October 24

Prosecutor's Office

2:30 PM

Victoria von Graye

The Prosecutor's Office was a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of the crime scene, and I sighed with relief when I realized just how comparatively empty it was when matched up against the building we had just come from. I could only imagine that the chaos here was contained for the sake of keeping uninvolved parties out of the line of fire, especially if the assassins were as dangerous as they had proven themselves to be.

There were only two people we had to speak with while we were here, and in the end, our first target wound up being Prosecutor Cruz. Deirdre had sent him a text to say that we were on our way to come and ask about his files, and he had apparently prepared accordingly. According to Deirdre, he had come back to check out the files for himself after he learned that the victim of the case was a member of the Emsthorpe family. He wanted to ensure he had all his bases covered, and that started off with our mysterious criminal who was now out of the picture almost entirely.

When we arrived outside his office, Deirdre raised one hand to knock. Before Prosecutor Cruz had the chance to ask who it was, Deirdre replied. "It's me. Can we come in?" she asked.

The door opened a moment later, and Prosecutor Cruz smiled at the sight of her. "Hey," he greeted. It was strange to see him without his regular sunglasses, but I was happy for it. He certainly felt more down to earth and relatable when he didn't wear them, though I supposed that was probably the point of why he wore them to begin with. Either way, he had no reason for putting up appearances when the people coming to visit him were familiar faces. Well, at the very least, Deirdre was a familiar enough face for him, and the rest of us were just along for the ride.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything," Deirdre said as she walked into the office. Prosecutor Cruz's office was exactly the same as it had been the last time we came by to check out his files, and I gladly took a seat on the couch pressed against the wall when the man himself gestured for us to sit. Yuri sat on one side of me while Lily found a place on the other.

"Not at all," Prosecutor Cruz assured us. "I was just looking over the file. That's the reason you're here, right?"

"Yeah. If there's anything you're able to tell us about the Emsthorpe assassins, we would greatly appreciate it," I told him with a small smile. "Your file certainly helped us out a lot before this, so I can only assume it'll be a push in the right direction now too."

"That's what I've been hoping for," Prosecutor Cruz confessed. "I didn't think this was how the case was going to end up going though. I never would have expected an assassin from the Emsthorpe family to be the one we had been asking questions about all this time. Given how many problems she's been causing lately, I have to kick myself for not noticing it."

"To be fair, we've only ever seen her when she's been disguised as other people in a courtroom," Lily pointed out. "I don't think anyone would expect to see her dead on the ground in her regular form after all of that. It caught everybody by surprise."

"Caught by surprise is one way of putting it," Prosecutor Cruz sighed with a shake of his head. "Though I suppose there's nothing we can do about it now. We know where we stand. She's gone, and we have to figure out who killed her."

"We've learned quite a bit about the case since we were in the courtroom earlier today," Deirdre frowned. "We uncovered an important bit of information about Chrysalis. Apparently, she was there at the scene of the crime when the murder took place. She doesn't remember a thing about it though, and none of us are quite sure about how to make her remember either."

"You've got experience in psychology, don't you, Deirdre?" Yuri questioned. Deirdre nodded. "Maybe you could be the one to get her to open up. I mean, you would probably know the most about how to tease a memory out into the open like that."

"I don't want to push too hard and cause any long-term trauma though," Deirdre countered. "As much as I would love to hear the truth behind what happened, I don't want to cause any issues for Chrysalis. If the memory has been hidden away, then there's definitely a reason for it, and I would rather not put her at risk by trying to drag it out of her prematurely."

"I guess it makes a lot of sense that she would know something about the crime," Prosecutor Cruz muttered. "She is the only real path forward we have when it comes to figuring out what happened that night."

"But we might have another way out of it too, and that comes in the form of your research about the Emsthorpe family," Lily pointed out. "We know that something happened that night that ended with Raven Esmthorpe dying. As of now, it seems to us like somebody within the Emsthorpe family stabbed her in the back. What other possibility could there be? She was attacked in the middle of a crime that nobody would have known about unless they were part of the family. That means the culprit has to be from the ring too."

"If the one behind all of this is from the Emsthorpe family, then I guess their family drama runs a bit deeper than I thought it did," Prosecutor Cruz frowned as he crossed his arms.

"Is there family drama we're supposed to know about?" I asked slowly. This was the first we were hearing about any internal conflict, much less anything that had happened previously.

