October 25

Courtroom No. 6

10:20 AM

Deirdre Brigit

~ Witness Testimony ~

~ What I Know ~

-"I don't remember all that much of what happened that night, but I think I wound up in the room where the crime took place."

-"Something of mine was found shoved in the dirt of one of the plants there, and I definitely didn't put it there."

-"I walked in, but I don't have any memories of leaving, so somebody must have taken me out of the room after the fact."

-"As for who would have done that, I'm at just as much of a loss as all of you."

-"Whoever they were, they took me into another room to conceal the fact that I was at the crime scene to begin with."

-"When I woke up, I didn't remember any of this, and even now, it's only come back to me in flashes."

-"I don't know who did it or what reasoning they could have had, but that was how it happened."

"So there was another unknown party there at the time of the murder..." Judge Diaphan murmured. "I had been hoping that perhaps we already knew everyone who was there at the time, but I see now that we've only begun to scratch the surface of how deep this case goes."

"I'm not sure who was responsible for all of this, but it's not a good sign," Chrysalis muttered under her breath with a shake of her head. "Whoever wanted to take me away from the crime scene must have had a reason, and if anyone I knew had done it, I feel like they would have confessed to it."

"This also helps to disprove the defendant's role in the case as has been assumed up to now," Lily chimed in. "He's the witness' older sister. If he saw her unconscious on the ground, I somehow doubt he would have just moved her away. He would have wanted to do something to help her come back to, but he never did."

"It's an interesting though," Judge Diaphan agreed. "But right now, I think our first priority should be figuring out who was responsible for all of this. There must be some clues left behind that will explain this aspect of the case."

"And it all comes down to that Magatama," Yuri said with a frown. "It's time for us to show the court everything we found out yesterday. I'm not really looking forward to explaining this, but it's our only option at this point."

I nodded. "The defense would like to begin its cross-examination at this time," I declared.

Judge Diaphan closed her eyes in contemplation from behind her mask. "Then go ahead, defense."

~ Cross-Examination ~

~ What I Know ~

-"I don't remember all that much of what happened that night, but I think I wound up in the room where the crime took place."

-"Something of mine was found shoved in the dirt of one of the plants there, and I definitely didn't put it there."

"Hold it!"

"If you don't mind sharing, witness, what exactly was it that you lost at the crime scene?" I questioned.

Chrysalis reached to her neck and showed her Magatama. "It was this. It was found in the dirt of one of the plants in the corner of the room. I was so out of it when I woke up that I didn't even realize it had been gone at all. Now though, I know that somebody must have placed it there directly. I had no reason to hide it there, and even if I did, I feel like there would have been a better solution had I known what was going on."

"So somebody took the necklace off you and hid it in the dirt... Interesting," Judge Diaphan murmured. "And that single accessory is proof there was someone else at the scene of the crime, is it not?"

"Yeah... That's what it looks like. I can tell you for a fact that I didn't do it. No matter how spotty my memory is, I would have just put it in my pocket," Chrysalis replied with a shrug. "Now that I have it back, I'm going to be more careful about not losing it, but I don't know what happened last night."

"Then we'll just have to reveal that truth through the rest of the cross-examination," Prosecutor Umber chimed in. He gestured for the cross-examination to continue, and Chrysalis nodded before going on with her testimony.

-"I walked in, but I don't have any memories of leaving, so somebody must have taken me out of the room after the fact."

-"As for who would have done that, I'm at just as much of a loss as all of you."

-"Whoever they were, they took me into another room to conceal the fact that I was at the crime scene to begin with."

-"When I woke up, I didn't remember any of this, and even now, it's only come back to me in flashes."

-"I don't know who did it or what reasoning they could have had, but that was how it happened."

"Hold it!"

"I believe we might have a theory that could explain who it was that moved you away from the scene of the crime," Victoria said. I could feel the intrigue rise in the gallery, and Victoria noticed it too, swaying on her feet for a moment out of anxiety before focusing again. "I can't say a name for certain yet, but as far as we can tell, the one who moved you from the crime scene must have been a member of the Emsthorpe family."

As was to be expected, the gallery burst into chatter as soon as those words were spoken. Judge Diaphan reached for her gavel and slammed it down loud and fast to try and get everyone's attention, and it worked to varying degrees. "Order in the court!" she roared, and a few more pounds of the gavel after that finally finished off the job of getting everyone quiet again. "What do you mean, defense? The one who helped the defendant away from the crime scene was a member of the Emsthorpe family?"

