobody to...er...no 'body' to find at 1pm. How do you explain this 3 hour gap?" He finished, smirking a little as Sawhit began to squirm.
"Oh, that! Oh...er..."
(Hah, yes! Aaaand this is the part where the witness crumbles and-)
"OBJECTION!" Came the shriek from across the room.
(Damn you Payne!) I growled a little in annoyance, earning a few confused glances from the people around me.
"This is trivial! The witness merely forgot the time!" The prosecutor blurted in an attempt to defend the witness and maintain his reliability.
However, the judge disagreed, claiming that it was hard to believe since Mr Sahwit seemed so certain of the time in his testimony. Payne debated with him a little though, and the judge allowed for Sahwit to give his testimony again.
And, as I knew he would, he lied. Again.
The contradiction this time was that he claimed that he heard the time on a television programme that the victim was watching before she died, even though there was a blackout in the building at that time. Phoenix pointed it out without much effort, pleasing me greatly.
(Good, he's getting the hang of this.)
When asked to explain it, Sahwit panicked (again) before quickly correcting himself and asking to revise his testimony (again). And of course, the naive, gullible judge was easily convinced into letting him testify for a third time. I sighed in frustration.
(Honestly, sometimes that judge really irritates me; he just buys into any scenario fed to him and will let witnesses testify as many times as they want. Despite that, he DOES always hand down the correct, just verdict so, I can't really criticise him for that, I suppose.)
And, predictable as ever, Sahwit slipped up again. This time, he told that the murder weapon was a clock for some reason, even though it was quite clearly a statue.
"Wait a moment! The murder weapon wasn't a clock. It was this statue! Now how is this supposed to be a clock?" Phoenix demanded to know, slamming his hands on his desk with gusto.
Although flustered, Sahwit still maintained his claim that the weapon was a clock and, to my surprise, Payne backed him up this time.
"As the witness stated, this statue is indeed a clock. The neck is a switch. You just tilt it, and it says the time out loud. As it doesn't look like a clock, I submitted it as a statue. My apologies." He stuttered, sweat beginning to bead on his wrinkled forehead.
The judge bought this (surprise, surprise) and asked Phoenix if there were any problems with this claim now. However, like I did, Phoenix spotted a problem.
"Your Honour, there is a gaping hole in the witness's testimony! The only way he could have known the weapon was a clock is to hold it in his hand. Yet, the witness testified that he never entered the apartment! Clearly, a contradiction!" He exclaimed, pulling out that awesome, dramatic finger point again.
This made him come to the conclusion that Sahwit must have entered the apartment in order to learn that the weapon was, in reality, a clock.
"Oh yeah! Prove it! Prove I went in there!" Sahwit snapped, trying his hardest to dig himself out of this predicament.
"I can do better than that! I can prove you were the one who killed her!" Phoenix shouted, determination flowing within his voice.
"You struck her with the clock, and the shock of the blow triggered the clock's voice. That was the sound that you heard!"
Once again, the people surrounding me burst to life with conversation over this new revelation and the fact that this man was looking more and more guilty by the second. I grinned widely and celebrated with a small fist pump.
(Yes! Called it!)
Order was swiftly restored with a few bashes of the judge's gavel and Phoenix continued. I smirked with anticipation, knowing what was about to come.
(Come on Phoenix, drive it home now. Make him crack!)
"Mr Sahwit. The sound must have left quite an impression on you. Understandable, since the murder weapon spoke just as you hit the victim! That voice was burned into your mind. That's why you were so certain about the time!"
After Payne tried and failed to dispute Phoenix's claims, the judge asked if Sahwit really struck the victim. Then, it was time.
"I...I...! That...that day... I...I never! Look... I... the clock... I heard, no! I mean, I saw...Saw... nggg!"
What happened after that shocked the entire courtroom, even me.
Sahwit lifted a hand up to his head, grabbed his toupee, which until then I had assumed to be his real hair, and tossed it straight at Phoenix, hitting him square in the face and catching him completely off guard. Sahwit growled threateningly at Phoenix, clutching the collar of his own shirt tightly in his crazed hands.
