A/N: The final trial of this story begins now! Apollo, Hugh, and Robin clash with each other to finally get to the bottom of this case. It's time for mystery!
Chapter 26: Fight for the truth
September 26 2029
District Courthouse, Defendant Lobby #5
9:30 a.m.
"Are you saying that Lissy forged evidence?"
"That seems to be the case, unfortunately," Apollo answered.
Logan looked away. "To be sure I can't deny that she would do that for me. But surely she must have a good reason!"
"We're just letting you know because the prosecution plans to call Lisette to the stand," Hugh said.
Logan scowled. "But of course. Question Lissy if you must, but if you get out of line I won't be happy."
Apollo almost wanted to ask what Logan's definition of out of line was, but decided now wasn't the time. There were more important matters at hand.
"Logan, there's a crucial piece of testimony we'd like to bring up to the court, with your permission…"
September 26 2029
District Courthouse, Prosecutor's lobby
9:45 a.m.
"You seem to be in a much better mood," Detective Marsh noted once he lay eyes on Robin.
"Amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you!" Robin answered back. Indeed, she had slept snugly last night, as opposed to the sleepless night before the first trial day. Spilling forth all her turmoil yesterday had given her some peace of mind, but Robin wasn't feeling entirely better yet.
Before that, there was this trial to take care of. The outlook for their case wasn't looking good, yet this thought didn't affect Robin. She was ready to face the consequences.
"Chances are things are going south pretty soon," Robin said to Detective Marsh. "I don't think I'm going to be calling you, so you're f-r-e-e to go!"
Detective Marsh shook his head. "I was personally assigned as the lead investigator to this case, so this case is just as much my responsibility. If nothing else, I should have brought you to your senses first. So if you get punished after this trial, I'll join you."
Robin was touched by this gesture. "Aww, you're actually a real sweetheart, aren't ya?"
"Tch. Don't mention it."
September 26, 2029
District Courthouse, Courtroom #4
10:00 a.m.
Day 2
Court is now in session
ALL RISE
"Court is now in session for the trial of Logan Sullivan."
These words filled Juniper's ears as she took her seat in the stands. The police had taken all her statements, and with their permission she was now watching the trial. Already she could see Apollo and Hugh on one end and Robin at the other psyching themselves up.
Throughout this case, Juniper had remained firm in her beliefs. Even after it put her relationship with Robin on the rocks, even when it brushed the line between what was and wasn't allowed, she stuck to her convictions. Now she would observe whether her judgement was correct in the end.
She focused her attentions on the proceedings going on in front of her….
"The defense is ready, Your Honor," Apollo announced, looking determined.
On the other side of the courtroom, Robin twirled around and winked at the audience at large. "The prosecution is ready!" She said cheerfully.
"My goodness, the prosecution seems to be in much higher spirits than yesterday," The Judge noted.
"W-e-l-l, I know exactly how I'm going to present my case today," Robin answered, smiling.
"Speaking of which," The Judge turned towards Apollo and Hugh. "Yesterday, I asked the defense to come up with a new possibility. Do you have anything to present?"
Apollo nodded, before going through the court record to find the relevant evidence. "TAKE THAT! On a hunch, I had the weapon used in the shooting undergo some extra testing."
In the defendant's chair, Logan was resolutely staring at the floor. He had given Apollo permission to bring this up, but he was far from happy about it.
"On the muzzle of the gun we found traces of the our client's saliva," Apollo explained. "When we asked Logan about it, he confirmed that he attempted to take his own life a few days before the shooting."
"That's- that's terrible!" The Judge exclaimed, his eyes widening.
"In other words, the fingerprints on the bullet in the gun are from this event," Apollo said. "As such, we can no longer call this conclusive evidence against my client!"
"OBJECTION! I wouldn't be so sure about t-h-a-t," Robin said. "While you have explained why else Logan's fingerprints are on the bullet, it does not disprove that he loaded the other five."
Hugh flinched like he had just taken a blow. "Unfortunately, she's right," He whispered to Apollo.
Robin struck the bench with her right hand. "What's more, Logan still has both the means and the motive to be the culprit. Or to put it another way, it is the prosecution's belief that Logan is the shooter under the mask, and the defense hasn't proven otherwise!"
Sitting in the gallery, Juniper could hear the people around her start to talk amongst themselves.
"But the defendant is suicidal, isn't he?"
