July 6th, 2:12pm
Gatewater Hotel
Lobby

"Wow! I've never stayed in a hotel this nice before!" Kay ran through the door into a grand entryway. A few well dressed guests sneered as she raced around the room, pausing to examine each painting and sculpture on display. Kay paid them no heed.

"Hotel's changed since I last came here. It sure does bring back memories, though. Ain't that right, sir?"

Edgeworth blinked, crossing the arms of his backup suit jacket. "Yes, Detective. You and I have had a small number of adventures here."

"Has it really been over a year since that case, sir?"

"What case is he talking about?" Kay looked to Edgeworth for answers.

"Cases, Kay. Detective Gumshoe and I investigated two different cases at this location. The first occurred almost three years ago. A murder took place in an office across the street. One witness claimed to have seen the crime from her window in a room here. The second incident was two Marches ago, when a different murder disrupted the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix. I… haven't thought about either incident in quite some time."

Kay crossed her arms. "Huh. You wouldn't think a place as nice as this had seen so much killing. Why did your investigator friend want to meet us here, anyway?"

"Because this was the last place Wess T. Bower was seen alive before he left us for good." Edgeworth whipped around when he heard the voice. In the doorway stood Joseph Caché, once again in the company of his preteen son.

Edgeworth and his entourage approached Caché. The investigator led them off to a couch in the corner of the lobby. The investigator glanced around before he sat, checking to make sure no one was listening to them. Samuel mimicked his father's movements, not showing any sign he recognized the place.

"Mr. Caché. I'm glad you are able to meet with me. Thank you in advance for any information you can provide to the investigation."

"How bad was it when you found him?"

Edgeworth hesitated, then shook his head. Careful to watch his words with a child present, he relayed to Caché the circumstances under which Bower's body had been discovered.

Caché nodded solemnly. "You know it's gonna be a rough case when dental records are your only way of ID'ing someone."

Kay leaned forward, sizing Caché up for the first time. "Mr. Edgeworth tells me you used to be a prosecutor. Did you ever handle a case like this one?"

Caché paused to think about it. "I once found somebody two months after they'd been… lost. A teenage girl, one not much older than Sam is now. I never solved her case. Just thinking about it made me feel sick. Then I actually got sick, and- well…" Caché eyes flitted back and forth from Kay to his son. "Cases like that really make you think about what you have in life. They question your faith in justice."

Edgeworth closed his eyes as he considered Caché's points. "I understand the sentiment, Mr. Caché, but that case was yours. This one is mine. How did you come to the job of investigating Mr. Bower's disappearance?"

"One of Bower's fellow reporters for their online newspaper called me. He said his boss had missed a few deadlines and was acting crazier than normal lately. He didn't want to go to the police, but he wished someone would check on his boss so they could keep posting together." Caché raised his hands. "I know I promised my client not to include the police; his boss has been found, however. I've done what I could for my client. Now it's a matter of seeing what you can do for Bower."

"What evidence were you able to collect in this case?"

"Most of it is still in Bower's hotel room. He'd been living out of this place when he first went missing. The last person I can confirm saw him alive is the hotel manager. You should speak to him." Caché handed Edgeworth a hotel room key.

-"Bower's Room Key" added to Organizer-

"I see." As Edgeworth accepted the key from Caché, he remembered something Franziska had told him. "Did you ever encounter printouts of Mr. Bower's emails, by chance? One was found by the investigation in rather dismal condition. The contents I could make out suggest it was part of a longer conversation."

"I did see some of those," Caché pulled two folded up pieces of paper out of a worn-through Organizer. "Nothing I tried made it possible for me to read through the marker, sadly. The hotel room has no computer, so I don't think you'll be able to find digital copies in there. I hope the snippets here make more sense to you than they did to me. There was a lot of evidence I couldn't piece together in that room."

-"Bower's Other Emails" added to Organizer-

Edgeworth didn't unfold the papers immediately. Instead, he stuffed both of them into his own Organizer. He would examine the evidence the next time he investigated a scene. "Thank you for all your help. Is there anything else you can show or tell me in relation to this case?"

