On the eve of her 13th birthday, Iris Hawthorne had gone to bed after kissing her mom and dad's cheeks when she finished her dinner. She picked up her Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book from the shelf and started to read. Eventually, she fell asleep with it lying in her lap.
Every night, after watching her favorite TV Show, Ms. Hawthorne went to her daughter's room to cover her with the sheets, make sure the window was closed, and turn the lights off. But this time, she fell asleep in the living room. When Mr. Hawthorne finished washing dishes, he saw her on the couch. Then, he decided to check on Iris and let her wife rest after a long day. But, when he arrived, her daughter was not in her bed. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was laid on the floor, opened in half, and the sheets on the bed were messy. Disconcerted by the scene, he looked at the bathroom at the end of the hallway, hoping the door would be closed and the light would be on. But Mr. Hawthorne was wrong: the bathroom was open with the lights off. He had not seen the kid downstairs, and the house was quiet. After screaming her daughter's name a couple of times while running around the house and not receiving any response, Robert Hawthorne comprehended that it was too late: his daughter was gone.
He hated mornings. Not because he had to wake up but because it was the time of the day that his next-door neighbor chose to practice his carpentry hobby. The sound of the drill pierced his ears and made his head hurt.
"Fuck…" He whispered to himself.
Still in his bed, he looked at the time. 7 a.m, great. "Will I be like that once I retire? An almost deaf man who doesn't care about bothering others?" He thought. But, still, he couldn't complain: his flat was comfy, and the rent was affordable with his police salary. During his contemplation of getting up and having breakfast with his headphones on, the phone rang. He looked at his bedside table to take the call. The word "Captain Fey" was shining on the screen.
"Good morning, Chief." He answered.
"Miles, I've told you to call me Mia. It's been what? Four years?"
The strong female voice on the other line made him sit up. Since he could remember, the chief of his police station, Mia Fey, has been trying to encourage him to be less stiff. But he was too disciplined to change his habits so easily. What could he do? He was born like this.
"I'm sorry, chief, it will never happen again."
Mia laughed. His sarcastic and dry humor was one of the things that helped him to get out of uncomfortable situations or avoidable conversations.
"Apologies accepted." She said. "Now, I called to anticipate you that we will have a reunion this morning. Prosecutor Lana Sky will be at the station to talk about some changes. I have heard there will be new team members, some guys from New York or somethin'. You know the situation is tough…"
After her explanation, Miles exhaled.
"The reunion is at 8:30 a.m. You are free to be punctual. I am heading there now." She added.
"Thank you, Chief, appreciated."
He hung up and finally got out of bed to get ready. If he dressed up in 10 minutes and then had breakfast in another 20, he would be able to grab a coffee and be in the station by 7:45. Perfect.
He dressed as he usually did: a white shirt, brown pants, and black shoes. Autumn was close, so he took his uniform jacket in case he felt cold suddenly. Afterwards, he washed his face and brushed his teeth. Miles looked at himself in the mirror: his eye bags were sutil, so he at least would look presentable at the reunion. "New York guys or something… " He thought and then sighted. Then, he took his holster, the gun, and his badge. "Inspector Miles Edgeworth" could be read in it.
He walked out the door by 7:30, as he planned minutes ago, with a coffee in his hands. A While ago, he stopped spending money in coffee shops and bought a couple of reusable cups he could use every morning. It was cheap, convenient, and environmentally friendly. This way, he would be able to take his coffee exactly how he wanted it, not too sweet or too cold. Then, he walked down the stairs, headed down the parking lot, and got into his car. In less than 15 minutes, he was already at the police station. He had arrived early, so he smiled to himself. Once in his office, he sat down and made sure that his table was organized. To kill some time, Miles started reading a file from a cold case that he had a feeling that was related to the cases he was currently investigating.
"Good morning, Sir."
That deep voice got him out of his thoughts. He raises his head to look at the door.
"Good morning, Gumshoe." He greeted the detective.
