Well...um...I seriously didn't lose interest in this. I just got writer's block...but I'm over it now, so here's the next chapter!
And, no, I don't own Phoenix Wright.
So," asked Maya, "Where to next?"
"I was thinking of heading over to the Fenton's place," I responded.
"Huh? You know about the Fentons?" asked Maya.
"Yep," I said. "I did my research."
"Um, what are Fin-tones?" asked Pearls.
"The Fentons are the greatest ghost hunters this side of the world, and my parents," responded Jazz in my place. "I think they'll like you, they have your trials on tape! At least, the ones that were on TV..."
"Really?" I asked, my curiosity piquing. -I always did wonder what I looked like on television...-
"Yeah," said Jazz. "When they're feeling bad, they like to put in the tape, fast forward to certain parts, and have a good laugh."
-Ouch...- I thought, as the limo pulled up to a halt in front of the Fenton's house.
0 0 0
"So, you're Phoenix Wright!" said Mrs. Fenton, laying a plate of homemade fudge on the table before me. "It's very nice to meet you in person! More tea?"
"Please and thanks!" shouted Maya.
I glanced down at my written court record notes as Mrs. Fenton refilled everyone's tea. -Maddie Fenton, an expert ghost hunter and 9th degree black belt...Jack Fenton, the exact opposite of growing old with dignity...-
Maddie, or Mrs. Fenton as I have been calling her, still had a womanly figure, most likely from all the ghost-hunting she did. Jack was her opposite in every way. Where she was skinny, he was fat. She liked blue-green, he liked orange. She was calm and logical, he was emotional and illogical. She kept in shape, he liked fudge. -Although, after tasting Maddie's fudge, I can't blame him on the last point...-
"So, what brings you to Amity Park, Phoenix?" Jack bellowed, acting already as if we were old pals.
"Oh, I'm, uh...here on business," I said, telling the truth, but avoiding a wrathful "I hate ghosts" speech, like Jazz had warned me to do.
"He's Mr. Phantom's defense attorney!" shouted Pearls. I cringed. Maya, sitting next to me, gulped. Jazz and Sam smacked themselves on the forehead. Tucker decided to try for a topic change.
"Um, uh...great...tea, Mrs. Fenton!" Tucker said.
-Yeah, that didn't sound forced at all...- I thought.
"Well," chuckled Jack, "You've got your work cut out for ya! I personally saw Inviso-Bill commit that crime!"
"Jack, don't you realize what he just said?" said Maddie, "He's that ghost kid's defense!"
"Aw, Maddie, he can't help it...it's his job! Besides, you saw that one trial. He'll get the ghost kid convicted guilty, just like he did that guy...Mack Bernard, or something like that..."
"Wouldn't that depend," I said, "On whether or not my client is actually guilty?"
There was a short silence. Maddie and Jack looked at each other...and then burst out laughing. Jazz rolled her eyes, sighing.
Jack wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "In all seriousness," he said, "Everyone knows ghost are pure evil! They lack a conscience. They aren't human!"
I could practically feel the anger emanating off of Maya and Pearls. I cut them off with respect and logic, in hope of maintaining calm discussion. "With all due respect, Mr. Fenton, I have worked with a ghost or two in the past, and I can assure you that they are most decidedly not 'pure evil'."
Jack and Maddie looked at each other again, then started talking in hushed tones. I could barely make out "they've fooled another one, Jack," and "he'll learn eventually that ghosts..."
"Well!" said Maddie, a bit too enthusiastically, "Is there anything you want to ask us? Perhaps take a look around our home?"
"Would doing both at once be too much to ask?"
"Not at all! Sam, Tucker, make yourselves at home!" Jack bellowed again. "Jazzy-Pants, make sure they don't get into too much trouble, now..."
"Dad...you're embarrassing me..." Jazz mumbled, blushing. Maya, Pearls, Mr. And Mrs. Fenton, and I walked towards the kitchen, while Jazz, Sam, and Tucker walked in the other. As Sam passed by me, I slipped a piece of paper from the palm of my hand into hers.
"So, this is the kitchen," said Maddie, "Where we make our food, of course, and are also performing experiments to see just how fast..." As Maddie spoke, I looked back to Sam, who had discreetly unfolded the paper and was reading as she walked. She turned her head back toward me and mouthed a"Got it!" before turning and heading upstairs. I smiled, and turned my attention back to...
The hot dogs were alive.