"The prosecution is putting this boy through needless trauma!"
"Given the hysterics she displayed yesterday, I'm questioning this prosecutor's capacity…"
Juniper desperately wanted to jump to her girlfriend's defense, but kept quiet to not draw bad attention. It was enough that she understood what Robin was doing- there were indeed far too many questions left in this case, along with the matter of Lisette's involvement. As such, Robin was drawing out the trial, and if Juniper knew Robin, the prosecutor was about to make her first move…
The Judge slammed his gavel several times to calm the crowd, then turned towards Robin. "What does the prosecution plan to do?" He asked.
"Just like yesterday, I have a pair of witnesses lined up," Robin answered, unaffected by the gallery's opinion of her. "And I'd like to call my first one n-o-w!"
Apollo and Hugh had already been surprised to hear that Robin had two witnesses, not one. They were even more surprised to see that the first witnesses was none other than Michael Brash.
Michael was still dressed in nothing but shorts and a burlap sack, but he looked a lot more aware of his surroundings than he did yesterday. Judging by the way he shifted about, Michael was incredibly surly and uncomfortable standing in the courtroom.
"Name and occupation?"
"Name's Michael Brash," Michael said, styling his spikes of green hair. "And I don't have a job, thanks for asking! Why'd you drag me up here anyway?"
"Oh, we just need you to tell us what you saw the day of the crime," Robin said pleasantly.
"Sure, whatever."
Witness Testimony
Michael's account
I was sleeping in my alleyway like I always do
When I heard the sound of stampeding footsteps
I was just gettin' my bearings when I see two people rushing in
And they ran right past me without a word.
I didn't see them after that, and I
Have no other involvement in whatever crime happened.
End testimony
The testimony raised far more questions than it answered. Primarily, Apollo wasn't sure what the point of this was, but he decided to keep pressing on.
"When we questioned you yesterday, you didn't mention any of this. Why not?" Apollo asked.
Interestingly enough, this caused Michael to began scuffing his feet against the floor, at a loss for words. Across the courtroom, Robin shook her head amusedly.
"This witness has been very drunk these past couple of days," Robin said. "So I had Detective Marsh find him and toss him in a drunk tank until he was fit to testify."
"Even so, this does raise the question of this witness's credibility." The Judge contemplated the situation. "Well, I'll leave it to the defense to discern the truth from this."
And what am I supposed to do with this testimony? Apollo thought, exasperated.
Hugh decided to take the initiative and press a statement that bothered him.
"HOLD IT! Could you tell who the people that came in the alley were?"
Michael glared at Hugh. "I just saw their legs. One of them wore black sweatpants, and the other this really tacky red skirt."
Robin seized up at this, and through gritted teeth she said, "What Michael refers to is me and the shooter coming through."
"After that a lot of cops came thundering through," Michael continued. "They didn't even seem to notice me there. And I worked with most of those jerks!"
This caused a bulb to go off in Apollo's head. Indeed, Michael had been mostly ignored throughout the investigation. In fact, the only reason he had come under Apollo's radar-
"OBJECTION! So you claim to be unrelated to this crime," Apollo said. "Well, someone certainly wanted to make people believe you shot Athena."
"Huh? Now what kind of sense does that make?" Michael asked.
"In the alleyway, we discovered a large bag with the shooter's hoodie inside," Apollo said. "And in the hood was your hair, Michael!"
"Gwah?!" Michael uttered in shock, his spikes drooping.
"Are you saying that Mr. Brash is the shooter?" The Judge asked.
Apollo shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. With cooperation from the prosecution, we had the hair analyzed. This hair could not have possibly fallen on the day of the crime, and as such it's forged evidence. Someone tried to frame Michael!"
Michael tugged at his spikes nervously. "Mr. Justice, I take back everything I ever said about you. Just let me explain myself."
"The prosecution doesn't mind anymore testimony," Robin said, looking pleased with herself.
Witness Testimony
I'm not the shooter
Now I don't know who would dare try to frame me,
But I wasn't at that park that day!
I was- just give me a minute to think
I'm pretty sure I was at an AA meeting
After the meeting I went back to my alley
Where I witnessed the prosecutor chase the real shooter.
I really didn't do anything beyond that!
End testimony
"I notice Michael didn't mention whether or not he had the weapon," Hugh said.
