October 26
Defendant Lobby No. 6
9:30 AM
Yuri Rinko
The next morning came much sooner than it had any right to honestly. When I set foot in the courthouse, my body was vibrating with anxiety, but I forced myself to hide it for Pieter's sake. He hadn't heard what we had learned the day before, and I didn't want to tell him that either. He was under enough stress as it was, and he couldn't hear about it before we even had the chance to tell Niamh the truth about her cousin.
I couldn't help but think back to the Ashbrook case from earlier this year too. Everyone there had been so sure Zach had committed suicide after the incident at Sparx Factory, but that hadn't been true. The Emsthorpe assassins had lied in order to gain the upper hand over all of them in finding Niamh, and it hadn't even worked. A child my age had been used as the target practice for the children of the family to hone their skills in brutality and apathy. He had managed to get away, but the torture had no doubt ruined his life to the point that he passed away soon afterward from his injuries. That was the assumption at the very least, but my hopes weren't high when it came to figuring out other possibilities. Zach had gone through so much at their hands, and I didn't think anyone could have survived all of that. How could they?
Pieter stood in the corner of the room when we arrived in the courthouse. He was crossing his arms and looking at the wall, trying to find some sense of rhyme, reason, or purpose in the paint of the lobby's boundaries. He saw nothing though, and he turned to face the rest of us slowly when he realized he was no longer alone. "Hello," Pieter greeted simply, pressing a smile on his face even though I knew he wasn't in a mood to grin at all. How could he be? This was terrible, and he didn't even know the extent of what the rest of us did.
"Hey, Pieter," Victoria returned as she took a few steps toward him. Her smile wavered at the edges since she had always been a poor liar, but if Pieter realized that she was hiding anything, he chose to not speak up about it either out of politeness or exhaustion. "How are you doing today? Are you ready for the trial?"
"I'm about as ready as I can be, I suppose," Pieter replied with a loose shrug. "It's no much, but it's just about the only choice I have at this point." He paused for a moment, and I knew what question was coming before he could even ask it. "How did the investigation go for you all yesterday?"
We shared an uneasy glance at that, none of us wanting to have to be the one to lie to him that everything had been fine. Would it even be lying if we just conveniently didn't bring up what Balthazar had told us about Zach Moore's death? We could just not talk about it. That would be fine too.
Lily was the one who wound up taking the fall, and she offered him a small shrug. "It went as well as it could have," she told him. "The team looking for Prosecutor Wood is still out there trying to track her down. I don't know if they've found any success in figuring out where she is, but we heard the full story of the case from Balthazar. Chrysalis was able to confirm that he was telling the truth too, so we kind of know what we're dealing with at this point."
"I see... I'm glad to know you've been making good progress," Pieter smiled weakly. "I don't know how I would feel if we came all this way only for you to say you had no idea what you were going to do when we got into the courtroom... I feel like we can use all the breaks we can get at this point. This investigation has been difficult for all of us, and even though we're so close to finding the truth behind what happened, it's so far away as well."
"Balthazar subtly told us who the killer was when we were talking to him yesterday," Deirdre chimed in. "He was trying to avoid stating it outright, but he gave us enough clues to figure it out on our own. I suppose all that's left is to hear from them when the trial goes into session. It might not be much, but we know what to do when the criminals are found and brought to the courtroom."
"I'm glad to hear you have at least some degree of a plan," Pieter said with a heavy sigh. "This is the last day we have to figure out the truth behind this case. We need to play our cards as carefully as possible if we want to figure out who killed Raven Emsthorpe... Though if what you're saying is correct, then it's not a matter of finding the one who murdered her. It's instead all about finding the truth behind what happened that night and bringing them to justice for it. You know who did it; you just need to find a way to prove it in front of the court."
"And we're going to figure it out soon. I promise," I assured him with a bright smile even though I really didn't feel like smiling at all. I let out a slow exhale soon afterward. "We've come this far, and it wouldn't be right of us to just give up at the first sign of opposition after everything we've already pulled off."
"You're right," Lily agreed. She glanced around the rest of the defendant lobby with a small frown. "I will say that it's strange though... This case has made massive waves as far as I've been able to tell and has gotten the attention of tons of local journalists... But there's next to nobody here. Even the people who were supposed to come and watch the trial aren't here."