0 0 0
"...which in turn caused the ghost to explode into smithereens!" finished Jack, who had been relating ghost stories, and ghost catching stories, to me for the past hour and twenty minutes.
"Fascinating," I said. "Now, I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about-"
"You know, I've always wondered, what's a smithereen?" asked Maya, derailing my conversation. "Is it smaller, or bigger than a smither? And what's a smither?"
"That's not the point here!" I shouted. -Although she does raise an interesting point...- "Mr. Fenton, what did you see last night when you followed my client to Ms. DeLear's place?"
"Ah, ah ah!" said Jack. "Can't tell you that!"
"Why not?" I asked. Before Jack could answer, Maddie came in with a plate of more fudge.
"There you go, nice and warm!" she said. When I had first heard of Maddie Fenton, I conjured up an image of an Amazon warrior. Instead, here was a normal housewife doing normal things...in a green hazmat suit. I noticed something on it...
"What is that?" I asked, pointing to a silver bracelet around her wrist. Her sleeve had rolled up a little, allowing me to see the odd designs on it.
"Oh, it's a Mexican charm designed to ward of evil spirits! I wear it just in case a ghost manages to sneak up on me."
"9th degree black belts worry about getting snuck up upon?" I joshed.
"You'd be surprised!" Maddie responded as Pearls grabbed a large hunk of fudge, and started to eat.
"Mmm..." said Pearls. "Mrs. Fenton, this is the best thing I've ever tasted!" She took a large bite, unusual for her. "It's yummy!" she finished with her mouth full, even more unusual for her. Then, it hit me.
"Why thank you, Pearly!" said Maddie, already picking up on the nickname everyone but me used for Pearls. I gulped a little, scooting away. -8-year old kid who has had sugar maybe twice in her lifetime has fudge for the first time, and eats three sizable helpings...oh dear...- Pearls suddenly started to vibrate.
"WowImeanthisislikesogoodIcan'tstopeatingdoesanyoneelsefeelgoodImeanreallyreallygoodlikeIcouldrunaroundtheworldreallyfastwithotustoppingheyIcandoacartwheelwannaseehuhhuhhuhyouwannaseeormaybeIcouldrunaroundthehouseasfastasIcanyeahI'lldothatokayreadyokayhereIgoreadyokay! WHEEEEEEEEEE!"
And Pearls took off, running into the kitchen, out of sight, and back into the room at speeds thought impossible by humans...or race cars, for that matter. Maya looked down at her fudge, still sitting on a plate, and then pushed it away, a grimace on her face. After about the twentieth lap, I managed to grab Pearls, lifting her into the air, where she continued to talk quickly and run in place. "I'm so sorry about Pearls..." I began to apologize.
"Oh, that's perfectly fine! We have kids, we know what a sugar high is like!" said Maddie. "Dear, would you go get the "warm milk" from the kitchen?"
"On it, Maddie!" shouted Jack, jumping up and running into the kitchen. Something about the way Maddie said "warm milk" unnerved me, but I didn't have time to think about that while trying to restrain a sugar-high driven eight-year old kid. Jack soon came back in. "Hey, Pearly!" he said, holding a glass of what looked like milk. "Would you like some milk to wash down that fudge with?"
"OhboywouldIyouknowfudgetastesgoodbutinyourmouthfeelsallweirdafteritI'dkindoflikesomemilkthanksgulp...gulp...gulp...ah! ThankyouMr.FentonI reallyneededthat becausethe fudge was...starting...to..." and Pearls yawned, and then fell asleep on my arm.
"Wow," I said. "I'm guessing that was more than warm milk?"
"It's the Fenton Anti-sugar!" said Jack. "When you drink it, it absorbs any excess energy and any excess sugar recently digested, converting the sugar into energy. It then stores that energy, and slowly is dissolved by your stomach acids, giving you that energy back over time."
"Of course," said Maddie "Since it absorbs energy, it leaves you feeling pretty drained for an hour or two, but that's the only side effect. Unless, of course, your kids get a sugar high like, once a day or something..." And she chuckled.
"Heh..." I chuckled a little myself. "Say, um, do you have an extra bed anywhere around here?..."
"Why, actually, yes!" said Maddie. "Danny's away at a ghost hunting camp, so his bedroom should be empty...unless, of course, the kids are playing around in there..."
"Thanks," I said, heading up the stairs with Pearls in my arms and Maya at my side.
"Make sure to hurry back!" shouted Jack. "We've still got the lab to tour!"
-I'll make sure to take my time, then...- I thought.