"Given the fact that we know the victim of this case was an Emsthorpe, that feels like the only option," Victoria answered as she cupped one hand around her chin. "Who else would have known about the attack or the attempt to lure so many people into the building? The members of the family who were planning it certainly would have been aware, and they probably would have been there too. Something as big as this with three people involved would have needed more than a single assassin involved, so I'm willing to assume there were others wrapped up in it too."

"And that explains exactly where our other parties at the crime scene came from," Lily finished for her. "There were other assassins present at the scene of the murder, and they were meant to be helping out with whatever plans had been hatched for that night. The one who helped the witness on the stand was another member of the Emsthorpe family who seemingly pushed back against their family after some sort of unknown incident."

"It was family drama that boiled over then," Prosecutor Shield muttered. "But how in the world does that make any sense? You know about the Emsthorpe assassins just as well as the rest of us do, so you have to be aware that they wouldn't just decide to help people. It's nearly impossible to imagine they would be willing to put their grudges and work aside for something like this, especially given the fact that there's no indicator they would want to do this."

"I agree that it doesn't make much sense," I started. "But the fact of the matter is that we have no other proof of what happened. This seems to be the only option for what happened that night. One of the assassins turned on another, and that was how we ended up with the victim dead."

"Do you have any details beyond that?" Judge Diaphan questioned with a heavy frown. "This is rather hard to believe. I'm sure you understand why. The Emsthorpe family has caused countless problems for countless people, and I don't think their morals would change on a whim like this."

"It wasn't on a whim though," Lily countered. "We know the murder must have been premeditated to some degree. All of this must have been planned ages in advance because of all the moving pieces and people outside the family who had to be involved with it. The person responsible for the crime didn't decide to betray someone else on a whim. It was planned out well in the future just as the letters were, and I'm willing to bet I know someone who was involved with the planning process."

"And who would that be?" Judge Diaphan asked. "Do you know of who within the Emsthorpe family would have wanted to betray someone else in the group?"

"About a year ago, there was a complete stop of activity within the family, and it had many people raising their eyebrows," Victoria went on. "When putting this fact under a bit more scrutiny, we were able to find the truth. One of the children of the family, Balthazar Emsthorpe, left his sisters and father behind seemingly to pursue an otherwise peaceful life. Nobody has been able to figure out where he went after leaving a year ago."

"But he would be a member of the Emsthorpe family who could have tried to push back against the victim," Vito finished. "I must admit that the theory makes a lot more sense than I would have thought, but... I don't know. Something about this still feels a bit off."

"I agree," Prosecutor Shield chimed in. "We know a lot about the Emsthorpe family's secrecy. They wouldn't just let the truth slip out to someone after they left. It would be considered a betrayal of the highest order as far as I'm concerned. That means someone else must have leaked information to him if he was involved."

"And we know for a fact that he was involved," Yuri announced. "We were being followed yesterday, and it was seemingly by someone who knew about the hostage that's been just out of reach all this time. The person on the phone sent us another message after hearing us talk about the captive who received the third letter calling her to the scene of the crime. On top of that, we confronted the person following us, and we found out that it was a man who refused to speak so he wouldn't reveal who he really was."

"And you believe that man to be Balthazar Emsthorpe," Judge Diaphan concluded. Yuri nodded. "Interesting... That certainly sounds like a strong theory. Unfortunately, we need a way to prove it, and I believe that will only come through hearing his testimony here in the courtroom."

"We have many people trying to track him down as we speak," Prosecutor Shield assured her. "Yesterday, we redoubled our efforts to track down the hostage, and while we haven't run into any success yet, we've been searching for that man too. He was briefly taken into custody, but he escaped before he could be interrogated... And as far as I'm aware, he had help."

"He had help?" Lily echoed, her eyes going wide.

"That's what it seemed like. Someone couldn't have escaped a crime scene that heavily guarded without someone there to look after them," Prosecutor Shield replied. "There were countless officers scattered around the building to make sure nobody unsavory got inside to interfere with the investigation. I doubt anyone could have gotten away without being caught again unless they had someone else there to help."

"And that seems to answer all of our questions," I announced. "The person who helped him was likely another member of the Emsthorpe family who decided to turn on our victim for some reason or another. We may not be aware of the logic behind the betrayal, but it still happened, and we must keep that in mind going forward."