"If this testimony holds up, there's no need to prove anything else," Apollo said. "Because proving he wasn't at the park would completely clear him."
Logan's testimony that he had arrived at Vitamin Square after the shooting ideally demonstrated the same thing. Unfortunately, there was no evidence that could prove exactly when Logan stepped onto the park. Which wasn't to say the information was completely useless, just not needed right now.
"Let's see just how much we can believe in this testimony."
This time there was no point in beating around the bush. Apollo went after the most important statement in the testimony.
"HOLD IT! Just claiming you were somewhere else isn't enough," Apollo shouted. "We need hard evidence of this!"
Unexpectedly, this caused Michael to start digging around his burlap sack and shorts. Eventually he dug out a tattered brown notebook.
"Here's your stupid proof," Michael yelled as he waved the notebook. "I write what I do every day in this thing! Look inside if you don't believe me."
The notebook was passed around, and when Apollo looked inside there was indeed an entry for the day of the crime. As Michael said, the entry depicted a visit an A.A. meeting, complete with location and phone number.
The Judge ordered a bailiff to follow up on the claim, and calling the number confirmed Michael's account to be the truth- the person on the other end remembered seeing Michael at the meeting during the time the shooting happened.
Notebook added to the Court Record
Robin struck the bench with her right hand. "Your Honor, as you can see someone clearly tried to convince us that Logan isn't the culprit. Given that they decided to use fake evidence to do this, it casts doubt on Logan's innocence!"
"HOLD IT! It's too early to draw any conclusions from this," Apollo said quickly. "Let's look at this from a different angle."
"So I'm guessing you have a plan?" Hugh whispered to Apollo.
"Not really, but maybe we can find one," Apollo whispered back, then said to Michael, "Mr. Brash. This mystery person is trying to pin this crime on you. Could you think of anyone that would want to do this to you?"
At this point Michael was looking incredibly frightened, squatting low to the ground like he was about to bolt. "Only one. The same person that gave me the orders against Ema Skye," Michael answered, his eyes narrowed.
"Then please testify to the court," The Judge ordered.
Witness Testimony
The Ema Skye incident
If I remember correctly the police station was in total chaos,
All administrative matters ground to a halt.
And there were rumors of a traitor in our midst.
I received missives identifying Detective Ema Skye as the traitor.
So I schemed to drive her out of our department through vandalizing her office,
And tried to pin the crime on another officer.
But Mr. Justice and Miss Ckyes busted me, and the
True source of the turmoil was never found.
Whoever gave me those orders is also likely the person
That's trying to pin this shooting on me now!
End Testimony
"Hmm. Does the defense have any thoughts on this matter?" The Judge asked.
"Just that I've heard this before," Apollo answered. "So Mr. Brash better have something new to add to this."
"Very well. You may now cross examine this witness."
"HOLD IT! This court wouldn't be familiar with this incident, explain to us what happened," Apollo said.
"That's easy. All the records of what tasks the different departments did got mixed up," Michael said. "From the computer records to paperwork. It was the weirdest thing. There didn't seem to be any pattern to it, like if some bright spark decided to break everything just because."
"And no culprit was ever found for this," Hugh noted. "That's very interesting."
"Yeah, well, anyone could have done it," Michael explained. "Since all you needed was access to department facilities long enough."
It's just that easy to cripple to police? Apollo wondered incredulously.
"Believe me, the first thing that happened after I was tossed in the slammer was the department beefing up security," Michael said, reading the expression on Apollo's face. "I heard as much from my inmates."
This was all information Apollo already knew, so he moved on to press the next statement.
"HOLD IT! You've already claimed before that you got these missives from the chief of police," Apollo said. "But not only did the chief not actually make these notes, but you never produced them!"
Michael scowled. "Well I'd like to know what happened too! I've thought of nothing else since."
"This M.O. is starting to become uncomfortably familiar," Hugh muttered under his breath.
"I lost myself in drink as soon as I was released," Michael said shamefully. "So it wasn't until just recently that I remembered what happened to those notes. They vanished from my desk, and then they hopped between different departments, such as finance, internal affairs, the cadets-"
"HOLD IT! What did you just say?" Apollo asked, feeling his blood go cold.
"Huh? Someone told me the missives I got could have wound up with the cadets," Michael answered. "And that the cadets accidently destroyed them with other trash. But that couldn't have happened, so I never mentioned it. I mean, what idiot cadet would lose papers from the chief?"
