October 24

Council of Six Headquarters

1:20 PM

Deirdre Brigit

"So," Prosecutor Umber began as he walked around the room all too casually given the circumstances, "is there anything sticking out to you here specifically?"

Chrysalis glanced around the room, her gaze eventually falling on the outline of the body. "Aside from the obvious fact that somebody died in here less than two days ago, I... I'm not sure," she confessed.

"You're not sure?" Prosecutor Umber echoed. He seemed surprised by her lack of certainty, and I could only assume that most of Chrysalis' responses had been definitive one way or another.

"No, I'm not," Chrysalis confirmed with a shake of her head. "I know for a fact I went in most of the rooms on the lower floors looking for someone who would be able to point me in the right direction, and I know for a fact that I didn't get the chance to head into most of the upper rooms. This one though... I'm not entirely sure. Something about it feels familiar, but I don't think I would be able to put a specific finger on what about it stands out to me."

Prosecutor Umber shared a knowing look with his sister at that. "In that case, I think it's safe to say you must have been here at some point," Detective Umber chimed in. "I mean, you said it felt familiar, and that would only happen if you came in this room specifically. Maybe you were here earlier in the night and then wound up leaving before anything of note could happen."

"I feel like I would have remembered it for sure if something like that happened," Chrysalis frowned. "I can say with certainty that I remember this place at least to some degree, but... It's not much. I think I may have come in here, but I don't know if I ever left."

"Of course you left," Detective Umber countered. "When the police found you, it was in one of the rooms on a lower floor. You must have left this room if you came inside since this isn't where you were found."

"If I did leave, then it's one of the things that was wiped away from my memory," Chrysalis sighed. "I can't even say for sure if I was in here at all. Maybe I was. Maybe this is all just a figment of my imagination. I have no idea. I'm just... Going to have to wait and see if anything comes to me, I suppose."

"We might have an alternative option for you," Yuri chimed in. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the Magatama, though she kept it pressed in her fingers for a little while longer. "When we were investigating, we found proof that you must have been in here at some point on the night of the crime."

Chrysalis' expression twisted with shock, and Mr. Morix immediately paled. Prosecutor Umber, on the other hand, was more upset than anything else. "If you knew she was in here, then why didn't you say anything about it sooner?" he questioned defensively.

"We weren't sure if pushing her so soon was a good idea," Yuri explained quickly. "Besides, we only just now found it a few minutes ago just before you got here. I don't think we would have been able to tell you before now even if we wanted to. This is the best chance we've got."

"What proof exactly do you have that she was in here?" Detective Umber asked. "You should probably show us what you found before we go any deeper with all of this."

Yuri walked over to Chrysalis and pressed the turquoise Magatama into her palm. Chrysalis' eyes went wide, and she went to feel around her neck for her stone. When she found nothing, she clutched the Magatama to her chest. "I can't believe I lost this and didn't even notice," Chrysalis murmured. "I would have thought for sure that I would have noticed if I didn't have something so important with me."

"We can't really blame you for not realizing you didn't have it," Victoria told her. "You've had a lot going on ever since the crime was first discovered. Since you're the main witness right now, you've probably been thinking of other things."

"I can't believe I let myself get this distracted though," Chrysalis muttered. She shook her head and went to put the Magatama around her neck once again, but when she realized the string was broken, she instead just clutched it against her chest once again. "Where in the world did you find this? I know you said it was in here, but... Where?"

"It was hidden pretty well, as a matter of fact," Lily told her. "It was shoved in the dirt of the plant in the corner. Somebody must have taken it off your neck and hid it for some reason or another, but I can't quite figure out why."

"Hidden in the dirt..." Mr. Morix echoed before looking down to his sister. "I can only assume you weren't the one who did that. What reason would you have to hide it there in the first place?"

"I can promise you that if the string broke, I would have just put it in my pocket rather than trying to hide it in a plant," Chrysalis snorted dryly. "I don't know who put it there or what their reasoning was, but it certainly wasn't me."

"If anything, this makes a lot of things about this case make sense," I chimed in. "You said that this room felt familiar to you, but you weren't sure if you had ever left it after coming inside. Is that correct?"