Caché sighed. "Like I said, most of it is still in Bower's old room. I checked it out as soon as I found it on… um, four days ago. The day before the convention."

"July 2nd," Edgeworth supplied.

"Yes. I asked the manager here if he would preserve the room. He said he would and that someone else had come by to see Bower the day before. Bower wasn't there when she came knocking either. The hotel was planning to clean out the room when Bower's reservation ran up the next day, so I caught it just in time."

Someone else had come by? "A woman came asking for Bower on July 1st? Who was this person?"

Caché shrugged. "The manager said she seemed to be some sort of professional. A rather impatient one, too. Caused quite the ruckus for him and his staff. She carried a whip and sounded like a foreigner based on her accent."

Hm… judging by the timeline, Edgeworth could only assume the woman had been Franziska. She must have tracked down Bower's old hotel room the afternoon after coming to Hakari with him. Odd she hadn't mentioned it to Edgeworth earlier. "How did you find out about this room?

"The detective officially assigned to Bower's missing person's case got a tip. They didn't take anything from the room, just asked Gatewater to watch the place and tell them if Bower came back." Caché gave a small smirk. "I have my 'ins' in the force. Just because I promised not to work with the police doesn't mean I can't keep tabs on their investigation." Caché was certainly fond of his technicalities, wasn't he?

There were a lot of details to keep track of regarding the whereabouts of Bower and visitors to his hotel room. Edgeworth would need to write them down sooner or later. "Do you have any idea when Bower checked into this place? When did the staff last see him alive?"

"I wrote down a timeline in my old Organizer. Want it?"

"Yes, please." It would be easier for Edgeworth to add onto an existing document than to construct his own. "I appreciate your cooperation a great deal. As I said, my initial investigation was not particularly fruitful."

"You're welcome. I just hope my cooperation is able to help move this forward." Caché ripped a page out of the back of his Organizer. "Feel free to ignore the calligraphy on the side," the man appeared bashful as he handed Edgeworth the page. "A little something I do while I'm thinking."

-"Caché's Timeline" added to Organizer-

Edgeworth took the page and folded it into his collection of evidence. "Thank you. I think that's everything."

"Will you be coming to the room with us, sir?" Gumshoe asked. Edgeworth had to hold back a shudder. Caché himself would likely not be much of a problem to bring along, but his son wasn't yet a teenager. Exposing a child to what would likely be a crime scene was not something he needed on his conscience.

Luckily Caché seemed to be of a similar mind. "As interesting as it may be to work 'with' Prosecutor Edgeworth again, I will not. I can't leave Sam alone and I don't want him to have any night terrors from what you may find up there. It's… not all suited for the eyes of children." The boy in question let out a pout but said nothing. He was likely used to not being allowed to see crime scenes.

Edgeworth nodded, arms crossed. "I believe that's for the best. Enjoy the rest of your day, Mr. Caché."

"Take care, all of you. And while I have no doubt I'd eventually hear from the news, please let me know how this all turns out, Prosecutor Edgeworth. It will be weighing on my mind."

Caché stood up and walked off. Sam waved to Edgeworth's group as he followed. Kay smiled and waved back before turning to Edgeworth. "He seemed a lot different from how you described him at the Expo."

"We came to an understanding of sorts at the end of the day." Edgeworth responded. "He's not at all a bad man. We may not walk the same path, but he is searching for the truth just as much as I am."

Kay hummed in response, looking thoughtful before shrugging. "So, to the room?"

"First, the manager. I would like to ask him for permission before we charge into a room that is not ours." The trio walked up to the check-in desk. After asking the desk clerk a few questions, a middle aged man with brown hair and a tan suit greeted them. They showed him Gumshoe's badge and the key they'd received from Caché. He agreed to lead them up to the victim's room.

July 6th, 2:51pm
Gatewater Hotel
Second Floor Hallway

Edgeworth watched the manager with a discerning eye as he led them to Bower's room. "Sir, please forgive me. I believe we have met before. Were you once a bellboy at this hotel?"