0 0 0
I gently tucked Pearls into Danny's bed, and then turned to Sam, Jazz, and Tucker, who had been kind enough to mute their video game for us. "So?" I whispered to Sam. "Did you get the note?"
"Wasn't much of one," she whispered back, holding it up in the air. I snatched it and opened it, letting the smell of new evidence wash over me...metaphorically, of course.
-Let's see here...a map of the ghost zone...a map of Amity...and a list of Danny's powers...Sam's right, this is useless! I spent over an hour listening to Jack babble for this?- "Well," I said, "Can you think of anything I ought to ask them?"
"What exactly is in that fudge?" mumbled Maya, looking a little scared.
"Let's avoid that topic," I said, "Along with anything to do with ghosts that doesn't pertain to the murder."
There was a long silence, which never really broke, so I left to do some investigating. As I walked downstairs, I thought of the state this broken-er and broken-er family was in
-The fudge-headed dad who is overly concerned with ghosts, the excelling in ghost-hunting mom whom I think is really insecure at heart, the ghostly kid trying to be a superhero and deal with bullies at the same time, and the psychologist to be who still hasn't learned the thinking process for just being a kid...- I thought. -How does this family stay together? I'm ready to go back to where things made sense...unfortunately, I have no idea where that is...-
0 0 0
"Fenton fingerprints, eh?" I said.
"Yep. The only way to get the ghost portal to work, unless," and here Jack laughed, "You're strong enough to force a solid steel, titanium reinforced door open while being bombarded by ecto-energy..."
"And most ghosts are," reminded Maddie, a slightly mad look on her face.
"I'm working on it..." said Jack, the humor gone from his voice.
We were touring the lab, which had a lot more useful evidence than Danny's room. Schematics for the Fenton Ghost Tracker, the Fenton Ghost Tracker itself, data on all currently "known" ghosts, and, most recently, the Fenton Portal and its lock. I wasn't sure whether or not any of this would be useful, but then, you never know.
"So..." I asked, "What's it like for you, hunting ghosts?"
"Hectic, dangerous, and rewarding!" paradoxed Maddie.
"Uh, huh...Jack, what exactly made you so sure it was my client you saw at Ms. DeLear's house?"
"I've already told you, but I don't mind saying it again! The Fenton Ghost Tra-"
"No...I mean...what made you so sure it was the ghost boy you saw? Besides the tracker?"
"Well, I was looking right in the window...I could never mistake that silhouette!"
"That's what you said about my Aunt Daisy..." said Maddie, angrily.
"It was an honest mistake!" said Jack.
I inched back a little, deciding that my next question would a bit more subtle. Of course, that was before my magatama began to glow.
"Uh oh..." I murmured, making an executive decision to GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE!
The ghost portal was slammed open, and a figure in an inky black cape came out. I had no idea what it was, and I wasn't sticking around to find out! Then again, leaving without saying goodbye would be rude, considering this was normal, everyday stuff for this family...which was kind of sad...
"Get out of here!" shouted Jack, grabbing what looked like a vacuum cleaner and springing into action. I needed no further urging. I ran upstairs, and out of the house, grabbing my "group" on the way.
"What was that all ab-" Jazz started to say.
"RAAAAAAR!" came a loud noise from the basement. There was a short silence after that, which Sam broke.
"To the limo!" she shouted, then ran. Most of the rest of us followed, and then we sped off, dropping off Sam and Tucker at their houses and leaving Jazz behind at hers. I looked back just in time to see Jazz give off a sigh.
0 0 0
The driver, who looked as pale as the ghost this town was famous for, finally heeded my instructions and stopped in front of the scene of the crime. I got out, and was immediately mobbed by police officers trying to keep the scene clear.
"Hey...pardon me...excuse me...please...lemme by!" I shouted to no avail.
"I can't see anything but badges and blue uniforms!" shouted Maya.
"Hey, a penny!" said Pearl. Sadly, at least six officers bent over to try and pick it up.
After a few more seconds of struggling, a loud, gravelly voice spoke up above the uproar. "Alright, alright, break it up!" it said. Almost immediately, everyone stopped. The policepeople parted like a bad hairstyle (Ouch...), and an...imposing man walked through the gap.