In his mind's eye, Apollo could see a certain cadet he had met briefly while investigating the case.
"Name's Lisette Sullivan, and I'm a cadet at this police precinct!"
Lisette had been investigated, then dismissed as a suspect because she had an ironclad alibi for the day of the crime; at a training camp with other cadets when the vandalism happened. But by the sound of it, Michael didn't mention critical information to the case because it seemed unlikely, until today. Putting together the different threads- the unsolved chaos, the notes so similar to Logan's M.O., the disappearing evidence- painted a frightening picture.
It painted a scenario where Lisette had in fact been the true mastermind in the scheme against Ema, one that succeeded in destroying the evidence pointing to her. Michael had been but a convenient tool for Lisette to throw away. Worst of all, Apollo had fallen for it completely.
The Judge slammed his gavel down. "It does seem like there's a connection between this previous case and the current case, yet it seems our current witness is the sole point of relation."
"I wouldn't be so sure, Your Honor," Apollo said quickly. "After all, as Michael said the person that was ordering him in that incident could be trying to frame him for this shooting!"
"What are the prosecution's thoughts on the matter?" The Judge asked.
Robin smiled. "I'd like to call my second witness. A person that was not only involved in the previous case Michael was part of, but is also part of our current case."
Apollo braced himself. It was finally time to face off against Lisette.
When Lisette was brought to the stand, she smiled and waved at the audience, seemingly no different from the quirky girl Apollo and Hugh had met a few days ago. The main difference was the manic, desperate look in her eyes.
"Name and occupation, please!" Robin said.
"Officer Lisette Sullivan, defender of the peace!" Lisette exclaimed. She proceeded to remove her gun from her holster and twirl it with her hands, pointing it in different directions.
"Is it safe for the witness to do that?" The Judge asked worriedly.
"She refused to testify without her gun," Robin explained. "So we let her keep it- after we took all her bullets away from her."
"So why have I been called to this court?" Lisette asked.
Apollo immediately went on the attack. "If you remember the incident surrounding Ema Skye being harassed at the police department, Michael Brash has just told the court something new. Mainly, that the missives he received were given to cadets, then destroyed. Weren't you a cadet back then?"
"I certainly was, but I don't know what Mr. Brash is talking about," Lisette said. "After all, I don't remember laying eyes on anything by the Chief."
*ba-dump*
Apollo rubbed his golden bracelet, which had just reacted to Lisette's statement. Having his ability to perceive back was great, but unfortunately…
"You're rubbing your bracelet. So Lisette is lying," Hugh said excitedly. "Are you going to expose her?"
"No, I won't. Or to be more accurate, I can't," Apollo said back. "If we're to take Lisette being the real mastermind as fact, that means she deliberately destroyed evidence. Without that evidence, we can't make any claim of her being responsible."
"As a cadet, I didn't know much of what happened back then," Lisette said, a small but smug smile spreading on her face. "But I will say that perhaps Miss Skye should have been more careful picking relationships."
This was as good a confirmation as any that Lisette was in fact the real mastermind behind that incident. Apollo was overcome with the urge to scream, hit something, or both. His failure had allowed Lisette to slip away, which meant it was now impossible to catch her for tormenting Ema. In turn, it allowed Lisette to cause the current incident on trial, and Apollo was determined to nail her to the wall.
"So it seems that the prior incident is still a mystery," The Judge said.
"Now that Apollo's had his t-u-r-n," Robin said. "I'd like her to testify about her actions on the day of the crime."
Lisette saluted, even as her face started twitching.
"Will do, Prosecutor Newman!"
Witness Testimony
Lisette's account
When the crime occurred I was patrolling my beat,
A strip near a place called Tender Lender.
Then my pager suddenly went off with an All Points Bulletin,
To apprehend the shooter that fled from Vitamin Square.
The APB was sent to any cop in the general area,
So I imagine a lot of my coworkers got the same message.
I converged to the alleyway where the culprit fled, but by
The time we got there the shooter had escaped.
We searched around for them but couldn't find anyone,
So after I reported back I was dismissed.
End Testimony
"Hmm. You certainly did a fine job, Officer Sullivan!" The Judge said.
"Thank you, Your Honor!" Lisette said. "But I don't deserve that praise. I allowed the shooter to get away!"