Chrysalis nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure I came in here, at least for a few minutes, but I don't remember if I ever left after that," she confirmed. "I definitely would have remembered it if something happened for my Magatama to end up snapped and hidden in the dirt of a plant I've never touched."

"Well, there's one explanation that makes all of this come together," I concluded. "You weren't the only person in this room, and somebody else must have been in the area after you came inside. You walked in but never left. You probably came in here only for your memories to give out when you fell unconscious. Somewhere along the way, your Magatama ended up torn off, and it was hidden in the nearby plant. The person who was in here with. you went on to pick you up and take you elsewhere, and they probably dropped you off in the room where you woke up after all was said and done."

"That makes you wonder... Who in the world would do such a thing?" Lily frowned. "I mean, somebody else being here makes a lot of sense, but it probably wasn't the victim who did all of that. She's... Well, an Emsthorpe. I somehow doubt she would be kind enough to take you away from the scene of the crime once you fell unconscious."

"It sounds to me like somebody else was here, and they were working actively to try and conceal Chrysalis' presence at the scene of the crime," Mr. Morix remarked. "Why else would they take her out of here and then hide her Magatama? I assume they decided to bury it after realizing the string was broken and couldn't be easily fixed, but that only proves the point more. They were trying to make sure nobody realized she was here at all."

"We know for sure there must have been other people here that night. This was the start of an Emsthorpe crime, but it didn't end the way we would have thought. The Emsthorpe assassin wound up dead, and we have at least one accomplice who got away and is now sending us messages about important details regarding the case," Victoria concluded. "The only people who would have known about all of this in advance would have been other members of the Emsthorpe family, but that only makes things weirder."

"If we assume for a moment that the culprit was trying to conceal my presence at the crime scene, then... Why?" Chrysalis frowned. "Especially if that culprit just so happens to be another member of the Emsthorpe family. They were actively trying to ensure nobody realized I was there, and that was the reasoning behind all of this. Now... I don't understand any of it."

"Would a member of the Emsthorpe family really want to help you out?" Prosecutor Umber questioned as he looked down to Chrysalis. "That's certainly what all of this sounds like."

"You may not have heard about this, but the Emsthorpe family actively made my life hell a few years ago," Chrysalis told him. "I don't know a thing about any of them, but I know for a fact that they hate me. They wouldn't have a reason to make sure I wasn't found at the scene of the crime. That... That just doesn't make any sense."

"And yet, it's what happened, and that only opens more questions," Detective Umber commented. "I feel like we need more information about what happened in this room that night. Is there anything we can do to try and stimulate your memory? I mean, you were in here, so you have to be able to point us in the right direction. Can we help you to recover your lost memories?"

"If there's a way to fix this memory problem of mine, then I'm not aware of it," Chrysalis answered simply. "I was looked over for injuries as soon as the police arrived at the crime scene, and I didn't show any signs of being hurt. I was just... Here. If it wasn't an injury that knocked me unconscious, then that leaves two options: chloroform or shock. I don't like either one of those options, and I doubt I would be able to figure out much of anything with those choices."

"If it was shock that knocked you out, then I feel like we can figure out what surprised you to the point of passing out," Yuri jumped in. She tapped her foot against the ground to point at the white tape outlining the place where the victim's body had been found, and all of us turned to look at it. She definitely had a point there.

Chrysalis winced at the suggestion, rubbing at her head with one hand. "I really hope that's not the case," she muttered. "I don't remember a thing from after I entered this room. I mean, I must have been in here, but it all goes black pretty quickly. Also, I would prefer it if I didn't have to add another crime to the tally of all the crap I've seen. I feel like I've more than served my time on the witness stand in the past, and this case is enough of a headache as it is."

"You wouldn't be the only one who hopes that's not the case," Mr. Morix chimed in. "But at the same time, I feel like we can't exactly abandon the possibility. As long as there's the chance that's what happened, we have to try and negotiate with it."

"Lovely. Working with my own memory problems that come with witnessing a murder is my favorite activity," Chrysalis muttered crossly. "There's not even a way to say where I would have been throughout all of this. I mean, the Magatama was shoved in the dirt in the corner with the express purpose of making sure nobody saw it. In other words, it was moved from wherever it was originally, so that makes it hard to figure out where I would have been."

"You agree that you probably saw the murder then?" Prosecutor Umber asked with a raised eyebrow in her direction.