He was dressed in a trenchcoat, was broadly built, and wasn't clean shaven. That's where the similarities with Detective Gumshoe ended. This detective (as I would soon find out he was) wore a brown hat with a short rim (much like the style in which the movie detectives wore long ago), where Gumshoe went without an ornamental headdress. Gumshoe, despite his intimidating looks, hadn't been in a real fight in his life (though he faked it to save us once), while this guy had a twelve-inch curved scar from his forehead to his left cheek to his chin. Gumshoe went to elementary schools once a year to talk to kids about anything and everything to do with drugs, especially how to avoid them, while this guy had a cigarette that probably could only escape from his mouth by burning to ashes. Also, I am not scared of Gumshoe, but this guy made me wish the officers were still mobbing me.
"Who the...heck are you supposed to be?" he said, pausing to notice Pearls before saying 'heck' in place of...well, I don't wanna know.
"I...I'm, uh..." I stuttered.
"Phoenix Wright!" shouted Maya, oblivious as usual. "I'm Maya Fey, and this is my cousin, Pearl Fey!"
"Phoenix Wright, huh?" said the big man. "Yeah, I've heard of you. Notorious for searching the scene of a crime when he's not supposed to..." it was hard to concentrate when whoever-it-was's bad breath combined with the cigarette smoke to create an absolutely horrid stench.
"Technically, lawyers are allowed to search crime scenes nowadays as long as they have police supervision..." I murmured, trying to curl up into a ball and stay standing up straight at the same time.
"Yeah, but I get the feeling you weren't always under police supervision, Mr. Wright..." said the extremely large man before me. "Besides, even if you were always under surveillance, which I doubt, several people still frown on the practice..." and here he bent over to my face. Very close to my face. "And I'm one of the frowners..."
-Maybe it's just my imagination, but is his cigarette smoke curling into the words 'I don't like you'?- I thought. "Mr...uh..."
"Gravel," responded the powerful man, "Bull Gravel. Amity Park's local detective."
"Well, Mr...Gravel...uh...could we please have a look around the scene?" I asked, timidly.
The man reared up to his full, powerful height, then sighed. "Fine..." he mumbled. "But only because there's nothing I can legally do to stop you..." and then he stepped aside. I walked past him, giving a sheepish smile. Maya had finally picked up on this guy's bad vibes, and went carefully along beside me. Pearls was still in the dark about this guy's true nature.
"Thank you for letting us in, Mr. Gravel!" she said brightly and cheerfully, as she gave a little bow.
I tuned to see "Mr. Gravel" smiling at Pearls. "You're quite welcome! Come on, let's go inside."
"Okay," said Pearls, before running off in the general direction of the house.
Bull Gravel followed behind her, still smiling...except for a few seconds when he passed by me, in which he frowned, and I felt very uncomfortable.
0 0 0
"So she was stabbed in the heart?" I asked Bull, as I examined the chalk markings on the carpet.
"Yep. Death was nigh-on instantaneous," said Bull.
"Then why's there so little blood?" asked Maya.
I looked at the carpet again. There was a bloodstain or two, but they were small, and the carpet was a dull orange, so you couldn't see the blood very well.
"Murderer left the weapon in the body, at least long enough for the blood to clot," responded Bull. "Any other questions, or are you about ready to leave?" he continued.
"None of the above," I said, standing up and looking around the room. I slowly gathered in every last detail I could find, while simultaneously asking Bull another question. "What time was the body discovered?"
"Same time as the murder," said Bull.
"And when was that?" asked Maya.
"We ain't sure. If that Fenton fellow is to be believed, it was at 9:00 exactly, but I don't believe him. He's a kook."
-No objections...- I thought. Then, I realized Pearls hadn't spoken for a while. I looked to where she was...
...and she wasn't there.
"Hey, where'd Pearls go?" I asked Maya.
"I dunno..." she responded.
"Oh, great..." said Bull. "Probably got curious and took off, got herself lost...heh, heh...kids. I got a cousin-"
"NICK!" shouted Pearls about two rooms and about 200 feet away. I ran to where she was, closely followed by a running Maya and a walking Bull.
"What is it, Pearls?" I asked her.
"I can't find the bathroom!..."
"Ho boy..." I said. Then, I noticed something odd. -That thermometer...-
I took a step towards it, and Bull noticed me noticing it. "Yeah, you're probably wondering why the thermometer reads absolute zero, right?"
"It had crossed my mind..." I said. "That, and the reason why it's not cold at all in here..."
"It's a fancy thermometer, that one. It's hooked up to the air conditioner and heating system, so if you manually reset it, whatever temperature it reads is what temperature the two will make it in the room. If you set it to zero, the air conditioner and the heating system both won't blow at all."
"That's weird," said Maya, "Why would she set the them not to blow at all? I mean, I could understand it if she was on hard luck, but from what I hear, she was earning money."
