Hello everybody! Here's the third installment to this second case. Things are starting to come together in this chapter, and it'll hopefully be enough to help Sonic and Tails steer things down the right path and end this on the right note.
It sure took me a while to work out what it is that I might want to use as evidence on the next chapter. You really got to hand it to the people who create the storyline for these mystery games like Phoenix Wright. Just imagine how much work they have to do just to make sure they don't contradict themselves unless they really mean to. And then they have to think ahead on what they want to have happen and which evidence should be used where.
Anyway, I hope that you like this new chapter. I also decided to put in an element that would help with Sonic's investigation that's solely used by Tails. I didn't want him to be just a bystander following the hedgehog around for no good apparent reason. Also, with the evidence that was updated in the last chapter, that updated description will stick with the rest of the case until another update, if any, comes to replace that.
Also, when it came up with the witness's name, it was just a hell of a random moment there. I was busy doing homework, so I got Woker as a name; and I was also watching Star Gate: Universe, hence the name Rush after the scientist on the ship Nicholas Rush. Yeah, a real random moment there.
Until the next update everybody!
Evidence:
Attorney's Badge: Nobody would believe that Sonic was one if he didn't have it pinned proudly upon his chest. He proved that he was deserving of it despite his age after successfully completing his first career case.
Handgun: The murder weapon in the killing at the park. It is a precinct issue wielded by the detectives. Both the prints and the serial number connecting it to its owner have been wiped clean. It shows signs of being fired twice.
Crime Scene Photo: Shows the scene of the murder before Vector and his detective gang collected the evidence. A handgun is seen lying abandoned a few feet away from the body; a fiery red cell phone is seen on the ground a few inches from the victim's open right hand. It also shows a single gunshot wound to the chest above the heart.
Bullet: Found lodged in a tree somewhere near the crime scene. It was the bullet fired after the first firing by the proposed murderer. It's currently unknown as to why this one was clearly heard when the first shot wasn't.
Red Cell Phone: Belongs to Knuckles. He says he lost it the day before the murder and that it couldn't have been found anywhere near the crime scene. It has a black strap that has its owner's name on it. The prints have been wiped.
Autopsy Report: A report documenting the key details surrounding Ms. Vulpin's death. Her estimated time of death is around 12 to 12:30. She was shot straight in the heart with a single bullet. Her death was immediate.
Bullet 2: The bullet that was extracted from the victim's heart. Besides the blood, it looks unmarred and in pristine condition. The ballistic markings show that it was fired from the same gun that the second bullet was shot from.
Profiles:
Sonic Hedgehog: A seventeen year old blue furred male hedgehog. Passed the bar exam with flying colors, allowing him to earn his Attorney's Badge a year earlier than normal. Has a likable and confident attitude about him, but sometimes gets nervous when in the courtroom. He's Tails' adoptive big brother.
Miles Prower: Best known by his nickname Tails. He's a twelve-year-old orange furred fox with two tails. He spends most of his time in the Robotnik Law Firm where Sonic works making sure the place stays relatively clean. He doesn't go to school because of the school board recognizing his brilliant mind surpassing even the most advanced high school work.
Dr. Ivo Robotnik: A fifty-three year old defense attorney of some renown. He owns his own law firm, albeit a small business version, and hired Sonic to be his understudy. He's usually too busy working on some kind of case to be seen in the office much. He allows Tails to hang out in the office regardless if he does any work in there or not.
Knuckles Echidna: The defendant in this case and Sonic and Tails' friend. He is an eighteen-year-old detective who works at the local precinct and is apparently good friends with Prosecutor Vector. He has been accused of murdering a woman found shot to death in the local park.
Charmy Bee: A hyper little bee who's attitude sometimes surpasses his eight-year-old body. He works alongside Prosecutor Vector as a sort of small rag-tag group of detectives that work apart from the local precinct detectives.
Shadow Hedgehog: A seventeen-year-old hedgehog with fur that's as dark as the world's blackest midnight with occasional ruby red streaks lining his quills. He's the prosecutor in charge of overseeing the prosecution of the case. He started his career at the age of sixteen, a feat made possible due to his studies abroad where the prosecuting age is a couple of years less than this country.
Teela Vulpin: A twenty-five-year-old woman who worked as a simple waitress at a local busy diner. In her line of work, her ears sometimes picks up on things that are better left unknown. She's the victim in this case.
Rush Woker: A thirty year old man who tends to revere hard work over everything else. He always prefers that things get done right the first time around in a quick manner so as to avoid any kind of wasteful redundancy. This usually results in his constant temper and attitude problems when talking with others. He claims to have witnessed Knuckles killing the victim.
Chapter 5: Under the Midnight Moon Pt. 3
"Boy, that definitely wasn't how I thought I'd be leaving the courtroom today," Sonic said with a sigh. He was now back at the Robotnik Law Firm office and sitting on one of the couches and relaxing. "I still don't understand how you managed to come up with such a crazy idea like that Tails."
"But you got to admit that it's a pretty good hunch on my part," Tails answered from inside the kitchen as the sound of a few pots clanging were heard. "Seriously, just because they're part of the police doesn't mean that they didn't try anything funny at the crime scene like planting evidence and all that good illegal stuff."
"But the police aren't really the type of people to go fabricating evidence right at the scene where so many people could see them do it," the hedgehog countered with another sigh and a shake of his head. He did enjoy having his little brother's opinion on matters like this, but that sometimes meant that he would have to listen to ideas that most relatively sane people would disagree with him on. "To be real honest with you, I was more than surprised when the judge actually went ahead and agreed with what you said and ordered that all of the first responders that night be checked out. I thought that he might've gone off on you about how much of a scandal this was going to make regardless if it's true or not."
"I must admit that I was amazed he didn't go chewing me out about how crazy my proposal sounded," the two tailed fox responded as he came out with a couple cans of soda in his hands. "However, I did learn from all those criminal justice textbooks that you were supposed to have read when you were in high school that I should never sound like I had doubts about what I'm about to say if you want to get my point across. Didn't you read that part of your book for studying purposes?"
"I didn't think that it would be that important in terms of the tests that they like to give us at the end of almost every single week," the rookie attorney responded in a defensive tone as he took one of the cans and popped it open before taking a quick sip of the bubbly drink. He then said after letting out a rather obnoxious burp, "And besides, they never did say anything about studying that particular portion of the book. And who told you to go snooping around in my stuff in the first place?"