"I don't like it, but there comes a point where you just have to accept the most likely possibility as the outcome," Chrysalis sighed. "I was probably in here and witnessed the crime along the way. I don't know where I was exactly throughout all of this, but I guess that's a question I'll have to ask another time."

"The fact that we know you were in here at all is already going to make our lives a lot easier," Detective Umber said. "This is a great step in the right direction... Though I'm afraid we're going to have to question you a little bit more about it in the next few hours."

Chrysalis groaned and pinched at the bridge of her nose. "I should have seen that one coming. Fine. Just give me a little bit more time to try and figure all of this out. I feel like that would be more productive than just sitting me down in an interrogation room when I don't remember a thing," she countered.

The Umber twins shared a look at that, and Prosecutor Umber nodded. "Take the time you need," he said.

"Thank you," Chrysalis returned. She started to walk around the perimeter of the room, examining the body and its corresponding blood pool from every angle. "I can say for sure that when I woke up, I didn't have any blood on my clothes. I'm pretty sure that would have alerted me right away to the fact that I had been near the body. That means that wherever I was, I had to have been out of the range of the victim's blood splatter when she was stabbed."

Yuri frowned and pointed to a corner of the room that shared a wall with the door. "Maybe you were over there," she suggested. "I guess we don't have any conclusive evidence that you were in a corner, but... That's the direction the victim's body is facing. Maybe all of this happened because she had backed you into a corner."

Chrysalis winced at that, but I could tell she didn't have the power to refute it. "That's possible... But I can't say for sure what happened," she replied. "Though I suppose there might be a way to figure out for sure where I was."

"What is it?" Detective Umber asked eagerly.

"Look," Chrysalis started as she held up her hands. She was wearing her usual fingerless gloves... Fingerless. They exposed her fingers, or more importantly, her top knuckles. "If I fell unconscious, then that means my hands probably touched the floor or the wall. It's nothing conclusive, but as long as the chance exists, that could help us to figure out what happened at the time of the crime."

"So when you fell unconscious, if your fingers touched the wall or the floor while you tried to stop yourself from falling..." Victoria began.

"Then you would have left behind fingerprints, and that's how we can figure out where you were in this room," I finished for her.

Chrysalis nodded. "Exactly. "I don't know who would have taken me out of this place after I saw the victim die, but it would have had to be the culprit, right? I can't think of anyone else who would have done that, but... I can't say I understand any of it. It feels like there's nothing about this scenario that makes sense even though it's what the evidence points to."

"You wouldn't be the only one who's confused," Lily confessed softly. "A few hours ago, we never would have expected that you were in here at all, and now, it seems like you were in here with the victim and the killer. Beyond that, somebody involved with the Emsthorpe family seemingly took you to safety and then concealed your presence at the crime scene. Of all the directions this case could have taken, I feel like this is probably one of the least expected outcomes."

"Expected or not, the fact remains that we have a new way to look at this case, and that starts with figuring out where exactly I was in the room at the time of the crime," Chrysalis said. "I don't know if that's going to lead to me finding the truth behind what happened in this room, but... Well, I guess it's going to be something."

"Are you ready to go down to the station for interrogation?" Prosecutor Umber asked. "We're going to have to hear everything you can share with us about the night of the crime, and this is as good a place to start as any."

Chrysalis hesitated before nodding. "Just make sure to figure out where you think I was at the time through forensic investigation. I feel like that will make our jobs a lot easier. If you really need to talk to me about what I saw, then let's get it over with," she said. She glanced up to the rest of us and offered a loose wave with a smile that was so obviously falsified it felt like a punch to the stomach. "I'll talk to you guys later. Try to stay out of trouble while I'm not here to bail you out."

"We'll be back when we can be," Mr. Morix told us, though I could tell by the uncertain look in his eyes that he didn't know if they were going to be returning to the scene of the crime. It all came down to how long the interrogation took, and there were no answers about something like that. We would just have to wait and see, I supposed.

Prosecutor Umber led the siblings out of the room from there, and Detective Umber nodded to the four of us left behind. "I'm going to try and take care of the investigation into where she was in here. You should try to stay out of trouble in the meantime," she instructed. "I don't think anybody is ready to deal with something else on top of everything else this case has already thrown our way." Detective Umber laughed nervously at that, but the laughter died away just as quickly as it had manifested. "I'll try to catch you up on anything else we find when it comes up. I'll talk to you then."