"Well, there was the case of Augustus Emsthorpe killing his wife years ago, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about," Prosecutor Cruz began. "There are four children in the Emsthorpe family. One of them is the victim of this case. Another left behind the family business last year and hasn't been involved with much of anything since then."

"Wait... One of them left the rest of their family behind?" Lily echoed.

"Yeah. It was the son of the family, Balthazar Emsthorpe," Prosecutor Cruz replied. "He was a part of the family for a long time since he's the oldest of the four children, but he wound up leaving last year. Or, at the very least, that's what I've read about him. It's hard to say for sure since the entire family is so tight-lipped about everything they do. He vanished after he left the family behind, and nobody has really been able to figure out where he went since then."

"Do we have any idea why he left the family?" I questioned. "I feel like that could explain everything we want to know about this case. If he left the family behind, then maybe he was the one behind all of this."

"I doubt he would have been responsible for it," Prosecutor Cruz said with a shake of his head. "He hasn't been involved with the killings of the family in ages, and I think he would have been long out of the loop by the time it came to prepare for a massive crime like this. He left last year probably after sprouting a sense of morals and realizing that assassinating people for being in your way is a bit of a problem."

"Wait a moment... Doesn't that match up perfectly with another question we've had about the family?" Lily realized. "I remember we were wondering about why the Emsthorpe family randomly stopped committing crimes for a while last year. Maybe they had to put the brakes on all their major crime plans because of one of their most important members."

"That's what I've been thinking too," Prosecutor Cruz nodded. "It would make a lot of sense. If the oldest child out of the four just decided to ditch the rest of the family, then that would explain a lot about why they had to stop. I mean, that would be enough of a reason for them to put a pause on a lot of their plans."

"And it sounds like they weren't able to get anyone to fill his place after that," Yuri commented. "I bet that brings us up to where we are now."

"That's my theory too. I don't know for sure where all of this started or what their problem is, but knowing the Emsthorpe family, I'll probably never be able to understand it in the first place," Prosecutor Cruz sighed. "Either way, I want to hear more about this theory of yours that the assassins turned on each other on the night of the crime. Sorry for my bluntness, but that... That's a bit hard to believe."

"It was hard for us to believe at first too," Deirdre confessed. "But that's the one conclusion we've been led to so far. Nobody would have known about a premeditated crime like this aside from other members of the family, so we think one of them wound up betraying the victim and killing her. As for why it happened, we're still at a loss, but this is enough of an idea for now for us to present a working theory when the trial goes back into session tomorrow."

"I suppose that's just about the only conclusion you could draw from all of that," Prosecutor Cruz agreed. "But again, I can't figure out why all of this would happen. I mean, I barely have a theory about why Balthazar Emsthorpe would betray his family, and we know for a fact that's what he did. Him randomly figuring out what morals are is a pretty vague theory, especially since we don't have a way to ask him about it."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," I countered with a weak smile. "There was a man following us around while we were investigating in the Council of Six's building, and we confronted him. From there, he was arrested as a suspect for being responsible for the phone calls. We realized the person sending out the calls had to be following us, and that leads us to where we are now. He's in questioning right now."

"I guess you haven't heard about it then," Prosecutor Cruz said crossly.

"Heard about what?" Yuri echoed, her eyes narrowing.

"Just before you got here, I got a message from Prosecutor Umber. Apparently, there was someone suspicious arrested... Who also broke out and managed to escape before he even ended up in a police car," Prosecutor Cruz sighed. "He didn't give me any details beyond that since he was about to enter an interrogation session-probably with that other friend of yours, by the sound of it-but he said the suspicious person managed to escape."

"I should have known it wasn't going to be that simple," Deirdre muttered as she pinched at the bridge of her nose. "If he really is involved with the Emsthorpe family, then he would know better than to let himself get arrested. Given how frequently people from that family manage to escape prison, I would say he already had a plan put together before he was even in handcuffs."

"That's how they've ben able to keep themselves afloat for so long," Prosecutor Cruz said with a nod. "They know how to handle themselves in just about every situation, and that includes when somebody wants to arrest them. They know how to get away with anything anyone could possibly want from them, and that's been enough."

"And so we're left once again with more questions than answers and no idea what to do about it," Yuri groaned. "At the very least, can you give us a little bit of good news that could help with figuring out what's going on? You've got the almighty file about the Emsthorpe family, after all, so you must have at least something else in there that we might be able to use."