"Indeed I was, Mr. Edgeworth. You used to have me bring tea to your office." That calm smile… Edgeworth should have recognized it earlier. "I came into my manager position this past May. Our previous manager was fired for her handling of the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix, and her chosen replacement was not long for the job. During that time, I proved myself as someone who knows the Gatewater brand inside and out. I can take its exciting history and turn it into a point of attraction for our guests." The manager frowned. "Ironic as it is, the man you are investigating was staying in our Murder Suite. I believe you once searched the same room before our renovation, Mr. Edgeworth."

The Murder Suite? But that was the one that faced… oh dear. Edgeworth was going to require every bit of his willpower to not look out the window of that room. "How unfortunate."

"Yes. I suppose I should change the room's name once this incident is behind us."

Or maybe instead of using the room's history as a marketing gimmick, the hotel could improve its security. Edgeworth's investigations would have benefited greatly if that had happened after the first time he'd had to visit the hotel. They could afford expensive art for their lobby, but not basic surveillance?

"Hey Mr. Manager? We heard from the man we spoke to in the lobby that you were the last person to see Mr. Bower alive." Kay asked, working to keep up with the group as they rushed down the hallway. "What was that like?"

"Ah, yes. I did hear one PI say something of that nature when we met earlier in the week. I spoke to the gentleman named Bower a week ago. It was morning, then. I wished to know how he was finding his stay. He was quite forceful when he pulled me into his suite. He asked if anyone had followed me to his room, then urged me to leave while he stood out of the doorway's view. The curtains remained drawn despite the beautiful sunshine outside."

"He must have feared for his life, sir." Gumshoe took his turn to ask the manager a question. "Did anyone ask for Mr. Bower before Ms. Von Karma arrived, sir?"

"No one, my dear detective. Per the gentleman's request, his name was not kept on the guest register. Only someone who knew where he was could have come to visit him."

"Did he ever leave his room before then, Mr. Manager sir?"

"Not to my knowledge. The gentleman was quite reclusive during his stay."

"That's it, sir." Gumshoe turned his eyes to Edgeworth. "The hotel room's gotta be our crime scene. I bet our murderer snuck in and killed Mr. Bower in his sleep!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Detective." Edgeworth wanted to see the room first, but Gumshoe's theory did match the timeline forensics had provided them. If the hotel manager saw Bower alive the morning of the 30th and Bower's body had to be a week old, then his time of death must have been later that same day.

Franziska had also mentioned the 30th before. When she and Edgeworth were investigating the Hakari murder, she said of Bower: "I was supposed to meet with the man who made these claims yesterday. But he never showed up."

Edgeworth felt a conclusion falling into place. Bower must not have met with Franziska the night of the 30th because he died before the meeting started. By the time Franziska came to his hotel room on the 1st, his body must have already been moved. Bower's hotel room was shaping up to be a viable scene of the murder.

And they were about to enter it.

July 6th, 2:54pm
Gatewater Hotel
Room 212

Bower's room was a mess. Bedsheets lay in a jumbled heap on the floor, clothes littered every surface of the suite, the desk lamp had fallen on its side, and an entire wall of the room was covered in pictures, papers, pushpins, and thread. The curtains were drawn, denying the bright sun access to the suite.

"My apologies for the gentleman's mess, Mr. Edgeworth. He refused maid service for the duration of his stay." The manager stood a few steps from the doorway while the rest of the group poured into the room. "Now if you don't mind, I must attend to other business surrounding the hotel. Feel free to search this room for as long as you need."

Edgeworth bowed. "Of course. Thank you for your cooperation."

Kay turned to Edgeworth as the manager closed the door. "It's that time again, right?"

Edgeworth nodded. "Let us get started."

-Begin Investigation-

The trio's attention was drawn instantly to the collage on the wall. It vaguely resembled an evidence board one would find in a police station… if the detective assembling the evidence board lacked all sense of organization or penmanship. The slurred scrawl of black marker labeled each addition to the wall with a note. Edgeworth would have to stand closer if he wished to make out what the handwriting said.

I won't rest until I inspect every suspicious-looking nook and cranny.