"Shutupshutupshutup! I hate you! I-it was him, I tell you! I saw him! H-he killed her and he should burn! Burn! Give him death!"
(Yeah, no one's gonna buy that story anymore buddy. I think it's time to give it up.)
"Your Honour, a-a moment please!" Payne finally spoke up, after a while in silence. "There isn't a shred of evidence supporting the defence's claims!"
The judge turned to face Phoenix, doing a complete 180 in his seat. "Mr Wright! You claim the sound the witness heard came from the clock... Do you have any evidence?"
Phoenix stood for a second deep in thought, aware of what was riding on his response, before declaring that the claim could be proved by simply sounding the clock in the court. After Phoenix pressed the button, the entire court waited with baited breath, awaiting the words that could decide the verdict of the client.
'I think it's 8:25'
"That certainly is a strange way to announce the time!" The judge exclaimed, eyes wide and evidently taken aback by the clock's voice.
"Well, he is 'The Thinker' after all." Phoenix replied.
"So, we've heard the clock. What are your conclusions Mr Wright?" The judge asked, wishing to know the meaning behind Phoenix's actions.
Smirking a little, Phoenix turned his attention to the man standing opposite him.
"Mr Payne...can you tell me what time it is now?"
Payne quickly checked the watch on his left wrist before answering Phoenix's question. "It's 11:25... Ack!" He gasped in sudden realisation of what this meant, his brow becoming damp once more.
"As you can see, this clock is exactly three hours slow! Precisely the discrepancy between the time that Mr Sahwit heard and the actual time of death! So, Mr Sahwit..."
He raised his head up in the witness's direction with a knowing smirk on his face.
"Try to talk your way out of this one!"
However, Sahwit simply laughed. An odd, maniacal kind of laughter that made me feel strangely uneasy. It was as if he had figured out yet another escape route.
"While it may seem like that clock IS running three hours slow, it proves nothing! How do you know it was running three hours slow on the day of the murder?! If you can't prove that, you don't have a case!"
Unsurprisingly caught off guard, I noticed Phoenix's face fall. He truly believed that showing the clock's delay would have unveiled this man as the criminal that he is. And I could see the clear disappointment in his eyes at his failure here. Then, disappointment turned to mass panic as he scrambled to find something, anything, to back up his accusations. But the judge's authorative, deep voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Mr Wright, it seems you lack the critical evidence to support your claim, meaning that I cannot let you indict the witness."
Phoenix's head fell into his hands a moment later, making a light 'clunck' on the defence bench. Mia's hand delicately touched the top of his back in an attempt to comfort him slightly. Noticing this reaction from the other side of the room, Payne sneered mockingly.
"Heh, you came SO close to defeating the 'Rookie Killer' but, like all of the rest, you fell at the last hurdle. So sad. Serves you right for having such high hopes for yourself." Payne mocked, revelling in Phoenix's slip up.
(How DARE he! That complete DOUCHE!)
I felt anger bubbling up inside me and, before I knew what I as doing, I had opened my mouth. Despite the fact that I was in the gallery, I stood and yelled at the top of my voice as I would if I was positioned at the bench.
OH HELL NO!
I swiftly ripped a clean page from my notepad, balled in up in my clenched fist and launched it as hard as I could towards Mr Payne, hitting him square in the face and earning a wave of gasps and shock travelling through the courtroom. I praised myself for that well aimed shot for a split second before reverting my attention back to the prosecution's bench.
"Oh Payne, stop being a tit! This is his first trial for heaven's sake, quit acting like he should know everything inside out! And I'm sure we all would appreciate it if you stopped being so bloody cocky; we all know that new defence lawyers have escaped your grasp before, 'Rookie Killer'." I glanced over at Mia as I made that last statement, shooting her a quick smile. She seemed very taken aback at first because of my outburst but eventually returned my gesture. I also noticed Phoenix next to her, who was trying as hard as he could to stifle his laughter. I grinned, satisfied, before sitting back down.
