Sonic the Hedgehog: Attorney of Law

by thedraconicwerewolf

Sonic is a defense attorney with a law degree fresh out of high school thanks to his advanced studies in the ways of the judicial system. He's now able to defend others from various allegations. Will his training be enough to help him prove his clients' innocence? And what will happen when a ghost of his past that made him walk the path of law comes around once again?

14. Dangerous Twists and Turns Pt 8

Hello everybody! Sorry for taking a while to update this story. The details combined with having to study my butt off for classes really made it hard to get this written down on here. It wasn't easy, but I finally got the last part of this case down. Actually, I managed to get the first half out. To be perfectly honest, I felt that it was starting to drag on without having a chapter break somewhere in the middle. Besides, I also felt that it could be separated into two different events. I'll explain what I mean at the end of this chapter.

Anyway, I hope that you'll all enjoy this chapter. I'll tell you, I did not enjoy creating this particular one because I've practically dug myself into a hole that's hard to climb out the moment I first started this case. At least I'm almost done with it. I just need to figure out how to end it properly. Don't forget to leave a review after you're done reading. Until the next update everybody!

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Evidence:

Newspaper Article: A clipping talking about Ms. Kuro Rose, a woman running for the position of senator in her district. It talks about how she served her country in the military's Special Forces team before being forced out because of a battle injury rendering her incapable of conducting anything overly stressful or strenuous. She promises to try and reduce the crime rate in her represented district if elected.

Silver's Shoe: The circular mark underneath the detective's shoe was made when it stepped on the front of Sonic's Attorney's Badge. It shows that the badge was not fully drenched in blood sometime during the scuffle in the office.

Attorney's Badge: Sonic lost it during the party earlier in the evening. It was found underneath Silver's desk and drenched in blood. However, Silver's Shoe proved that it was not bloodied on both sides at some point during the murder.

Knife: The weapon that was used in the murder of Ms. Rose. The evidence found at the scene suggests that it was used on the woman twice; It was also probably used on the fight against Silver since the blade was found underneath the door rather than on her body. Sonic's fingerprints are on the wooden handle due to a rookie mistake on his part when he first discovered the scene.

Silver's Assault Report: The detective was beaten into unconsciousness due to heavy blows, although the marks on his fists show that he did fight back. Besides the bruises from said punches, there are no other wounds present on his body and the blood on his fur is most likely from Ms. Rose's wounds. He's expected to wake up in a couple of hours, but Vector, the detective who doesn't have much doctor skills, isn't completely sure.

Ms. Rose's Autopsy Report: She was murdered between midnight and one in the morning on 5/7. The cause of death was from two stab wounds, the first one suspected to be the abdomen and the second close to her heart. As such, she's suspected to have survived the first attack. Death was immediate on the second blow.

Bloody Hand Print: A print formed by blood that was found on one of the racks on the currently empty bookshelf. It's suspected to belong to Ms. Rose since she was the only two in the room to have lost blood. When compared to the distance from where it was found to where her body was, it's reasonable to believe that she was alive and moved around a bit before being killed.

LK-9 Files: Documents about a case that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were involved in over two years ago. For some reason, they are missing from their original placements. It's believed that the person who attacked Silver and murdered Ms. Rose stole the files.

Pool of Blood: Blood found hidden underneath the mess of files. There are a pair of shoe prints situated close to the bookshelf. They are from Ms. Rose and prove that she was still on her feet despite being stabbed. She must have pulled the Knife out of her body for that amount of blood to be present.

Shoe Print: A single print left by a shoe. It belongs to neither of the victims, and it proves that Sonic had nothing to do with the incident since it doesn't match with his shoes. This means that it could only belong to the murderer. It's also clear that the murderer cleaned the bottom of his shoe since there's only a single print. It's believed that the murderer failed to notice he made the print because of the files already covering it.

Silver's Testimony: Testimony recorded from the detective before he went unconscious for a second time. While everything that he said has been pieced together logically, there is still one fact that is unclear. He said something about his attacker hitting his head hard on the desk when he surprise-attacked him during the assailant's moment of distraction. However, he saw no signs of bruising on his head that would indicate the damage.

Profiles:

Sonic Hedgehog: A seventeen year old blue furred male hedgehog. He and Tails were the first to discover Kuro Rose and Silver in his office, one dead and the other unconscious. He was considered to be the prime suspect by Espio, but has since been downgraded to person of interest with the help of his little brother.

Miles Prower: Best known by his nickname Tails. He's a twelve-year-old yellow-orange furred fox with two tails. He and Sonic were the first to discover Kuro Rose and Silver in his office. He helped his older brother escape grave suspicion under Espio's eyes.

Knuckles Echidna: He is an eighteen-year-old red furred echidna detective who works at the local precinct and is good friends with Sonic and Tails. He paid attention to the exchange between Tails and Espio regarding Sonic's innocence and sides with the two's side of events. He plans to take over the initial investigation.

Silver Hedgehog: An eighteen year old senior detective who worked hard for his current position. He was found in his office severely beaten up with bruises all over him. It is currently unclear as to who it was that caused his extensive injuries.

Kuro Rose: A woman of Japanese decent who speaks very fluent English. She was a running candidate for her district's senatorial race and a former Special Forces member in the army. She was found stabbed to death in Silver's office. It is unclear as to who it was that murdered her.

Espio: He's a purple chameleon with a white horn on his forehead. He's skilled in Japanese ninja arts and has his own dojo for teaching others said techniques. He was the first to appear on the scene after Sonic and Tails discovered it and considers himself to be an eyewitness to the whole ordeal.

Vector Crocodile: A twenty-year-old crocodile prosecutor. He loves the gold chain necklace that rests against his neck along with listening to music through his headset, including during his time in the courtroom. He can sometimes be a bit rash in making decisions and has a sort of stubborn side, but he always strives for the truth within the heart of any matter.

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.

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. He's currently out of town on business and entrusted the upkeep of the office to Sonic and Tails.

Shadow Hedgehog: A seventeen-year-old hedgehog prosecutor who studied abroad to earn his Prosecutor's Badge. His office is located on the upper floors of the local Precinct. As such, he just happened upon the scene while making his way up to his office. He is currently accusing Knuckles of misconduct on his part and requesting he forfeit his control on the investigation and subject himself to an internal conduct investigation.

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Chapter 14: Dangerous Twists and Turns Pt. 8

For some strange reason, Shadow was gone for over a half an hour when he had first announced that he was going to go to the ground floor and bring Espio up to Silver's office. Sonic and Tails had naturally expected Knuckles to take longer than that since he was most likely going to be busy trying to perform some forensics work on two of their unexplainable pieces of evidence they had found earlier that evening. This did, however, give both of them a chance to collect their thoughts and gain some well-deserved rest. After all, they have been up for the entire night trying to get this whole ordeal straightened out before the police came, and they were ready to be knocked out anytime soon were it not for the adrenaline running through them supplied by the seriousness of the situation.

"I still can't believe that Shadow forced you to win over his trust before he did anything," Sonic murmured under his breath as he paced around the room for a bit and clearly becoming restless. "This isn't a courtroom. Some of the rules don't apply here. That and we're supposed to be his friends! When did he get such an untrusting mind?"

"He's only doing his job, Sonic," Tails spoke up as he continued to sit on the sofa that he had been occupying for the past fifteen minutes. "You're still a rookie, so you don't have as much practice with all this like him. He probably wanted to err on the side of caution and make sure that we had all our facts straight before following up on your accusation. You do have to admit that it was pretty sudden when you first made it."

"But he still could've given you some leeway in that you were his friend and not the type to just go around saying whatever it is you want for the hell of it," the cobalt hedgehog countered as he continued to pace back and forth. "Either the lack of sleep is starting to get to him, or he's trying to take his job too seriously."

The two tailed fox simply shook his head at his older brother's stubborn attitude at the situation. He knew that continuing to talk about it was just like adding fuel to a raging fire; it was not going to die unless one of them dropped the topic. And that was exactly what he did. He sat quietly without saying another word, and the other continued to pace around without saying anything else. The silence was shattered a couple minutes later when the sound of footsteps out in the hallway reached their ears.

"Sorry to have kept you two waiting," Shadow's voice suddenly. His body was then seen entering the room a second later. "I got a bit tied up with something of dire importance while I was making my way to the cafeteria. It was something that I couldn't afford to ignore. Needless to say, that's why it took me a while."

"That's why you took so long? I was starting to think that you were just trying to play some kind of sick twisted joke on us," the defense attorney stated sarcastically as he suddenly stopped pacing around and quickly leaned against the wall next to the couch with his arms crossed. "Do you think you can tell us what was so important that you needed to make us wait for god knows how long?"

"Sorry, but that's confidential," the ebon furred hedgehog simply replied as he brushed the matter aside with a small wave of his hand. "And besides, why bother me with something that's trivial to your point of view when I've already brought to you the person that you've been so dying to question for a while now?"

In the next second, Espio calmly walked into the office with a rather stoic look on his face. Amazingly, his body language did not seem to reflect any signs that he was anywhere near tired despite it being the time that the sun was about to rise. It was almost as if he had been taking a nap on one of the tables in the cafeteria. Either that or he was busy pumping himself with a bunch of caffeine to prepare himself for something like this.

"I was told by Shadow here that you wanted to ask me a couple of questions, Tails," the purple chameleon calmly asked as he immediately made a beeline for a wall that was relatively void of any potential evidence and leaned against it. He then continued on as he crossed his arms, "As I said earlier this evening, you could ask me anything that you felt you didn't cover when I first accused Sonic of this crime."

"If that's the case, then let me go ahead and catch you up on what we've managed to figure out here," Tails responded in an equally calm tone as he stood onto his feet, making sure not to give away his suspicions to the other through his voice. Even though he sounded calm, he could feel the tension within the room rise to astronomic levels the moment the chameleon entered the office. With all that they have managed to figure out and piece together tonight, he was clearly convinced that he was right now staring within the eyes of their true murderer. "When you last left us, you left with the thought that Sonic was a prime suspect in this case. That is what you've been thinking about all this time, right?"

"And it has been in my mind ever since," the freelance detective responded with a huff of his breath. He then asked in a cool tone that did not reflect that of a cornered culprit, "Am I to believe that you've managed to discover something within these past five or so hours that contradicts my belief? I see no other reason why you would call me up here only to ask me a question you surely remember my answer to."

"I see you're the kind of guy who doesn't like to beat around the bush when something that contradicts your thoughts is presented before you," the two tailed fox stated with a huff of his breath as he crossed his arms in a form of defiance. "To make a long story short then, I did figure out a few interesting facts that seem to point Sonic away from being even a prime suspect and instead point the finger to another person."

"Well, that does sound like a rather interesting turn of events. Do you mind telling me just who it is that you've discovered to be the supposed main suspect in this case if not Sonic? As the first detective on scene here, I think I have the right to know any new developments that arise so that I might be able to provide accurate testimony to the courts."

"Before we go so far as concern ourselves with court proceedings, do you mind if you told us about the crime scene as you saw it again? It's mainly just for clarification purposes on my end. And it'll be easier to explain to you what we found at the same time without having the restrictions that a courtroom sometimes puts on our questions."

"Oh, I never said anything about rushing these delicate proceedings. If you feel it necessary, I'll tell you again my thoughts on what happened here."

"And just to make sure that things don't get out of hand here, I'll be mediating this discussion," Shadow spoke up as he took a seat on the sofa and crossed his arms. "I don't want you to go pressuring him into answering something he doesn't want to indulge or anything like that. Of course, I'm sure you know the rules after our last battle of wits, do you?"

"You can be a real pain in the butt, you know that?" Sonic grumbled with a roll of his eyes as he refused to move from his leaning position. "Since when have you known Tails to be going around doing whatever it is he can do to get information out of someone? He's not one of those torturing inquisitor guys from the sixteenth century, you know?"

"Everything still needs to be dealt with some semblance of order even if it's outside of a courtroom, Sonic," the ebon furred hedgehog simply answered. "Laws were created for the purpose of keeping a harmonic balance within both nature and mankind. And it's my job as much as it's yours to see that they are followed accordingly. You really have to start taking these things more seriously if you plan to keep your job."