"Given the circumstances, I can't blame them for running away," I muttered. "We're going up against the Emsthorpe family here whether we want to admit it. I suppose talking about what happened at the time of the crime yesterday scared a bunch of people off from wanting to come back. We heard about how the assassins helped the people who were being targeted, but I guess that just wasn't enough."
"Regardless of how many people are in the gallery, we have a trial to take care of, and we should set our sights on wrapping all of this up as soon as possible," Deirdre declared. She reached for her phone and checked the time displayed on the screen before tucking the device away once again. "We should probably go into the courtroom soon. There's a lot waiting for us there, and we can't afford to hold it off any longer than necessary."
"Are you ready, Pieter?" Victoria asked of her boyfriend. Her eyes were filled with anxiety, but she did her best to hide it. I was confident Pieter had picked up on the nerves practically radiating off her, but I didn't push it. He had to know, but if he wasn't bringing it up, then he was probably trying to be as kind to her about this as possible, and who was I to object to that?
"As ready as I'll ever be," Pieter replied with a weak smile of his own. He turned his attention back to the courtroom soon afterward, letting out an uneasy sigh along the way. "We had better get this started then. This case isn't going to just solve itself."
With that, we all started to walk toward the courtroom's entrance. None of us dared to say a word the entire way there, not that this was particularly surprising to me. Pieter was worried about what was going to happen in the trial, and while the rest of us felt the same way, we were also worked up about everything that we had heard the day before. There was nothing we could do to reverse what had happened to Zach in the past, but it still stung to know the Emsthorpe assassins always seemed to get worse.
But there was no time to linger on that right now. We had a case to win, and that meant pushing through all of this to try and help those who were suffering. Niamh had to turn up safe soon, and when she did, we would be there to help her through all of this. She had more than earned it, and I was going to give it my all to pitch in. She had gone through enough, and she didn't need to worry about finding the truth behind this murder on top of that.
Besides, we already knew the truth... All we had to do was prove it.
October 26
Courtroom No. 6
10:00 AM
Deirdre Brigit
The emptiness we had noticed in the defendant lobby extended into the courtroom, and that was the first thing to catch my eye once we had stepped into the room. The prosecution stood on the other side of the court as was to be expected, and Judge Diaphan was poised perfectly at the center of her podium. The gallery, however, was anything but what we had seen the last two days. The people who had previously gathered in the benches to watch the trial were gone for the most part with only a few exceptions. The other members of the agency were there along with a few others who had been caught up in the investigation before today. Prosecutor Wood's extended family was there too, and I could tell by the anxiety hanging around them that they knew something we didn't. I could only hope it was a clue that would push us a little bit closer to finding the truth behind what had happened to Prosecutor Wood in the first place.
Judge Diaphan reached for her gavel and slammed it down firmly to call the court to order, not that anyone had been whispering or talking to begin with. Still, it was procedure, and Ophani Diaphan was not a woman to ignore procedure. "Court is now in session for the trial of Pieter Fury," she announced before looking down to the defense and prosecution benches. "Yesterday, I instructed both sides of this case to investigate as much as possible in order to uncover the truth behind the case after we got in contact with a member of the Emsthorpe assassin family. I take it both of your endeavors to learn more about the case were successful?"
"They were, Your Honor," I confirmed with a nod. "We spoke with the witness from yesterday about everything he knows regarding the case, and I believe we have come to have an even greater understanding of what happened on the night of the murder."
"We learned more too," Prosecutor Umber chimed in. "And we were also able to find something else incredibly valuable... Something you never would have thought we would uncover."
"What are you referring to?" Judge Diaphan questioned with a raised eyebrow beneath her mask.
"It was the final witness..." Vito began, his voice coming out soft and uncertain. "Prosecutor Niamh Wood has been recovered and brought to safety."
My eyes went wide immediately, and even though the galery had previously been perfectly silent, all of that fell apart the instant the onlookers processed those words. Judge Diaphan seemed surprised by that too, and she reached for her gavel before hitting it down once again. "Order in the court!" she announced. "Prosecution... You are serious when you say this, yes?"
"Of course we are," Prosecutor Umber assured her. "We spoke with the group of independent investigators assigned to track her down, and they were able to find her in the early hours of the morning. Since then, she has been sent to the hospital and has been under constant surveillance for her own safety as she recovers. She bears surprisingly few physical injuries, but..."
