CHAPTER 22

Miles and Franziska sat in the courtroom lobby going over their notes for the trial of Shelly de Killer; she was going to be his co-council today. He never once used a co-council in a trial; but he had gave way to her pleas.

He noticed she kept getting distracted from her notes to gaze at her engagement ring; she had specially purchased a very thin pair of leather gloves solely so she could be able to wear her ring over them, without leaving her hand exposed in order to wear her ring. He wondered why she even wore leather gloves in the first place.

He looked down at his ring on his right hand; American men generally didn't wear engagement rings, but she heavily hinted at wanting a German-style wedding, so he wore one on his right hand, as both partners did so in her home country; he didn't mind her breaking tradition and wearing hers on her left hand, because he knew she was much too uncoordinated with her right side to do much with it anyway; she would generally break anything she was holding in that hand by accident. He found it cute how she had the dexterity of a surgeon with her left side, but the cooridination of a newborn infant on her right; he quickly returned his focus onto his notes.

He felt a prescence before him while he and Franziska were giving the notes one final read-through; they looked up simultaneously to find Phoenix Wright and Maya standing before them. Maya burst out before Miles and Phoenix could exchange greetings. "Franzy! On your hand! Is that what I think it is!?" Franziska's face lit up with a childish grin as she flashed her ring to her friend; Miles and Phoenix decided to leave them be in their girlish fawning over her ring and the prospect of marriage.

Wright smirked as they turned to face each other after going off to the side to talk amongst themselves; "So, Miles...I see you got a ring too." Edgeworth flinched at this statement. "Y-yes!" He regained his composure. "It's the way they do things in Germany, and she wanted it to be done that way."

He gave him a funny look, but not in an insulting or questioning way; "How romantic. Anyway, I just wanted to know about the witness you called on to testify, Mick Vick." Edgeworth was puzzled by how he obtained this information; Phoenix spoke up before Edgeworth could. "I should know better than to try to get information out of Detective Gumshoe..." He gave him a smart alecky look you'd see on a 4th grader who was disrupting the teacher's lessons in order to get a laugh out of the class. "...why should I waste the energy trying, when I could just ask him directly?" Edgeworth stifled back a laugh for the sake of remaining professional, and because he knew his friend was forcing jokes to avoid the severity of the situation at hand today.

Miles spoke up; "Anywho, I expect you to know the circumstances surrounding this man, and Detective Gumshoe will provide us with testimony first, as he received all the info acquired by the time trying to bring down de Killer for the past few decades..." A cold, eery voice startled both men.

"...so, Mr. Wright...working with the enemy, I see." They turned to see a man wearing a monocle and a tuxedo, both hands held behind his back. His face was sewn together right down the middle. "Well...well...well. I should of expected this, knowing you were aware of the fact you were defending someone who was guilty of all charges...I just hope you don't lag in your defense today. That would be...unfortunate, if you catch my drift."

Before either man could respond, the mysterious man had seemingly vanished into thin air. "...that was de Killer, wasn't it, Wright?" He turned to see the famous defense attorney nodding a yes; he had turned pale after the encounter with the infamous assassin.

After the exchange with de Killer, Franziska and Maya walked up to the both of them; Franziska spoke up; "Was that de Killer...?" Miles just nodded, as Franziska grew serious, but Maya went hysterical; "Oh-oh-oh-oh! I know I've seen that creep somewhere before!" Phoenix just patted the spirit-medium-in-training on the head to help relieve some of the anxiety and anger building up within her; she burst out once more. "Nick! You're defending him! He's the guy who kidnapped me! I remember now! Why are you defending..." All of a sudden, she turned red. "Oh yeahhh..."

After this, the bailiff signaled them into the courtroom for the day's proceedings.

The judge took his chair a signaled for the trial to begin; Edgeworth looked at the woman beside him; he felt with her there, he could handle this trial. Before he knew it, he was saying "The prosecution would like to call a representative of the team assembled to catch the infamous assassin, Dick Gumshoe." HOLD IT!

Both Edgeworth and Franziska looked directly at Wright, and were shocked to find him as surprised as they were. It turns out, the judge let out this outburst. Edgeworth was puzzled; "Yes, your honor?"

He looked confused; "Don't you think they could've of come up with some sort of acronym to make it easier to say...I mean, that's a mouthful..." CRACK! CRACK!

Edgeworth smiled at the sound of Franziska's whip; it felt like forever since he had heard it.

Detective Gumshoe made his way to the stand and gave his testimony; "A group of professional detectives were assmebled for tracking down the man we believe to be in the defendant's chair. He's paid to kill and he always gets away, and he leaves a card to let us know it was him. We have no more information about him other than that."

Miles was pleasantly surprised by Gumshoe giving a coherent testimony, but Franziska dashed his pride after the detective's testimony; "Remember, Miles Edgeworth, he's just saying what competent people told him to say."

Phoenix began pressing him on every detail; he was having trouble finding a flaw in this, and it was decisive enough for the judge to hand down a guilty verdict immediately.

Miles watched as his opponent for this trial, and his friend, slump over at the defense's bench; if de Killer got a guilty verdict, Pearl Fey would die. He began losing hope, and Franziska began tugging on her whip anxiously.

HOLD IT!

Wright went on to explain about how they couldn't be sure of this man being de Killer if they have so little information about him.

Gumshoe babbled, and Edgeworth poorly defended his professional testimony, but it was of no use, his decisive testimony had been blown apart.

The judge spoke. "Hmm...Well, can't say that was of any use. It just prolonged the trial. Alright, does the prosecution have another witness prepared?"

Edgeworth bowed and responded with a "Yes, your honor." He was ready to call this witness to the stand and end this today. "The prosecution would like to call one of de Killer's former clients..."

The bailiff burst through the door before Edgeworth could finish; "H-He's gone, your honor!"

The judge didn't understand. "Who's gone? And don't interrupt this trial. It's just now getting to the good part..."

"The witness, your honor! We can't find him anywhere!"

The judge finally understood what was happening; "Oh dear. Well, I take it the the prosecution has no other witnesses?"

Edgeworth had a sullen, angry look in his eyes to go with the stress lines showing on his forehead; He gritted his response through his teeth. "No, your honor."

The judge shook his head; "Well, I'll contact the chief of police to send dispatch to find your witness. Until then, I'll have to adjourn this trial until tomorrow. Court is adjourned." BANG!

With that, Miles grabbed Franziska's hand and led her out of the courtroom before anyone else had the oppurtunity to leave.