Edgeworth didn't know where to start. Threads ran amok across the wall with no sense of pattern. If this was how Bower investigated his cases, it was no wonder the man often arrived at lurid conspiracy theories instead of the truth. As he scanned the wall aimlessly, Edgeworth couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

Just as he thought that, a note caught his eye. It was written onto a piece of paper taped together from shreds. One word: Hakari.

Edgeworth drew the reconstructed paper close to his eye. It certainly looked like all the shreds had come from the same paper, but the tape job was so badly done that Edgeworth struggled to read a word of the document. Its layout suggested a financial statement of some kind, but Edgeworth was no accountant. His office assigned other prosecutors to crimes like embezzlement and fraud.

But while he wasn't able to understand that document, it was connected by a red thread to four other documents on the wall. When Edgeworth examined each of its first degree connections, he noticed they all had the same word scrawled onto their bottom right: Hakari.

"The evidence on this wall is Bower's case against Hakari. Bower must have mentioned some of this to both Interpol and Toukai in his crusade to bring hidden truths to light."

"If this is all he had to work with, I can't say I'm surprised no one believed him." Kay piped up from Edgeworth's side, peering at the wall. "You normally keep way more evidence on cases than this."

After glancing at each piece on the wall labelled Hakari, Edgeworth had to agree. Everything he could make out was circumstantial at best and unreliable at worst. If this was all Bower had, it was no surprise Interpol thought he was losing it.

Wait a minute… is this all the evidence Bower had?

The strange feeling of something being out of place returned. Edgeworth took steps away from the wall. He sought to bring as much of the evidence web into view as possible. It took him several moments, but he finally managed to figure out what had been bothering him.

"I don't think this is all he had, Kay." Edgeworth said. Kay gave him a look of confusion. He beckoned her back towards his position in the middle of the room. "Take a look at the wall in its entirety."

Kay pursed her lips into a frown for a moment, squinting slightly. After a few seconds though she let out an excited gasp. "Oh. I think I see it, Mr. Edgeworth!" she exclaimed with a grin. "Some pieces of the red string attach to empty spaces on the wall! Others look like they could have been held up but are now hanging loose."

Edgeworth allowed himself a momentary smile. "Indeed. Which means there had been more evidence here, likely more conclusive evidence as well."

Kay nodded before frowning. "But didn't Mr. Caché tell us that he had the staff preserve the room?"

Edgeworth inclined his head, looking intently at the wall. "Indeed. Mr. Caché also said he gave us everything. It would appear that someone else may have managed to slip in."

-"Evidence Board" added to Organizer-

-Missing Evidence added to Logic-

"When do you think someone came in here, sir?" Gumshoe's eyebrows danced on his face. "Did Mr. Caché see more than we did?"

"A fair question, Detective." Edgeworth didn't have an answer to that one. Caché hadn't said anything specific about the evidence wall. The wall itself was eye-catching, something no investigator could search the room and not examine. From their time at the Expo, Caché had proven himself an observant fellow. Edgeworth didn't believe for a second the PI could have looked at the wall in its current state and not noticed pieces missing.

As Edgeworth was pondering when the wall may have been tampered with, Kay was still checking out the remaining pieces. "Not everything on the wall is about Hakari, Mr. Edgeworth. Look at this one." She pointed to an article about a cold case from last January. "This one says 'Mysterious Threat' on it."

"What?" Edgeworth reached for the newspaper clipping Kay had indicated. When he found it was just outside his reach, Gumshoe stepped in and unpinned the clipping for them. "Thank you, Detective. As for this piece of evidence… you're right, Kay. It doesn't relate to Hakari at all. The man discussed here was a state employee. He disappeared two days before that one computer virus attack." Edgeworth handed the clipping back to Gumshoe. "I was abroad at the time."

"I was around." Gumshoe put the evidence back where he'd found it. "I was reinvestigating the murder of the guy who made that virus, pal. Some folks on the force thought this disappearance here was related to the attack, but it turned out to be a false lead. We found the distributor of the virus and locked him up good. No 'mysterious threat' there."