"I never asked for your philosophical crap, Shadow," the cobalt hedgehog snapped back without bothering to keep his attitude in check. It was clear that his lack of sleep combined with the annoying rules that the other continued to enforce was making him more irritable than usual and borderline uncooperative. He at least took solace in knowing that this was soon coming to an end now that Espio was in front of them and about to undergo some rather intense questioning by none other than Tails himself.

Argument: Discovering the Murder

When I had first arrived back on this floor, I was planning on visiting Silver since I had something I wanted to talk to him about. Needless to say, I accidentally stumbled onto this horrific scene and found myself tangled up in a murder investigation as a witness. I saw Sonic crouched behind that desk looking suspicious. A few minutes later, you arrived and showed that my assumptions had some room for error. If you want my opinion, however, I still believe that only Sonic could've done all this despite the rather small tactical errors in my explanation of what happened here.

End Argument

"Boy, you really have a one-track mind, you know that?" Sonic stated as he gave Espio a harsh stare that could probably burn holes through him if they were sending out heat beams. "Is that what you've had stuck in your head all this time? I thought we already cleared that up before you decided to loaf around in the cafeteria."

"Well, unless you can provide me with some evidence that cannot possibly be refuted no matter how I look at it, I might consider a different possibility," the chameleon answered with his voice full of doubt at the thought. "You failed, however, to perform such a feat more than five hours ago. I highly doubt that much has changed being that you're sleep-deprived and hardly conducted this investigation through the books."

"And yet I was here for a good portion of their investigation making sure that nothing out of the ordinary was taking place," Shadow spoke up in defense that the previous investigation was as much through the books as it could have been in this particular situation. "So long as an upholder of the law presides over an investigation when the police themselves are unable to do so, the investigation stands. Needless to say, I've been keeping a close watch over Sonic and Tails, and they've done everything within their legal right."

"It's good to know that a well-trusted man within the prosecutor's office like yourself was here to oversee the proceedings," the freelance detective said with a small smile that seemed strangely devoid of any real emotion. It was almost as if he were trying to hide something behind that simple gesture. "It makes me feel more comfortable that what the fox is saying is nothing but the clear-cut truth."

"If you feel that comfortable about the whole thing, then how about I start asking you questions while you answer me whatever you can," Tails stated more than asked as he let a small sigh escape his lips. "It's the only way any of us are going to get any real answers about what happened tonight."

"'Real answers?' The way you say it, it's almost as if someone at some point tried to throw in a bit of false information to keep the police, or you as the investigator in this case, away from the real path. Is that what you're insinuating here?"

"I'm not insinuating anything here, Espio," the two tailed fox quickly responded in a serious tone without any hesitation. "I'm simply saying that I want to sort out all the information I've obtained over the past few hours and make sure the things I've collected all pertains to this case. So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and get this over with."

"Please make sure that you don't make us sound like a couple of idiots while you're doing this, Tails," the cobalt hedgehog warned his little brother as a slightly worried glance approached his face. "I would like to enter a courtroom without being labeled as the rookie defense attorney who acted like a total idiot out in the field."

"As if that should be something your mind has to be getting worked up with right now," the ebon furred hedgehog stated with a roll of his eyes as he shifted slightly on the couch. "You better learn how to get your priorities straightened out by the time you have to stare a problem like this in the face again."

Begin Rebuttal

"I don't think you've ever told us about where it was that you came from before you arrived at Silver's office," Tails stated as he tried to open up the discussion. "It might be good for us to know so that we'll be able to set up a timeline for you."

"Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the main topic at hand here," Espio simply countered as he crossed his arms. "I don't want to be straying off onto a tangent before we've even begun to talk about my recollection again. It'll just be a waste of time and keep you away from the real answers you so seek. If I might suggest, why don't you concentrate on trying to compare what you figured out with what I said all those hours ago?"

"If that's how you want things to work out right now, then I guess I don't have much of a choice," the two tailed fox responded with a mental sigh at how he quickly got shot down his path of questioning through smooth yet piercing words. He then added as he loosely crossed his arms in a small form of offensive behavior, "So no questions that have nothing to do with the topic is your current standing. Do you mind if I asked you again the reason why you felt that Sonic was the one to have murdered Ms. Rose and assaulted Silver?"

"I believe my reasons should still be fresh in your mind," the purple chameleon said with a minute hint of annoyance escaping his words. "I suppose I can do naught but comply and explain once again. When I entered the office, Sonic was already engaged in suspicious activity by crouching down behind the desk for no apparent reason. You both claimed that he was looking for evidence, but there wasn't anything that said he was simply trying to plant some and bring himself away from having any connection with the crime."

"If I wanted to bring myself out of the murder picture, I don't think I'd go about leaving evidence so small that they could be overlooked or accidentally crushed by someone's shoe," Sonic stated in a sort of deadpan fashion as his head sunk a bit. He was still leaning against the wall, but he changed positions in that his back was now against it. "I'd have to be a really stupid murderer to not make my fake evidence obvious."

"Murderers have always done strange things in the past in an attempt to keep themselves out of the police's eyes," the freelance detective simply stated with a shrug of his shoulders. "Then again, that's not my place to speak about since I have no idea on the results of your investigation. Anyway, the fact that he was the only person in the room at the time that I found him strongly indicated that he was the culprit. It's the only reasonable explanation accessible to anybody who stumbled upon the scene first like I did."

"No offense, but that sounds like a really weak basis for an accusation," Shadow spoke up as he was hearing Espio's version of events for the first time. "I'm surprised that a great freelance detective like you would make such a claim without any strong evidence to back it up. I've been in and read up on a few of the cases where you were called in to testify to the court about your findings. You managed to provide them with explanations that were more plausible and potentially provable than what I've heard now."

"Well, even the best of the best are sometimes forced to make such weak claims at times due to lack of abundant evidence. This, unfortunately, proves to be one of my lowest moments as an accusing detective. This just goes to show that nobody can possibly hope for a perfect outcome in their profession every single day."

"Well, how about we push these perfectionist thoughts aside for now guys?" Tails spoke up as he felt the conversation starting to move off topic. "And in respect to your thoroughness that you are said to have when testifying to the courts, do you think you can tell me how you knew Ms. Rose ended up being killed? From what I can remember, you hardly had any time to perform a rather thorough check of the scene before I attempted, and succeeded, in proving you wrong in your poorly based initial assumptions."

"I suspect that you're trying to find the smallest of flaws in what I saw during my short time examining this office," Espio stated without delving into the details of what he was asked. "It sounds like a stunt that only a desperate man cornered by the guns and blades of the law would try and pull. Grasping at straws for details that you could only hope to find in an otherwise flawless testimony isn't really becoming of any inquisitor worth their salt unless you were a sixteenth century torturing inquisitor."

"Please, I hardly find any kind of joy in the infliction of pain unto others," the two tailed fox responded with a disgusted pout on his face at the poorly made suggestion and comparison. "Can you just please answer the question without making this any more difficult than it already is for us all? And this does happen to fall within the boundaries of what we were originally talking about the last time I checked."

"I suppose you do raise a valid point there," the chameleon responded with a small sigh that was no doubt at having to repeat his actions from earlier that night again. "Very well, I'll recount those moments for you again, although I doubt how a retelling of a mere few seconds could prove helpful for your cause. I knew that the woman was killed by a Knife being plunged into her body. I merely deduced it because of the bloody blade lying on the floor in the office. It's the only possibility that anybody of my standing would come up with provided they only spent a few minutes researching like I did. Even so, the scene itself paints a rather obvious picture that requires hardly any researching."

"That's quite an accurate conclusion for you to have made with not even an adequate amount of time to properly survey the scene," Shadow stated with intrigue laced with another emotion reflecting in his words. "I suppose that's why you're considered to be one of the most succinct detective that the Precinct has ever known and worked alongside with despite you only being titled as freelance."

"If I weren't able to see certain things and make supported conclusions with what little time I have on a murder scene, then I could hardly consider myself to be a competent detective," the other simply answered with a small hint of pride in his tone. Despite his claim of being able to catch things quickly though, he failed to catch the unreadable emotion from the prosecutor's voice. "I only expect the best performance from myself; and that, in turn, forces me to only produce the best for the police and detectives to review."

"Well, don't go pushing yourself too hard that you'll only end up crashing the moment you realized you made a mistake," Sonic stated sarcastically after staying relatively quiet during the whole exchange. "It's guys with attitudes like yours who think that they can take on the world and end up argumentative and in major denial when proven wrong. Just a little bit of friendly warning there," he added with added sarcasm on the word "friendly".

End Rebuttal

"As friendly as that warning was, I think it's too late for Espio to be bracing himself," Tails stated as he allowed a small snort to leave his nose. He then turned his attention to the chameleon with a certain tone to his voice, "From what you've told us, it sounds like you're concluding that Ms. Rose was killed by a single stab to her chest."

"Judging from your tone of voice, it sounds like you have something to say against that," Espio stated without answering the question. "Instead of asking me something you know that you're going to counter soon, why not just point out what you feel the contradiction is? It'll save the both of us some precious time."

"Alright then; what you just said is anything but the truth!" the two tailed fox stated in the bluntest way possible in response to how fast the other wanted him to get through with this. "Even with only a couple of minutes to examine the scene like you had, it should've been clear that death from a single wound was far from possible."

"And just how do you plan on making that rather bold counterclaim of yours have the ability to carry on water?" the chameleon asked with an indifferent tone in his voice that made it sound like he thought the other was simply bluffing. "You've hardly had time to conduct a proper investigation of this office yourself."

"You seem to be forgetting that despite the lack of time needed for me to perform a thorough investigation; I had hours to scavenge this scene whereas you only had a few minutes at best. I'm sure that you could've expected at least a couple of your claims to be debatable with such a difference in our time to collect information. And yes, I can make my claim sound more than reasonable for you."

"Uh, is it just me or is this starting to sound like they're trying to pick a fight with each other?" Sonic, who was still leaning against the wall, whispered to Knuckles. The other was still sitting on the couch, and the hedgehog moved to sit on the couch arm.

"If this were a courtroom, the two of them would've been thrown out long ago," the echidna stated as he let out a small sigh at the childish scene in front of him. "I can see why Tails prefers to question people outside of the courtroom. It's scenes like this that he wants to be able to prepare for without the rules of a court proceeding holding him back. Out here, it's practically anything goes provided arguments are well-founded."

"Well, let's just hope this doesn't end up getting him into any kind of trouble with Shadow," the cobalt hedgehog responded as he allowed a small frown to appear on his face. "The last thing we need right now is for our best and only inquisitor to get kicked out of this office for becoming too emotionally uncontrollable."

"Alright, that's enough with this pointless back and forth bickering," Shadow butted in as he started to feel that this was quickly turning into more of a personal attack on each other rather than a search for the truth. "We're starting to stray and take too long with our explanations. Tails, what is your reasoning for saying that Espio's account on what happened couldn't possibly have taken place?"

"We all clearly agree that he only had a couple of minutes to examine the scene," Tails said after clearing his throat in an attempt to leave the little episode behind him. "It's from that he said he concluded that Ms. Rose died from a single stab wound. However, just one careful look at the scene would've told him otherwise. His few minutes should've been more than enough time to discover the contradiction to that thought!"

"There's nothing about this scene that could've possibly made me reconsider my idea on how she was killed," Espio stated with a huff of his breath before crossing his arms. "You're merely trying to bluff your way out of here."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that if I were you," the two tailed fox responded as he pointed towards the Pool of Blood over by the bookshelf. "If you would just look over there for just a moment, I'm sure you'll know exactly what it is I'm talking about here. You'll see that your initial thoughts were nothing but a crafted lie!"

"…Well, isn't this interesting?" the freelance detective mused as he looked at the bloody stain with intrigued eyes. He did not seem at all annoyed or angered at being called a liar just a few moments ago and continued on as if nothing was out of the ordinary for a crime scene. "That is a rather large amount of blood to have come from simply one stab wound. However, I'm confused as to how this proves anything in your eyes."

"Are you seriously trying to play stupid with us here?" Sonic suddenly exclaimed as he stood to his feet. He was clearly getting both tired and annoyed with the rather cool and calm attitude the other had been exuding ever since they had started to ask him questions. "What this proves is that you purposely just fed us false information in the hopes that we'd be thrown off the real tracks leading to the truth of this murder."