Once Detective Umber was gone, I turned to the rest of my team. "Alright. While that's being taken care of, we should go to the Prosecutor's Office to try and talk to Vito. He might have a few details for us about the members of the Emsthorpe family. Just knowing the names of the people involved isn't going to do us all that much good," I told them.

"You're right. Plus, we can go to talk to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke while we're there," Victoria chimed in. "It kind of stinks that we're just forced to sit around and wait for the truth to come out about so many different things... I mean, we're still at a loss when it comes to the phone calls, and we haven't run into the person behind all of that either. That doesn't even factor in that we finally have the information we were looking for about the time of the crime, but we can't access it because Chrysalis blacked out that night."

"We'll have to figure out another way around this then," Yuri declared. "And right now, that means going to the Prosecutor's Office. All of this seems to come down to Emsthorpe family drama, and I want to learn as much as I can about it as soon as possible."

"I don't think you should really be excited to learn more about the internal workings of an assassin family, but I suppose there's not much I can say that will stop you," Lily sighed. She paused as she looked up to the door, her eyes narrowing. Before any of us could ask her what was going on, she held up a hand to silence us.

I followed her line of sight to try and figure it out on my own, and while I saw nothing, I was sure she must have seen something a few moments prior. After a few beats of thinking about it, I figured out exactly what it must have been. The phone call Victoria had received earlier had been awfully conveniently timed, almost like the person on the other end had known what we were hoping to figure out. Perhaps the caller had known that we were talking about Prosecutor Wood.

We were being watched.

Yuri darted out of the room after sharing a brief glance with Lily, and I let out a strangled gasp before going to chase after her. I already had an awful feeling about this, but I refused to let that hold me back when this could have been our chance to figure out who the caller was. If we could hear their testimony, then everything would fall into place. I was sure of it.

It didn't take us long to find that Yuri had been successful in her efforts to chase after our eavesdropper. She had tackled him to the floor, and I could already tell that the man in question was the same one who had been roaming the building the day before. Yuri was clinging tightly to his hips to keep him stuck, and no matter how much he tried to struggle against her, he couldn't pull free. Yuri's strength wasn't significant, but it was enough to keep him stuck for the time being.

"You've been following us, haven't you?" Lily questioned as she came up behind Yuri. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, holding it up to record the man where he was struggling against Yuri's grasp.

The man stared up at the phone with wide eyes, though it was hard to make out any details of his face because of the hood of his jacket being pulled up close to his face. He continued to struggle against Yuri's grip, desperation sinking in more as the seconds passed by. His breathing went heavy from panic, and I tried to figure out what we were supposed to do with him. Letting him roam freely was bound to be an awful idea, but we couldn't just restrain him as we were. As soon as Yuri let him go, he was going to sprint, and that was the last thing we could afford. We didn't even have anything to keep him where he was aside from Yuri's raw determination.

Luckily for us, there was another way out of this, and it came in the form of Detective Wattson. She rounded the corner with a frown on her face and a lecture already on her lips. She had no doubt been expecting to find a few officers being rowdy and noisy, not the four of us gathered around someone wearing all black who definitely shouldn't have been there. She froze for a moment before springing into action, reaching for a pair of handcuffs and trying to restrain the man Yuri had pinned to the ground.

It was hard to make out the details of the struggle that followed, but Detective Wattson was eventually able to get him cuffed and in her grasp. He didn't speak a word, instead remaining perfectly quiet. Detective Wattson eyed the four of us in confusion, trying to figure out just what had happened, and Yuri shrugged defensively. "I think we managed to find our mystery caller. He was following us around for some reason, and I can't think of any other reason a person would want to follow us," Yuri explained.

"Interesting," Detective Wattson murmured. "You're lucky I hadn't left to go and check out your agency yet. I wound up getting caught up in a few other pieces of business with the investigation before I could leave, and now I'm thankful for it." She turned her attention to the man in her grasp at that. "Now, I have to ask... Just who are you? What are you doing here? This is a crime scene, and I know for a fact that you don't have the clearance to be here."