Prosecutor Cruz hummed as he kept flicking through the file. "I don't know what else I can tell you. There are four children of the Emsthorpe family, and now that Raven is dead and Balthazar has been out of the picture for a while, that leaves the other two. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have a clue what they've been up to since all of this started."

"If you ask me, I would say one of the other two must have gotten into contact with Balthazar after all his time away," Deirdre declared. "How else would he have known to get involved at all? If he really is the man on the other end of the phone, then he must have been let in on this for some reason or another. I doubt he would be acting this way if he wasn't involved with the plan."

"That makes me wonder just what the plan behind all of this really was. I mean, we know about the notes, and we know that Balthazar called Pieter to the crime scene. Well, that's the current assumption, at the very least," I said, cupping one hand around my chin. "And when it comes to Balthazar's behavior, it feels like he's trying to keep his distance for some reason. I don't know if that's because he was the killer or not, but there's a lot going on here that we still don't understand. If the Emsthorpe family really was behind all of this, then they were probably trying to lure people into a trap to kill them, but that's not what happened at all. I don't know what their plan was at all, and trying to figure it out is such a massive headache."

"I might be able to fill you in a little bit," Prosecutor Cruz interjected, though I could tell by the frown on his face that whatever he was about to say wasn't going to be anything good. "I've had a bit of a running theory since all of this started. The last time we had an Emsthorpe kill someone, it was in the case at Gather Law's headquarters. The killer of that case was Raven Emsthorpe, as a matter of fact."

"That's right," Lily realized. She thought about it for a moment before realization dawned on her features. "Wait a moment... She said something really strange just before she was arrested."

"She talked about something called 'the Night of Calamity,' and if you ask me, that was what the plan was for this case," Prosecutor Cruz said. "Think about it. They would want to kill the chief prosecutor because of his importance in the legal world. The Emsthorpe family is known for its grudge against the Wood family, and they've even tried to kill Niamh Wood in particular in the past. Then... I don't know what their beef is with Chrysalis, but that doesn't matter. The point is that this was probably their effort to try and pick off anyone who got in their way."

"That... That would make a lot of sense," Deirdre murmured, and I could tell by the look in her eye that she was thinking back to what we had heard from Judge Diaphan. The people who had been called to the Council of Six's headquarters that night would have been perfect targets for the assassins. Prosecutor Cruz might not have known where the target on Chrysalis' back came from, but he was still scarily close to the truth. It made a lot of sense. Almost too much sense if you asked me.

"If this was the Night of Calamity that we heard about before, then I feel like there has to be a lot more to this than we've realized," Lily remarked. "I mean, we already knew it was going to be a complicated situation, but... I don't know. I feel like it runs deeper than we could have ever expected."

"It might help for you to take this to the chief prosecutor if you want to hear more about it," Prosecutor Cruz suggested. "I don't think he'll be able to help you out that much considering the fact that he didn't really run into anything that night, but he might have something to offer you."

"I guess we should give him an update on Prosecutor Wood too," Deirdre agreed. "I wish we had a bit more information about where she's being kept, but I think he would want to hear that we heard something else from the person on the other end of the phone calls."

"I'll leave you to that then," Prosecutor Cruz nodded. He hesitated before reaching into his desk and pulling out a small folder. "You might want to keep this with you for the rest of the case."

Deirdre accepted the folder, and her eyes went wide as soon as she realized what it was. "Is this the file about the Emsthorpe assassins?" she questioned. "I would have thought you would have wanted to keep this with you."

"I'm going to keep the bulk of it with me, but I decided to make a copy of the smaller parts that could be the most important to this case specifically," Prosecutor Cruz explained. "If the assassins are as involved as we've been led to believe, then you should keep your hands on this. We never know where it's going to help us in a case like this."

"We'll take good care of it," Yuri assured him. "And we're going to do what we can to keep it a secret too. I don't want this to cause any problems for you if the assassins figure out that you've been gathering information this way."

"I don't know how much of a problem that's going to be, especially if there are so many issues in the family at the moment," Prosecutor Cruz shrugged. "If they're really turning against each other, this might not matter. For all we know, this case could be the end of the Emsthorpe family once and for all."

"How nice that would be," I murmured with a shake of my head. "For now though, you're right about us needing to go and hear from the chief prosecutor. Thank you for the help with all of this. We'll see you tomorrow when the trial goes back in session."