"There are other issues to be discussed regarding her, I am afraid," Prosecutor Shield said next, choosing each word carefully and slowly. "She may be well on her way to recovering physically, but there are a variety of mental scars left behind from the assassination attempt that still hold her back. She hasn't wanted to answer any of our questions, instead just staring blankly ahead most of the time. She barely responds to anything that happens around her."
"What about the assassins who took her in the first place?" Judge Diaphan asked. "Were they brought into custody as well?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," Prosecutor Umber replied with a nod. "They surrendered themselves easily... But they wished to wait until the trial to testify about everything that happened. They claimed it would be for the best if they spoke in this public forum about the night of the murder."
"Suspicious, isn't it?" Judge Diaphan hummed. "They could have easily set up a trap for all of us, and we never would have known it as long as they were using that as an excuse."
"It is suspicious, but as long as someone has already been arrested for this crime and is in captivity for it, we need to hear what they have to say," Vito pointed out. "At this point, the question is a simple one... Which of the three do we want to hear from first?"
All attention shifted over to the defense bench, and I glanced to my other three coworkers where they stood beside me. We were the ones who had to make the choice, it seemed. Given that we were the ones to be performing the cross-examination, that made sense, but that didn't take the pressure off in the slightest. We would likely get the chance to talk to all of them at some point, but this... It was still a lot to take in at once.
"I think we should hear from Niamh," Yuri eventually forced herself to say. "She's been through a lot lately, and I... What we heard about her from before was worrying. She deserves to be able to talk about what happened to her, and I think us trying to get her to open up is a great way to start that off."
"We can listen to her testimony first and then convince the assassins to talk from there," Lily agreed. She hesitated as soon as she spoke the words though, inhaling nervously through her teeth. "I have a bad feeling about all of this though... I don't know. We heard that she hasn't wanted to respond to anything around her since she was rescued. We don't know what happened after she was taken, and she could have suffered massively because of it."
"I want to help her," I declared. "I believe I may be able to coax her into talking to us. She won't be able to recover if she tries to bottle up her emotions about what happened, but if we can convince her to open up, then she may be able to move on that much sooner. If that means hearing her testimony first, then so be it. We need to do something to help, and this is the best way to begin that healing process."
Victoria nodded before she looked back to the rest of the courtroom to announce our decision. "We'd like to hear from Niamh Wood first," she announced. "After that, we can branch off into hearing the testimony of her captors."
"Understood," Prosecutor Shield nodded. With that, he turned to the bailiffs, and the two nearest men-KJ and one other I didn't know the name of-dashed off to find Prosecutor Wood.
The courtroom remained silent as she was escorted in, and as soon as I saw her, I had to force myself to stifle a gasp. To say she was in a poor condition feklt like an understatement. Her eyes were hollow, and she stared ahead blankly without any sense of love or luster. She looked completely exhausted, and while it made sense given what she had been through, it still came like a stab to the chest. She deserved better than all of this, and I wished there was a way we didn't have to push her to testify so soon after what she had been through.
Prosecutor Wood's eyes were sunken and empty as she looked down at the ground, picking out patterns in the hardwood floors even though there was nothing to be found. I was certain we were speaking to Niamh specifically since Nevada's usual rambunctious energy was gone, replaced instead with complete apathy and dissociation. The kidnapping had worn on her to the point that she didn't know how to continue... Though if I had to guess, it was probably more about the reason she had been taken, and those were details only she would be able to fill us in on.
"Witness..." Prosecutor Umber hesitated. She didn't look up, instead only watching the ground as a few seconds came and went. "Please state your name and occupation for the court."
For a long time, Prosecutor Wood said nothing, and I had to wonder if she was even going to reply at all. In the end, she did end up speaking, but only after taking a few heavy moments to shift her head up as slowly as possible to look at the rest of us. She looked as if she hadn't slept, and if I had to guess, I would say that assumption wasn't too far off the mark. How could anyone want to sleep when they knew there were assassins who wanted them dead? "My... My name is Niamh Wood," she started, confirming my suspicions about who was in control of their shared body. "I-I'm a prosecutor."
"You're also one of the witnesses of this case... You received a letter from an anonymous source, and that was how you ended up at the scene of the crime," Vito started, trying to take things slowly even though we were handling all of this on borrowed time. "Is that correct?"
