Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Ace Attorney series characters!

Chapter 30 – Turnabout Surrender

At the precinct, that same day…

"Dr. Sterling. What are you doing here, pal?"

"Detective Gumshoe. I'm here…to turn someone in."

"Turn someone in? Who is it, pal?" This got Edgeworth's attention. She isn't alone. She's brought her friend with her.

"The last and final person of the group you've been hunting down. A person whose identity was hidden for the longest time. In other words, S.R." Serena had her head down, but she turned to her right, and looked up.

"Rena! Wh-what are you doing?!"

"I…I have to do this, Sabrina. I'm sorry," she replied quietly, her eyes going down to the floor.

The blonde woman's facial expression turned into one full of fear. "You're…you're not going to turn me in, are you?"

Serena didn't face her best friend as she spoke. "I…don't have a choice. You're my best friend Sabrina, but…I can't let that fact blind me from the other fact that you committed a crime. I'm not going to keep quiet about this."

"So…you're not going to defend me? You're going to rat me out? Of course you would. I should've known."

Serena turned around. "Sabrina. This isn't easy on me, you know. Do you think I take some kind of sick pleasure from seeing you get convicted for a crime?! I don't! I don't want to have to point to my best friend and say she's a criminal, but I can't ignore what you said and did, whether you're my friend or not." She then added, "If you were in my situation, I would expect you to do the same!"

"Pal, what's going on here?"

"Sabrina Reece is the one who planned the murder of Mr. Huntley. She admitted it to me, last night, while she was under the influence." Serena pulled out an object from her phone.

"Hey! That's my phone!"

"This has records of her plans she made with a certain doctor and her boss." She handed it to Gumshoe.

"She's lying! I would never do something like that!" The woman argued.

"Sorry pal, but we need more evidence than this phone."

"Detective Gumshoe. What about the investigation you were doing? Did that warrant any results?" That was the reason why Edgeworth had come to the precinct.

"Hm? Oh yeah. We brought some stuff back from his apartment that we're sure were his…female friend's."

"Do a fingerprint analysis then." Edgeworth turned to Sabrina, who was silently fuming and glaring at Serena. "Certainly, if you didn't do it, you wouldn't mind allowing the police to take some of your fingerprints?"

"Er…mm…urk!"

It's quite obvious it was her. It makes sense. Her initials are S.R, she's an amateur fashion designer… "Admit it, Ms. Reece. It was indeed you who killed Mr. Huntley." The question now is motive.

"What's my motive, huh? What would I get out of Huntley's death?!"

That's the essential question, isn't it?

"It's too late, Sabrina. Just give up," Serena said tiredly. "You can only deny this for so long, so just tell us why you did it."

The blonde woman glared at her once more before going on a rant. "You're a coward Serena! You know it, and I know it! You may have everyone else here fooled with your cool and confident façade, but I know that deep down, you're nothing but a lonely, lost, insecure little girl. The same girl I met all those years ago! You haven't changed one little bit! But I did. I had you fooled! I made you think that I was the same girl who became best friends with you when we were younger! But I changed, Serena."

Now it was Serena's turn to get upset. "Why? I don't understand though! I…I never thought you…you would do something like this to me! Why resort to murder, huh?!"

"You want to know why?! Because they promised me fame and money, influence, power! I wanted all of that! I didn't want to work too hard doing fashion designing and what not. I want to enjoy life and pay as little a price as I needed to! That's when I came to a harsh realization." She smirked.

"You would never get me there. I needed to make the right friends with the right people if I wanted all of that. That's how I ended up getting involved in this group. And I had to use you, but you know what?! I don't care! You were just an instrument that turned into an annoying thorn in our sides. Emilio was supposed to kill you, but that idiot. He actually fell for you so much that he couldn't get the guts to do it. I vowed to do the deed today."

Hold on. Is she saying that she planned to…murder her own best friend?!

"Wait. You never explained why Mr. Huntley was killed," Edgeworth interjected.

"Aren't you supposed to be a genius prosecutor? You should've figured it out yourself! Huntley was getting in the way of Gavin's plans to kill off Thalassa and torture Mr. Wright and Thalassa's son. He was a part of our group, but ended up betraying us. I didn't kill him. Rather, I was an accomplice. I helped with every murder. His and Thalassa's. I was 'interning' at Huntley's psychiatric office, and I overheard the conversation he had with Apollo, one in which he said they were going to meet at the park. I told Mr. Gavin, who told me to deal with Huntley accordingly."

"And by deal with, he meant murder."

"Very good, genius prosecutor. Emilio and I figured it out. I watched that defense attorney with the weirdo hair, and planned out the whole murder for Emilio, who just had to do the actually dirty work, and made it look like that lawyer did it."

"Ah, so it was Emilio who killed Mr. Huntley!" Edgeworth exclaimed. That…idiotic doctor. I wish I had considered him before. It makes much more sense now.

"Huntley would've spilled the beans to that kid about what we had planned, and everything would've been ruined. I couldn't let that happen, neither could Emilio or Gavin."