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I haven't done anything of the sort tonight. While it may be true that the Pool of Blood proves my initial assumptions to possibly be wrong, I hardly see how that would automatically pin me for lying about the true facts on this case. Why don't you think back to the moment when I first ran into you here? I'm sure that you'll notice something slightly different from then and now."

"What the hell are you trying to pull this time?" the cobalt hedgehog murmured under his breath as he decided to humor the other and think back to when they had first discovered the scene. After a few seconds, he finally realized just what the detective was leading up to and ultimately figuring out what was wrong with Tails' argument. It also seemed that he himself had noticed since he had a look of surprise on his face. "Oh, you're saying that you couldn't have seen the blood at the time because all the books were piled over it."

"That's exactly what I was trying to say here. And it's because of that fact that your argument means nothing because it focuses on the assumption I made at that exact moment. And at that exact moment, I wasn't lying about how she was killed simply because I didn't have adequate information that might've said otherwise."

"Gah, I completely forgot about those books!" the two tailed fox exclaimed as he smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. He then said after a couple of seconds of self-belittlement, "R-regardless of the fact that you couldn't have seen the Pool of Blood, it still doesn't make sense that you would automatically assume that she was killed immediately after being stabbed. That's just too quick of an assumption."

"Then how about this? Why don't you show me some proof that shows she never died from something other than the initial stab? That blood stain on the floor hardly proves anything except that she was bleeding profusely. Of course, I highly doubt that you'll be able to pull off something like that."

"Then I suggest that you think again," the fox immediately countered. "Don't you remember me telling you earlier that I've had hours to look at this scene? You have to give me more credit in my ability to gather information here. As such, I have Ms. Rose's Autopsy Report, courtesy of Knuckles here, that gives details about her death. And I have here the report that's been penned by the detective's own hand. It says that there were clearly two stab wounds on her body. This along with the Pool of Blood can only mean that she survived the first stabbing before succumbing to a second attack."

"…Hmm, maybe you're not as stupid as I gave you credit for," Espio pondered in a not-so-quiet tone. This enticed a rather audible growl from Sonic in anger at his little brother being called, let alone being considered, to be stupid. Knuckles had to grab a hold of his arm in fear that he might have lunged at the chameleon at any given time. Tails, on the other hand, merely stood calmly while meeting the other's gaze without faltering.

"Hey, there will be no insults being thrown at each other!" Shadow warned as he also felt the tension in the room rise at that comment. "This is supposed to be a civilized argument. If I feel that this is starting to take a sharp turn towards solely personal attacks, I'll call this off and let the police handle it when they arrive."

"Oh, I was simply just stating what was on my mind the entire time," the chameleon simply answered with a wave of his hand in dismissal as if that would make his earlier comment that much easier to handle. "There's no need for any of you to be getting so hot-headed over something small as this.

"Anyway, why don't we move on to the matter of Ms. Rose's death?" he continued on while ignoring the harsh glares in his directions. He then took the report that had been in Tails' hands the entire time and quickly read through it. "Well, it does look like she was killed in the second attack. That would then explain the excessive amount of blood on the floor and why her body is not lying over it. She probably moved at bit before being attacked the second time."

"But there's still one thing about how this whole murder took place that makes me feel real uncomfortable," the two tailed fox added as he tried to build up to the moment when he could make his accusation. "I've read in a Newspaper Article provided to me by Detective Silver during the party that the senatorial candidate was a former member of the military's Special Forces team and that she was well versed in knife combat."

"I don't see how this holds any kind of importance to the case or to the reason why I'm even back up here."

"Then let us think in theoretical sense for the moment. Since it's a fact that she was a knife combat specialist as stated in the article, it would only go to say that she's most likely also good at fighting against others armed with knives. This then begs a rather crucial question that you should be asking yourself right now. Why is it that she ended up getting stabbed twice by a knife when she should theoretically have been stabbed zero times with her combat knowledge in mind? Doesn't that strike you as odd, Espio?"

"Not as odd as the wild story I feel starting to form in that head of yours. But I'll just play along with this supposition. Wouldn't it have been possible that she was taken by surprise the first time around and stabbed in the back? That would explain the lack of self-defense from the initial attack."

"Did you really just fail to read over the entire report Tails gave you?" Knuckles asked, his mind starting to establish that his friend's behavior was odd and considering him to be a main suspect with each passing minute. "I put down on there that he was stabbed twice, once in the lower stomach and the second close to her heart."

"Oh, I guess I skimmed it too quickly. I suppose that puts my surprise attack theory out to the curb. Then what exactly is it that you're going with this thought, Tails?"

"I wonder; who in this room right now has the most knowledge about armed combat that could easily match that of Ms. Rose?" Tails asked, wanting Espio to answer the question rather than just accuse him outright. "It would only make sense if two people with equal level in knife combat were in here for her to have sustained deadly damage."

"I'm sorry, but are you insinuating that I might have something to do with this murder?" Espio asked with raised eyebrows, his voice sounding surprised after sounding so calm and collected during the entire questioning.

"If that's how you want to look at it, then yes," the two tailed fox simply replied with a nod of his head as he mentally grinned at finally making a dent in the chameleon's emotionally stoic armor. "From what I've learned about you during the party, you are an expert in Ninjitsu arts and own your own dojo. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the art usually deals with weapons during the martial arts, am I right?"

"Yes, the style I learned does revolve heavily around daggers and bamboo rods as weapons," the chameleon responded truthfully as he finally figured out how the fox was planning on tying him in with the murder. "So you're saying because of my vast knowledge in martial arts that involve weaponry, you consider me to be a prime suspect in the murder of Ms. Rose and subsequently the assaulter against Silver?"

"That's pretty much it in a nutshell buddy," Sonic confirmed before his little brother could do so. "A regular person like me couldn't possibly hope to land even a scratch on her with a knife because of her combat skills. You can't possibly consider me to be a prime suspect under this new light; although we can't really say the same thing about you. You were at the party when she said she was going to have a meeting with Silver tonight, so you knew where she'd be and took the opportunity."

"And let me add something before you go saying that others from Silver's party could've also had the opportunity," Shadow added before anybody else could add anything. "I've heard the alibies of everybody in attendance that evening about the fifteen minutes she was being killed. They all have rather concrete ways of proving it through security cameras and appointment records."

"That sounds all well and good, but you all seem to be forgetting one thing," the freelance detective stated in an aggravated tone, not bothering to try and sound calm this time around. "I happen to have an alibi for the time this murder occurred, one that I have yet to indulge you all on. Perhaps you'll know that I'm innocent once you've heard it."

"If you remember back to our previous argument, I asked for you to give me your alibi before you refused under the pretense that it had nothing to do with the current question," Tails stated as he felt happy at finally being able to get to the crux of the mystery. "However, now we're delving into another question that revolves solely on your alibi, so there shouldn't be any reason why you should refuse."

"Seeing as how my innocence in all this is on the line, I can't see how I can go about refusing to speak of my alibi. I still can't believe that you came up with this absurd claim with nothing except my martial arts to back it up."

"Well, you shouldn't have anything to worry about if your alibi is as concrete as you so say it is," the cobalt hedgehog responded with a small smirk making its way to his lips. "All you have to do is to tell us what your alibi is. If it ends up checking out, then you're free to go. It couldn't possibly be any simpler than that."

"And where is it exactly that you want me to start off?" Espio asked with the slightest hints of venom in his words as he tried his best to recover from his previously aggravated behavior and into stoic stares. He then added sarcastically, "I doubt that you want to hear about every single little thing I did yesterday."

"Why don't you start by telling us exactly what you did a little bit before midnight last night?" Tails asked as he tried to sound professional and ignore the sarcastic bite. Sonic, however, allowed himself to freely scoff at the behavior. He was still sitting on the couch's arm with his arms folded tightly across his chest while Knuckles rolled his eyes at the hedgehog's behavior. "That's all I'm really concerned about here."

"Not to mention that it's already six in the morning," Shadow added in a warning tone as he stole a glance at the wall clock in the room. "You only have roughly about two hours left to get whatever points you have floating around in your head out."

"Thanks for the warning, Shadow," the two tailed fox responded with a sigh that clearly indicated he did not want to hear about the time. "Anyway, can you tell us what it was that you did during the time Ms. Rose was in here getting killed by her murderer, Espio?"

"And no doing those stall tactics or saying you can't talk about it because it's not the subject!" Sonic added for good measure from his seated position on the couch arm since he did not want a repeat of what happened during the first questioning. "We want some progression here, not loss of time until the police finally get here."

"Sonic, just shut up and let the guy say what he has to say," Knuckles cut in with a roll of his eyes at his overzealous friend. "At the rate you're going with these stupid outbursts, Hell would freeze over before we got any closer to the truth."

"Regardless of his uncalled for outburst, I must agree with Sonic," the ebon furred hedgehog agreed with a slight frown to indicate he did not like the attitude but sided with the words behind it. "Just try to answer any and all questions the best you can for the sake of time, Espio. Do you understand?"

"As if I have any choice in the matter here," the purple chameleon stated with a grunt accompanied with an annoyed shake of his head. "You all look as if you're ready to peg me for sole suspect here, and I want to clear my name away from that."

Argument: My Alibi

To be honest with you, I really don't understand your thoughts leading me to be your suspect in this murder. If you must know, I left the party with Vector around the same time you and Sonic did. After that, we went to his office to discuss a few things. I would say that it was about a quarter before midnight when I left his office. If you want, you should ask Vector about it when he comes back. He'll be more than happy to confirm my alibi.

End Argument

"You do understand that Vector's busy out doing whatever it is he said he had to do, right?" Sonic asked as he remembered what the crocodile told them before he left the scene. "There really isn't that good of a chance that we'll be able to reach him right now. Pair that up with the fact that he was going to ignore any and all calls made to him right now and we're not going to be getting any kind of confirmation from him until probably well after the police get here and take over the investigation."

"Then I guess you can't go suspecting me until you've proven that my alibi isn't real or too stable to stand on," Espio countered coolly with a huff of his breath as he fiddled around with his horn a bit. "And besides, you merely asked to hear my alibi, and I did just that if only to appease your curiosity and clear my good name. Proving whether or not it's suitable enough to meet your standards is up to you."

"Making yourself sound cocky doesn't really help with your overall portrayal in all this, you know that?" Shadow lightly warned as he raised an eyebrow at the chameleon's attitude. "And that's especially so since you're right now the only current person that we can consider to be a suspect at this time. I advise that you should try to put more effort in proving your own innocence rather than waiting for them to do so."

"Then again, he's always sounded cocky whenever he thinks he's right beyond a doubt about anything," Knuckles responded with a sigh as he told them of the other's usual quirk. "I have to admit that it does get real annoying when we're trying to find other plausible possibilities other than just his. That's basically his way of being stubborn in not wanting to believe in any other possibilities other than his own."

"Then I guess it's only fair that I should make him try and see things in a different light," Tails stated as he lightly sucked at the corner of his mouth in thought. He was not sure how to start out his attack, but he figured questions always led him to his desired answers and chose to just go with it. "Let's just get on with this and stop wasting time."

"I couldn't agree with you more on that," the freelance detective agreed with a nod of his head as he lightly crossed his arms and prepared himself for what promised to most likely be an onslaught of questions. "I have to open up my dojo in a few more hours, and I don't want to deprive my students of precious practice time."

How can you be thinking about something of lesser importance like your dojo at a time like this? the two tailed fox thought with a small sigh as he mentally did a face palm to his forehead. His two tails were also twitching a bit in slight irritation at the current situation. People in your position would normally be wondering how they got themselves into a situation like this, not worrying about their personal life. That's what I personally did when I was first pinned for murder.

Begin Rebuttal

"How about we go ahead and start off with this simple question?" Tails asked in more of a statement tone as he tried to get the logic train moving towards the truth. "I'm sure you can answer this without any problems whatsoever. About what time would you say you left Silver's office where his promotion party was being held, Espio?"

"I left at about the same time as you, which is to say I left at roughly around half past eleven," Espio stated with strong annoyance behind his words. "Honestly, if you're so desperate to try and catch me in an imaginary lie, don't you think it better that you try poking around at times where you couldn't have possibly been around me? I swear, you already knew that answer yet still chose to be redundant just to be annoying."

"He does raise a rather good point, Tails," Shadow agreed with the purple chameleon with a curt nod of his head as he looked at the fox with a stoic face cleverly hiding the slight concern in his eyes. "I don't see how you asking him about something you both already know the answer to will help in validating his alibi for the murder. Don't you think you're just merely wasting what little time you have left like this?"