"Hey, I was bored at home that day when you were at school taking what was supposed to be both a school test and the state bar exam," the fox responded as he shook his head at his older brother's disgusting and childish behavior. "I had to do something to keep myself from dying of boredom, and that book was just lying around at the time. I always heard you complain about how boring it was and just had to see if it really was or if it was just you saying it. It turns out that it was just you saying it."
"Jeez, thanks for saying that I'm nothing but a lazy guy who doesn't like to study out of a very dense book. If you looked at the entire book, you would know that a good chunk of that boring stuff is stuff that usually involves common sense. And just out of curiosity, how far did you manage to read before I officially ditched it?"
"I didn't really get too far with it. I think I only read about five or so chapters before you came home and told me that you passed the test. I kind of really only remember the details of the middle chapters though."
"And you call reading five chapters in a few hours not too far? If I remember correctly, that book had about twenty or so chapters in it, each of them about ten or so pages long and filled with all those stupid technical questions. You practically read a fourth of that damn thing in like four or so hours. You either must have been really bored that day or found something insanely interesting with the whole thing."
Before they could continue on with their rather pointless conversation, they heard a rather loud knock from their door. It was soon accompanied by a somewhat high pitch voice that they remembered hearing when they were at the detention center yesterday.
"Hey guys; are you in there?" the voice of Charmy asked as he continued to knock away at the door. "I got the thing that you guys were asking for yesterday. Come on, I'm sure you guys are in there. Don't go playing the 'I'm not home' game with me."
Without saying or making much noise besides a small sigh, Tails walked towards the door after setting his still unopened can on the coffee table. Despite having only known the little bee since yesterday afternoon, he felt like he knew him since forever. It was most likely that energetic voice that caused him to feel that way. When he finally got to the door, he opened it and the other suddenly came flying through in less than a second later.
"It's about time you opened up that door," the hyper bee responded in an annoyed tone despite having really only waiting just about five or so seconds. "I was beginning to wonder if you guys thought I was some kind of gun toting stranger or something and didn't want me coming in anytime soon."
"...Yeah, that's quite an imagination you got there little buddy," Sonic said with a raised eyebrow as he awkwardly took another sip from his coke. This time around, he resisted the urge of making another obnoxious burp and kept his mouth closed when he did it. "It takes time for us to get to the door from here, you know?"
"Yeah, like two minutes is how long you can get off your sorry behind just to get to the door," the little guy said with a huff of his breath. It was clear that his hyper attitude was the main focus for his rather bold and impatient behavior. That and probably some over dosage of sugar were to blame as well. "Anyway, I got something for you guys. Old Vector managed to pull some strings and get you guys permission to get into the park."
"He actually managed to get us into Midnight Park?" Tails asked as he closed the door before seeing his can suddenly get snatched off from the table and become property of Charmy. He was about to raise an objection to it, but the little guy had quick fingers and was already downing a good portion of the soda before he could even say a word.
"I'm guessing that the white paper in your hand is the written consent from whoever it was he asked," the cobalt hedgehog responded as he tried to ignore the obsessive drinking and saw said paper in the process. The other simply nodded his head with the drink still in his mouth and handed it to the attorney. "I'm guessing that it was pretty easy for him to get being that he's a prosecutor and all that."
"Oh, you have no idea how hard it was for the big guy to get written permission on that piece of paper," the bee finally said as he placed the can on the table, its contents half gone. "He had to pull a few strings here and there and promise our detective services in the next case the detectives get. He'd usually be caught dead before he gave his services for free to anybody, but this time was special because of Knuckles being in trouble here."
"Sounds like a pretty heavy string for someone like him to pull," Tails stated as he went into the kitchen to probably grab himself another drink since his first one was practically hijacked. "Well, could you please thank him for us when you get back? This'll really help us with the investigation."
"Us, you say?" the little detective repeated as he momentarily stared at the fox with questioning eyes. "So you're also taking part in investigating this case? Wow, I didn't think someone as young as you would be able to handle something like this?"
"You're one to talk to, you know?" the attorney countered as he read over the paper with passive eyes before folding it. "I'm guessing that you're probably no older than six yet you're practically working an adult job as a detective."
"Yeah yeah, whatever. I like to think that age has nothing to do with how good I can do the job. Anyway, I better get going now. Vector wanted me to do a couple of things after I delivered this. See you around guys!"
And before the other two had a chance to say anything else, Charmy had flown towards the door with a slight humming of his wings and exited the office, leaving the door open on his way out in the process.
"Sounds like he just left," the two tailed fox stated in an obvious fashion as he exited the kitchen with a new can of soda in his hand. He quickly put it down on the table, however, when he saw the door open and went over to close it. "He sounds like a good guy, yet he seems to have a bit of a cocky attitude to him."
"Don't go closing that door Tails," Sonic suddenly spoke up as he got up from his seated position and threw his now empty can in a nearby trashcan. He also took the new can off the table and walked over towards the door with the paper in his hand. "I think it best that we start moving on with some detective work of our own. We only have until tomorrow morning to check out some more evidence and talk to other people who might be able to give us some more information on this case before court starts. And besides, I kind of want to talk to that Rush guy down at the detention center again."
"Why would you want to talk that that short-tempered guy who likes to rush things a lot?" the two tailed fox asked with a raised eyebrow as he took the can handed to him before moving to grab a simple cobalt blue backpack that he used to use when he was still attending school. "Besides helping us prove that there were two gunshots that night, all he really did was kind of waste everybody's time."
"Well, you never know when there might've been something that we forgot to ask him or didn't have a chance to otherwise in court. Either way, it never hurt to try to get more information for the hell of it. And while we're kind of on the subject of doing otherwise stupid things, why are you taking your backpack with you? You aren't planning to start going to college now, are you?"
"I'm thinking that we might run into some things that could be evidence when we go to check out the park. If we do, then it's good that we have something that we can put them in instead of walking everywhere with them in our hands."
"That actually does make a whole lot of sense," the cobalt hedgehog stated with a nod of his head before he exited the office and waited for the other to follow suit. Once they were both out, he locked the door behind him and placed the keys into the backpack. "Now where do you think we should go first? Should we go check out Midnight Park, or do we pay a visit to Rush Woker down at the detention center?"
"Well, maybe we should go visit Mr. Woker first," the fox suggested as they walked down the hallway and towards the exit of the building complex the business was situated in. "If he really does have something important that could help us, then we'd most likely be able to connect it with something at the park. That way, we won't have to keep going back and forth and waste money with cab fares."