"I wonder why," Robin said coyly.
"The prosecution's insinuations aside," Apollo said quickly. "I'd like to cross examine this witness now."
With Apollo's permission, Hugh decided to press Lisette on a weak point in her testimony.
"HOLD IT! Officer Sullivan, yesterday the police chief told me that you didn't answer your pager," Hugh said. "Would you care to explain to the court?"
"Like I said yesterday, I did answer my pager eventually after I found it," Lisette answered. "And I joined my fellow officers in chasing after the shooter."
Unfortunately, as much as the defense tried they couldn't find anything wrong with the statement. Lisette's statements were just vague enough to be hard to prove false.
"If you're going to accuse Officer Sullivan of something," Robin said. "Then just go ahead and s-a-y it! A cop like Lisette is much easier to believe in."
Apollo and Hugh got the message instantly; a soft approach was no good. They needed to make their points clear, and fast.
"HOLD IT! With your brother as the defendant, I imagine you were motivated to take part in the case," Apollo said, staring down Lisette.
"Which is why I hired you, Mr. Justice," Lisette said, smiling. "And you've done a good job. I tried to help as well, but as a beat cop I wasn't allowed too close to the investigation."
"Your Honor! I'd like Lisette's remarks to be added to the testimony!" Apollo shouted.
This was met with no resistance, which worried Apollo. Nonetheless the testimony was amended, and Apollo made his first move.
"OBJECTION! Officer Sullivan, you claim you weren't involved in the investigation," Apollo said. "But as we covered in a previous testimony, someone tried to introduce forged evidence to this trial. And this someone was none other than you!
Lisette flinched, immediately drawing her gun in front of her.
"What makes you say that, Mr. Justice?" The Judge asked.
"This forged evidence serves two purposes," Apollo explained. "The first is to frame Michael Brash. The second is to take suspicion off of Logan. I think our witness has motivation to commit this act!"
Lisette shook her head. "Didn't I just tell you I'm just a beat cop? As much I want to save Logan from these false charges, I don't have the kind of access to pull that off. What you should be focused on is why someone would point the spotlight at Michael. Maybe he is involved-"
"HOLD IT! I'd like to ask something to the defense," Robin said. "As you said earlier, with our help the evidence against Michael was uncovered as a fake. So where did the fake evidence come from? If you can't answer that, you can't indict Lisette."
Hugh broke out in a sweat. "Can we actually prove where the evidence came from?" He asked Apollo.
Thinking on it, Apollo hit another wall. They could maybe prove where the hair came from, but the bag and the jacket inside were a complete mystery. More testimony from Lisette would help, if she would give it.
The Judge shook his head. "It seems the defense has nothing further to add."
"Then I think there's sufficient grounds to call for a verdict," Robin said, smirking.
Lisette whipped her head towards Robin. "And what grounds would those be?" She shouted.
"W-e-l-l, your testimony gave us another perspective of the crime, but wasn't really anything new," Robin said, wagging her finger. "And the next best suspect is indeed Michael Brash, but his testimony has completely cleared him. So Logan remains the prime suspect."
"Hngh….ahhhh…" Lisette groaned, twisting her pigtails.
It hit Apollo like a bolt of lightning- he knew what Robin was doing. He slammed his fists on the bench to catch Lisette's attention.
"You heard the prosecutor," Apollo said carefully. "If you have anything new to add, do it now. You want to prove her wrong, don't you?"
At the witness stand, Lisette snapped to attention. "Understood you loud and clear, Mr. Justice! If it's new testimony you want, it's new testimony you'll get!"
Witness testimony
Chasing the shooter
As I've testified before, I did chase the shooter.
I joined my fellow officers and went into the alley.
I managed to catch sight of them right before they leapt over a fence,
Unfortunately me and my fellow officers lost them from there.
We searched the alleyway for several hours,
But they vanished without a trace.
If I can add information to exonerate my brother,
Then just ask and I'll do my best!
End testimony
"If we blow this chance, it's all over." Hugh noted.
"All we need to do is draw out Lisette's true nature," Apollo said. "And with a new testimony, we have the perfect chance!"
Once again, Hugh had a question he wanted to ask first, to clear up some vague points.
"HOLD IT! So to get this straight, this shooter managed to outrun ten beat cops, including you. After that they managed to scale over a tall fence. This shooter is quite fit."