"Stay out of trouble until then," Prosecutor Cruz instructed. "I don't know what's going on with this case, but I don't want anything bad to happen to you because of it." He shot a glance at Deirdre out of the corner of his eye at that.

Deirdre just smiled and shook her head before placing one hand on his arm. "You don't need to worry about us," she assured him. "But I appreciate the concern. We'll be okay. We'll see you tomorrow." Prosecutor Cruz gave her a small wave as she started toward the door, and the rest of us followed in her footsteps. We continued to watch Prosecutor Cruz until the door tapped shut behind us and we were left out in the hallway.

"Alright," Deirdre declared. "We've got places to be. Let's go and find the chief prosecutor."

"I'm willing to bet he'll be up in his office," Yuri said. "We should head up there first."

We made for the elevator from there and began the short but ultimately agonizing journey up to the chief prosecutor's office. Even before we knocked on the door, we knew that we had arrived at the right place. On the other side of the door, I could hear murmuring, and I was sure there had to be at least five people gathered inside. I glanced to everyone else, trying to see who was going to find the confidence to knock first. I didn't want to interrupt the conversation happening inside the room even though I knew we had no other choice but to go in there.

Lily wound up finding the boldness to step forward and knock. The room went quiet for a few heavy moments before Chief Prosecutor Bespoke's voice rang out. "Who is it?" After a handful of beats of silence, the door swung open, and we were met with none other than Prosecutor Burke, who seemed shocked to see us. Either way, she stepped aside and allowed us to enter the room.

Chief Prosecutor Bespoke was inside his office as was to be expected. Prosecutor Burke had joined him alongside Anton and Prosecutor Daegana. Last but not least, Prosecutor Lin was standing near the window and looking out over the parking lot below. She was just as panicked and paranoid as she had been the last time we saw her, and she didn't even turn to face us even as the rest of the room's occupants approached us.

"I didn't realize I should have been expecting company," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke remarked. "I hope you don't mind how crowded it is in here. We've been... We've had a lot to talk about." The longer he spoke, the more I realized just how exhausted he was. His eyes were dark and torn apart under the weight of his own lack of sleep. Normally, Chief Prosecutor Bespoke slept enough for multiple people, but now, he couldn't seem to keep himself held together for even a brief conversation. That was what worry could do to a person. I knew that firsthand given how anxious I was on a regular basis, though it hurt seeing that pain in somebody else's eyes.

"I hope we weren't interrupting anything," Deirdre said. "We came by to ask if we could help with the investigation. I understand you've all had a lot on your minds lately."

"That's one way of putting it," Prosecutor Lin muttered under her breath. She still didn't turn to face us, instead just letting one hand come up to rest against the cold glass.

"Has there been any extra progress in the search for Niamh?" Yuri asked slowly, almost afraid to pose the question in the first place.

"Not yet," Prosecutor Burke sighed. "I've been trying to keep these two calm all day so they don't do something dumb, but that's much easier said than done. Ghastly has to be on call for the sake of the trial, but all he wants to do is go out there and see if he can find his daughter."

"She has to be okay," Prosecutor Lin declared. "I don't know what specifically is happening with her, but I tried to channel her spirit. If she was dead, then it would have worked. She's still alive, and that means there's still a chance. She's alright. I just don't know where we're supposed to go with all of this. There has to be a clue that will point us in the right direction, but..."

"You don't know where to look," I finished for her, and she nodded. "Well, we might have one update for you."

Everyone shared a nervous glance at that, and Prosecutor Daegana took a step forward. "What is it?" he questioned hurriedly.

"We received another phone call earlier from our strange mystery man, and he said she was safe," Lily replied. "He didn't give us many details beyond that, but he's in custody now. Or, at the very least, he was in custody earlier. I don't know what's going on with him or what he could be trying to accomplish, but last we heard, she was safe."

"I don't know how much I'm willing to trust the word of a man who wound up getting Pieter arrested, but I suppose it's something," Prosecutor Lin muttered. "Whatever is going on, I... I just want Niamh to be safe. She's gone through more than enough."

"T-There are a lot of g-good people taking care of t-the investigation," Anton reminded her, clearly trying to be positive despite his fears. "I-I'm sure they'll f-find her in no t-time." He was putting on a mask for the sake of everyone else in the room, but his attempt at optimism was still appreciated, and I sent him a small smile to prove it.

"Mukuro and Aiden know what they're doing," I agreed. "They'll figure out where she is in no time, and when they do, we're going to be fine. I promise."