"I never would have thought I would see the day an Emsthorpe was supposedly helping someone else out of trouble," Judge Diaphan muttered with a shake of her head. "But I agree that this seems to be the truth of the matter. I wish I could disagree, but I know better than that, unfortunately. This is the point our logic has led us to, and I would be lying if I said it didn't have some substance to it."

"Unfortunately, this leaves us in a bit of a tough spot," Prosecutor Umber frowned. "We can't really figure out much about the hostage or where she is until we can speak with the man who was responsible for the phone calls. He managed to escape, so that means he's still at large, and we can't talk with him as long as he's roaming free."

"Then what are we supposed to do in the meantime?" Yuri asked with a frown. "I know we can't exactly find him out of the blue to make all of this go by faster, but... It's not like there's much of anything else for us to discuss as long as he's still running wild and free."

"We could try to press more out of our witness," Vito pointed out as he looked to Chrysalis. "You were there at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder, weren't you? That means you have to be able to help us somehow."

Chrysalis winced. "If I knew how to help you, I would have said so already. Unfortunately, I don't remember much of anything."

"You don't need to remember," Prosecutor Umber countered as he reached for a small piece of paper. "I was saving this for when we would have to talk about what happened to you that night, but a few forensic tests came back after an examination of the room. You were wearing fingerless gloves on the night of the crime, and that means your fingerprints could have been left behind somewhere along the way."

Chrysalis nodded. "That's right... Did you find anything that would prove where I was?" she asked, her eyes going ever so slightly wider.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Prosecutor Umber said. "It took us a while to figure out where your prints were, but most of them were stationed around the wall near the floor in the corner of the room... A corner that would have had you facing the victim when she died."

Chrysalis' eyes went wider once again, and the gallery burst into chatter. Judge Diaphan was quick to reach for her gavel to silence the onlookers brutally and without hesitation. "Does this ring a bell for you at all, witness?" she asked.

Chrysalis hesitated before letting her hands come up to grab at her arms. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I want to say no, but... I feel like it's too much of a coincidence to be wrong. No, it's not a coincidence. That's the problem. I must have been there in the room at the time of the crime, and we know that. But... If the victim was facing me given the position of her body and the place where my prints were found..."

"It would make sense if you lost consciousness due to shock," I pointed out. "When witnessing something horrifying, a person passing out is possible. It wouldn't surprise me if you were so shocked to see the victim's sudden death that you lost consciousness. From there, you would have likely tried to block out everything you saw in an effort to keep yourself safe. The human mind is a defensive thing, after all."

Chrysalis thought about it for a long time. When the silence finally ended, she sighed and pulled her hands in a little bit tighter against her upper arms. "I know you're probably right. Of course I do. It's just... Why in the world does there have to be something else?" she muttered. She remained quiet once again before shaking her head. "Whether I want it to be true or not, that doesn't change where we stand right now though. And the fact of the matter is that I don't remember anything of what happened that day. It's just... Gone."

"If I had to guess, I would say the person who took you away from the crime scene was counting on that," Prosecutor Umber frowned. "If we assume they were really trying to protect you for some reason or another, then they were probably hoping you were going to forget because you lost consciousness. After that, you would be able to just go about your regular life."

"I don't know if I would even be able to help you if I did remember what happened," Chrysalis admitted as she played with her Magatama absentmindedly. "Let's assume for a moment I was in the spot you say I was with the fingerprints stationed in the corner. The victim would have been standing over me. And... She got stabbed through the back if her wound is any indication. The culprit would have been behind her, and that means the victim would have been in the way to stop me from seeing anything going on."

"You're right," Lily winced. "Even if you figure out what happened at the time of the crime, that probably won't matter much if you can't tell us who the victim was hiding by standing over you."

"I have one more question," Judge Diaphan interjected. "If we assume for a moment that the witness is right about the victim standing over her and blocking her view of the rest of the room, then that begs one question... Why would she do something like that?"

I shared an anxious glance with the rest of the defense team. We all knew the answer to that, and Judge Diaphan was aware of it too. We just couldn't share it with the rest of the courtroom. Nobody on the prosecution knew the truth behind Oracle, and that meant we would end up exposing one of the largest secrets of our time to them. Beyond that, there were people in the gallery, and we couldn't just reveal the truth behind Oracle like that. I didn't know how else we were going to get out of this, but we had to figure it out as soon as possible for Chrysalis' sake as well as our own.