Prosecutor Wood nodded slowly. She didn't seem to want to explain what had happened verbally though, instead just looking around the courtroom in a thinly-veiled panic. She seemed calm, but I knew that was only because she was too tired to be openly afraid. Her energy had long since abandoned her, and all she could do was stand there and feel the world staring at her.
"If you don't mind... Would you be able to tell us about what happened on the night of the crime?" Prosecutor Umber questioned carefully. "Any information you have for us would be much appreciated. We're happy to listen."
Prosecutor Wood hesitated at that, and she looked ready to say she could offer us information only to back down and sigh. I glanced over to the rest of the defense team before taking a small step closer to the bench in front of us. "It's okay," I assured her. "You're safe here. We're going to make sure you're okay no matter what happens. We're all here for you."
The trial seemed to move in slow motion as Prosecutor Wood contemplated what I was saying. In the end, she let out another long-suffering sigh before nodding. "O-Okay... If you really want to hear about what happened... I'll tell you."
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ Night of the Murder ~
-"I had received a letter supposedly from Judge Diaphan saying she wanted to meet with me to discuss recent matters with the Emsthorpe family."
-"When I got there, I didn't see anyone in the building, so I decided to look around and see if I would run into her naturally."
-"I had been looking around for about ten minutes when I realized I wasn't alone. T-There was this woman, and... She..."
-"She tried to kill me. But instead of going in for the killing blow, she just tied me to a piece of furniture and left me there."
-"I-I hadn't been that scared in so long, and... E-Everything went all blurry because of how nervous I was..."
-"And then... There was someone else there. Someone who offered to help me to get away from her."
-"I accepted the offer because I had no other choice. And then... I was gone for a long time, and now, I'm here."
The courtroom remained silent for a long time once Prosecutor Wood had finished speaking. She let out a shaky sigh and shook her head. "I-I don't like thinking about what happened," she admitted. "I want to just leave it all in the past, but I know that's not an option. Of course it's not."
"Thank you for being brave enough to talk to us about this," I told her with a small smile. Prosecutor Wood looked up at me with wide, anxious eyes, but she seemed to relax a little bit when she realized I meant her no harm. At this point, it was like she didn't recognize anyone around her and was instead focused only on trying to survive. She was scared of being hurt, and that meant she was trying to hide herself from the rest of us as much as possible. To say it was awful was the greatest understatement I could have made.
"Are you ready to begin the cross-examination?" Vito asked. "I know the defense team is going to go easy on you after everything that happened. You don't need to be afraid of it."
Prosecutor Wood glanced around the courtroom at that, trying to ground herself when she still felt afraid of being captured by the assassins that had caused this in the first place. Leaving the captive situation had been a good thing for her, yes, but it also meant stepping out into the rest of the world after everything she had gone through. I couldn't blame her for being afraid of that.
Eventually, Prosecutor Wood forced herself to speak again, and she took in a slow, careful breath before nodding. "Yeah... I'll be okay," she said, though I could tell she didn't believe it in the slightest. Still, she knew there was no other choice, and so, she was ready to comply.
"In that case, defense, you may begin your cross-examination now," Judge Diaphan declared as she looked down to where I was standing with Lily, Victoria, and Yuri. We all nodded up to her before turning to face one another to discuss our strategy.
"She looks so afraid..." Yuri murmured. "I guess she's still sensitive after what happened."
"Someone tried to kill her, and the only way she could stay safe was to willingly go with assassins so they could protect her. I think anyone would be terrified after something like that," Lily pointed out. "But we're going to do all we can to ease her fears while learning as much as we an along the way."
"We should start off by checking our facts," Victoria suggested. "We heard the story from Balthazar, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure everything he told us was honest. We already got corroboration from Chrysalis about the murder itself, but this... This is another matter entirely."
"I agree," I chimed in with a nod. "We'll just need to be careful... She's gone through more than enough."
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ Night of the Murder ~
-"I had received a letter supposedly from Judge Diaphan saying she wanted to meet with me to discuss recent matters with the Emsthorpe family."
-"When I got there, I didn't see anyone in the building, so I decided to look around and see if I would run into her naturally."
-"I had been looking around for about ten minutes when I realized I wasn't alone. T-There was this woman, and... She..."
"Hold it!"
"The woman who attacked you... What do you remember about her?" Victoria questioned. "Any details at all will help."
"I-I heard after I was rescued that someone had been murdered... After being shown a picture of the victim, I can say for sure that it was her," Prosecutor Wood replied. "Raven Emsthorpe... That was her. She saw me in a room by myself and lunged for me, and I really thought I was going to die then and there... But..."