"Alright then, it looks like it's time for us to go and ask our witness a couple more important questions," the attorney said with a kind of excitement in his tone. "Let's just hope he's not as stubborn as he was in court and that we'll get somewhere."
Once they were both outside, they were greeted with the everyday common sounds that the streets usually had. This included the slight zooming sounds of passing cars and some other people walking by them with some talking with each other. They both ignored these sounds and moved towards the curb edge. With his hand waving, Sonic attempted and managed to flag down a yellow taxi that stopped right next to them. He opened the back door and allowed his little brother to go in first before he went inside himself.
"Sonic, what do you think Shadow's doing right now?" Tails asked once the other had told the driver where it was they wanted to go.
"He's probably doing the same thing we're doing right now, trying to further investigate this case," Sonic replied as he sat back on the leather seat. "As much as I like him doing that, I hate that he's doing it so as to prove Knuckles guilty."
"Uh, I wasn't talking about the case, you know?" the young fox clarified. "I was asking about what he was doing in his personal life and all that?"
"And how am I supposed to know about something like that?" the cobalt hedgehog asked with a simple shrug of his shoulders as if it were not his problem to think about. "I didn't get much of a chance to ask him anything not regarding the case today, and I don't think I'll have much of a chance to talk to him tomorrow."
"Well, maybe we'll be able to talk to him after the case is preferably over in our favor. It's been a little over two years now since we last talked to him before he moved out of country. I didn't think that he'd actually become a prosecutor and come back here to work. I knew that he tended to be a bit serious, but I never really saw him working in a courtroom setting. I wonder what made him go for that."
"I think I can take a good guess at that," the young defense attorney responded with a small sigh that was reminiscent in nature. "I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to try his best to study law for the same reasons as me. Like me, he probably couldn't forget about what happened to us a couple months before he left. It's not really the easiest of things to forget about, you know?"
"You still remember about that incident, do you? That was definitely the darkest days of our lives there. Thankfully for me, I was out cold for a good portion of the ordeal, so I don't know much about the whole thing there. On the other hand, you two and Knuckles know what happened there. I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised that all three of you decided to take on jobs that have to deal with law."
"We're just trying to find answers about why that day happened in our own way I guess. I just started my job, so I have nothing to really say about it. I've kept in close contact with Knuckles ever since he became a detective, and he hasn't found anything worthwhile about it. I guess Shadow's the only one of us left who might've been able to figure something out about that day, being that he's been working as a prosecutor here for a year."
"Well, you can ask him once the case is over, considering that he isn't too busy after this being too hard on himself for losing to you. If I remember correctly, he always had this competitive streak to him that made him always want to win at everything he did. You were the only one who could ever officially beat him at mostly anything."
For about a half an hour, the two brothers were reminiscing about how things used to be when Shadow and Knuckles hanged out with them without work having to get in their way. They soon arrived back at the Detention Center where they had first visited yesterday, although that was under the suggestion of Knuckles. This time, they were here of their own volition wanting to visit the witness in the murder case.
After they spent a couple of seconds talking with the secretary and signing themselves in as per the center's regulations, she directed them to where the both of them would be allowed to meet with and talk to Rush once he was brought from where he was being held. They thanked her and started heading to the indicated room. Once there, they noticed that the case witness was already there waiting for them to show up.
"Ah, it's you two again," the man stated with a tone that held emotion while hinting at nothing at the same time. "You're the ones who got me in this place by saying that I was a liar during my testimony. Have you come here to laugh in front of my face for successfully putting my entire schedule off its intended track?"
"With all due respect Mr. Woker, we didn't come here to laugh about anything," Sonic stated in a serious tone as wanted to set the tone up right in order to get some more potential information out of him. "What we really came here was to ask you a couple of questions that we didn't have a chance to ask you in court this morning."
"And what more could you possibly want to have dragged out of my mouth? I've already told you everything that I know and saw that night, so unless you want to know every single little detail that led up to that moment that I was there, I'm afraid that you wasted your precious time coming down here."
"Please sir, an innocent life hangs in the balance," Tails stated in as calm of a tone he could muster despite already getting annoyed with the conversation before they even were a minute into it. "Because of that, we want to clarify a couple of things that were mentioned in your testimony. Unless we really have to, we're not going to be asking you any new questions. Is that good enough for you?"
"It's not like I even have much of a choice in the matter here. Very well, what do you want to ask me about?"
"For starters, I want to clarify once again what it is that you saw that night," Sonic stated, finally feeling like they were going somewhere. "There are still some things that we still don't have the answers to."
"I already told the court everything that I saw that night. I saw that detective running from the scene when I found the body."
"And what was your reasoning that he was the murderer? Was it simply because he was running from the scene and the fact that his cellphone was found there?"
"That's exactly right. I've stayed right next to that body the entire time when I made that call to the police, and I had some time to check out the area around it. I remember every little detail that was there as clear as day."
"Then do you mind if we asked you about what you remember seeing?" the fox asked as he actually took out a pencil and paper from his backpack and was ready to take notes. He was truly ready for anything that might have come their way.
"I thought you said that you weren't going to be directing me to questions that weren't asked during the court proceedings," Rush reminded them with an arch of his eyebrow. "You can continue pressing the issue on me all you like, but I refuse to say to talk about anything that hasn't been discussed in court this morning."
"But that's being unreasonable," Sonic stated as he tried to reason with the man. "Just because it's a question different from that in court doesn't mean that we're not permitted to ask you something else off the record. To be perfectly honest, what you say here can be used in court provided it has been properly documented. And besides, we said we might ask you some new questions if we really needed to."
"I'm sorry, but you're not going to get anything out of me," the man said as he started to act as defiant as he was before he got himself arrested in court. "What you're asking is most likely not even going to be related to the case anyway."
"Hey Sonic," Tails whispered to the hedgehog, giving him a small nudge in the ribs to obtain his full attention. "Why don't you let me take a shot at this guy? Maybe I can get him to talk with a little line of logic that even he can't dodge."
"Do you really think that you can get him to talk?" the hedgehog whispered back, his eyes reflecting some hint of uncertainty. "You saw me try, and look where it got me. He might as well be a rock trying to swim in the ocean."
"Just give me a chance here," the two tailed fox whispered back before he raised his voice back to a normal speaking tone. "Mr. Woker, do you mind telling us why it is you feel that what we're going to ask you isn't even worth asking before we even ask it?"
"My, that's such a confusing line of words you threw at me in the end there. No matter. If you're not going to be appeased until I give you an ample reason, then I might as well produce one for you."