Lisette grinned sheepishly. "No offense meant to Logan. But I don't think he can walk a mile without getting winded."
"OBJECTION! Don't think I'll allow speculation like that," Robin said. "People can do the most amazing things when they're flush with adrenaline."
"Objection sustained. The defense will present something more concrete," The Judge said.
Apollo decided to make another move here. "Because you answered your pager late, you got to the alley after the rest of the cops. Am I right?"
"Not that late," Lisette said, twirling her gun with a confident grin on her face. "The rest of the cops got to the alley at about 1:35 that day. I was there a couple minutes later. Add that to my testimony."
When the cross examination resumed, Apollo zeroed on the last statement. Well, since she had offered, Apollo was more than happy to take her up on it.
"HOLD IT! All we need is some kind of distinguishing feature," Apollo said. "Something to separate Logan from the shooter."
"Hmmm….I got it!" Lisette said. "Add this to my testimony: I clearly remember the shooter wearing a mask of the 'Mysterious Global Hero Onyankopon', and Logan owns nothing like that. He prefers the Nickel Samurai."
There it was- the key to exposing the real truth behind this crime. After the testimony was amended, Apollo prepared the proper evidence from the Court Record. Then at the top of his lungs, he shouted,
"OBJECTION!"
"Mr. Justice! Please refrain from such loudness," The Judge said. "There's no need to be so excited."
Apollo crossed his arms, smiling confidently. "You'll understand soon, Your Honor. Lisette, you've just named the culprit's mask. However, the mask in question has yet to be found. Can you explain this?"
"I talked about it with my fellow officers. Sharing information is key to a good investigation," Lisette answered.
"Does this defense find this claim to hold true?" The Judge asked. "Or is there evidence that says otherwise?"
Apollo shook his head, then presented the contradicting evidence. "TAKE THAT! As the prosecution revealed yesterday, there is a gag order in place concerning the shooter's mask. Only Prosecutor Newman, Detective Marsh, and Miss Woods know what this mask looks like. Regular officers shouldn't know this!"
"There- there was a gag order?!" Lisette screamed, yanking down hard on her pigtails. At the same time, she started sweating heavily.
Lisette's eyes started darting back and forth. "Well, there could have been an information leak in the department-"
"OBJECTION! That didn't happen," Robin said, her eyes blazing with anger. "None of us under the gag order talked about it even once. After the shooting happened and I was assigned to the case, I interviewed every officer that chased the shooter, including you, Lisette. None of you mentioned the mask, and so I placed the gag order after that so that the information would remain contained to me, John, and Juniper."
"You did do that, didn't you," Lisette said nervously. "Oh, now I remember! I had it backwards. I saw the culprit's mask, but saved the information for when I needed it."
"It seems Officer Sullivan could have feasibly seen the mask, having chased the shooter," The Judge mused.
Hugh smirked smugly, adjusting his glasses. "Unfortunately for Officer Sullivan, that's impossible. She herself testified that she arrived at the alleyway last. If none of the officers saw the shooter's mask, then she couldn't have either!"
"Then why does Lisette know what the mask looks like?" Robin asked.
"That's simple," Apollo said. "According to the gag order, only four people should know what the mask looks like. Lisette is the fourth person: The shooter herself! In other words, she is none other than the true culprit!"
"GAAHHH!" Lisette screamed, before pointing her gun at Apollo.
"OBJECTION! Wait a minute," Logan said from the defendant's chair. "Lissy...you didn't actually do this, did you?"
"Of course not, Logan," Lisette answered. "I don't know why the defense has accused me but there's a reason it couldn't have been me, one I'd like to testify about."
"Then the witness had better explain herself," The Judge said sternly.
Witness testimony
No connection
There exists absolutely no connection between the victim and me,
And as such I have no motive to shoot her.
The only time I talked to her was over a year ago,
For an incident I had nothing to do with.
What's more, even if I had a reason to want to hurt her,
I had no way to find out her actions for the day of the crime.
As such, it is impossible for me to have been the shooter,
As I have neither the means or a reason.
End testimony
"Hmm. This is a remarkably solid testimony," The Judge said.
"But it's one that will fall apart under scrutiny," Apollo said. "Because it's a lie!"
"Mr. Justice, I'm warning you," Logan said from his defendant chair. "You'd better have a good reason for this."