"Bower disagreed. I wonder why." Edgeworth looked at the thread connections for other evidence with the same label. There were only two other pieces, and Edgeworth saw no relation between them and the clipping Kay had pointed out.

"Mr. Caché and Ms. Von Karma both seemed to think the victim was crazy, sir. Maybe there isn't a 'mysterious threat'."

"I dunno, Gummy. Mr. Bower was murdered, so there was a threat to his life up until a week ago. We don't know who killed him either, so I guess we could call the murderer a 'mysterious threat'." Kay thought out loud.

Edgeworth picked up where she left off. "But we know the wall was messed with. The killer might have done it. Why would the murderer leave up evidence that talked about himself?"

The wall's web of threads grew more tangled by the minute. Edgeworth and his team had no way of knowing what evidence was stolen, so they didn't know if the missing pieces related to Hakari, the "mysterious threat", or something else entirely. Trying to decipher what had gone through the mind of a paranoid reporter of ill repute in his last days of life was an exercise in futility.

"I can't examine this wall any longer. The only person who could fully understand its contents was Bower himself, and he is long dead."

-Mysterious Threat added to Logic-

Edgeworth took another step back from the wall. He shook his head and took in the rest of the hotel room. "I wonder… was Mr. Bower a natural mess-maker, or did a struggle occur in this room?"

"How are we supposed to tell a difference?" Kay asked, crossing her arms. "My place is always a mess. If someone murdered me in there, you'd need a giant bloodstain to know."

"Then we look for blood. Good thinking, Kay." Edgeworth scanned the sheets on the floor for any dried bloodstains. After a week of waiting, the blood would no longer be red. Brown would be much harder for the eye to pick out than red.

"I hate looking at blood, sir," Gumshoe confessed before he joined Edgeworth in examining the floor.

Edgeworth found himself wishing he'd brought Luminol to this investigation. He hadn't known ahead of time that meeting with Caché would lead to a second investigation. If he had, Edgeworth would have brought an officer or two along for the ride. He supposed he could always call a few in once his initial sweep concluded.

Nothing to examine here… Nothing to examine here… Edgeworth was just checking random spots in the room at this point. With all the mess in Bower's last living space, he would have thought there'd be more evidence to find.

Maybe Caché had already found all the notable pieces of evidence. Edgeworth took the time to unfold the three pieces of evidence he'd shoved into his Organizer.

There wasn't much to say about the room key, so Edgeworth moved onto Bower's other emails. Both had just as much black marker covering their content, but from what Edgeworth could read, the first email had been sent by Bower himself. It described his findings of sudden announcements and extreme gains in market share captured by a single gaming company happening simultaneously with scrapped designs at the last minute by competitors. If Edgeworth had to guess, this email would have been the one sent before Franziska's supervisor replied. Said reply was what Bower had kept on his person when he was murdered.

The second email was addressed to Bower. It had the same writing style as the one found on Bower's corpse, leading Edgeworth to believe the same man at Interpol had written both. In the final correspondence, Interpol promised to send a "new recruit in need of a vacation" after grinding herself to the bone over a smuggling ring. The email's tone turned humorous in spots, leading Edgeworth to wonder if Franziska had been expected to gain anything from her initial visit after all. The physical description of Bower's contact was blacked out, but Edgeworth didn't need those details anyway.

Since all three emails are from the same conversation and our stained email belongs in the middle, I think it would be best to archive the entire conversation together in my evidence.

-"Stained Email" and "Bower's Other Emails" combined in Organizer-

"Whatever Bower was able to send over the course of this conversation was enough to convince Interpol to send an agent. If only we knew what he told Franziska's boss."

"We should ask Ms. Von Karma to call him, sir. He probably has the entire conversation stored on his computer!"

"Good idea, Detective. Would you call Franziska from the hallway? Leave a message if she doesn't answer."

"Got it, sir." Gumshoe trudged out into the hall, prior enthusiasm evaporating. Perhaps he'd hoped Edgeworth would call Franziska himself.