Before any of us had a chance to come up with an excuse to hide all of this though, someone else spoke. "She was trying to attack her," Vito declared. "If I had to guess, I would say that was exactly why each of the people who received letters were called to the crime scene. They were being lured there so the assassins could kill them."

"That makes sense," Prosecutor Shield agreed with a light nod. "It wasn't that long ago that we heard one of the assassins talk about something called 'the Night of Calamity.' As far as I can tell, this fits that description. The attack took place overnight, and it involved luring people to an outside location for the sole purpose of causing trouble. The assassins wouldn't have just called them there to have a friendly conversation. They were always planning on attacking the recipients of the letter."

"The chief prosecutor was able to get away before anything could happen, and Niamh Wood was taken away from the building at some point in the night," Judge Diaphan murmured. "It makes sense. The chief prosecutor is an important figure in the legal world, and the Emsthorpe family has held a grudge against the Wood family for years now. It wouldn't be surprising at all to think they would target her."

"Then what about our witness on the stand?" Vito asked as he pointed haphazardly in Chrysalis' direction. Chrysalis' eyes went wide, but she didn't say a word as he went on. "If we assume you're right about all of this, then that leaves her out of the explanation."

"I-I might know what the reason for that is!" Victoria declared suddenly. She hit her hands against the bench and winced when she smacked them down a bit too hard, but she was back to leaning forward eagerly a moment later. "I have an explanation from a case a few months ago the victim was involved with. The victim was the killer of a case when you were arrested, Prosecutor Cruz, and if you'll think back to that case, a certain someone got confrontational with the culprit."

Vito turned his attention to Chrysalis, and he remembered the case from months ago after a few beats of thought. "I guess that makes sense. The victim specifically would have it out for you, and she would have probably decided to target you because you exposed one of her crimes publicly," he concluded. "That would fit in with our current image of the Emsthorpe assassins."

"They're pretty vengeful people, so it wouldn't surprise me if she went so far as to try to kill Chrysalis because of this," Yuri agreed with a smile. She was hiding her anxiety surprisingly well, and when I glanced down, I realized it was because she was concentrating all of her nervous energy into a single clenched fist.

Chrysalis' shoulders slowly lost their tension at that, and she nodded. "That would make sense... Whatever her motive was, I don't know. I don't remember the confrontation at all, and even if I did, I doubt she would have taken much time to boast about why she wanted me dead if she really was planning on going in for the kill," she said. "We can chalk it up to that and leave it alone. If you ask me, we have more important things to focus on right now anyway."

"You're thinking about the other Emsthorpe assassins involved with this, aren't you?" Victoria asked, and Chrysalis nodded. "I guess there are three of them we haven't heard anything from in this case... Raven Emsthorpe is our victim, and she suffered from a stab to the back. Balthazar seems to have been the one who was responsible for the phone calls, and he was taken into custody before escaping. That means our potential traitors in the group are the other two daughters, Emmeline and Belladonna. I somehow doubt the father of the family was behind it, after all."

"I get the feeling that man would rather die than ever give up on his mission," Prosecutor Shield snorted. "He wants to destroy the legal world, and he's not going to back down no matter what any of us tries to do. Besides, if he was the traitor, then he would have just called this entire operation off instead of going ahead with it. I know for a fact the victim couldn't have pulled it all off on her own if she was planning on causing this much trouble."

"We won't be able to do much when it comes to figuring out who's a traitor out of Emmeline and Belladonna at the moment," I frowned. "As much as I would love to track down which of them turned on the family to side with Balthazar, we have no way of saying for sure at the moment. As long as they're both at large, we can't really narrow our scope to learn more. The fact of the matter is that one of them decided to side with Balthazar when it came time to do something about this though. They would have turned against their family for the sake of stopping what was supposed to happen on the night of the crime."

"It was supposed to be a triple assassination, but because one of the parties involved betrayed the victim, it didn't end that way," Judge Diaphan murmured. "That was where it all started. Now, we just have to figure out which one of them was responsible for the betrayal. I'm willing to bet we can find our killer in one of the three other Emsthorpe children."

"I'm glad we can all agree on that," Prosecutor Umber nodded. "It raises a lot of questions though, doesn't it? No matter how many times we say it, I still find it odd that an Emsthorpe went out of their way to kill the victim and then protect the witness by hiding her from the crime scene."