After a few seconds of tense silence went by, Yuri spoke up with a frown. "But...?"
"She didn't do that," Prosecutor Wood finished. "I think she spoke with a few other people about it before deciding to back off. I don't know what exactly they said to each other since I was too out of it to register what they were saying. I was trying to get away from the furniture I was tied to. I didn't even notice what it was because of how worked up I was."
"If I had to guess, I would say that this is when Emmeline and Belladonna tried to point Raven in the direction of her actual target for the night," Victoria said. "That's where it seems to fit in with Balthazar's explanation, at the very least."
I nodded my agreement. "Please go on, witness."
-"She tried to kill me. But instead of going in for the killing blow, she just tied me to a piece of furniture and left me there."
-"I-I hadn't been that scared in so long, and... E-Everything went all blurry because of how nervous I was..."
-"And then... There was someone else there. Someone who offered to help me to get away from her."
"Hold it!"
"Who was the person who offered to help you escape?" Lily inquired. "Any information you can give us would be much appreciated."
"It was a girl around my age. She may have been a little bit older, but not by much," Prosecutor Wood answered. "She said her name was Belladonna. She wanted to get me out of there since it was safer if I went with her... That was what she said, at the very least. I was so nervous that the woman who had attacked me was going to come back, so I agreed."
"Belladonna... I guess that part of Balthazar's story was right too," Victoria remarked. "She was the one who was originally set up to kill Prosecutor Wood, but instead of going through with it, she decided to help her to get away from Raven, prompting this entire 'hostage situation' in the first place."
"Belladonna was really insistent that I come with her... I knew I didn't have much of a choice, so I agreed to it," Prosecutor Wood said. She let out a slow sigh, the breath shaking on the way out. "I was really scared of what was going to happen if I went with her, but I saw it as having the greater chances of survival. I know you're not supposed to go with people to a second location, but it was either that or end up murdered by an assassin. I took a chance, and it paid off."
"It certainly did," I agreed. "What happened after you agreed to go with Belladonna and leave the crime scene?"
-"I accepted the offer because I had no other choice. And then... I was gone for a long time, and now, I'm here."
"Hold it!"
"You were taken captive and escorted away from the crime scene," I began. "After you ended up at the second location where they wanted to take you, what happened?"
Prosecutor Wood hesitated for a long time before nodding. "They were on the run a lot. They were working out of a trailer, and after realizing I was going to have to come with them, they gave me a space to stay there," she explained.
"They?" Prosecutor Shield echoed with wide eyes. "There were other people working together with Belladonna then?"
Prosecutor Wood nodded again. "Yeah. There was a man and a woman. They both assured me everything was going to be fine... Though they didn't tell me about the murder at first. I guess they didn't want to scare me. They just wanted me to feel safe," she explained. "It was really weird being with them, but... I felt safer than I would have if I had just stayed behind and waited to die. It was what I needed to do then, and I knew it even if I didn't want to admit it."
"I believe that now we can conclude without a shadow of a doubt that the witness testimony we received from Balthazar Emsthorpe was the truth about the case," I declared. "If it would please those in the court, I would like to explain what I think happened at the time of the murder."
"Do you know something the rest of us do not?" Judge Diaphan questioned with a frown.
"We heard a full explanation of what happened over the course of the crime's events from Balthazar Emsthorpe yesterday," I explained. "And now that we've heard from this witness, we can confirm that he was being honest when he told us what he knew about the murder."
"And that means we have a strong basis for what to work off when it comes to learning more about this case and eventually finding the killer," Victoria finished for me. "We wanted to press the witness about the few details we would need her confirmation on, and through it all, we uncovered that Balthazar was being honest with what he told us. She confirmed all of it easily."
Judge Diaphan considered our proposal for a few moments before nodding. "Alright... If you wish to share what you know, then we would be happy to hear it," she declared. "Do you believe this will reveal new information that leads us to the culprit?"
Lily nodded. "I think it'll lead us right up to the final few cross-examinations... And the name of the criminal we've been trying to identify this entire time. We believe we have figured out who the culprit is, and now is the time for everyone to finally hear the truth."
"I understand," Judge Diaphan said. "In that case, you may continue. Explain everything that happened on the night of the murder from beginning to end."
octopath two is a good game
-Digital