Apollo knew exactly how to break this testimony. As such, he immediately attacked the contradiction in Lisette's statements. It called for a bit of bluffing, however.
"OBJECTION! Lisette, you claim there's no way you could have known where Athena was on the day of the crime," Apollo said. "Well, I say that's wrong."
"So what way could the witness have known?" The Judge asked.
"A few days ago my workplace was broken into," Apollo explained. "And yesterday, I opened up the agency's phone and found a wiretap. Lisette planted it in there, as part of her plan to commit this crime!"
Juniper had told him that Athena had never once mentioned going to Vitamin Square. Yet Apollo decided not to mention this fact, in case a certain someone brought it up first.
At the witness stand, Lisette shook her head. "That wiretap isn't mine. With how poor our family is, I would never buy something like that."
Or Lisette could say the one thing Apollo didn't want her to say.
"Well, I'm sure the defense can prove where the wiretap came from," Robin said. "Can't he?"
Apollo could feel himself deflating. In fact, he had no way to prove who owned the wiretap. Getting the court away from this issue in short order seemed like a good idea right now.
"What's more important is that the opportunity to learn of Athena's whereabouts certainly existed," Apollo said quickly. "After all, it's not a coincidence that Athena got shot a few days after the wiretap was planted. Furthermore, consider Lisette's knowledge of the shooter's mask. The more evidence we examine, the more it paints Lisette as the real shooter behind this!"
"That does indeed seem to the case," The Judge said. "I suppose…"
"Wait! Stop the trial!" Logan called out. "...I confess. I shot Miss Cykes."
"OBJECTION! Logan, what do you think you're doing?" Apollo shouted.
"I refuse to see my sister be arrested for this," Logan said quietly. "So I'll accept a guilty verdict."
Robin wagged her finger at Logan. "Then come down to the witness stand and spill it a-l-l."
"Don't throw your life away, Logan!" Lisette shouted desperately. "There's- there's no way you're guilty! There's no decisive evidence implicating either of us."
"This trial seems to have come to a standstill," The Judge said. "Do either the defense or the prosecution have anything to add?"
Robin gave Apollo a serious look. "As of now, the prosecution has presented the sequence of events that transpired the day of the crime. So does the defense have their own version to counter it?"
"Looks like it's do or die time," Hugh said nervously. "Can we really pull this off?"
"We have no choice but to try," Apollo said. He straightened his back and began speaking to the court.
"First let's look at the background of this case," Apollo began. "On the day of the crime, Athena and Logan had a meeting. Five people arrived at Vitamin Square, but there were only four set of footprints. Now, how is this possible?"
"The shooting happened a little after one," Hugh continued. "And our client claims to have arrived at one thirty, and didn't step onto the playground itself because he saw it was empty and went home. Normally, this would be impossible to prove."
"But if Lisette had arrived at Vitamin Square earlier in disguise, the contradiction disappears," Apollo said. "Because what Lisette did next was hide herself in the giant strawberry at the park. When Athena arrived, Lisette made her shot! As she's leaving the strawberry, she dropped her gun to the ground. Not long after, Juniper and Robin enter the scene, causing Lisette to flee the scene. This accounts not only for the four footprints, but also for Logan's later arrival."
Apollo raised his voice as he wrapped up his explanation. "Robin proceeds to chase Lisette all the way to the alley, calling the police along the way. Once Lisette reaches the alley, she leaps over the fence to lose her pursuers. All she had to do then was hide her disguise and join the rest of her fellow officers. That's everything that happened!"
There was a silence as the court processed the explanation, before it was broken by Robin giggling and twirling in a circle.
"Unfortunately for the defense, I see at least three major contradictions here," Robin said, reading from a paper she had placed on her mini easel. "First, Why did she drop the gun? That also cast doubt on Logan as the shooter, if I remember correctly. Second, how did she join her fellow officers without getting caught? Or to put it another way, where did the disguise go? Most importantly of all: What is her motive? Why did Officer Lisette Sullivan shoot Athena?"
These were all very valid points. What's more, Apollo didn't quite have an answer ready for all three. But he planned to press on. One by one the contradictions of the case were being peeled away. It wasn't long until they would reach the ugly center of it all…
To be continued.
A/N: This arc is finally ending next chapter. I'm not going to lie, even I think this case is starting to drag and I'll be glad to move on. Until then, this has been Orion Fowl, and thank you for visiting my Corner of Romance.