Too bad he had an investigation to run. Edgeworth examined the timeline Caché had drawn up for his missing person's investigation next. In order, it read:

-Jun. 27: B. stops answering calls, emails. Evening: B. last seen leaving apt
-Jun 29: B. checks into Gatewater w/o name, pays cash. Evening, I got call for case. Initial searches not promising.
-Jun 30: morning, manager saw B. evening, B. declared missing person by police
-Jul 1: woman came to B. room, B. absent. Police ask staff to watch room
-Jul 2: I visit room. Take key and emails. Staff preserves room
-Jul 5: talk to family, neighbors, and colleagues again. No leads. B. misses rent.
-Jul 6: Edg. calls. B. is dead. Case is Edg. to solve

Taking a pen out of his pocket, Edgeworth wrote around Caché's list (and scribbles) to add a few entries of his own. First he added Franziska's meeting with Bower to the evening of the 30th, then Bower's death to "Unknown 30th", and lastly, the raid on the room as having occurred sometime in the last week.

-"Caché's Timeline" updated in Organizer-

"Odd that Bower fled his apartment days before his murder. Did he know something about his fate before it came to pass?"

"Maybe Mr. Bower could see the future," Kay suggested. "Sucks that it didn't save his life."

"Indeed." I wonder what tipped Bower off to the threat against him. These antics border on the extreme.

Edgeworth checked the nightstand next to the bed. On it was a black marker, an overturned desk lamp, and a discarded sock. And here Edgeworth thought the case would smell better once he left the dumpster behind.

He took note of the marker first. "This must be what Bower used to redact his emails. He wrote notes for his evidence wall with this as well."

Kay peeked over Edgeworth's shoulder. "He left the cap off. The marker must be dried out now."

What a waste of office supplies.

Edgeworth examined the desk lamp next. "I wonder when this lamp was knocked over. The bulb inside it is broken."

"Dang. Don't hotels charge extra if you break their property?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes. I don't think they'll be pressing extra charges in this case." Who would Gatewater collect the bill from? Bower's next of kin? Edgeworth figured the hotel had bigger problems than a broken lamp going to probate court.

He turned the lamp over, cringing at the sound of sliding glass shards. Edgeworth's eyes widened when he saw the brown stain covering half the cream-colored lampshade. "I found our blood."

"Eek!" Kay jumped back. "There's spots on the floor here too. Look at the edge of those sheets."

Edgeworth looked down, then nodded. "I believe those are bloodstains as well. Someone was bludgeoned with this lamp."

Kay gasped. "You mean… this lamp might be the murder weapon?"

"It's distinctly possible. I will ask forensics to confirm that these stains are the victim's blood."

-"Hotel Lamp" added to Organizer-

"What is this about blood?" Gumshoe walked back into the room. "I left a message for Ms. Von Karma, sir. She isn't answering my calls."

"We have located a potential weapon, Detective. This desk lamp is broken. Its shade may possess a rather large bloodstain."

"That's great, sir!" Gumshoe beamed, then hesitated. "Well, not great for the victim, but good for us. I was worried we were never gonna find a murder weapon."

Edgeworth nodded. "We should call more officers. It's past time this room got investigated in full. Forensics will have to confirm our findings before we can be sure of what we have."

-Investigation Complete-

"And to think, we started this case by digging through trash!" Kay bounced up and down. "Now the real investigation begins."

"It's a start." Edgeworth crossed his arms. Even if his team had located the murder weapon, there was still so much they didn't know. When exactly had Bower been killed? How was his body removed from the hotel room? Where had it been before landing in the trash? Who had done all these terrible things to the victim? Why did they chase him down to his hiding place in the hotel?

And the missing evidence from the wall… what does it mean? Did the murderer return to the scene? Is the wall related to the murder in some way? For every question Edgeworth answered in this case, it only paved the way for a new one to arise.

A sudden ringing shocked Edgeworth from his focus. The man turned to see Gumshoe wincing sheepishly as he pulled his cell phone from one of his coat pockets. Was Franziska calling him back?

"Sorry about that, sir." the detective took the call before Edgeworth could make a comment. "Gumshoe here."