Hm…so that's why Mr. Huntley went to meet with Apollo. To warn him, not to tell him about his family…

"So…you're admitting to the crime?" Gumshoe asked, a little confused.

"I'm not a murderer, at least, I won't be. I could've been, if it hadn't been for a nosy little brat." Her eyes were on Serena. "Like I said, I planned everything. The crimes and all. Even Thalassa's death was my idea. I found out that she had been taken to the hospital from our apartment complex, and Emilio was at the hospital at night. A couple of phone calls, and the plan was executed. He poisoned her."

So Gavin was the boss, the person who wanted things to happen. And this woman…she was the mastermind behind all of this…the one who came up with the attacks. She's clearly mastered the act of deception too well.

"You…you helped him do that?! You helped him kill a patient – no – my patient?"

"Mmhm, although I didn't know at the time she was your patient. Ironic, not that I really minded, except I had to deal with miserable self around the apartment after that. Then, in my drunken state, I figured your loyalty to me was so great that I could tell you my little dirty secret, and you would never dare tell anyone. Some friend you turned out to be."

"I think we've heard enough, pal." Gumshoe took out his handcuffs and arrested Sabrina. "It's just a matter of time before we get everything from your apartment and find evidence there to get you your guilty verdict."

Before she was escorted away, Sabrina turned around. "Mark my words, Serena Sterling. From this point forward, you're going to be lonely and sad for the rest of your pathetic little life."

All of a sudden, Serena's demeanor changed. Gone was her shock and disbelief. She couldn't help the smirk that appeared on her face. "Heh. Funny you should say 'from this point forward.'" She turned around, eyes locked with her former best friend's. "Because that's what I've always been, right? Lonely and sad. And you know what? I'm probably going to stay that way until the day I die." She shrugged, tilting her head nonchalantly as her eyes narrowed a little. "Makes no difference to me. But at least I'm not a criminal who shows no guilt whatsoever at having helped rob people of their lives."

With that, a couple of officers came in and took her away to be locked up behind bars.

Hmph. Such a petty motive for getting involved in a crime ring like this.

"Mr. Edgeworth. You…you knew it was her, didn't you?" Detective Gumshoe asked. "I could just tell when you saw her."

"Hm…yes. The idea crossed my mind while we were on the phone just a while ago, and I came down here to discuss it with you."

"Of course you'd have figured it out, sir!" Gumshoe said proudly.

I didn't really figure it out. I just suspected it to be her. I had no clue what her motive was.

"Ah. That reminds me. I think you should bring in that doctor who was responsible for the autopsy report of Mr. Huntley. I have a strong suspicion he might have something to do with this whole mess."

"Right sir! Will do."

"Maybe you would know how to contact him, Ms.-" He stopped short, looking around to see no sign of the doctor.

"I guess she left," Gumshoe said.

"Right. Oh well. I'm sure you'll be able to get to him soon enough, so long as Ms. Reece's arrest doesn't get leaked out to the public before then. I need to return to my office and get started on some paperwork."

Looks like I have a lot of cases to look forward to dealing with. I'll place Blackquill on Ms. Reece's case. And perhaps Franziska would like to handle Emilio? Ah yes, that sounds good. Edgeworth smirked. There'd be a lot of whip cracking in that courtroom.

He walked outside, only to find a familiar figure standing near the bus stop.

What is she still doing here?

"Er…Ms. Sterling. What are you doing here?"

"Hm?" The woman was obviously lost in her thoughts. "Sorry. I was just waiting for the bus."

"Oh." What exactly do I say to her? "Good day then, Ms. Sterling."

""Um…Mr. Edgeworth? Can…I ask you something?"

"Hm…I don't have a lot of time on my hands, but I suppose I could spare a couple of minutes."

She was silent for a moment before she asked, ""I know what I did was right, turning her in and all…but…just because it is right…doesn't mean it felt right. Do…you think it's a bad thing? That I sent her to jail, but that I didn't really want to? I mean, that's pretty much saying I sent a criminal to prison but I didn't want to do it. Ugh. I feel like such a hypocrite."

"Well, the position you were in was quite difficult. It was either keep the secret your best friend told you about, or reveal the truth and get her arrested." He crossed his arms, his brows furrowing as he continued. "Although, personally, I will admit that the latter is indeed the correct course of action. Hiding the truth is never the right thing to do." He looked at her. "You shouldn't feel any remorse for what you did, Ms. Sterling. Not to mention, she even said she was tricking you. That isn't exactly what best friends do to each other."

She nodded her head, but he could tell from her face that she wasn't completely convinced. She took a deep breath in and smiled. "Well, I should get going. I'll see you around, Mr. Edgeworth. Oh, and thanks for the talk."

How can she just brush it off like that and smile?! And I forgot to ask her about that other doctor and the autopsy. No matter. The police will take care of that. I really need to head over to the office. And so he did.

Ugh. This chapter was so long and honestly, annoying, but I felt the need to explain everything to tie up the loose ends. I wanted to do a whole investigations thing, with the testimony and rebuttal, but…it wouldn't have worked out for this situation. Technically, this is the 'last' chapter, but I'll be posting an epilogue pretty soon, and it'll be all over.