"I-I say! Well, I believe that Miss Moore has made her point. Mr Payne, do you have a rebuttal?" The judge inquired, seemingly eager to see what Payne's retaliation would be to my sudden outburst. However, as I expected, no words came out of the prosecutor's tight-lipped mouth.
"I-I...well, I...n-no, Your Honour." He sighed in defeat before slumping his shoulders and glaring up at me in a disgusted manner. I responded with a sarcastic, unnecessarily cheesy grin and a small wave. He grunted slightly and rolled his eyes before finally turning his attention back to the witness.
(Oh god, do I love teasing this guy. He just gets so frustrated so easily, it's hilarious!)
As I sat back down, I noted that the people in the gallery were all now staring at me in complete disbelief. I simply shrugged my shoulders at them.
"What are you lot looking at? He was the one bullying my colleague, I believe I had a right to say something. Now stop staring at me with those stupid looks on your faces, go on."
They all swiftly focused their attention back onto the trial out of embarrassment, not daring to make eye contact again.
Noticing their reactions, I smirked to myself.
(Yeah, you'd better look away...judgemental asses)
Focussing my attention back to the trial, I noticed that Phoenix was now trying to figure out how to prove his assertion, with a bit of help from the Chief. I noticed them conversing for around a minute before Phoenix appeared to have an epiphany. He brought out the victim's passport again and presented it to the court.
"The victim had just returned home from abroad the day before the murder. As we all know, the time difference between here and Paris is nine hours! When it's 4pm here, it's 1am the next day there. The clock wasn't three hours slow, it was nine hours fast! The victim hadn't reset her clock since returning home! That's why the time you heard when you struck her dead in her apartment was wrong! Proof enough for you Mr Sahwit? Or should I say...Mr Did It!"
Chuckling a little at Phoenix's witty comment, I realised that he had finally cornered Mr Sahwit. There was NO WAY that he could weasel his way out of it.
(Now, let's watch the guy break down, shall we? This should be fun...)
"Ngh..!" Was all Mr Sahwit cold say before his breathing became faster and he eventually collapsed to the floor, foaming at the mouth.
He was then arrested on the spot and removed from the courtroom, still unconscious. Payne looked devastated.
(Hah, screw you Payne! Serves you right!)
Meanwhile, the judge praised Phoenix on his defence and deduction skill, making me feel immensely proud to have been one of his mentors. I felt like I had hugely contributed in making him into the lawyer that he has become, therefore a compliment to him was also a compliment to me.
Then, the judge spoke once more. "This court finds the defendant, Larry Butz..."
And then, the words that I had been awaiting, the two words that I had been longing to hear today were finally spoken.
'NOT GUILTY'
As the confetti began to fall from...somewhere (two years, it's been TWO YEARS and I still haven't figured out where it comes from yet) and the people around me started clapping their hands together, I went that extra step further by rising from my seat and cheering as loudly as I could.
"Woo, go Phoenix!" I exclaimed at the top of my lungs, earning a few shocked, weirded out glances from nearby people. But, to be honest, I couldn't have cared less. My colleague had just won his first trial and I was happy for him; their opinions of my actions meant nothing to me.
After a few minutes of cheering and whooping, the confetti stopped falling, the judge dismissed the court and people began to file out of the gallery.
"Well done guys!"
I burst into the defendant lobby with a skip in my step and a wide grin on my face to see all three of the other people in there deep in conversation. I threw my arms up in the air and raced towards Phoenix, dragging him into a tight hug.
"Congrats Phoenix, you did really well in there. Good job."
"Thanks a lot Becs. Well done for putting Payne in his place for me."
I responded with a small laugh, tickled slightly by his comment. "Your welcome."
We stayed like this for around half a minute or so, comfortable in each other's embrace, neither one of us particularly wishing to let go of the other. We remained this way, until...
"H-Hey, are you guys...you know...dating or something?" We were interrupted by Larry, who was standing nearby shuffling his feet awkwardly on the floor. Taken aback by his question, I quickly released Phoenix and stepped back from him a little, shaking my head.
"Oh, no no no. He's just my colleague and friend, that's all. Nothing more." I could feel myself starting to blush; my face was starting to warm up involuntarily.
