(A/N: Okay first off, I apologize to all the PW supporters who were probably waiting forever for this update. I was doing so well and then I don't know what happened. However, I made it crucial that I start this chapter and not even work on any other story til I get this chapter done so there. By the way, as you can probably guess, I'm not as clever as Capcom when it comes up with punny names, so unfortunately unless something comes to mind, you won't see too many of those. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and as the section says, this is the investigation part of this case and most likely the next chapter will be the trial former.)

Investigation

Phoenix looked down to the source of the voice and saw that it belonged to a tall man with short brown hair and a rather dark coat. In all his years as an attorney, he's come to recognize officials of the law, and knew this guy had to be a detective.

"Ah, sorry for barging in unannounced," Phoenix said. "Is there anything we can help you with mister…?"

"Detective James Marshall," the man said, showing his badge. "And I would guess based on your suit that you're an attorney, most likely the suspect's, am I correct?"

"He's good, I'll give him that much…" Phoenix thought. "…Guilty as charged detective."

"Well, then you should be aware that this is a crime scene and as such, attorney's aren't allowed here," Marshall said. He then smiled grimly. "They may let you off easy back west Mr. Wright, but here we take our jobs seriously."

"Guess I'm more well-known than I thought." "Look detective, if I may-"

"Mr. Marshall, you have to let us look for evidence!" Trucy suddenly was looking at the man with a sad yet determined face. "If our client is innocent, you could be sending the wrong person to prison, and you wouldn't want to do that, right!?"

Marshall stared at her for a moment and then suddenly his smile grew warmer. "…Well, you're a hard one to say no to, miss. Truth is, forensics has practically covered every angle around here so I doubt you'll find anything new. Since I'm a fair guy though, I'll make an offer: Anything you find I'll have forensics check out for you, and because you were the ones to find it, I'll let you keep it for yourselves."

"Really!?" Trucy exclaimed.

"I… are you sure detective?" Phoenix asked.

"Yeah… look, I'm as eager as the next guy to catch the guy who did this but it's not to say I'm not cautious enough to avoid sentencing the wrong guy to prison. Besides, I've heard of you Mr. Phoenix Wright and as far as I know, you're one of the few lawyers who would be willing to send your own client yourself if you knew the truth. So, what do you say?" He then offered his hand.

"We'll take you up on your offer," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "But… won't you get in trouble with your superiors?"

"Nah, I've only been in this for a few years but I've delivered. Besides, underneath it all I'm still a big softie when it comes to kids."

Phoenix smiled. "Alright then, we'll let you know if anything comes up."

"Yeah… but try not to make a big scene… I can only keep the officers away to a certain point…" He then waved them off and went back outside.

"I owe you one there Trucy," Phoenix then said.

"Not a problem," Trucy smiled. "I could tell Mr. Marshall was going to be at least somewhat cooperative."

"Back to business then," Phoenix said. "From what we can tell, Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Bryan were both here before the murder took place. Judging by the amount of beer cans, they had a bit to drink. According to Mr. Bryan, he left about an hour later." "And then there's that picture I found…that woman in the photo…could it be Mr. Sweeney's wife? I'll have to ask Detective Marshall about that one."

"We also need to find out who has size nine feet," Trucy said. "But one thing bothers me…"

"What's that?"

"If Mr. Bryan was the one who pushed Mr. Sweeney down the steps, there's no way he could've done it that easily. Mr. Bryan seems to be a smaller man than the victim so it would've taken a lot of force to knock him down."

"That's a good point…he probably would have needed to run right at him to generate enough force to knock him over… and there weren't any other prints except right at the top of the stairs." "This is definitely becoming stranger by the minute. However, I don't think there's more we can do here until the police leave. Before we go though, we need to ask the detective a few questions."

They found him outside talking to one of the officers. "Mr. Wright, back already?" he asked.

"It seems the police did a good job inspecting everything," Phoenix said. "But I do have a few questions."

"Alright, but I'm going to tell you now, if you want to know about this so-called eyewitness, I can't tell ya."

"I figured you wouldn't." "It was worth a try…" "However… what I wanted to know was whether Mr. Sweeney has a girlfriend or wife."

"He did, but from what I've heard, she died about two years ago. Cancer, I think. He has a daughter who was just notified not too long ago. She was at a friend's house at the time and she should be coming back soon to be questioned. There is one other thing…"

"What's that?" Trucy asked.

"About his wife, Chelsea, that's her name. Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Bryan had been friends since high school and both of them knew Chelsea; heck, she was dating them at separate times at one point. Of course, she ended up marrying Mr. Sweeney and that was the end of it I suppose."

"So you think that was Mr. Bryan's motive?" Phoenix asked.

"Jealousy? Maybe… I'm not really able to tell at the moment. That's Prosecutor Thompson's job."

"Prosecutor Thompson?" Trucy asked.

The detective suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I've probably said too much… is there any other questions?"

"No, that's all. Thank you for the help detective." "Prosecutor Thompson…wonder if I'll be facing him in court…"

"So what now, daddy?" Trucy asked.

"The trial starts tomorrow but before that, we need to ask Mr. Bryan a few more questions." However, they were soon to be interrupted.

(A/N: For this next part, the song I'm using is "Investigation – Opening 2002" from Phoenix Wright: Justice For All.)

"Oh… my gosh… it's really you!"

"Huh?" Phoenix looked around, the voice almost startling him. He then saw a young girl around sixteen staring at him with long brown hair and wearing a long green sweater and black skirt. She also had the biggest grin on her face. "Are you-?"

*"Yes, it really is Phoenix Wright!" the girl exclaimed, putting her hands to her face. "I don't believe it… I didn't think you would come."