Argument: Staying Quiet
What point is there in me telling you something that doesn't help with your case? I don't need to know what you're asking in order to know it leads to nothing. You're just trying to find ways to get your client off the hook. I simply refuse to be a part of a possible conspiracy act between you two. Unless you can prove to me something new that I didn't hear in court, my lips are going to be sealed.
End Argument
"Oh, can you be anymore stubborn than you are now?" Sonic asked rhetorically with an aggravated sigh. "This is the exact same kind of attitude that landed you behind this piece of glass in the first place. And don't you think that you're over exaggerating a bit when you say that we're planning something illegal here?"
"Hey, just because you're a servant of the law doesn't mean that you would try to break said laws just to get your way," Rush responded with a smug look on his face as he accused the two of manipulating the law without directly saying it. "I've heard instances of it being done before, and I wouldn't put it past you that you're trying to find something baseless and blow it out of proportions."
"How about I just go ahead and ask you a couple of things regarding your argument just now?" Tails suggested with a sort of sheepish smile as he tried to move away from the tender topic. "We both know that we didn't come here just to argue about things that you don't know to either be true or false. And if it makes you feel any better, it doesn't have anything to do with the case, so you should be able to talk to us."
"Alright, I'll go ahead and humor you," the man conceded with a small sigh and a shake of his head. "I still believe that this is all but a waste of precious time that you could spend on something more productive."
"And here's where I try to work out some logic," the little fox whispered to the hedgehog who was kind of in the background watching things unfold. "Let's just hope that what I learned from your textbooks will be enough to get me through this."
"I don't care how you do it, just get this over with as quickly as possible," the cobalt hedgehog whispered back to his little brother as he distanced himself from the two. "I don't know how much longer I can handle this guy's sickeningly stubborn attitude that couldn't even compare with Knuckles'."
Begin Rebuttal
"If you don't mind me saying Mr. Woker, your reasons for not wanting to even hear out our new question for you on the case is highly unreasonable," Tails started his rebuttal in a serious tone. He wanted the feel to be almost like a courtroom so as to achieve the highest results possible. That and he kind of wanted to show Sonic that he would be able to help get Knuckles out of trouble in his own way. "I hardly think that you have anything to be rushing to right now seeing as you're stuck here in jail."
"Unless the company your work for decided to actually give you some paperwork to work on in here, I don't really see anything you would be so eager to be getting back to," Sonic added with a kind of huff of his breath as he leaned against the table a bit while trying to watch what his little brother was trying to do.
"Well, life is always full of things that we as individuals want to have over with as soon as possible," Rush simply responded in a monotonous tone as if this talk was beginning to bore him. "In this case, I'm in a hurry to get out of this place that I don't belong in. You'd think that they'd at least allow me some more room to pace around in besides that concrete shoebox they pass off for a cell."
"I'm sure that jail cells weren't originally built with the comfort of their intended inhabitants in mind," the two tailed fox countered rather weakly being that he was not arguing about jail comforts in the first place. "Making it akin to that of a famous Ritz Carleton Hotel would completely defeat the purpose of even wanting to create this place for incarcerating people. Anyway, what reason do you have to think that what we want to ask you will offer no help whatsoever to our case?"
"Because as it has been proven in court, I didn't see the actual moment that the murder occurred," the man simply stated without much change in his voice. "Rather, I only heard the event take place. Because of this reasoning, I can hardly see how that qualifies as a reason to be asking me more questions I most likely have no answer to. Not that I mean to injure anybody's feelings here, but you're both simply wasting your time and acting like a couple of stupidly bumbling idiots in the process."
"Alright, you just crossed the line from becoming annoying to just plain infuriating!" the cobalt hedgehog spoke up with a strong bite of anger in his tone as his aggravation was starting to get the better of him. And if anybody that might have been around him did not get the hint from his voice, then his would have clearly given even a blind man ample opportunity to sense his immense dissatisfaction at the situation. "I don't know what you're doing here Tails, but you better get on with it quickly before I go through this plate glass and punch him right in the nose! I'm serious, he's really asking for it right now!"
"Calm down Sonic; getting angry isn't going to help anybody here," Tails stated calmly as he tried to not look at his brother's most likely blazing eyes. "That and threatening him is just going to make things worse." He then shifted his full attention back at the man on the other side of the glass. "Mr. Woker, what can I possibly do in order to convince you that what we want to ask you has relevancy to our case?"
"Well, you can start by telling or showing me something that I failed to see during my time in the court. I was unfortunately kicked out rather unceremoniously before the supposed next witness was to take the stand. If you tell or show me anything new that came up during that time, then I might be inclined to tell you more. Anything short of that, and I'll stay quiet no matter how hard you push or badger me. If you can't, then I suggest that you leave now and spare all of us this needless trouble."
End Rebuttal
"If that's how you really feel about it, then I guess I can only just play along with it," Tails stated with a sigh and shrug of his shoulders. "After you were unceremoniously kicked out of the courtroom this morning, the court heard the defendant's testimony. It was through it that we figured out something that sheds a new light to the entire case. What I'm getting here is that there's a possibility of someone else murdering the victim."
"And how was it that you proposed this theory be turned into a controversial opinion?" Rush questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Did the detective say something along the lines of someone else running away from the scene that I happened to miss?"
"You hit it right on the nose, Mr. Woker," the fox responded. "Knuckles said that he saw somebody running away from him right when the second shot that you heard was fired. I would suspect that you only had the capacity to see the defendant running because the other was already a good distance away."
"And how is that supposed to be of any importance?" the witness questioned, clearly feeling that this was becoming very redundant. "I would suppose that you somehow managed to convince the judge this was true or you wouldn't be talking to me about this now. Do you mind telling me how it was proven?"
"Before we do that, I need to ask you a question about what you saw at the scene. Can you describe what it was you saw around the victim's body?"
"I already told you that all I saw was that red phone next to the victim. There was nothing else of suspicious nature around her."
"Well, I think we finally got something cleared up here Sonic," Tails stated in a proud voice. Sonic simply looked at his little brother with amazement at how he managed to smoothly move the argument into their favor while dragging information out of him at the same time. "Mr. Woker, I believe you when you say that you saw only the phone at the scene. If you think about it, however, don't you find it funny that something very important is missing? And before you say anything, I'm talking about the murder weapon."
"Th-the murder weapon?" Rush repeated as he finally realized what it was he had just said. "Are you saying that was missing from the crime scene?"