"They're not the only ones working on the search," Prosecutor Burke told us. "It's a somewhat new development, but a few people from Gather Law are pitching in too. I guess they want to try and find their missing relative too, because they've got their Interpol agent leading the search."

"X is probably working with Neptune and Clarith to figure out where Niamh went," Yuri realized. "I bet they'll be able to figure out where she is when they team up with Mukuro and Aiden. I mean, they were a huge help when there was... Another case a few years ago." She didn't say the name of the case out loud for the sake of keeping everything on topic, but I could only assume she was talking about the Interpol murder that ended with Chrysalis being taken hostage. To be more accurate, it ended with Oracle being taken hostage, and that case was one of the reasons me and Pieter wound up moving to the area. He wanted to keep an eye on his sister even if he didn't want to admit it out loud for fear of being called paranoid.

"I wonder if we'd be able to talk to them before the day ended," Lily said. "It might not be much, but we should try to pass on the message of what we heard from the phone call. They probably already know about it, but it wouldn't hurt for us to try and talk to them."

"You'll probably find them at Gather Law," Prosecutor Daegana supplied. "I can only imagine that's where they're working. If they found a lead, then I'm sure we would already know about it, but if they haven't contacted us to say that they know where to look, then chances are they're still back at Gather Law."

"I suppose we have one last stop before we can consider this investigation of ours finished for the day," Deirdre remarked as she looked to me, Lily, and Yuri. She turned her attention back to everyone else in the room a moment later, concern gleaming in her eyes. "I'm sorry for all of this. I wish there was something I could say to make it easier, but... I know better than to think there's any solution to this aside from bringing her home."

"Niamh and Nevada are strong girls. I know that," Prosecutor Lin began. She curled her hands around her upper arms, hugging her torso as tightly as she could stand. "I just... I want them to be okay. They don't deserve this. I have no idea what anybody could want from them, and I don't want them to get caught up in the chaos of this case."

"They're going to be fine," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke murmured, though I could tell by the dark look in his eyes that he wasn't entirely sure if he could believe his own words. "They just have to be."

"They'll come back home safe," Lily assured him. "You guys are right when you say that there are great people working on the search to bring both of them home. I'm going to have to faith in them, and you should too. I know it's not that easy, but for your own peace of mind, I think you should try."

"We're going to talk to them too and do all we can to help make this a little bit easier for them," I chimed in. "If all goes well, Prosecutor Wood and Nevada will be right back here before you know it. We're going to make sure it's okay."

"I just hope you can keep to your word," Prosecutor Lin whispered. She gripped a little bit tighter at her arms, and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke went to her side to wrap an arm around her body. She fell against his torso with tears welling up in her eyes, but she didn't rub at them, instead just relishing in the touch he offered her.

Me and the other members of the defense team took this as our time to slip out, so we moved toward the door and slid into the hallway. We hesitated for a few moments outside the door but ultimately started in the direction of the elevator soon afterward. We couldn't bring ourselves to talk about the awful circumstances when the others were so close and had the chance to overhear us. That would have just made them feel worse, and that was the last thing any of us wanted.

I was glad we were making one last stop by Gather Law to talk to Buddy, Neptune, and Clarith. I had no idea if they would be able to talk to us for long, but we had to at least try it. Even if they already knew about the phone call we had received earlier, we wanted to do something to help with the search for Prosecutor Wood. We didn't know where we were going at the moment, especially when it came to figuring out where she had gone off to, and this was the best we could offer.

The walk outside was silent, and I bit down on my lip hard enough I thought the skin was going to break. Between Pieter being arrested, the return of the other Emsthorpe family members, the Night of Calamity, an assassin potentially helping Chrysalis, and Prosecutor Wood's disappearance, there was a lot about this case we still didn't understand. Each minute that passed without the truth in our hands made me feel worse, but I couldn't let it get to me. There was still so much we had to unravel, and I refused to be stopped now.

Everyone was counting on us. We couldn't afford to fail, not now and not ever.

alright important announcement: after this story finishes in march of 2023, i will no longer be uploading morix to this site. extended harassment here on ffn has made me decide to no longer upload my stories here. i'll finish out chains of justice past, but after that, you'll have to find this series elsewhere. i'll be posting it on other sites, but you'll have to search that up on your own (it's under the same name using my digitaldreams username on AO3). just a heads up, i'll remind everybody again after the story ends but here you go for now

-Digital