"Ms. DeLear," I said, "Is famous for being frugal with her riches. Some say saving money is how she got rich in the first place."
"True," said Bull Gravel, getting absorbed in the conversation, forgetting that he didn't like me and giving me too much info, "Legend has it that snow, sunshine, rain, or hail, that thermometer always will read zero degrees exactly, not a fraction off either way!"
"Hmm..." said Maya.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Why would she spend money," asked Maya, "on such a fancy thermometer when she could just turn off the air conditioner and heating systems?"
"We interviewed her family about that," said Bull Gravel. "Apparently, this house was pretty much her dream home. Even once she discovered that the heating and cooling systems couldn't be turned off, she bought it, simply deciding to buy a fancy new thermometer to go with it."
"If the people doing the installing could install the thermometer into the systems, couldn't they turn off the systems?"
"Apparently not...at least, not permanently," said Bull, shrugging. "Apparently, the first person who owned this house was just as rich as she was, but a lot more eccentric. He didn't want people adjusting his 'perfect system' or something like that."
"I see..." I said.
There was a long silence.
"Could we talk to the family members?" I asked.
"No," said Bull, reverting back to his normal grumpy self.
"Oh..."
There was another long silence.
"Can somebody take me to the bathroom?" asked Pearls.
"Oh, yeah!" said Bull. "Hmm...I think I can trust you to go alone...okay, you go upstairs, you turn left, and it's the second door. Got it?"
"Got it!" said Pearl, racing off.
"Cute kid..." said Bull. He was silent for a little bit, absorbed in his memories...or something like that.
"Who knew Bull Gravel had a soft spot for kids?" chuckled Maya.
"Hey!" shouted Bull. Maya and I turned towards him. "I don't like you, Mr. Wright, and I'm not too fond of this Maya girl here either, to be honest."
"Hey!" said Maya.
"But that kid...Pearl, was it? I like her. I don't want to see anything bad happening to her. And this city's gotten pretty bad as of late. You two take care of her..." And here he bent over to our faces. "Got it?"
"Got it," I said, meekly, in perfect unison with Maya.
"Good," Bull said, straightening. "Now get done investigating so I can get done watching you so I can get back to investigating."
I quickly ran back to the room where Shannon DeLear was killed and started to look around.
0 0 0
"Bye, Pearly!" said Bull. "Hope to see you again soon!"
"You too!" said Pearls.
-Personally, I hope not...- I thought, as I got inside the limo. Maya and Pearls followed, and we drove back to the hotel. -Casper High...Nasty Burger...Wall-2-Wall Mart...Able Bankings...Frosty King...- I thought, rambling off names of buildings we passed in my head in order to pass the time. All of a sudden, we stopped. I looked up.
AMITY HOTEL
GET YOUR DANNY PHANTOM PLUSHIES HERE!!!
The second line had been crossed out.
"That can't be good..." said Maya.
"What's a plushie?" asked Pearls.
0 0 0
I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as Maya and Peals amused themselves with the suite's Funtrendo Glii.
"Let's see you hit..THIS!" shouted Maya, tauntingly, "throwing" her controller. In response, Pearls swung her controller. "You hit it...really far..." said Maya, disappointed. Pearls giggled.I chuckled at them, then continued to stare at the ceiling.
-Of all the details today,- I thought, -One of them didn't fit into the big picture. Even assuming what the prosecution will be claiming tomorrow is true (and I know it's not), one detail just doesn't fit. But...what is it?-
I continued to stare at the ceiling, that one thought bouncing around in my head as I slowly drifted to sleep. -What is it?...what is it?...what is it?...-
0 0 0
At 3:00 AM, I woke up with a start. I knew what detail was out of place. I reached towards my dresser drawer pulled it open, and pulled out my evidence. I flipped through the papers until I arrived at the one I wanted. I looked at it, looked at it, looked at it...found what I was searching for...looked at the thing I was searching for...and found the detail missing. The extremely big detail.
I was looking at a map of Amity Park, the one Danny had pointed out to me. I stared at it for a while, not believing. It was dated June 6, the day before I arrived. Yet, somehow or other...it was impossible, but...the bank I had seen on the way here...despite this being a supposedly 100 accurate photo, downloaded off the town's website...
The bank didn't appear on the map...
Ooh, suspense! Really lame suspense...anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and the next one should be up sooner, because it's the trial! And I will realyl enjoy wrriting that! Yay!
And, yes, I own this story.