Yuri, in her endless confidence, took a step forward and flicked the man's hood backward off his head. With that, we finally had the chance to take in his full face. That only made him struggle more, though he refused to speak a word even now. His hair was pitch black and shone gently in the hallway lights, and his eyes were a bright blue color that pierced one's very soul. Everything about him felt familiar in a deeper way than I had expected. This wasn't just a matter of seeing someone I had encountered the day before. I had met someone just like him many times before this, and the structure of his face made it all too clear.

"Hold on a moment," Lily murmured under her breath. "I feel like I know you from somewhere."

The man remained perfectly silent even now, and Detective Wattson sighed. "We would prefer it if you answered our questions. You're not supposed to be here. This is a restricted area of a crime scene. You shouldn't have even been able to get in the building to begin with, so I have to ask you once again... How did you get inside? What are you doing here? What do you want?"

The man took in a careful breath at that, and he shook his head. He once again refused to say a word, and I knew it was because he was trying to avoid being framed as the one responsible for the phone calls. He knew that we were going to figure out the truth if he opened his mouth, so he was solving that problem by just gluing his mouth together instead. It was unsurprising, albeit very frustrating.

"Fine then," Detective Wattson muttered. "If this is the way you want to play it, then we're just going to have to ask you a few questions down at the station. I just want to understand what's going on." She gave him one more chance to speak up, but he once again refused. Detective Wattson sighed once more and shook her head. "Alright then. I suppose that's how it's going to be."

Detective Wattson took a few steps toward the staircase, turning her head over her should to look at the rest of us. "I'll take care of this. I'll get back to you later tonight with what I learn," she assured us. "You should continue with the rest of your investigation. I don't want to slow you down when there's so much you still have to get done. I'll catch up with you later on."

With that, Detective Wattson went downstairs, and we watched her vanish down the stairwell before turning to one another. "That wasn't how I was expecting all of that to go," Yuri admitted, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I kind of thought we were being followed by the person responsible for the phone calls, but I didn't expect to catch him quite so easily."

"He looked kind of familiar, didn't he?" Lily questioned. "Maybe it's just me, but... I don't know. I could have sworn I've seen a face like that somewhere before."

"It wouldn't surprise me if you thought he looked familiar because of the victim," Victoria suggested. "I mean, if we say that he's a member of the Emsthorpe family, then he would probably be the son we've been somehow missing all this time. We ran into him by accident, but I bet he's been trying to keep himself hidden deliberately in part because of his relationship to them. I would have expected him to be a bit more subtle about it than following us around like that, but I guess I shouldn't have thought he would be that good at it if he's lurking around a crime scene so closely."

"For all we know, he could be the one behind the crime," Yuri said. "It wouldn't shock me if he was the killer. If he's really a member of the Emsthorpe family and the one who was making the calls, then he's got a lot to hide, and we need to hear from him about why he was doing everything he was."

"We should keep investigating like he's not the criminal though," I countered. "Even if he is the one behind it, we have a lot to figure out right now, and that all starts with going to hear what Vito can tell us about the files he's collected regarding the family. He might have something new for us. Maybe he can even confirm to us that the man we just ran into was the son of the family."

"I guess we're back on our old plan then," Lily nodded. "It's off to the Prosecutor's Office with us. I really hope we can figure out something helpful while we're there. All of this is... It's a lot to take in at once."

"You can say that again," Victoria muttered. "But if that man is involved with all of this, then he has to be part of this greater conspiracy we've been uncovering. It sounds to me like there was some kind of issue within the Emsthorpe family that led to one member of the line stabbing another in the back. Quite literally, I might add."

"And it's all the more reason for us to try and figure it out," I finished. "Given the fact that it sounds to me like an Emsthorpe assassin actively helped out someone they should actively despise, there's a lot we still have to figure out."

"Then off to the Prosecutor's Office we go," Yuri declared. "If there's anything for us to figure out there, we're going to find it. I know it."

We started toward the exit of the building from there, all of us falling silent along the way. I still couldn't figure out the truth behind this case for the life of me, and the biggest question of all was just what happened in the room of the murder that night. Would an assassin really try to conceal Chrysalis' presence at the crime scene? Would somebody from the Emsthorpe line truly want to stab another of their own in the back?

Only time would be able to tell for better or worse.

bonus extra update baby

-Digital