"I just wanted to officially determine just when it was where I had no chance to have known what he was doing," the two tailed fox simply explained as he nervously rubbed at the back of his neck a bit. "Knowing what he did just before the time in question can sometimes give me answers I had either previously failed to catch or could not come up with due to the lack of information. Asking questions to what I already know might end up telling me something I didn't initially notice the first time around."

"But even you have got to admit that you're being unintentionally annoying with it, Tails," Sonic said to his little brother with a small sigh of agreement with the ebon furred hedgehog. "I know that attorneys like me and Shadow tend to be repetitive, but you're just taking it to a completely different level."

"Anyway, you said that you followed Vector down to his office after you both left the party," the young fox continued on before anybody could have a chance to say anything else about his redundancy with questions that he knew he was doing. Shadow was right when he said that they were losing precious time, whether it was on redundant questions or him explaining his inquisitive actions. "If you don't mind, could you tell us the reason why you decided to meet up with him again there?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to him about some of the cases that we've worked on in the past and on the current one that we are unfortunately stuck on," the freelance detective explained without spending any time thinking on it. "I hope you're not going to ask me to go into detail about the cases we were discussing. It's rather boring and honestly doesn't have anything to do with what's currently at hand."

"I agree with you; I wasn't planning on asking you about things that honestly add nothing to solving this case. I must say, though, that you probably didn't spend too much time talking to him about it. After all, you claimed to have only spent about ten minutes before leaving his office to wherever it was you were planning to go to. That would mean you left his office at around a quarter before midnight. And speaking of which, just where was it that you had in mind to go to?"

"Actually, there was a sort of small mistake that I made in regards to when I left Vector's office," Espio stated as he backtracked in his details a bit. This, in turn, caused some slightly raised eyebrows to be concentrated on him. "You see, when I had left his office, I quickly came back. I had suddenly remembered something of dire importance I needed to discuss with him that I couldn't afford to put off until the next day."

New Statement

Needless to say, I had entered Vector's office twice within the thirty minutes after I had left Silver's party. I didn't officially make my leave of the prosecutor until it was just a minute or so past midnight.

End New Statement

"And why didn't you tell us this the first time around?" Sonic asked, clearly annoyed that the detective managed to forget something like that in a testimony that could possibly save his life. "That isn't necessarily something that someone would normally forget under any kind of circumstances. You got to admit that it kind of makes you look a bit suspicious now that you're trying to make corrections to what you just said, you know?"

"I have to agree with Sonic here," Tails stated as he squinted his eyes ever so slightly in suspicion at the sudden change the detective had made. "You're busy trying to provide us with your alibi that you say can prove that you have no viable connection to this murder. You shouldn't have been able to forget about something that couldn't possibly that easily forgettable, especially since you said the reason you came back to Vector's office a second time was to discuss something important with him."

"As I said before, it was simply a small mistake on my part," Espio repeated indifferently with a simple shrug of his shoulders as if that answer were enough to grant him forgiveness. "Don't you think you could give me just a little bit of credit here since I'm pretty much sleep-deprived like I'm sure the rest of you are? Being up all night can certainly take its toll on even seasoned detectives like me. I think I'm entitled to have made one or two small mistakes under these unfortunately intense conditions."

"Heh, you could've fooled me into thinking you were anywhere near tired," the cobalt hedgehog bit back with a small childish pout that did not seem to fit the occasion. This earned him an eye roll from both Tails and Knuckles and a barely audible snort of what sounded to be amusement from Shadow. "You're busy acting like it's only in the middle of the afternoon or something like that with your attitude."

"Regardless, the detective's right now adding in that little detail into his account," the ebon furred hedgehog quickly butted in before things became more heated and consequentially argumentative. "It isn't like we're right now questioning him in front of a judge and audience in court, so we can give some leeway against something like this. But it does make you sound a bit off regardless under what conditions you're testifying under," he added in agreement with the defense attorney's previous argument. "I probably know you better than the rest of us in here, and you're not prone to make rookie mistakes like that."

"Then I promise to try and be more careful the next time you need me to supply you with my testimony," the purple chameleon responded in a nonchalant fashion as he began to poke at the tip of his horn again. He then continued on as he cleared his throat before loosely crossing his arms, "Moving on from this little mistake of mine now, I was for certain in Vector's office last night until just after midnight."

"If that's true, then that still kind of leaves you as a possible suspect in Ms. Rose's murder," the two tailed fox stated as he mentally reviewed all the new information that he had learned through his head. "It didn't really help to secure your innocence. In fact, you probably ended up hurting it by adding the fact about your second visit that both doesn't help you and hurts you in the fact that you only just remembered about it."

"Think what you want to about it, but I assure you that what I've just added is nothing but the truth," the freelance detective responded with a stout nod of his head. "You can ask Vector about it once you find the time to do so. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to vouch for me against your crazy thoughts."

End Rebuttal

"I'm sorry, but do you mind if I cut you two off for a couple of moments, Tails?" Knuckles, who had been quietly listening to the exchange ever since it first started, suddenly asked after lightly clearing his throat a bit. The tone of his voice clearly portrayed that he was feeling uneasy about something. "I just heard you two talk about something that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me."

"What is it, Knuckles?" Tails inquired with a slightly raised eyebrow as he turned his attention to the echidna who was still on the couch. However, he was now sitting upright and had his chin resting on his hand in a thoughtful manner.

"Espio, you just changed your testimony to reflect that you left Vector's office for a couple of minutes before going back in to discuss something private," the detective recapped without really addressing the fox's inquiry. "You then left again just after midnight. That's what you said you did, right?"

"I don't know what you're getting at here, but yeah," Espio answered with a quick nod and a suspicious glint in his eyes. "I knew that it was after midnight since I heard Vector's digital clock on his desk go off. He always keeps one in his office so he could set it to the time when he's supposed to leave for something important. He never did figure out how to make it stop with those annoying hourly beeps, though."

"Yes, he does have something like that in there," the other admitted with a thoughtful tone to his words. "However, that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about your claim that you were in there until that time."

"And just what is it about what I said that concerns you?" the purple chameleon asked with his eyebrows raised in question. "I hardly see how the truth would cause you any concern to question me."

"You were too busy in your own little world at the time, so I doubt that you know what I'm getting at. However, when I was on the second floor getting ready to process some of my case files in the data room, I saw you on your cell phone talking to somebody. That was five minutes before midnight. I was talking to the receptionist about checking something for me and happened to see the time on her computer screen. Before I went into the data room, I still saw talking on the phone."

"O-oh really?" the purple chameleon asked as he strangely picked up a somewhat flustered attitude to his words while keeping a calm demeanor. "I admit that I was down there sometime tonight, but you must have your time wrong. I wasn't anywhere on the second floor around midnight."

"Sorry, but I know I'm right about the time here. You should know that the I.D scanner and camera connected to the data room have timestamps on them. I saw you sitting by yourself on the phone when I went in, and you were already gone by the time I came back out five or so minutes later. And if you want proof that I saw you there at that time, then we can just check out the outer camera that covers the surrounding area. The place where I remember you sitting at should be captured clearly in the camera's background."

"Ah-ha, we finally caught you in a lie that we can easily prove!" Sonic exclaimed happily with a triumphant smirk on his face. The freelance detective, on the other hand, started to have a flustered appearance on his face as he nervously fidgeted around with the tip of his horn. "And you were trying to cover it up with another lie on top of it. How are you planning to get yourself out of this one, buddy?"

"Ha, I say that you show me evidence saying that what Detective Knuckles said is the actual truth!" the freelance detective immediately countered with a slight growl to his words and an annoyed click of his tongue. "You right now have two things that are going against you and that ridiculous claim of his. For one, you have yet to question Vector to see if he can validate my alibi. Secondly, where is this so-called security footage that shows he actually saw me on the second floor talking on my cell phone? That could simply just be a bluff on his part so that he can fabricate a line of attack for you."

"Espio, you've known me long enough to know that I wouldn't pull something like that!" Knuckles exclaimed as he tried to sound professional despite the bite of anger coming out with his words from being accused as a desperate liar. "I don't just frivolously come up with claims and hope that they'll pass without any way of proving them. That's not how I conduct any of the investigations that I'm involved with."

"Yet you seemed to have failed to do so in that regard. I doubt that you'll be able to get that video right now. We've been at this for a half an hour now, meaning that it's past six in the morning. And in case you don't know what that means, those security footages are repetitively wiped every six hours, starting from midnight. Unless there was something greatly illegal taking place outside the data room, there would be no alarm warning the security guard keeping watch over those cameras to look over at it. In other words, you have no proof that you saw me on the second floor of this precinct as you're claiming!"

"And how can you be so sure on that, Espio?" Shadow, who had been quiet ever since this issue came up, questioned with a cleverly masked cocky edge to his words. "How can you say for certain that there's no way to prove whether this issue is true or false? That's a rather impossible claim if you think about it."

"Not unless you consider all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the security camera issue. I've already said that those footages are erased every six hours to retain memory space. Unless the security guard caught something suspicious on them, they have no reason to go about saving them."

"That would usually be the case," the ebon furred hedgehog as he continued on with his faux stoic tone. "However, what if I told you that the security footage in question was still alive and well at this very moment?"

"Then I would say that you're just as bad as everybody else here and trying to bluff your way to a truth that's nonexistent. There's no possible way that the footage in question could've survived the memory wipe at six this morning."

"Then be prepared to be proven wrong on that accord, because I just so happen to have the data of the footage in question," the prosecutor stated as he pulled out a small flash drive out from his gloved hands. "I took the liberty of preserving it so as to confirm Knuckles' alibi before I went to ask you to come up. I also took it upon myself to view the footage of the time in question and saw that his alibi was irrefutable. And coincidentally, I saw you in the background talking on your phone until after Knuckles went into the data room and the timestamp went past midnight before you moved in the direction of the stairwell," he added as he turned his attention towards Tails and flashed him a barely noticeable apologetic glance.

"So that's why it ended up taking you over half an hour when you left us to get Espio from the cafeteria!" Sonic exclaimed in realization while the chameleon looked surprised at this sudden revelation. "You took a side trip in order to secure confirmation of Knuckles' alibi before it ended up getting erased. And that consequentially ended up helping us prove that what he said he saw was the truth."

"I'm sorry for not explaining earlier why I was late, but I wanted to hear what he was claiming to have been doing at the time before I told any of you about my little detour. I didn't want to give him a chance to change his alibi to bypass any kind of contradictions that might've arisen. And now that we've exploited the contradiction I assumed would appear, would you care to explain why you lied to us? I'm sure that there must've been some good reason as to why you did that. And don't even go about saying that we haven't yet to question Vector about your alibi. This footage renders the need to do so unnecessary."

"…Humph, I should've figured that you were luring me into a trap the moment you opened your mouth in question to my thoughts on the security footage," the purple chameleon stated calmly once he recovered from the initial shock of being so suddenly caught at the prosecutor's rather clever entrapment. "Of course there was a good reason why I lied about where I really was at the time! I lied because I didn't want the fact of you all knowing where I truly was to compromise my job in any way."

"To compromise your job?" Tails repeated with eyebrows raised in confusion while Sonic simply snorted in disbelief. "What kind of job were you possibly doing that you needed to lie about where you were just before the murder?"

"I guess it's best to tell you since you seem to be refusing to back down from pinning me as the true culprit," the freelance detective stated with a resigned sigh and a shake of his head. "I just hope this doesn't end up compromising what little is left of my work."

Argument: Reason for Lying

At times, my duty as a freelance detective requires me to lie to investigators because of certain aspects tied into some jobs. You see, the Chaotix Detective Agency had received an anonymous request a week ago asking that we keep tabs on Ms. Kuro Rose's every movement. Vector saw no point in following up with the request once he got wind of it. His main reason was because the pay stated in the Letter of Request was nowhere near what he felt to be considered acceptable for a job that concerned someone of potential power like the senatorial candidate. Needless to say, I took it upon myself to accept the job at my own discretion. And since I didn't want my "stalker" behavior to be disclosed before I felt the time was right, I lied about my whereabouts at the moments leading up to her unfortunate murder.