For a few seconds the man was silent. Then his eyes went wide. Gumshoe hurried over to Edgeworth and shoved the phone to him. "The first autopsy just came in!"

Edgeworth wasted no time. "This is Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. I am the one assigned to Bower's case. Tell me: did your autopsy discover a blow to the victim's head from a blunt instrument?"

"Yes, it did," the mortician on the other end of the line confirmed. "It was one of the victim's numerous injuries that he obtained pre-mortem. I believe it may have given him a concussion."

Hold it. "Pre-mortem? Your autopsy does not consider the wound to be the victim's cause of death?"

"No, it doesn't. The cause of death in this case is a slit throat. Your investigation needs to look for a large bloodstain with extensive splatter. Given the age of the body, your killer likely had time to clean up after themselves. Enlist forensic officers in looking for the true scene of the crime."

Edgeworth pinched his nose. This was a frustrating setback. "Is a copy of your initial report on its way to my office? Have you made any determinations regarding time of death?"

"I've already sent someone to the prosecutor's building. According to the stage of decay this body was in, I would estimate the victim died seven days ago. I don't have anything more specific for you at this stage, but I figured your investigation would appreciate the update." Her tone grew sharp at the end.

"We do. Thank you for your call." Edgeworth hung up and handed the phone back to Gumshoe. "The lamp isn't the murder weapon, but that may still be the victim's blood."

"Huh? How can that be true?"

"The victim may have obtained a concussion from the lamp before he died. His true cause of death was a slit throat. I don't see any bloodstains in this room large enough to account for that. No knives, either."

-"Autopsy Report" added to Organizer-

"Maybe the murderer cleaned it up?" Kay tried to be optimistic. "This could still be the scene of the murder."

"Then why leave the bloodstain from the lamp? Why would the killer clean one but not the other?" Irritation crept into Edgeworth's voice. "Our victim was wounded here, but he died elsewhere. This isn't the crime scene."

"Yes it is, you just said it was," Kay protested. "This may not be a murder scene, but it sure was the site of an assault and theft."

"It could even be an abduction, pal. What if the murderer was here to kidnap Bower? He snuck in, Bower fought back, and the killer hit him on the head to knock him out."

Kay picked up where Gumshoe left off. "Then, worried he'd caused too much of a scene, the killer took Bower to another location and killed him there. They didn't stay in the hotel room because the killer didn't want to risk the chance of a witness." A determined smile returned to her face. "We shouldn't examine this room for signs of a murder. We should look at it like it was a kidnapping!"

A kidnapping? Edgeworth supposed they could examine the hotel room that way.

Here's to hoping it actually produced results.

Organizer

Profiles:

Miles Edgeworth
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Description: Me. What can I say? Currently High Prosecutor for my local district.

Dick Gumshoe
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Description: A homicide detective, one of the many assigned to this district. How I nearly always end up working with him, I cannot say.

Kay Faraday
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Description: My self-styled assistant, best known for her claim of being the second Yatagarasu. Soon, her aspirations will be focused on higher education more than stealing from others.

Simon Blackquill
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Description: A new prosecutor on the scene, one who just finished trying his first case in court. Appears slightly uncertain of himself, but a respectful man besides.

Petunia Gardner
Age: 68
Gender: Female
Description: A retired landscaper who was tending to her home garden when her attention was drawn to the victim's body. Did not call the police until the next morning.

Apollo Justice
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Description: A teen orphan. Was wandering the street with the intent to vandalize when he noticed a corpse in the night. Identified by Gardner the morning after, though his current companion was not.

Kristoph Gavin
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Description: A defense attorney known for staying calm during his trials. Appeared on the scene of the crime to defend young Justice. Before that, he was Blackquill's opposing counsel in court.

Wess T. Bower
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Description: The victim of this case. Was once an Interpol agent until one case ruined his investigation abilities forever and he became an online reporter of conspiracy theories. Was already missing for several days by the time of his death.

Franziska Von Karma
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Description: ...Franziska. How else can I describe her? She's came to the city to investigate a tip Interpol received, but her contact (Wess T. Bower) never showed. He may well have been dead at the time of their scheduled meeting.