"I'm seeing now that you're finally catching on with what I'm thinking of here. If you really stood by the body the entire time since you first discovered it, then Sonic shouldn't have been able to present the murder weapon to you during your testimony to pose a contradiction. I'll ask you one more time; did you really stay by that body the entire time after you made that call to the police?"
"O-of course I did; the police can attest to the fact that I was at the scene when they arrived," the man stated with a small stutter, clearly shaken at the fact that he had failed to notice the absence of a gun at the scene. "They found nothing to have been altered from its original position while I was waiting for them to show."
"And that's where the problem in our case lies," Sonic spoke up as he realized what this testimony meant. "Something was clearly altered at the scene of the crime that night. You didn't see anything nearby that could even resemble a gun, and Knuckles said that the person he chased had the gun on him when he ran. Put the two together, and we can safely conclude that the gun wasn't initially at the scene when the police arrived."
"But then what is that supposed to mean? I hardly think that the police would have anything to gain by... Hold on a second!"
"I think you finally figured out the whole story now. How would it be that a member of the police would be able to get their hands on the murder weapon if there had been no previous reports of it being turned in even anonymously at the station? The only reasonable conclusion we can draw from this is that someone in the force has ties with the murderer, or the murderer himself is a police officer or a local precinct detective. And to narrow things down even further, we can only suspect those who were first responders to the scene since that's the only time when overall security around the body would be lax enough for anyone to conveniently plant rather incriminating evidence without discovery."
"Then...then my assumption on who the murderer was has been...!"
"It's been wrong the entire time as I've been trying to prove from the moment you first set foot in court!" the cobalt hedgehog finished off the stunned man's sentence with excitement bubbling within him. "Even you can't continue on with your stubborn farce with what Tails has explained to you just now!"
"...It seems as though this is one of those rare moments where my habit to perform a quick yet efficient job has backfired on me," Rush growled out as he reluctantly admitted that he had been proven wrong on his account of the crime. "Good show, little fox. You certainly know how to utilize the powers of speech and direct it to a logically proven conclusion. That's quite a feat for someone as young as you."
"Yes, your thoughts on who you thought was the murderer was wrong on all accords," Tails responded in a tone that showed he was not trying to rub anything in. "However, I'm not saying that you did not see the murderer at all that night. You said that the person you saw coming during or after you called the police was our client. And now that we're clear that the murderer couldn't have been him, then it only goes to say that the second person you saw was the murderer him or herself."
"Then why would he come back only to just run away once again?" Sonic asked as he recalled what was heard during court. "Oh, he probably did that to go and plant the phone at the crime scene. It would make it one less thing for an officer to conveniently discover at the scene."
"That's the same thought I ended up coming up with, too. However, I think that he only had time to plant one thing being that he wasn't counting on Mr. Woker to still be hanging around for such a long period of time."
"I would like to ask something of you two," the man said as he finally calmed down somewhat after being thoroughly beaten by someone so much younger than him. "I seem to recall during the session that a detective agency collected some of the evidence on scene. I would suspect that they did so after I notified the police, right?"
"I don't see any other way that they could've collected the evidence," the fox answered. "They gave it to us about four in the afternoon yesterday in this very place. Why do you ask?"
"So the police had yet to collect the evidence when they first arrived at the scene. Then that does give an officer or detective ample time to plant a weapon there."
"And so you're saying that the gun was already planted there when the Chaotix Detective Agency went there to investigate and collect evidence," the attorney concluded. "I guess the first responders to the crime scene aren't well equipped to go collecting things that are there. That still doesn't answer the question as to who were the first responders."
"I guess that's something that we might be able to figure out once we get to the park and check things out there. Thank you Mr. Woker for letting us talk with you again. You don't know how much of a help you've been to us today."
"Although it was somewhat tedious for my tastes at times, I must admit that it held a bit of an entertaining as value well," Rush admitted with a small smile approaching his lips, the first that both have ever seen on him since they first met. "I suppose my mantra of trying to do a good job while rushing it to completion should be gotten rid of."
Without saying anything else, Rush got up from his chair on the other side of the glass and turned towards the bailiff that had been standing there ever since the two teens had first come in. He took it as a sign that they were done with their conversation and wordlessly escorted the man out of the room and back into his designated cell.
"Sounds like my hunch was right on this," Sonic stated happily with a smile as he made his way to the door. "I don't think that I would've been able to have really gotten very far without your help though. Thanks for getting that guy to talk to us."
"Not a problem Sonic," Tails responded happily as he followed his older brother out of the door and into the hallway on their way out of the Detention Center. "I just wanted to show you that I can help you out with these cases."
"I never said that you couldn't," the cobalt hedgehog simply responded. "I just didn't think that it would be good if I kept tugging you here and there on what would most likely be a wild goose chase kind of thing. I guess now that having you stay home and wait for me is going to be out of the question if I keep running into stubborn people like Mr. Woker."
"Yeah, you never did have the patience with people who act a lot like him," the young fox said with a small chuckle. "You always like to pick a fight with Knuckles whenever he pulls the annoying card on you."
"That's because he never wants to answer anything whenever he starts becoming like that. And speaking of Knuckles, I kind of remember something. Do you remember the Handgun we got from Vector yesterday? Well, I'm thinking that we might still be able to figure out the serial number."
"And how do you think we'll be able to do that?" his little brother asked as he felt his arm rummaging inside his backpack and taking something out. "It's kind of hard to really read what was once on there when it has been worn off."
"The serial number was basically stenciled into the handle," the attorney explained as he examined the weapon from within its plastic confides. "It looked like the murderer took a piece of sandpaper and rubbed it off the gun. What if he didn't rub the entirety of the numbers off? What if he only erased enough so that whoever managed to get their hands on it wouldn't be able to read it?"
"If we can't see the numbers on the gun, then how are you thinking that we'll be able to figure out what they even are?" the boy questioned as they finally approached the reception area where the secretary was still working diligently in front of her computer.
"I have an idea, but I think I'll need some help from the secretary. "Excuse me miss," Sonic addressed the woman as politely as he could. "Do you think you could help us with something?"
"It would depend on what that something is," the secretary responded as he diverted her attention away from the work on her computer. "Do you wish to visit somebody else here in the Detention Center?"
"Actually, I was thinking if I could ask to borrow something from you. Do you have anything that has powder in it? I need it so I can try to read something that was stenciled in and now too faded to really read."