End Argument

"And that's the reason you're giving us as to why you lied in the first place about where you really were?" Sonic asked in a tone that was filled with nothing but pure disbelief after the explanation was over. "Do you really expect us to believe something like that to be the truth? It's probably just another attempt to cover up at an already exposed lie."

"I don't think he's lying this time around, Sonic," Tails stated with skepticism in his words at his older brother's heated and probably biased proclamation. "That kind of testimony doesn't really sound like something that even the most experienced of liars could come up with in less than two minutes."

"Well, a more definitive way to see if he's lying is to see this Letter of Request the detective agency allegedly received," Shadow suggested as he gave Espio a quick look that gave off the silent question that everybody knew.

"And I happen to have the letter in question on my personage at this moment," the purple chameleon responded as he pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper from his glove and handed it to the fox. "I suggest that you don't try sending it to the handwriting analysis department, because the entire letter wasn't written by hand."

With eyebrows raised in question, the two tailed fox took the letter and quickly unfolded it. He soon realized what the other meant when he saw the words created from what seemed to be choice letters cut out from newspapers and magazines in order to form words. It was almost as if a criminal was trying to leave a ransom note behind.

"Wow, that's an interesting way to make a request," Knuckles said as he finally got up from the couch and looked over the yellow fox's shoulder to read the note. "And it goes to say that the creator wanted the Chaotix Detective Agency to simply keep watch over Ms. Rose at virtually every hour of the day. That's sounds like a practically impossible request. And is it just me, or is there something lodged in between the paper and letter there?"

"Oh, I didn't see that," Tails said as he looked at where the echidna was pointing at. He carefully pulled out the object and immediately recognized what it was. "Hey, this looks exactly like the Scale we found Silver holding onto! It has a bit of glue on it, though."

"Really," Shadow stated more than asked with intrigue in his eyes. "So once we get the results of the first scale we sent in to forensics earlier, then we'll know who it was that created the letter. Until then though, we'll just work with what we have. I must say that the instructions on this letter seem rather impossible to fulfill."

"Nevertheless, a challenge is a challenge," the freelance detective simply said with a small nod of his head as he seemingly ignored the fact about the Scale that was discovered as if it were nothing important. "And as I'm sure you already know Knuckles, I'm not the kind of guy who would simply just back out of a challenge."

"Which would then explain why you took on the job when your boss originally declined it," the cobalt hedgehog finished off as he seemed just slightly more willing to accept the previous explanation as the truth with the Letter of Request now in front of them. "But I still don't understand why you needed to lie to us earlier."

"Doing anything that could be construed as illegal when regarding high authority figures don't usually bode well for the enactor of said illegal activity," the chameleon explained. "As such, I didn't want the police to be keeping watch over me while I was keeping watch over Ms. Kuro Rose. That is why I lied earlier. Now I hope you're not going to waste more of our time and question me more about what I've just told you and proved to be the truth."

"Sorry, but I personally still have more questions that I want to ask you," the two tailed fox apologized in a somewhat fake apologetic tone. "I don't like leaving things at face value when they can be delved deeper into."

"I'm beginning to see that. Alright, I suppose I can do naught but comply, especially since I need to further redeem myself from my supposed lie you caught me in."

Begin Rebuttal

"I would like to hear a bit more about what you initially thought when you first received and read the Letter of Request," Tails started out with no particular logical destination in mind. "What did you think the letter really wanted you to accomplish by stalking Ms. Rose? It was pretty vague when it came to that little detail."

"Well, Vector and I figured that it probably came from some worker that's in league with an opposing candidate's campaign trying to get some dirt on her," Espio suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. "That's another reason why he chose not to pursue the request. He doesn't like to get involved in anything that's related to politics. As for me, I wanted to take on the challenge that, like you Knuckles, Vector said to be virtually impossible and not worth the company's time and effort. I wanted to prove to him that everything was possible to do and complete if you just gave it everything you had and more. That and I real curious to see what the reason was that they wanted us to follow her. I may not look it, but I'm rather curious by nature. Why do you think I worked with Vector in his detective agency?"

"We don't know, and we don't care," Sonic quickly stated as he stole a quick glance at the clock and saw that it registered a quarter before seven. "We're seriously running low on time here, so how about we try to stay on track for the rest of the time from here on out? I don't have anything against the police, but I don't want them to get here and take over this case now that we're already so far into it."

"Then how about we go into a quick recap of the past week or so that Espio's been on this job?" Knuckles suggested with a shrug of his shoulders as he tried to create another line of attack for the young fox. "I can only assume that that was what you've been doing since this is the first I've seen you in the past week. Then again, this was Ms. Rose's first time being here in a week's time, so I suppose the timing would make sense. And just for idle curiosity, did you managed to figure out anything about her that could be consider damning in her campaign for this district's race for senator?"

"Every candidate has skeletons lying deep within the darkness of their closets," the purple chameleon responded with a small snort. "Unfortunately, whatever skeletons she did have in her possession were things that have already been made public at some point of her rather eventful life. I even managed to infiltrate her house in an attempt to find something against her, but I still fell short."

"You are aware that what you just said is considered to be breaking and entering, right?" Shadow stated more than asked with his eyebrows crossed in seriousness. "I've seen the Letter of Request, and nowhere in it does it say that they wanted you to gather information on the woman at any cost. It was vague in all aspects, and you had no right to assume what the true meaning of the letter was."

"The life of a freelance detective is to merely gather information, especially if the info is considered to be well worth the risk of breaking the law," the freelance detective simply responded coolly as if the action he had just admitted to was nothing of major consequence. "Regardless, this was one gamble against the law that I'll admit I've lost. If you're so desperate to pin me down for a crime, then you can go ahead and file a report on this after we're done with all this."

"The Precinct would probably just throw it out considering that it's you and that you were acting under the assumed message of a rather cryptic letter," the two tailed fox said with a shrug of his shoulders. "It is a good defense under the accusation of breaking and entering regardless of how flimsy it sounds now because of both your occupation and the existence of the letter. Anyway, the main point in all this was that you lied to us about what you did in the few minutes before Ms. Rose's death because you felt that your current job would be in jeopardy if revealed. Is that what you're claiming?"

"If I were to be claiming anything else, then I doubt it would really make any good sense to my actions. Under certain circumstances in my line of work, I'm sure I'm allowed a couple of white lies every now and then."

"White lies that just so happened to become an interference to the progression of our case," Sonic added with a scowl that clearly reflected his disbelief with the current explanation. "I believe in coincidences as much as the next person, but this just seems way too convenient on your end for my tastes."

"Think whatever it is you want of it, Sonic. All I'm going to say is that everything I did tonight that you've discovered and learned to be a lie was all to keep my current job afloat. In fact, most of the things that you've heard of me doing from Knuckles' Testimony was done in accordance to my current job."

"If that's the case, then do you mind if I ask you about something else?" Tails asked in a rather rhetorical fashion. "You've already explained that you lied about where you were just before Ms. Rose's murder. We also have Knuckles' testimony and the security footage that says you were busy on your cell phone at the time. Do you think you can tell us who you were calling then? You never really elaborated on it this whole time."

"I never said anything on it because I believed it to have had no relevance whatsoever to this case," Espio answered with a small shake of his head. "Honestly, how could one small action discovered within the center of a lie pose as much importance as you're trying to give it? That's nothing more than the desperate actions of a cornered man."

"Nevertheless, it's still a question worth exploring being that we know nothing of it," the fox countered with honestly nothing better to go with at this time. In the back of his mind, he had to admit that this was a cornered man's last desperate attempt at staying alive, but he would rather be caught dead before he outwardly admitted it. "And as you said, it was discovered in the middle of your lie. So why don't you tell us just who exactly it was you were talking to at the time before you left?"

"If you really must know, I was talking to Vector there about the status of my job," the chameleon answered with an annoyed sigh at having to explain about something so mediocre. "The truth about the office fiasco was that I did follow him there and left at fifteen minutes before midnight. I had caught wind through idle gossip that Ms. Rose was going to come down to the second floor after she was done with her meeting with Silver, so I decided to go down there and wait for her. What she was planning to do there, I don't know. However, I was down there for the sole reason of figuring it out."

"Then why did you suddenly decided to just leave where you thought would be your best chance at snooping over her business here?" the cobalt hedgehog inquired with a small sigh of thoughtfulness at the other's proclaimed actions of the midnight hour. "If that was the only thing that you had going for you information wise, then it seems kind of stupid how you would just abandon your only lead like that."

"As you know, Vector has a tendency to leave his office door wide open," the freelance detective quickly explained without any hesitation. "And as I'm sure you also know, his office is situated right next to the stairwell door that's currently broken. When I was on the phone with him, I was talking to him about certain stuff we failed to go over in our previous meeting. I also had him keep an open ear for any footsteps in the stairwell. Rumor was that the woman was supposed to have come to the second floor clerk's desk by around midnight. When it had come and passed, I asked the prosecutor if she had passed by, and he said nobody either went up or down those stairs. As such, I decided to leave my post and go to Silver's office to try and see what might have been holding her up."

"That would go to say then that you entered Silver's office while they were still in their private meeting," the two tailed fox concluded as he pieced together all the things that he had just learned. "That would make you the last visitor within those fifteen minutes she was killed in and thus the only person who could've caused all of this damage! It's the only explanation that's both logical and possible!"

"I wouldn't be too sure on that if I were you. Do you have any kind of proof on the matter that says I entered this office with nothing but a cold and murderous heart beating in my chest? If you do, then I'll be more than happy to entertain it. Otherwise, I suggest that you keep your slanderous comments to yourself. Don't forget that I can make your life a living hell for trying to ruin my good name with false accusations.

"With all this aside, I emphatically claim that I was nowhere near this office at the time the murder occurred," he continued on as he ignored the angry growl he had incited out of the defense attorney with his previous comment. "And I also claim that everything I have said up to this point has been nothing but the honest truth. I just only hope that your quest to squeeze out every single ounce of truthful information from me didn't end up destroying what little I had left from this stalking job."

End Rebuttal

"If I were you, your current detective job would be the last thing I'd be worrying about," Shadow stated with a huff of his breath that strangely sounded like annoyance. "In fact, I'd be wondering what my next plan of escape would be right about now."

"And whatever do you mean by that, Shadow?" Espio questioned with his eyebrows raised as his shoulders tensed up a bit and his words gained a slight defensive posture to it. Apparently, he remembered the last time the ebon furred hedgehog had questioned him about something, and he was not going to be put off guard this time around. "If you're insinuating that I have something to hide this time around, then I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken. I have told you all nothing but the bare truth."

"That's what you would like for us to believe, but you have no idea how your statements actually bare connections to what I've done in the thirty minutes before I went to get you from the cafeteria," the prosecutor responded as he began to chisel away at the chameleon's hastily placed defenses against whatever he was attacking with.

"Wh-what are you talking about, Shadow?" Sonic and Knuckles asked, both of them shocked at how their friend was suddenly taking such a keen interest on the case when he had previously not. Then Sonic asked, "What are you talking about when you say the things you did thirty minutes before bringing Espio up here?"

"What I'm saying is that I didn't just make a side trip to the security room in that time," he explained without unlocking his eyes from the freelance detective that stared back at him with harsh stares. "I also made a short trip to the third floor computer technician's office so as to gather up evidence of Vector's alibi proposed by Knuckles. Needless to say, his relation to this case is nothing more than just an investigator."

"And how is his alibi supposed to prove something against me? At least, that's the impression I'm getting from hearing you talk right now. That and using another person's alibi to confront somebody isn't really something even the most seasoned of attorneys would dare to try since they rarely ever work in the end."

"I assure you, this little gamble of mine has no chance of failing. What I'm getting at here is the time when Vector made his appointment to meet with the technician. He requested that the person come up to check on his computer sometime after it had crashed. That was about five minutes before midnight, and I know because I was on the phone with him transferring some files when it happened. And according to the phone records, the technician received a call from him not even one minute before we hung up and lasted until a minute after midnight! Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Instead of answering, Espio simply growled out in anger and also what seemed to be slight desperation. Despite not saying it, his worried look told them all that he understood the implications of Shadow's words. His eyes, however, still shown with fight and seemingly reflected his brain working quickly for a new plausible statement.

"What you're saying is that it was impossible for Espio to be on the phone with Vector at the time," Tails responded as the pieces slowly started to fit into their rightful places in his brain. "And for the timeframe that Knuckles said he saw him on it, it's impossible for the two of them to have been communicating!"