(Nope, don't do this to me cheeks! Don't you dare betray me!)
A wry smile appeared on Larry's face. "Are you sure? Because your cheeks seem to be telling me otherwise."
(...Screw you cheeks.)
I rolled my eyes, not knowing how to respond to his comment and hoping that he would just leave me be.
Luckily, Phoenix noticed and jumped in to defend me.
"Larry, there's nothing going on, ok? Now, leave us alone."
Larry's playful smirk widened. "Are you sure? Because you seemed to be very quick to defend her there, Nick."
"It's my attorney instincts at work, ok?!" Phoenix snapped, beginning to get a little agitated and uncomfortable with Larry's questions. Larry stepped back a little at this, holding his hands up in the air in a mock surrender pose.
"Okay, okay Nick. It was just a joke, man." Then, he approached me whilst scratching the back of his head lightly, similar to what Phoenix occasionally did when nervous. He seemed to be very careful to stand on my right side, which was now turning away from Phoenix. "Well, if you're not going out with him, how about you and me go out some ti-"
"Larry, I said leave her alone!" It seemed that his attempt at keeping Phoenix out of this was a failure. And this time, Larry appeared to have listened to what he had to say. He winced a little at the harsh tone of his friend and instantly turned his face away from me before slowly walking away with his head down and a solemn expression on his pale face. However, as soon as he noticed Mia alone at the other side of the room, his face lit up again like a child at Christmas and he darted over to her at a remarkable speed, grinning madly.
I rolled my eyes again and rejoined Phoenix by the couch. He was leant against the wall casually with one hand resting on the arm of the chair.
"He just doesn't quit, does he?"
He shook his head slowly, taking his hand off the sofa's arm and folding it neatly across his chest along with the other. "Nope. That's Larry, he isn't put off by anything or anyone. It's one of his best qualities, actually." I chuckled lightly. He turned to smile at me before continuing.
"You know when I was talking about those two boys that helped me at my other school when everyone accused me of stealing lunch money?" I nodded in confirmation, having a vague idea of where he was going with this. "Well...Larry was one of them."
Even though I saw it coming, that fact surprised me. It just didn't comprehend that Larry was brave enough to stand up for Phoenix in a time of need and when all of his other classmates apart from one other were opposing him. He just didn't seem like that kind of person. If anything, he seemed like one of the kids who would have been teasing Phoenix, not one of his saviours.
My shock must have been showing on my face as Phoenix noticed my silent state and chuckled lightly. "Heh, I know right? He doesn't seem like that kind of guy, does he?"
I shook my head lightly with a small smile. "Nope, never would have guessed."
"Well.." He pushed himself off the wall back into a standing position, sighing with the effort.
"..people can surprise you sometimes."
Leaving those words lingering in the air, he began to wander in the direction of Mia and Larry, where they were in the middle of another conversation of their own. As I pondered the meaning of his final sentence, he engaged himself into their conversation pretty quickly and, feeling a little left out, I eventually made my way over too.
Just as I approached, Larry appeared to be bringing something out of a large bag that he had brought with him to the trial with a huge grin spread across his face. Something that was very familiar to the other three of us, something that we had seen before mere minutes ago. And I, along with Mia, gasped in shock upon seeing it.
It was a Thinker statue, identical to the one from the trial.
To everyone's surprise, he held it out in Mia's general direction with a small smile. "Here, take this! It's a present!"
"A-A present? For me?" Mia seemed genuinely taken aback by his offer.
I, however, lost my cool entirely for a moment and cried out in terror. "Ahhh, it's the murder weapon! What the hell do you think you're doing Larry, you imbecile?!" He recoiled in fright, clutching the statue protectively.
"H-Hey! I-It's not the same clock! It's the one that I made for myself. I-I made two, one for me and one for her. I-It's perfectly safe, h-honest!" He slowly released the tension in his arms, recomposed himself and held the statue back out to the Chief, who cautiously took it off him with a grateful smile on her face that I could tell was forced. Luckily, Larry didn't seem to notice.