Joseph Caché
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Description: A former prosecutor who now works as a PI. He was investigating Bower's disappearance as a missing person's case before learning of his death.

Hotel Manager
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Description: Once a bellboy of Gatewater Hotel, this man now manages this Gatewater property. Was the last person confirmed to have seen Bower alive on the morning of the 30th.

Evidence:

Prosecutor's Badge
Type: Other
Description: My badge. It allows me to do my job, and is to be kept in my pocket at all times.

Caché's Flyer
Type: Other
Description: A missing person's poster for one Wess T. Bower. The name and face are unfamiliar to me. I received this item a few days ago. Not sure why it is still on my person.

Gardner's Testimony
Type: Testimony
Description: Gardner saw a group of teenage boys from across the street the night before she called the police. Claims they had spray paint in their possession, but fled without using it upon discovering the body.

Can of Spray Paint
Type: Evidence
Description: Full can of blue paint that is applied via spraying. Found near dumpster. Bear's Justice's fingerprints.

Justice's Testimony
Type: Testimony
Description: Justice and his friends happened upon the body while out last night by complete chance.

Victim's Body Bag
Type: Evidence
Description: A large black trash bag in which the body of the victim was stored. The outside of the bag is littered with fingerprints, Justice's among them.

Toukai's Calling Card
Type: Evidence
Description: A mysterious business card of some kind. The design is most irregular. Has someone's email address on the back. Check

Bower's Room Key
Type: Evidence
Obtained from Joseph Cachè
Description: Key to Bower's hotel room at the Gatewater. Bower was living there before his murder.

Bower's Email Chain
Type: Evidence
Partially obtained from Joseph Cachè
Description: Three emails from a larger conversation between Bower and someone at Interpol. Bower proposes a case that Interpol refuses, then later agrees to investigate. Portions of the email are redacted using black marker. Check

Cachè's Timeline
Type: Other
Obtained from Joseph Cachè
Description: A list describing the progress of Cachè's investigation into Bower's disappearance. Ends when the body was found and I took the case. Check
Update: Includes more events from June 30th, like Bower's death.

Evidence Board
Type: ...Evidence
Description: A web of nonsense covering one wall of Bower's hotel room. Includes details of the victim's case against Hakari. Appears to have pieces missing.

Desk Lamp
Type: Weapon
Description: A broken piece of hotel property. Has a large dried bloodstain on its lampshade. May have been used to hit Bower on the head.

Autopsy Report
Type: Evidence
Description: While Bower was concussed with a blunt instrument pre-mortem, his cause of death was a slit throat. Time of death: sometime on June 30th.

A/N's: PTV and Ajani are responsible for the writing of this chapter. Both wish to leave notes.

PTV: So my single New Year's Resolution for 2020 was a complete bust. I wanted to finish this fic last year, and instead, I barely made progress on it. But I want you readers to know that we haven't given up. We are still interested in finishing AAI3. We've put so much effort in. The end is in sight. It'd be foolish to give up now.

That said, I'm not as young as I was when I started this fic back in 2016. I didn't have three jobs back then, nor was I taking a full course load in college. I wasn't yet in the Star Wars fandom, where most of my new fics get published nowadays. My point is, updates will remain slow. Maybe not eight months slow, but still pretty slow. I'm done trying to promise you the next update is coming soon or tell you when to expect it. All I can promise is that it's coming.

Ajani: And of course, you can't forget the microscopic global elephant in the room. Covid was/is not fun, especially for someone like myself with plenty of anxiety already. Just… so much enthusiasm and diligence destroyed. Plus, like PTV my own focus has been expanding. Persona One-Shot collections, working on some ideas for Pokemon AU stuff, dipping my foot into streaming (come next chapter and I may have a link for you guys if PTV doesn't mind me plugging myself and I end up doing it more regularly), and have slowly been taking small steps to actually following through with my goal of becoming a published author. All this while going through college and trying to figure out if I want to go into Law School, Journalism, or something else entirely as a way to pay bills while working on writing.

Regardless, we will finish this project. We're nearing the true climax people, just hang in there!