"Espio!" Knuckles exclaimed in both anger and frustration at the man who he thought of as both a colleague and friend. He had since gotten back onto his feet and staring at the other with hard eyes that were clearly shining with belief that he was really the true culprit in all this. "Why the hell have you been lying to us all this time? You better start telling the truth here, or we're really going to think that you're the one who did this! I don't want to, but I'll throw you in jail myself if it comes to it!"

Argument: The Lack of Cooperation

…Humph, a couple of lies shouldn't automatically tag me as a murderer. So what if I wasn't talking to Vector in his office at the time? Does it really matter whether or not I was talking to him on my cell phone during my time on the Precinct's second floor? I thought for sure that you would understand the background message I was giving off when I fabricated who I was really talking to. I was basically telling you that whoever I was talking to about whatever during that phone call was none of your business!

End Argument

"And this is your explanation as to why you lied to us about your phone call?" Shadow asked before anybody else had a chance to say anything about this clearly hastily made testimony. "You know, you seem to have an excuse for just about every single little problem that Tails managed to dig out."

"You may not believe in it, but that's something that I call coincidence," Espio responded with an annoyed sigh as he crossed his arms in a defensive manner. "Regardless, it is what it is. My lies are hardly worth looking through since they clearly have no connection whatsoever to the murder case at hand."

"You know, I've never seen you act this dense before in all of the cases I've worked on with you," Knuckles responded with a heavy distrustful frown on his face. "You love to act cocky all the time, but this kind of behavior is beyond that. How can you just stand there and say all your lies mean nothing to the overall integrity of this case?"

"And you all have yet to really prove otherwise on that regard," the purple chameleon countered with a raised eyebrow. He was now slowly starting to regain his former cocky demeanor and thus gaining his second wind. "And if you really want to prove me wrong on that, then I suggest you hurry it up. Judging by the time we have left," he said as he stole a quick glance at the clock, "you should really have only enough time to ask me a couple more key questions before the police gets here. I doubt, though, that you'll really be able to get to the true heart of this matter, a matter that does not involve me in any way possible!"

"We'll just have to see about that, Espio," the ebon furred hedgehog countered as he gave him one more hard stare before turning his attention to the two tailed fox. "There have been times where thirty minutes' worth of testimony has uncovered the absolute truth in a situation. And I truly believe that such a feat is doable this time around. Tails, I think it's time for you to work your magic again."

"Uh, okay," the fox said with slight hesitation at how the prosecutor was handing him the reigns. He knew that he was basically an amateur, and Shadow was already starting a good roll with his serious demeanor and questions. So to hear him say that he can take things over now was rather shocking. He figured in the back of his mind that it meant he was gaining confidence in his ability to dig up the truth, but the forefront of his mind had no time to regard it. He knew that they were quickly running out of time and that he would really have to make this quick before their last half hour ran out.

Begin Rebuttal

"If you really felt that what you did before the time of the murder wasn't any of our business, then you would've said so right out instead of creating all these lies," Tails addressed Espio with his arms loosely crossed. "You're a blunt and outright person, so you wouldn't think twice of being forcibly blunt in telling us that. The only reason I can think of as to why you were lying to us is because that conversation you had has something to do with this entire case. Of course, I don't have any proof on the matter," he continued on just as he saw the freelance detective's mouth begin to open in protest. "However, even you have to admit that much is possible under the circumstances you dug yourself into."

"Then why are you bothering me with all these suppositions that you can't even prove?" Espio asked with a secretive smirk appearing on his lips. "If I recall correctly, any and all lies that you have discovered all came about with the help of Shadow here. If he weren't standing here right now, I doubt that you would even have any of these frivolous details to be picking about on me. You're nothing but a sad little boy trying to stick your nose in business that doesn't concern you!"

"Hey, don't you dare talk about my little brother that way!" Sonic quickly countered as he walked up a couple of paces in a threatening manner. Knuckles, despite having an already short temper at how dragged on this was becoming, stood between the detective and hedgehog under the assumption that they were going to start a scuffle. "He's smarter than you can ever hope to get in your entire damned life!"

"And yet he has failed in so many ways to effectively try and connect me to this crime," the purple chameleon cockily countered back. "How is that supposed to prove that he's smarter than me as you so claimed? Just because he's the supposed child prodigy of this century doesn't mean that he's not entitled to be wrong every now and then. This just happens to be one of those unfortunate rare occasions for him."

"I hate to say it right now, but Espio is right on the first half of what he just said," Shadow stated with a heavy sigh, an action noted as unusual for the ebon furred hedgehog to perform. "Even though we've managed to catch him in a couple of lies and make him look bad, that's all that we've really accomplished. They aren't enough to prove anything beyond the fact that he lied. Without any kind of hard evidence linking him to this crime, we've done nothing but dig up things that virtually add up to nothing."

"…I guess we really were just wasting our time here from the very beginning," the two tailed fox responded with a sort of despondency to his words. It was clear that he was running out of ways to attack the other, and the fact that he had now been officially up all night long did not make him feel any better. "Looking back, everything that we've brought up doesn't prove any kind of connection between him and all this. It's suspicious, but suspicions can only go so far without hard evidence."

"I'm glad to hear that you're finally admitting to your mistakes," Espio stated with a triumphant smile appearing onto his face that annoyed the hell out of Sonic. "As I have been saying since the very moment you brought me in here and accused me, I've had nothing to do with last night's murder. And as you can see, the lack of evidence to support your claim is proof enough of my innocence, even if I don't necessarily have a provable alibi keeping me away from suspicion. Of course, alibis aren't everything as far as concrete evidence is concerned, something that you all happen to lack."

"B-but what about you moving in the direction of the stairwell just after midnight?" the cobalt hedgehog refuted in an attempt to stay on the offensive. "The security footage that Shadow obtained proves that you were heading in that direction. That action itself already makes you look suspicious! You haven't explained where you were really heading to then. How do we know that you really weren't just heading up to Silver's office so you could murder Ms. Rose and try to kill Silver at the same time?"

"…I don't think I'm obligated to explain anything like that to you," the purple chameleon simply answered without looking the hedgehog in the eye. Whether he was eager to have this all over with or was afraid that he would be considered lying if he made contact, none of them knew. "I'm sure that you're not going to believe anything that comes out of my mouth unless it's what's already ingrained in your stubborn head. Unless you have evidence that proves exactly where I went after midnight, I'm not entertaining your request that clearly reflects how desperate you are to keep this ragged train of logic moving."

"But you can't just go ignoring the fact that your lies are clearly suspicious in nature!" Knuckles spoke up in an attempt to put his two cents into the argument and try to keep the logical fire burning. "If this were an actual court proceeding, then you would be under heavy doubt and suspicion by the judge."

"Yet last I checked, we're not in a court proceeding. And even if we were, that argument of yours wouldn't be able to keep its footing for even two seconds. In cases such as murder, you need to prove that the accused is the actual perpetrator beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are no ifs or maybes in these delicate proceedings. If you can't fully tip the balance in one direction or the other, then you can't keep on with your original accusation. That is exactly what's happening right now. I'm even sure that the most logical person in this room will agree with me on this?" he added as he turned his attention at Shadow. All the prosecutor did here was let out a low growl in reluctant agreement. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to leave this place now and get some much needed sleep. I hope you don't have any more questions fitting for a desperate man to further waste both yours and my time?"

Is there really no way to officially tie him to this murder? Tails thought as he resorted to quietly staring down the freelance detective in front of him. He refused to answer his question and thus officially end their questioning, but he knew that he was simply stalling and just could not get another advantage over the freelance detective in this. He shouldn't have any plausible reason to lie this many times to us unless he really was connected. There's just no evidence that can prove something like that. Is this really all that I can do now?

In the couple of seconds that came along with the sudden silence, everybody stood quietly and said nothing. It was almost as if the very fabric of time itself froze all around them and only they were oblivious to the sudden freeze. At the same time, each one was in their own little world wondering just what was going to happen next after this seemingly heavy defeat. It was not easy for them to swallow, but it seemed that they were going to force it down and admit that they failed drastically.

Sonic was still silently steaming over hearing his little brother being insulted, but he had since sat down on the couch and had his hands in tight fists. Knuckles was sitting right next to him and carefully keeping an eye on him to make sure he was not trying to make another dash attack. However, he was also giving off a deep scowl at the dead-end situation they were all in. Tails was still silently thinking to himself on how he could make a plausible attack without tearing his eyes off of Espio, but even he had to admit that his efforts were in vain. The freelance detective had an unreadable expression being offset off with a calm and triumphant smile. It was clear that he figured he won this hard fought and dragged-on battle of wits. Shadow was leaning against the wall and seemingly deep in thought as to what was going to happen next after coming this far and hearing nothing of damning nature against the chameleon. At least his past actions of the past half hour or so seemed to indicate that he was now siding with Tails' side of the argument. Unfortunately, it seemed as though they have ran out of steam, and they all reluctantly seemed to accept this fact in their own way.

End Rebuttal

"…Hey, sorry for taking so long with your request, Shadow," a familiarly semi-deep voice suddenly announced from the doorway and tore them all away from their separate little worlds. "Didn't think that I'd be coming into a silent, almost resigned silent room as a form of welcome, though. You can literally almost feel the tension in here. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and heading right to the freezer."

With a combination of shock and surprise, all eyes immediately turned towards the open doorway and spotted none other than Vector leaning against the doorframe with a smile on his maw. It was indeed a great contrast to the bleak atmosphere that had quickly taken over the entirety of the office after the previous exchange proving to have been nothing but a desperate man's pointless endeavor to an ever elusive truth.

"Vector!" Espio exclaimed in stoic happiness as he flashed a great smile at his friend and partner's appearance. "I didn't expect to see you back up here anytime soon! Everybody here had led me towards the impression that you weren't going to be able to be back to this office before the officers come over."

"I was wondering if you were ever going to get here before time ran out, Vector," Shadow stated with a bit of relief encasing his words while taking a quick glance over at the clock. "You always seem to have the flair of bringing things up to the last minute. Its thirty minutes before our time's up."

"Sorry, but things ended up taking a bit longer than I had anticipated," the crocodile responded with an apologetic shrug of his shoulders as he fully entered the office and made a beeline for the desk without addressing any of the others. He regarded the purple chameleon with a curt nod of his head as he continued on towards the desk. He also gave a small glance to the still unconscious form of Silver leaning against the wall on the floor as he passed by and frowned upon seeing him in the same position he last left him in. "In the end though, I managed to finish just about everything you requested for me to do. And I also managed to get the findings on the two pieces of evidence."

"Wh-what are you talking about, Vector?" Tails asked with a slight stutter, confused at the sudden appearance of the prosecutor and trying to get his mind off of his suddenly cut off thoughts. "When did Shadow make a request for you to do something? And what pieces of evidence are you talking about?"

"Ha, don't tell me you already forgotten all about those two things!" the crocodile exclaimed with an amused chuckle while seemingly ignoring the first part of the fox's question. "It's only been a couple of hours since you handed them off to me. Things must've gotten pretty interesting around here for you to forget about something unknown yet no doubt connected to all this. I'm talking about the White Fragment and Scale you asked me to bring down to forensics as a favor when I was about to leave."

"Did the forensics guys managed to figure something out from it?" Knuckles suddenly asked, clearly remembering the two pieces that had no meaning for any of them at the time. His voice had also changed slightly to reflect the newfound hope he gained upon hearing that they would now reveal their hidden secrets to them.

"Why don't you just read these two sheets and figure things out for yourself?" the crocodile simply responded with a huff as he took out two folded pieces of paper from his vest pocket and handed it off to the echidna now standing next to him. Apparently, they were preliminary reports being that they looked to only be half filled at best. "I'm hope you'll be able to find something interesting from it, because I haven't had a chance to read it yet. And don't ask me for the two actual pieces, because the guys wanted to keep them for further analysis. It took quite a bit of needling and persistence on my end just to have them draft up those two sucky reports, so you better appreciate all the trouble I went through."

Without saying anything, the detective unfolded the papers and quickly began reading the contents. Sonic and Tails soon came over and began reading over his shoulder. Espio simply stood from a distance, idly curious as to what they were reading and subconsciously glancing over at his partner who seemed to have been purposely trying to ignore him. Shadow did not seem in the least bit curious; rather, he seemed to exude an aura about him that hinted that he had an idea as to what was written on it.