"Hmm, I believe I have some cheek blush makeup in my purse," she responded as she bent over behind her desk and began rummaging within the drawers. She came back up a moment later with a small pink compact in her hands. "I hope that this will work for your experiments. I only ask that you try not to use too much of it for this. It's a rather expensive brand that's hard to come by at the local boutiques."
"I'll try not to use too much, although I don't think I'll even need much at all," the hedgehog said as he took the compact and opened it. Inside was some pink powder underneath a small cotton ball with a mirror on the top half of the item. He placed it carefully on the desk as Tails handed him a pair of gloves that he had put into his backpack before they left earlier. He really did thought of everything when he brought that backpack with him. "Let's go ahead and see what else we can possibly dig up from this gun."
With careful hands, he opened the plastic bag containing the Handgun and placed it on top of the table. He could clearly see on the handle the scratch marks made when the murderer tried to sand off the numbers along with the unreadable indentations made from the stenciling. He then took the cotton ball with some of the makeup on it and began putting the pink dust over the markings. After spending a few seconds doing that, he had what he felt to be an adequate amount of dust over the markings. After replacing the cotton ball back into the compact, he carefully wiped away the excess powder with his hands and ended up with the results he was looking for.
"Well, what do you know?" he said happily as he closed the compact and handed it back to the secretary. "I didn't think that it would actually work this well. Thank you very much for letting me borrow this."
"It was my pleasure to do so," the woman responded with a smile as he put her compact back into her desk and went back to work on her computer. She then murmured more to herself than to the two boys now getting ready to leave, "I must admit that it was kind of nice to actually contribute to the discovery of new evidence. I've always wanted to know what that feeling of discovery was like."
"So that's the serial number of the officer who this gun belongs to," Tails responded as he caught a glimpse of the pink numbers before they were carefully placed back into the bag in a way that the dust did not get disturbed. "Now that we know, how are you going to figure out who they belong to? I doubt that the police would be very eager to help you out with this being that I was kind of the one who was accusing one of them for murder and all that."
"I guess we'll just cross that bridge when it comes," Sonic responded with a shrug as he put the gun back into the backpack before heading towards the exit with his little brother following close behind him. "At least we now have something to go on as to who this gun belongs to. I now know that it doesn't belong to Knuckles. I remember him showing me his gun once, and the serial number on it didn't start with a zero.
"Hey, what's this folded piece of paper?" the cobalt hedgehog asked as he felt his hands brush against the familiar feel of paper and took it out of the backpack. "I don't remember seeing something like that when I pulled the gun out earlier."
"Oh, that was something that I was working on a couple of minutes ago," the fox explained as he snatched the paper out of his older brother's hands and put it back in with the rest of the evidence. "It's kind of a makeshift transcript of Mr. Woker's Testimony from earlier. I'm sure that it'll be of some help to us tomorrow. After all, this is something that the court didn't get a chance to hear this morning."
"Yeah, that does make a whole lot of sense," the attorney admitted with a smile as he ruffled his little brother's head in a pleased and affectionate fashion. "Anyway, how about we hurry up and get to the park now? It's starting to get a bit late, and I want to check things out there before it gets too dark."
"Sounds like a good idea there," the fox agreed as he flagged down a taxi and quickly got in once it stopped right next to them. "And maybe we'll get lucky and figure out the reason why nobody was able to hear the first shot."
"It's probably a better chance than being able to figure out who the murder weapon belongs to," the attorney responded with a shrug of his shoulders before he directed the taxi driver to where it was that they wanted to go. A couple of seconds later, they were on their way to Midnight Park, the scene of the murder.
After riding in relative silence for the next fifteen or so minutes, the two finally arrived at the entrance to the park. They stopped about a block short from it, however, because of the somewhat dense police presence surrounding the area. They were most likely still searching the scene for things that they might have missed in their investigation yesterday.
"Wow, I was thinking that things would've cooled down a bit by now after a day's worth of investigating," Sonic stated as he got out of the taxi after paying the driver the fare. "It looks like there nowhere near done yet."
"They're probably just making sure that they didn't overlook anything of great importance while preventing certain people from coming over and messing things up," Tails suggested as he closed the door behind him and saw the vehicle slowly moving away from them and towards its next potential customer. "Either that or they got wind of what I said this morning in court and decided to go all out in defending themselves from any questions that they might be asked."
"I'm willing to bet on the latter of the two," the cobalt hedgehog stated with a small huff of his breath that was of amusement. "It's kind of funny when you think about it. The police would most likely claim that they are innocent, yet they are going completely crazy in looking for something that would prove none of them had anything to do with the murder. Sound's almost like they're admitting to their guilt right there."
"Hey, what are you two doing there?" a man's deep voice suddenly demanded as they neared the entrance to the park. It came from the officer that was standing on duty making sure nobody without authority passed by him. "This is a restricted area. Nobody from the general public is allowed to be here."
"Don't worry sir, we have every right to be here today," the attorney answered immediately, not wanting to be mincing words with the officer as he pulled out the piece of paper from the backpack that Charmy had given them earlier. "We have written permission to examine the scene of the crime."
"Is that so?" the officer asked in a skeptical tone as he took the paper from the teen's hands and began to read over the contents of it. After spending a few moments reading it, gave the paper back with a slight frown on his lips. "Well, it looks like everything is in order here. Go on ahead; just make sure you don't mess up with the scene."
"I promise you; we're not going to do anything crazy like that," the two tailed fox replied as they passed by the man. All he got as an answer from the cop was an undistinguishable look that seemed to reflect his skepticism on the subject.
"Alright, let's hurry up and get to the crime scene," Sonic said as he tried to move away from the officer as quickly as possible while trying to not seem suspicious with his quick movements. "I don't want that guy to be having the time to figure out that we're the ones who got the police tied in with this and then have him kick ups out because of that."
"Yeah, he does have the right to do that since all we really have is the permission of someone that Vector managed to get for us," Tails admitted with a nod of his head. "Then let's not waste any time and search the crime scene while we still have the chance."
With quick strides that they made sure could easily be interpreted as them being in a rush to investigate the crime scene, the two made their way to where police activity was at its peak. They passed by a couple of officers along the way, but they simply gave them no attention as they continued on with whatever it was that they were doing. A couple of seconds later, they finally approached the area where the victim was first discovered lying dead.
"We're finally here," the cobalt hedgehog responded with a small sigh as he let his eyes scan the surrounding area. "Looks like it's time for us to start searching for something that might be important to us."