"I… do we know each other?" Phoenix asked.

"Not at all, but I do know you!" the girl said. "…Can I get a picture?"

"What, wait-!" The girl, however, had taken her phone out and went right between him and Trucy and took a picture. Trucy had smiled and Phoenix just looked dumbfounded.

"Perfect!" the girl said. "No one would believe unless I had hard evidence."

"Wow daddy, I guess we found your number one fan," Trucy whispered to him.

"Lucky me…" "Uh… just who are you exactly?" Phoenix asked.

"Oh, sorry, I got a bit carried away," the girl said. She then struck a pose and pointed her finger at him. "The name is Kelly Michaels, Future Ace Attorney!"

"…Future Ace Attorney?" Phoenix asked.

"That's right," Kelly said. "I'm still in high school but I've been studying law, which I'm hoping to major in college. I've seen and read all your cases Mr. Wright and as I said, I'm surprised you actually came."

(A/N: For this next part, the song I'm using is "Pursuit ~ Cornered" from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.)

"All of them?" Trucy asked.

*"Yep! Kelly said. "But the final moments are always the best part. The killer tries one last attempt to slip away and Mr. Wright hits them with a big OBJECTION! Or even when he has to go against those pesky prosecutors, and whether they throw whips or mugs of coffee at him, he just hits them right back with a powerful OBJECTION!"

"Wow…" Trucy said. She then looked at Phoenix. "Is this all true?"

"Uh… something like that." "That's pretty close though…" Now that he thought about it, he remembered something Mr. Bryan had said. "My friend's daughter recommended you…"

"Wait, you're the one who told Mr. Bryan to call me?"

"That's Wright!" She then giggled. "I mean, that's right. When I heard Uncle Jake was in trouble, I told him to call you because you would be the one who could help him."

Now the pieces were settling in. "So you're Mr. Sweeney's daughter?"

"Yeah… something like that," Kelly said, her demeanor suddenly changing. "When I heard what happened, I was at my friend's house, spending the night. I feel awful about it…"

"There was nothing you could do," Phoenix assured her. "Were you close to him?"

"It's… complicated," Kelly said. "You see, he's not my real father. My parents died in a car accident when I was really young so I didn't really know them. I was in foster care for a number of years until I was adopted by Mr. Sweeney and his wife."

"I'm sorry to hear that…" Phoenix said. "Both her foster mother and father are gone… which means she'll have to go back into the system…" "And you're sure Mr. Bryan is innocent?"

"Absolutely," she said. "He really is a nice guy, and he helped my dad cope with my foster mother's death."

"So it's important we prove his innocence!" Trucy said.

"Oh, is this one of your assistants?" Kelly asked. "I seem to remember one of them wearing purple-"

"I'm Trucy, Trucy Wright," Trucy said. She then smiled. "I'm his daughter."

"Daughter!?" Kelly demeanor changed once again. "I had no idea!"

"It's…never mind." Phoenix said, sighing. "Anyway, I think the police are looking for you."

"Oh. Well, I guess I shouldn't keep them waiting then. Good luck at the trial Mr. Wright, I'll be watching!" She then ran off towards the house.

"What a strange girl…" he thought. Then again, 'strange' was becoming the new norm for him.

"She seems pretty nice," Trucy said. "I guess everyone has their fans, huh?"

"Yeah… and I guess she's earned the title too," Phoenix said. "Now then, it's time we pay Mr. Bryan one last visit."

May 13, 3:39 pm

Detention Center

Downtown

"Oh Mr. Wright, back already?" Bryan asked. "I hope you were able to find some things."

"Actually Mr. Bryan I have a few questions about Mr. Sweeney's family," Phoenix asked. "Is it true you knew Mrs. Sweeney back in high school?"

"Ah… I had a feeling that was going to come up sooner or later…" Bryan sat back in his chair. "It's true, we both had an eye on her back then. We took turns dating her too, it turned out. But she cared about Dan, there was something about him and while I tried to get back with her, she made her choice. Even before they got married, I accepted my defeat and went on to support them."

"You know they're going to use that as a motive," Phoenix said.

"Yeah… it seems that way," Bryan said. "But you have to believe me Mr. Wright, I don't hold any grudges and in no way do I blame him for her death. In fact, I was the one who helped him to stop blaming himself. It really took a toll on him."

"Poor Mr. Sweeney…" Trucy said.

"The other question is about his daughter Kelly," Phoenix asked. "How well do you know her?"

"She finally found you huh?" Bryan smiled. "She's a spunky one, I'll say that. She wasn't always like that though. You probably heard her story, but when she first came along she wasn't always like that. She wanted to do right and impress both her parents. She also wants to be a lawyer when she gets older, but after Chelsea died, Dan decided to build up a juice bar nearby, which to this day is still successful. However, he wanted her to take up a permanent job there. Let's just say it lead to some eventful arguments…"

"So she really didn't get along with him then…" Phoenix thought. "One last thing Mr. Bryan… what is your shoe size?"

"My… shoe size?" he asked. "Oh, I usually wear size elevens. Why do you ask?"

"Just out of curiosity," Phoenix replied. "Now we have to go and prepare our case for tomorrow."

"Just hang in there Mr. Bryan," Trucy said supportively.

"Yeah… will do…" Bryan said with a smile.

Once they left the detention center, Phoenix looked at the time on his phone. "It's starting to get late," he said. "Better get some dinner and prepare for tomorrow."

"Do you think we'll be ready?" Trucy asked.

There were still a lot of unknowns in this case, just like who was this eyewitness? And also, was this Thompson going to help figure out this case or be determined to have Mr. Bryan locked up behind bars. "Only tomorrow will tell," Phoenix said.

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