"…This one says that the White Fragment found here doesn't seem to have come from anything synthetic," Knuckles summarized the details of the report for all to hear. "There are certain things about it that has the forensics guys saying with great certainty that this is most likely an organic matter of some sort."

"So does that mean it actually came from an actual person?" Sonic asked with both of his eyebrows raised with intrigue at the new information. "Hmm, maybe it came from the murderer sometime during the scuffle."

"It isn't too much of a stretch to think that," Tails agreed with his older brother as he took the paper into his hands and began to read it again. "If we can just figure out who this belongs to, then we'll most likely be able to know who the murderer is."

"And the other report says that the analysis of the Scale actually provided them with a name!" the echidna responded, this time gaining him the undivided attention of everybody in the room except for Vector. "They said they managed to drag out a bit of DNA that wasn't damaged or marred from blood."

"But they couldn't do the same with the horn because the organic material is too dense for the tools they were currently equipped with to extract," the two tailed fox concluded as he looked up from his report. "It says so right here at the end."

"So what's the name they ended up coming up with?" Shadow asked with his arms crossed. His eyes, however, were trained on Espio who was currently starting to look just as nervous as he was when he was caught in his lies. He even began to constantly fiddle around with his horn again with a scowl on his face. "Don't just leave us all hanging with anticipation while time's running out, Knuckles."

"…They said that after conducting a couple of cross-references with the data they already had on file, the DNA on the Scale…could belong to nobody but Espio," the detective responded with repetitive pauses in his sentence as he was trying to process the information in his head. Sonic and Tails both looked surprised and relieved in that their initial thoughts were now back on track; Shadow looked relatively calm despite the slight sheen of amazement shining in his eyes; and Vector simply stood idly by the desk having most likely already read the report before coming up here himself.

"…And exactly what Scale are they talking about here, Knuckles?" the purple chameleon questioned through clenched teeth while keeping his arms crossed to continue his nonchalant attitude. Despite now becoming more flustered than ever, he was not going to let them come to conclusions without a fight. "I don't remember hearing of anything like that except for the one found in the Letter of Request."

"Silver was found with a Scale resting on his hand while he was unconscious," Tails explained in place of Knuckles as he handed the report back to the echidna and continued on with their attack made possible to them by their newly received information. "We had it sent down to the forensics department along with the White Fragment earlier when Vector said he had to go and take care of something. Needless to say, we finally managed to connect you to this crime thanks to the Scale!"

"And how exactly are you proposing to perform such a miraculous feat with such a flimsy piece of evidence?" the freelance detective countered with his nonchalant attitude quickly disappearing and replaced with a heavy frown. "That Scale could've easily just fallen off of my body during the party earlier."

"Then how do you explain the fact that I just said it was first found resting in his hand? I doubt he just so happened to spot that single Scale on the floor and picked it up before being knocked unconscious. The only time he could've gotten his hands on one was when he was struggling with his attacker!"

Instead of answering, Espio simply growled out in anger at suddenly having the tables suddenly turned on him when he first had the upper hand. He was clearly now having a hard time trying to keep himself afloat from the accusation and quickly becoming flustered. It was also evident that he was trying to quickly think up of another suitable statement and failing miserably judging by how his eyes were shifting around the room.

"And speaking of Scales, I think I've just figured out another little lie you presented to us earlier," Tails continued on in an attempt to crowd him with logical accusations and cause him to become flustered. "Of course, I'm referring to the Letter of Request you claimed was sent to you and Vector a week ago. There was a Scale that looked exactly the same as the one found in this office. The fact that it was found between a letter and paper with a bit of dried glue on it tells us that the owner of the scale was the one who created the letter. And since they both look the same, I claim that you were the one to have written this letter under the guise of trying to provide yourself with an alibi for tonight!"

"And how do you plan on proving this rather asinine claim of yours? You're asking for a recipe that'll only lead you to pure disaster!"

"Have you forgotten that we could simply just bring this new scale down to forensics and have them compare it with the one we brought to them earlier?" Sonic countered with a roll of his eyes at how clumsy the freelance detective was suddenly becoming with details. "Just admit it; we've already got you pegged as the one to have murdered Ms. Rose and attacked Silver to the point of unconsciousness. There's nowhere else for you to hide!"

"…That may be the case, but you still failed to explain one little detail. According to what I've heard Shadow discuss with me in terms of Silver's Testimony, he said that he saw his attacker smash his head along the edge of the desk. But as you can see, I don't have a single scratch on me. If I don't have any head injuries whatsoever, then I'm afraid you can't pin me down as the murderer despite the Scale showing you what you want to hear. After all, such a hit to the head would surely leave a mark lasting for quite a while."

"How can you keep coming up with things to get you out of the charge of murder?" the cobalt hedgehog exclaimed with absolute annoyance at the situation reflecting in his words. "Everyone here already knows that you're the one who did all this, and we have your Scale found in Silver's hand as ample proof of it!"

"But then he should still be right now suffering from some kind of injury somewhere on his head according to the detective's recollection of his scuffle," Shadow countered with a shake of his head as he seemingly sided with the chameleon on this point. "Espio is clearly not hurt in any way possible. Because of that, it's really hard to create a case against him because of this rather large inconsistency."

"Finally, somebody is seeing things my way in this!" the freelance detective stated with a sigh of relief while fiddling around with his horn. Apparently, he managed to get his second wind because of this statement and beginning to regain his previously deceptively calm and rather cocky demeanor. "You might have half of the claim right, but you can't get anywhere without the other half."

"…But we already have the other half of our argument figured out," Tails suddenly stated with a smile slowly appearing on his face and growing larger by the second. "And I just figured out why you have no visible signs of head damage."

"Wh-what are you talking about here?" Espio growled out as a threatening snarl came onto his face. It was almost as if he were an animal in the wild being chased for the whole day and suddenly trapped up a tree. "You can't possibly find any way to say that I was injured in here without having any kind of visible mark on my head. And in case you haven't noticed, I don't have anything like that on me!"

"That's what you'd like for us to believe, but there has been this one small action that you've been performing this entire time that we never took clear notice of," the two tailed fox responded as everybody else backed off a bit and let the fox work his logical magic. "I don't know if you've noticed this, but you've been fiddling around with your horn ever since we started to question you about your overall connection with the case. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but I'm starting to get an idea from these repetitive actions. Do you mind if we took a look at your horn?"

"Y-you want to look at my horn?" the chameleon stuttered as he visibly stepped back a few paces and unconsciously backed into the wall. His throat visibly moved a bit in an action that meant he was swallowing in reflex. "Wh-what the hell does that stupid thing have anything to do with your idea?"

"If it makes you feel better, I have evidence that can convince you that my idea will end up officially pegging you as the murderer. You see, I want to check your horn for any kind of damage that it has sustained. It's most likely that you hit it on the corner of the desk instead of your actual forehead. That would explain why you have no immediately visible bruises on your head. The horn itself would be the only thing to sustain damage, and if I remember from what I've learned from an anthropomorphic science book, damages to things like horns are almost never felt by the person themselves."

"… … …And you think that you can impress me to the point of confessing with that rather complex piece of knowledge you just spat out?" the freelance detective asked as the corner of his mouth visibly twitched a bit. "So what if I happen to have some kind of damage to my horn? You can't possibly have anything like a piece of my broken horn to compare with that you can claim you found in this office."

"I agree that it would be true under regular circumstances, but I'm thinking that we've already found a piece of your horn in here," Tails responded as he took the forensics report of the White Fragment into his hands from Knuckles'. "This report states that the fragment found in here was most likely broken off due to some kind of impact. It also stated that it was created from organic material. So if you really are innocent in all this, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to ask you to let us see your horn. If there isn't any damage, then we'll forget all about this, and I'll admit to my mistake of accusing you.

"However, if there is a chip, then we'll just compare it with the White Fragment that's still with forensics," he continued on as he saw Espio starting to switch between crossing his arms and leaving them at his side. It was as if he did not know what he wanted to do with them in the current situation. "If they end up matching, then that proves that you were here murdering Ms. Rose while Silver was trying to stop you and shoved you to the table edge in the process. So which is it going to be? Are you going to try and prove your innocence again, or are you finally going to admit to the crime you know you committed?"

Instead of immediately answering the question, Espio simply went in a staring contest with the two tailed fox. It was almost as if he were trying to read his eyes and see if there were any traces of a lie or bluff in his words. After spending a couple of seconds doing that, the chameleon gave out a loud sigh and accompanied it with a low growl.

"… … …You really are as smart as everybody says you are," he finally responded as he simply shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I've heard of so many different arguments when I testified to the courts, but never have I heard of one so heated and…passionate, especially coming from someone as young as you are. Put on top that you've hardly had any suitable evidence and still managed to get your point across, and you could be in line of being a top criminal inquisitor in the future."

"I take it then that this is going to be your confession to us?" Shadow asked, his voice sounding stoic yet his eyes reflecting the victory that everybody in the room had worked so hard to achieve all night.

"It's a trait of a detective to know when he's been beat. I suppose then that you could interpret what I just said as my confession. I never thought though that I'd be connected to Ms. Rose's murder by a piece of my horn that I just couldn't get a chance to find in here. I knew I smashed it against the table and where it most likely fell, but I couldn't very well go checking with all of you already in here watching. I can't believe that actually unwound everything I've done to keep myself away as the true culprit in this.

"However, don't think that this means you finally got me in your trap," he continued on with a cocky smile returning to his face. Apparently, he managed to come up with a backup plan of sorts. "Just because you all heard my so-called confession here doesn't mean that I'll end up being found guilty when being indicted by the courts."

"And just what do you mean by that?" Sonic asked with a huff of his breath that indicated he figured the other to be merely bluffing. "Any court worth their salt would immediately figure you out to be the murderer in this once it goes to trial. You wouldn't even be able to last half as long as you did in here."

"Just to be clear, I merely 'confessed' to you my crime because you all managed to figure it out. However, once I'm in the courts, you'll most likely be called on as witnesses. If you present your evidence in the same way as you did here tonight, then nobody is going to take you seriously because it's just too flimsy all the way around. For a court of law, you're lacking the essential glue to bind your argument together. So even though you've heard my 'confession' in front of all of you right here, I can easily turn it around in court and say that you all coerced me into admitting it. And without any key evidence, there's nothing any of you can do. In the end, I'll be the one to have the last laugh!"

"Espio, I can't believe that you actually did all this and are still trying to get away with it," Vector piped up before anybody had a chance to argue with the freelance detective. "I don't know what you guys discussed in here because I was gone for the entire time. However, I think I happen to have this glue that you say they need to shut this case."

"Wh-what are you talking about, Vector? I thought you were my friend here. You're supposed to be defending me against these claims."

"I don't go helping people out merely because I happen to know them and feel that they're innocent," the crocodile simply stated as he took out a few pieces of paper from his vest pocket. "Especially when I found something like this in my partner's home."

"What are those, Vector?" Knuckles asked as he tried to get a look at the new pieces of paper and failing miserably from his current position.

"I had a chance to read through them a bit when I was snooping around Espio's house, and I figured out that they were the missing LK-9 Files. They were left lying on top of his desk in his study. He most likely went back home for a bit after he first met you all up here. He probably didn't count on anybody to have come snooping around in his house if he left them all out in the open like that."

"And he has no reason to have those files anywhere in his house unless he really was the murderer!" Tails finished off as he took the papers out of the crocodile prosecutor's hands and began to look them over. However, a small dark red stain caught his eyes on one of the sheets. "Is that blood I see on it?"

"I'm sure that if you did an analysis on it, then you'll see that they're an exact match with Ms. Rose," the prosecutor confidently responded.

"Unfortunately, none of you are going to have the chance to do that," Espio quickly countered with a snort. "I don't know if you noticed this, but Vector ended up breaking into my house in order to get those 'missing files'. Whether or not they were in there remains to be seen. What matters now is that he broke into my house to get them, and that makes those files illegal evidence in terms of this case."

"Don't even think about pulling something like that on us, Espio!" Shadow quickly countered back. "What you don't know is that I hired Vector to break into your home under the employment of a private investigator. I even have a recording of our conversation on my phone as evidence of the verbal contract. Because of that, it makes his actions perfectly legal, and those files and anything else he found to be possibly incriminating in your house can be presented as legal evidence. Sorry, but your 'illegal entry' argument isn't going to work."