"Provided that the police around here haven't managed to find anything before we got here," the fox responded in an attempt to tone down his big brother's quickly rising excitement. He then added as he started to search areas that were not already preoccupied by the police, "Let's just hurry up and look at the spots where these guys aren't at. Maybe we'll be lucky enough and find something."
For the next few minutes, the two of them were searching the areas around the scene of the crime that did not have any kind of police activity whatsoever. They searched behind bushes and carefully examined the trees in hopes that they might be able to find something hidden around them. The police and detectives that were nearby occasionally casted some suspicious glances over towards them, all of them wondering what it was they were doing there. They ignored these stares and continued on with their investigation without saying much to each other or anybody else around them.
"Hey Sonic!" Tails suddenly called out from somewhere behind a bush that was a good distance away from where the body was at as he poked his head out of it. "I think I found something over here."
"That's some good news here," moving away from the tree he was searching and towards his little brother to see what it was he had found. He was trying to look for the tree where the bullet he got from the Chaotix was found, but it was proving to be extremely difficult. "I can't find that tree that got shot at that night. What is it that you found?"
"I'm not sure," the fox admitted as he showed what he found to his older brother. In his already gloved hands was a kind of shiny object that was cylindrical in shape and long. On one end of it was something that kind of looked like it would enable it to be clasped onto something else. "It might be something important though. It might've been dropped by the guy that Knuckles said he chased."
"And just what is it that you two are doing here?" a voice suddenly questioned from somewhere behind the two. "This park is currently off limits to everybody except police and detectives. I'm afraid that I'll have to ask the two of you to leave before you end up accidentally messing things up here."
When they turned around, they saw that the person addressing them was a hedgehog with silver fur all over him covered by a brown coat with a badge attached to the front. It was clear by the words put in relief against the golden color that he was a detective. His unusual golden yellow eyes were looking at them with some suspicion reflecting off of them as his hands were resting inside his coat pockets. It was clear by his simple attire and the sound of authority in his tone that he was most likely a detective from the local precinct.
"Uh, I'm sorry sir," Sonic apologized to the detective, a small hint of familiarity rising within him for some reason unbeknownst to him. "I don't mean to be ruffling anybody's fur here. We have permission to be investigating the crime scene, however, so don't go chewing us out just yet."
"We have the paper to prove it," Tails spoke up as he handed the detective their written permission, his eyes also reflecting a small hint of familiarity when he saw the man. "I'm sorry for asking this, but have we met somewhere before?"
"Unless you got yourself tied up to a crime sometime in the past before, I can't say that we have," the silver furred hedgehog responded as he took a quick look at the paper with a white gloved hand that was taken out of his pocket before handing it back to them. He then did a slight double take and pulled it back within his eyesight just as the cobalt hedgehog was about to take hold of it. "Wait a minute; is your name really Sonic?"
"Uh, it was the last time I checked," the attorney responded with a small roll of his eyes, clearly annoyed at how the detective just took the paper back right after he was about to return it to him. "What's it to you in who I am?"
"Heh, I remember that cocky attitude anywhere," the other stated as a small reminiscent smile made its way onto his face. "I suppose that you don't remember me if you're giving me that kind of an answer. I'm the detective that managed to get your life back on track after that case you were involved in two years ago."
"Wait a minute; I think I remember who you are now!" Tails exclaimed as the cogs were finally working their magic inside that brilliant head of his. "You're Detective Silver, aren't you? You were the detective who went out of your way to get me and my friends out of that big mess two years ago!"
"I would suspect then that you're Tails, aren't you?" the detective now known to be Silver responded and received a nod from the young fox as an answer. He then added with clear amusement in his tone, "My, you sure did some growing over these couple of years. I remember how you used to be so shy around anybody who weren't your parents or friends. Boy, who would've thought that I'd be running into the two of you in a place like this."
"Oh yeah, you were the guy who loved to grill me on how my attitude was!" the cobalt hedgehog responded with strong realization in his words as he finally recognized the person in front of him. "I didn't think I'd run into you again while working as a defense attorney. I see that you're still working as a detective with the precinct."
"Actually, you can now consider me to be a senior detective. I got myself a nice promotion last year and have now been able to oversee investigations and take over others that seem to be gaining no progress whatsoever. I naturally still have to take the jobs assigned to me, but I at least now have the opportunity to pass it on to someone else if I feel it isn't worth my time or just feeling plain lazy."
"And I'm guessing that is why you're here now then," the fox stated with a small nod of his head. "You're overseeing the investigation of this crime because things aren't moving as well as they should."
"That's not really the reason why I'm taking on this job," Silver explained with a sigh. "I'm taking this place over because of what you said in court this morning. Thanks to your big mouth, the lead detective of the case has been temporarily taken off of this case and is now being questioned back at the precinct along with a few others."
"Well, it wasn't like I really had much of a choice in the matter," the young kitsune spoke up in his defense before his older brother's temper got the better of them both. "It was the only thing that made sense at the time; and I still feel that that's the only possibility left open since I really believe that Knuckles really isn't the murderer."
"Well, I'm not really complaining about the whole thing per se," the silver furred detective responded with a small innocent shrug of his shoulders. "It just means more money for me now that I'm working overtime because of this job. That and I really like Knuckles as both a friend and fellow detective. I guess I should be thanking you on a personal note and hating you both on a professional level."
"You're welcome, I guess," Sonic stated, confused as to what the other was talking about. That feeling soon left him, however, and he had an idea that he figured might help them advance further with his case. "So you're still working as a detective at the local precinct, right?"
"That is kind of what I said a few seconds ago. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was wondering if you might know something about a couple of things that we have on us," the cobalt hedgehog responded as he motioned with his hands the object that was still within Tails' grasp. "We found something here in the bushes just before you decided to sneak up on us. Do you have any idea what it is?"
"That's an additional piece meant for use with handguns," the detective answered without taking more than a second to look at the object. "I've noticed him holding that in his hands ever since I got here. It's what we like to call a Silencer. It's basically what you put over the tip of a gun's nuzzle so that you can dampen out a good majority of sound that a gunshot would make. You wouldn't be able to hear it unless you were probably within good viewing distance of the shooter."
"A Silencer?" Tails repeated as he looked at the object in his hands with a small glint shining in his eyes. "Hey Sonic, do you think this is the reason why nobody was able to hear the first shot that killed Ms. Vulpin?"
"I was wondering the same thing there. Hey Silver, do you think that you can figure out whether or not a bullet was shot out through this thing?"