"You know, that's one other thing I've been wondering about," Lily confessed. "If the victim was killed right in front of Chrysalis, then I guess that means the assassin who betrayed the rest did more than just move her from the crime scene to protect her. The victim died because it was an act of defense to keep Chrysalis safe."

Chrysalis' previous tension came back tenfold at that, and she looked up to Lily slowly. "That... That hadn't occurred to me," she confessed softly. "It makes a lot of sense when you say it out loud, but... I hadn't thought about it like that."

"I have to wonder why an Emsthorpe assassin would care that much when it comes to all of this, but I suppose there's not much we can do to figure out what the truth means now. We have to find Balthazar before we can ask him any questions, and that doesn't even factor in the other two kids," Victoria sighed with a shake of her head. "It would be great if we could talk to at least one of them about our recent suspicions, but right now it's really looking like-"

"Your Honor!"

The courtroom doors swung open loudly, slamming into the walls nearby. I flinched at the sound before letting my hands come up to cover my ears. My powerful hearing was a blessing and a curse, and right now, I hated it. Even after the others behind the defense bench recovered, I remained still, and it took Yuri placing a hand on my arm to calm me before I allowed my hands to drop back to my sides.

KJ was standing in the doorway of the courtroom looking thoroughly flustered with wide eyes and pink cheeks. Judge Diaphan frowned down at him. "I was really hoping the trend of a bailiff bursting into the courtroom during one of the most secretive trials yet would have stopped after the first day," she muttered. "Why are you. here? Has there been another development with the investigation?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," KJ nodded. "The investigation team searching for the hostage has found something you all need to hear about... Or to be more accurate, someone."

The gallery burst into chatter at that, and Yuri glanced over to me with wide, excited eyes. "Do you think they finally found Niamh?!" she whispered. "I can't think of any other someone we could have been searching for!"

"He's on his way now," KJ went on, and all hopes of Prosecutor Wood having been recovered were dashed with just those five words.

"He... I can only assume I know exactly who you're referring to," Judge Diaphan murmured. "Would it just so happen to be the son of the Emsthorpe family who escaped custody yesterday?"

KJ nodded. "That's who we think he is, at the very least. There were a few people helping to track down the hostage to bring her back, and they arrived at the location they were sure she was being kept in. By the time they got there, everyone was gone except for him. He was arrested on the spot and is being brought here to testify about what he did," he went on. "We still have no idea where the hostage is though, I'm afraid. Our team is continuing to search for her even as we speak, but it's a difficult matter to handle, as I'm sure you can imagine."

"We don't know if this is going to come back to bite us," Prosecutor Umber frowned. "If we don't treat our current suspect with care, we could be looking at a bleak outcome for the girl who was taken. We can't take too many chances."

"But the investigation team wanted you to be able to talk to him before the trial ended for the day, so he's being sent here," KJ said next. "You should be able to hear his testimony in a matter of minutes whenever the escorting group bringing him here arrives."

Judge Diaphan sighed slowly and reached for her gavel. "I imagine both sides of the case will want time to grapple with this new revelation. We have a few minutes before our suspect gets here. In the meantime, I would ask both sides to take a recess and discuss the case and where they wish to take it from here. Are there any objections?"

Judge Diaphan didn't take anywhere near as long to wait for us to object before she hit her gavel down. "Understood. Everyone will come back in here after ten minutes to hear what the new party has to say about the case. If the man really is Balthazar Emsthorpe, then we have a lot to talk to him about. Court is adjourned."

Everyone began to buzz in the gallery once again as soon as they realized they were no longer being restricted by the power of expectation. I turned to look at the rest of the defense team, silently trying to figure out what they wanted to do with our recess. We could have easily just stayed in the courtroom the entire time, but...

Victoria looked past me to where Pieter was sitting in the defendant's chair. I winced when I turned to look at him. "I think we should talk to him about all of this," she murmured. "He's going to want to hear some degree of comfort after all of that."

I nodded, and Lily and Yuri were quick to follow suit. We headed for the exit of the courtroom afterward, and Pieter followed us. He said nothing on the way out to the gallery, but I knew that the instant we were alone, the floodgates were going to come pouring open.

None of us could blame him in the slightest. I just wished I knew how to help.

mmmmm yeah

-Digital