"R-Really? You? You made this?"
This seemed to satisfy him enough.
"Y-Yeah. I just kind of figured that I don't need it anymore so..." He trailed off, not entirely sure of how to finish his sentence. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, in a similar fashion to how Phoenix does.
(Wow, they really are friends. They even scratch their heads in the same way!)
"Well, um...thank you. I-I'll keep it as a memento." Mia was obviously starting to feel a little awkward too as a heavy silence fell over us, trapping us. Eventually, Larry dragged Phoenix aside and started having a private conversation with him, prompting Mia to say something to me.
"U-um, Becs?"
"Yeah Chief, what's the problem?"
She quickly glanced either side of us, ensuring that we had no eavesdroppers, before lowering her voice to a whisper.
"Do you remember what I discussed with you and Maya a few months ago? About that blackmailer?"
I pondered over her words for a second before it clicked, my mind making a connection. "Yeah, I remember. What about him?" I whispered back, not daring to heighten my voice any more than she had.
"Well..." She took another glance around the room before continuing. "...I have some stuff on him now, incriminating stuff. I'm gonna ask Maya to keep hold of it for me but I wanted to tell you as well. I may have some other stuff that you need to hold onto so I'll let you know if you're needed too. Okay?"
As she leaned away from my ear, I gave her a thumbs up sign and a large grin to reassure her before mouthing 'Just here to help!'
She smiled and giggled a little before mouthing a 'Thank you' in return.
Making our way back to Larry and Phoenix, we noticed that Larry was sobbing again, claiming that his dead girlfriend didn't actually care about him if she was willing to cheat on him with other men. Overhearing this, Mia retaliated.
"Are you so sure? I think that she thought a lot of you, in her own way."
(What? What's she getting at?)
"It's okay, you don't have to sympathise with me." Larry laughed a little, trying to stop Mia from pursuing this line of conversation. However, she was persistent.
"No, I'm not sympathising; I'm serious."
(Wait! Maybe...THAT is what she means.)
"She's right. And you can prove it Phoenix!" Finally catching on to what the Chief meant, I urged Phoenix to show Larry that his girlfriend really did care for him.
"What?" Phoenix looked at me and Mia with a confused expression.
"You have evidence of Cindy's appreciation of Larry. Go on, present it already!"
"I don't know that you're talking about though!" He insisted, genuinely puzzled.
"Think about it Wright, what did Larry give her that she treasured?" Mia prompted, attempting to get Phoenix to see what we were implying.
After a few more seconds, realisation hit and he brought out the piece of evidence that proved our point.
"Oh, yeah! Right. Here you go Larry! Proof Positive that you weren't just some chump to her."
And the correct piece of evidence was...
"Huh? Where'd you get that clock?" Larry starred at the object in his friend's hands, puzzled.
With slight frustration, Phoenix rolled his eyes at his stupidity. "This is the clock you made for her Larry! She took it with her when she travelled."
"Hmm, she probably just needed a clock, that's all." Larry stated, scratching the back of his neck.
"You think so? It's a pretty heavy clock to take travelling."
Larry didn't respond.
"Well, make of it what you will."
Turning away from Larry, the Chief and Phoenix started to discuss the possibility of another meal out, which I was more than happy to attend. Phoenix promised that we would talk more about his past with Larry and his reasons for becoming an attorney, which interested me greatly. And, while I didn't say so at the time, I also had something that I needed to inform him about too, about my own past and family. The Chief already knew what I was planning to say but I felt that I should also inform Phoenix as I felt that I could trust him enough now. But, it would have to wait until then. For now, I will join in with the celebrations and distract myself from the thoughts beginning to return; dark memories from the past that I wished to suppress until we all met up for dinner.
Yes, I will keep it until then. When that day comes, I will tell my story.
A/N: The trial is finally. Freaking. OVER! God, you have no idea how time consuming it was copying out line after line. This is why it may seem a little lacking in detail; I got sick of copying out lines after a while, haha. Anyway, hope you still enjoyed. I'll try to update again before half term is over. See ya!
Gaby :)