"Give it to me and I'll see if I can identify some telltale signs," Silver demanded somewhat politely as he placed a gloved hand out. The fox gave the Silencer to him and he immediately started to examine it. "Hmm, there are small black flecks at the end of it. I can't really say for sure whether or not this was used on the night of the murder, but it's clear that it did fire out at least one bullet before. There is something else about it though," he added with a slight unease in his tone. "This piece of equipment is made to fit only the standard issue guns that every detective carries with them. The police carry a slightly different model, so this doesn't work with theirs."
"Well, that sounds like an interesting piece of detail," Sonic stated as he thought about what that detail meant. He then reached into the backpack to pull out something else as he said; "Now we know that only the detectives should be under suspect if we continue to believe that one of them planted evidence. And how about this Handgun?" he continued on as he handed the still bagged weapon to the detective for him to examine. "There's something on it that I want you to take a look at."
"This is the murder weapon that was found here, right?" the detective clarified as he took the gun and returned the Silencer at the same time. "I hear that it was proven that it was planted here after the murderer ran off with it. I would suspect that you know pretty much everything that there is to know about it since you presented it to the court."
"Everything except who the owner of the gun is," the fox responded as he took a standard sandwich bag out of his pack and placed the piece of metal into it. "We were hoping that you might know who it belongs to. We managed to get a read on the serial number on it by putting some dust over the numbers that the murderer tried to scratch out."
"It looks more like you treated this thing like it was something to practice cosmetic skills on," the other responded with a small chuckle as he clearly recognized what the pink substance was. "I guess you just have to improvise when you have nothing better to use. Let's see if I can recognize this number... Wait a minute," he stated with a sharp intake of breath that was out of shock. "This number...!"
"It sounds like you know who it belongs to," the cobalt hedgehog stated with a raised eyebrow at the detective's response. From what he remembered, he did not get too taken aback when they last had a Q and A session, so whatever he figured out must have really struck a cord in him. "Do you mind telling us the guy's name?"
"I...I..." Silver stuttered, clearly trying to get over the shock currently flooding his entire bodily system and failing miserably at the moment. After a couple moments' worth of deep breaths, he finally managed to get the words out of his mouth. "If I remember correctly, then this number... It belongs to...to Detective Ace Sleuth, a detective that's higher up in rank than me! He was the one who was overseeing the initial investigation before I was to take over that job."
"He's a detective with higher seniority than you, huh? I wasn't really expecting that one, to be perfectly honest with you. Then again, I guess it makes a bit of sense since a high ranking detective might have better flexibility to do something like this without causing much suspicion on himself. Nobody would dare question him about what he might be doing near a body during an initial investigation."
"It's nice to be able to finally pin a name on the owner of this gun," Tails stated as he took the bag out of the still slightly shocked detective's hands and quickly jotted down a couple of quick notes on the bag. "I still can't believe that this actually belongs to a member of the police force. The question we have to ask ourselves now is why that gun even at the crime scene was in the first place?"
"But I don't think that it was him who murdered the victim here," the detective refuted at his superior turned prime suspect defense. "Of all the people who would want her dead, he would be the last person wanting that."
"And how can you say something like that with such confidence?" Sonic asked, intrigued at the reasoning behind this claim.
"Because Ace and Teela were engaged! They've been so for almost half a year now, and it was well known throughout the force. They loved each other so much that they liked to show that appreciation out in the open with frequent kisses and hugs. He was head over heels for her. He wouldn't even dare think about harming a hair on her body!"
"If he really loved her that much, then why is he still working right now?" the fox asked with a raised eyebrow. "Why would he consider working as the lead detective in her death? People would naturally be too shocked at hearing their loved one be killed to really do much of anything else."
"You obviously don't know the detective at all. Beyond all of the lovey stuff, he hardly lets any kind of emotions get in the way of his job. Even the most gruesome of crimes couldn't deter him from investigating a murder to the best of his abilities.
"And there's also another reason why he couldn't have murdered the victim," the detective added as he recalled something else. "He was called in for investigating some kind of gang incident that was happening in the middle of town a little before midnight that night. I can say that for sure because I was relatively close to him when he got that order. I even saw him leave the building after that. He couldn't possibly have had time to even go murdering her."
"I get the feeling that this is something we aren't going to be getting a clear answer to until we're in court tomorrow," Sonic stated with a small frown on his lips as he gave thought to what he might run into the next day in court. Tails was off to the side busy jotting what he assumed to have been Silver's Testimony on a piece of paper. "Thanks for giving us all this information Silver. I'm sure that somewhere in there is the answer to everything that happened that night."
"I still don't think that Detective Ace murdered his fiancée," Silver stated as he was clearly in a state of denial as he walked away from the two without saying goodbye. "It just doesn't make any sense at all."
"I really feel sorry for doing this to Silver," the cobalt hedgehog stated with a shake of his head. "I can only guess how much this is killing him to see his superior becoming a prime suspect for murder. If everything we got now is correct, however, then the only person we can suspect for this murder is that Detective Ace. I guess we'll get our answer once we get to court tomorrow."
New Evidence:
Mr. Woker's Testimony: Written out by Tails during their conversation at the Detention Center. He says that as he stood by the body after calling the police, he only saw the Red Cell Phone lying next to the victim. He did not see the murder weapon anywhere.
Silencer: A gun enhancement found in the bushes of Midnight Park a slight distance away from the murder. Small traces of gunpowder shows that at least one bullet was shot through it. It can only be attached to the gun models that all detectives wield.
Silver's Testimony: Written out by Tails during their conversation at Midnight Park. He says that Detective Ace and Ms. Vulpin were engaged for six months, a fact known throughout the precinct. He also said that he overheard a conversation the detective had on the phone asking him to investigate a gang problem in the middle of town a little before midnight on the night of the murder and saw him leave soon after.
Updated Evidence:
Handgun: The murder weapon in the Midnight Park killing. It's a precinct issue wielded by detectives. The serial number is now legible thanks to some makeup dust over it. Thanks to Silver's help, the number proves that it belongs to a detective named Ace Sleuth.
New Profiles:
Silver Hedgehog: An eighteen year old detective who worked painstakingly hard to earn his promotion to senior detective after one official year on the force in conjunction with one year of internship. He knows Knuckles and sometimes works with him on cases. He's currently taking over charge of the initial investigation due to the original detective being questioned by the police.
Ace Sleuth: A thirty year old senior detective with greater seniority than Silver. It was well known throughout the department that he was the victim's fiancé. He was the original detective in charge of the initial investigation before he was pulled off for an internal investigation.