"… … …I just have one thing to say to all of you here," the chameleon said in a creepy whispering tone. It was so low that almost everyone did not manage to catch what he had said. Even his body language seemed strange and different from the entire time they were questioning him. He then shouted at the top of his lungs and thus startled everybody in the process, "DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

And with that loud outburst, he began to punch at the wall behind him in anger and what also strangely seemed to be desperation. Quickly snapping out of their shock from both the sudden outburst and the destructive attitude, Knuckles and Vector quickly approached him and restrained him to prevent him from causing any damage to something or himself. Sonic and Tails simply stepped backwards a bit to avoid getting tangled into the scuffle and just stared at the scene in complete shock.

"…I guess that's as good of a solid confession that we're going to get outside of a court proceeding," the ebon furred hedgehog calmly responded despite having witnessed such an extreme change in Espio's attitude and seeing the others trying to calm him down. "Even a well-seasoned defense attorney couldn't help prove you innocent of murder charges with those stolen LK-9 Files found in your room with a bit of Ms. Rose's blood on them. It looks like your last ditch effort to get out of this and have us take the fall of 'forcing you' to give a false confession has gone with the wind."

Instead of answering back, the purple chameleon continued to thrash around at the two strong bodies that were restraining him. Whether he was trying to find something to hit or just trying to make a quick escape away from his forthcoming punishment, nobody knew. And nobody would ever know the answer to that, because it was just then that a few police officers appeared from the hallway and entered the office. They did not have their weapons drawn, but they looked more than ready for any kind of situation that might arise.

"Is there a Detective Knuckles among you all?" one of the officers asked as he saw the scene in front of him and raised an eyebrow at it. The others simply stood back upon seeing how crowded the office was quickly getting and showed no indication at helping out with the scuffle. "And what the hell is going on around here?

"I-I'm Detective Knuckles!" the echidna struggled to respond as he tried to subdue the still struggling freelance detective, not daring to let even one arm off of him. Even Vector was having a somewhat hard time with the effort, and he is already a rather big and brawny guy to begin with! "We…we already solved the case. Espio here is the one…responsible for the murder! Could you guys please give us a hand here?"

And as if on cue, all of the officers that were already in the office went to the aid of the two. Actually, they practically pushed both detective and prosecutor out of the way and took over the struggle. Being that it was now five officers against one person with mastered ninja skills, it still proved to be a challenge. In the end, they finally managed to put him in handcuffs, although they also ended up cuffing his ankles together because he soon resorted to using his feet to try and break free. All in all, it was a triumphant victory for the police officers and a rather unfortunate and embarrassing loss for the ninja expert.

"Boy, you're telling us that freelance detective is the culprit here?" the officer who had first asked for knuckles asked while his four fellow officers carried a now squirming Espio out of the office and most likely to the Detention Center. "I never thought that he would have his hands in something as dirty as murder. He's helped us out so many times in the past before, so it's a pretty big shock for me."

"Well, the detective and his good friends have managed to solve this case before you officers came," Shadow stated with a nod of his head as he walked up from his corner that he was standing in as a way to avoid all of the chaos. "It was him who asked the police department to hold out on sending you guys in because of a senatorial candidate being murdered and all that. He simply exercised his special right to hold back on calling for backup to document the scene, and he offset it by having another detective check the scene."

"Yeah, the chief told me about it when he deployed us here to the Precinct," the officer explained with a nod of his head before taking in the sight of the dead woman and unconscious hedgehog. "I still can't believe you guys actually stayed up all night and managed to figure out that Espio, of all people, did all this."

"Just make sure that he's kept under careful watch during the entire transport period," the ebon furred hedgehog warned with a stern glare. "If he could kill a military close combat expert like Ms. Rose, then he might be able to pull something on you guys even with both his arms and legs cuffed."

"Don't worry; we've learned to never underestimate him when watching one of his martial arts competitions," the officer reassured them before heading back out to the hallway and accompanying the rest of his fellow officers. He then added quickly, "We'll be back with a couple others to transport the other to the hospital. I just hope he's still alive after going all night without any medical attention."

"Well, that takes care of all this hell tonight," the prosecutor responded with a sigh of relief that he had refused to show in front of the officers. "I still can't believe you guys managed to survive this long before I had to start butting in. Put that on top with the fact that you were up all night, and that really makes it a feat to remember."

"Uh, you were kind of also up all night with us, and you also helped us a bit along the way before we brought Espio in," Sonic stated with an eyebrow raised in confusion before he let out a very loud and rather rude yawn. "If it weren't for you at some points, I don't think Tails would've been able to stand a chance against him."

"Yet it was still him in the end who made use of the information I gave him and steered the investigation down the right path," the ebon furred hedgehog explained as he glanced over at the two tailed fox and gave him an approving nod. "Even though Espio said it in a sarcastic fashion, I believe that Tails here has a great future working with the Precinct as an interrogator when he's old enough to get a job."

"Oh, I don't think I'm that good," the young fox humbly said as he felt a blush coming to his cheeks from the praise and attention he was currently getting. And just like his older brother, he felt a yawn coming up, but he managed to stifle it somewhat and covered what did manage to surface behind his hand. "But I really do have to thank you Shadow for thinking ahead and getting Vector to snoop around Espio's house for anything incriminating. That honestly never crossed my mind the entire time."

"Well, I didn't become one of the best prosecutors in this district simply by pure luck, you know?" the prosecutor said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I also had to learn how to think fast in case I find myself in a corner.

"Anyway, was there anything else that you found in Espio's house?" he continued on as he directed his full attention to the crocodile. "I wouldn't be surprised if he were in something else illegal. He probably is seeing as how he stole a case file that he shouldn't have any reason wanting to keep."

"I suggest that we don't talk about it in front of everybody else here," Vector announced as he left the desk area and moved towards the hallway. "It has to do with the case that you've been working on for a while now. I'm not sure on it, but it might be another big break for you since that confession from Detective Ace in your last case."

"Is that so? Well, why don't we go ahead and talk more about it in my office. I also have a nice pot of coffee to help us get through this. You know how I am with things like this; I just can't let it wait until later."

And without saying anything else to anybody, both prosecutors left the office completely immersed in whatever conversation they were currently having. The other three still left in the office simply looked at their exit with raised eyebrows at how they were just suddenly forgotten and left alone.

"…Okay, that was a pretty random moment there, even for Shadow's standards," Knuckles was the first to break the silence as he scratched his head. He then said while letting out a muffled yawn, "I'm guessing that whatever he's been working on takes priority in his mind over anything else."

"But the least he could've done was maybe thank us for helping him solve a murder here in the Precinct," Sonic responded with a small pout before another loud yawn came around. "As far as I know, we managed to stave off a potential police scandal involving Ms. Rose's death and how the murderer practically walked out of here right under dozens of detectives' noses."

"Look, all I care right now is going home and getting some nice sleep," Tails murmured as he let out another yawn. Not surprisingly, they were all completely tired and probably ready to collapse right there after staying up all night. "I don't want anybody bothering me until tomorrow morning comes around."

"Oh, I'm with you, little bro," the cobalt hedgehog agreed as enthusiastically as he could considering the exhaustion taking over his system. "Come on; let's go home and do just that. And Knux, do you mind staying behind for a bit and make sure that those medical guys end up taking Silver to the hospital?"

"I don't think I really have much choice in the matter," the echidna explained with a tired sigh and shrug of his shoulders. He then added as he walked over to the unconscious Silver, "I still need to stay behind and submit a stupid initial investigation report. Stupid protocol requires us detectives to do it right after discovering a crime, or after the time limit for the delay of dispatching officers to a crime scene is over like in this case."

"Alright, then we'll see you whenever we get the chance to see you," the fox stated with a nod as his older brother walked up next to him.

Just as the hedgehog threw his arms around the two tailed fox's shoulders and was about to head out of the office, he heard his cell phone go off. With a sigh and a light growl of annoyance, he took his phone out of his gloves and checked to see who was calling.

"Hello, who's this?" he asked in a tired voice, hoping that whoever was on the other end would get the hint.

"This is your boss, Sonic," a familiarly somewhat deep voice answered on the other end. After not receiving any reply for a couple of seconds, he added, "Its Dr. Robotnik. Don't tell me you forgot already?"

"Oh, hello sir!" Sonic quickly greeted his boss in as perky of a voice he could muster. "Sorry about that, I just kind of woke up a few minutes ago, and my mind's moving a little slow. Anyway, what are you calling so early for?" he continued on while trying to give both Tails and Knuckles a dirty look as they laughed about his comment on being slow.

"I'm just calling to say that my meeting has ended sooner than expected," Dr. Robotnik explained. "As such, I'm just about ready to board the next flight home. I should be back at around noontime."

"Well, that's good to hear sir. You can rest assured that your office is just as clean as the day you left it."

"And I suspect that those reports I asked for you to finished are also waiting on my desk for me to go over, right?"

"O-of course I finished off those reports," the cobalt hedgehog responded confidently, but his currently panicked face said otherwise. "They're right now waiting on top of your desk for you to read over them as we speak."

"That's good to hear. Well, I'm about to board my flight now, so we'll talk more once I get back."

"Alright, sir; goodbye!" he said before quickly hanging up his end of the call. He then whimpered out, "Damn, I still need to finish those stupid reports Dr. Robotnik wanted me to work on before he left!"

"Well, good luck with that, Sonic," Tails simply replied as he headed out to the hallway without his older brother next to him. "I told you to get those done earlier, and now you have to rush to get them done. I'll see you at home after that."

"Y-you're not going to help me? What kind of a little brother are you?"

"One who wants you to wallow in your own troubles before you get yourself out of them," the two tailed fox simply answered as his body left their view and headed towards the stairwell. He then called out, "I'll be back at home getting some much needed sleep if you need me. Just don't call me to ask for help on those reports."

"Well, it looks like you're going to be having a long day like me," Knuckles stated with fake sympathy as he patted the hedgehog's shoulder. "You best get back to your office and finish those reports. From what I've heard, Dr. Robotnik doesn't like it when he asks you to do something and it isn't finished after ample time."

"Oh, why me?" the defense attorney whined while making loud fake crying noises tone as he brought his hands to his face. "I just want to go home and get some sleep. What did I ever do to deserve all this torture today?"

---

New Evidence:

Letter of Request: A letter the Chaotix Detective Agency received a week ago from an anonymous person. It was created through cut-out letters, so it's impossible to tell who created it. It requests that they keep tabs on Ms. Rose's every movement. A scale much like the one found in Silver's hand is seen in-between the paper and one of the letters with a bit of dried glue on it. Perhaps it belongs to the creator of the letter?

White Fragment: A small white piece initially found underneath Silver's desk by Sonic. It was sent down to forensics for a full analysis. Despite not having been fully examined yet, a preliminary report has been drafted and handed to Vector. It says that the chip came from something organic in nature. Unfortunately, the DNA on it is hard to decode due to it's dense nature, and the origin of it is currently unknown.

Scale: Initially found in Silver's hand. It was sent down to forensics for a full analysis. Despite not having been fully examined yet, a preliminary report has been drafted and handed to Vector. It says that based on the information in their computer, the DNA found on it belongs to Espio. While not complete with their examination, the forensics team are confident at who the rightful owner is.

---

Well, there you have it everybody. This is the end of this chapter. Don't worry, that doesn't mean that it's the end of this story. After all, there is still one mystery that hasn't been revealed or solved yet. Just what is the case that Shadow's been working on that has to revolve around all this secrecy? What exactly is the LK-9 Incident, and what does it have to do with the four of them? So many mysteries left to solve, but they'll be fully revealed in due time.

Anyway, I hope that you liked that little funny I put at the end. For those of you who forgot, Sonic said at the beginning of this case's chapter that he had some reports due for Dr. Robotnik that he didn't finish yet. Now his laziness has come back to bite him in the butt. Looks like he isn't going to be getting his precious sleep any time soon.

I hope again that you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I did making it. Don't forget to leave a review telling me if you liked it and how I did. I always read your reviews unless they just sound like pointless flames or flames masked by what is supposed to perceived as constructive criticism. Until the next update on this or any of my other stories everybody!