Dick Gumshoe, the detective he worked with for four years, was standing at the door. Gumshoe was a big guy, always wearing the same old green jacket and smelling like sugar-coated doughnuts and cigarettes. He was a good detective, sometimes a bit annoying and too outgoing for his liking, but Miles considered him a friend.
"Have you heard? The prosecutor Skye wants us to work with some Yankees. I thought there was no budget to buy new uniforms, and now we are doing some kind of police exchange? Bullshit".
Gumshoe sounded upset at first, but he laughed at the end of his statement. Edgeworth knit his eyebrows. Chief Fey didn't give him further details about the reunion, but he had already imagined why.
"I think Chief will explain everything in the meeting."
Miles didn't know what else to say. Small chat wasn't his thing, so he went back to his reading.
"Yeah… Well, see ya'."
Gumshoe knew Edgeworth well enough to know when to stop talking and walk away. He hated awkward silence, and Miles hated awkward chat, so they both made an effort.
When the reunion was about to start, Miles left his office and headed to the meeting room. As he expected, he felt cold, so he put on his dark blue jacket. The fabric made him feel more comfortable with the space, helping him to be less anxious. Upon his arrival, Miles observed the Chief and the prosecutor conversing in the room. It was a small place: grey walls, ten black plastic chairs, a projector on the roof, and two big windows.
"Good morning chief, prosecutor Skye." He greeted
Both women looked at him as he rested his back on the wall at the back, next to the window. The chairs were too uncomfortable, so he felt more safe standing up. Mia smiled at him, and the prosecutor greeted him back.
"Good morning, Inspector Edgeworth. Mia told me about your research work. Congratulations"
"Thank you"
Lana Skye had a strong presence. Her long ginger hair and tall figure were outstanding, making her a respected prosecutor. Her trustworthy and disciplined personality was something that Edgeworth admired. Also, she had always complimented him for his hard work. They kept talking while the others arrived at the meeting. Some police officers began to sit down on the chairs. Miles saw Gumshoe sit near the prosecutor after greeting her and asking some questions he was not interested in hearing. He looked at the clock on the wall: it was almost the time. He looked around the room twice, examining the situation. Almost running late, Kay Faraday arrived at the reunion. Her hair was sweaty, but her usual ponytail hid it well. Her usual attire consisted of a white shirt, blue pants, and a pink jacket. The young detective approached one of the chairs near Edgeworth, but it was occupied already.
"Dude, this is my chair. Move." She said to the male official.
"I thought there were no assigned places."
His response from the officer made Edgworth hide a tiny smile of enjoyment. "Here we go… " He thought.
Kay chuckled.
"Man… I am not saying this more than twice: Fucking. Move"
Miles sighed. The officer looked at him, searching for a response, asking for help with his eyesight. Instead, the inspector didn't move a muscle and ignored him. Seconds later, the man stood up and took another seat. Kay sat down in the now empty chair, placing her legs around the back to face Edgeworth with a big smile.
"You are late." He teased
"Almost late."
"You are right. Thirty seconds early, a new record for you, Miss Faraday."
Kay giggled, and Edgeworth gave her a small smile. Miles had the young detective as his closest friend in the station and the whole world (besides his sister). Since she entered the police around two and a half years ago, despite her energetic personality, she was comprehensive and knew when to give others space. Also, Edgeworth felt amused by her strong temperament and her silly occurrences. She was a good cop, but she was a good friend overall. When he saw that Chief Fey and Prosecutor Skye were done talking and faced everyone and an officer closed the door, he gave Kay a sign to turn around and pay attention. The young detective rolled her eyes and sighed, making Edgeworth almost giggle, but he had to keep it serious. After that, Chief Fey cleared her throat for everyone to shut up and pay attention. When the room was quiet, she started talking.
"Welcome, and good morning. The Prosecutor Skye and I had called you to be here today for a reason: the abductions that have happened this past summer."
Edgeworth moved towards the wall to be more comfortable with his arms crossed in his chest. The abductions of two young girls in July and August were the only thing on his mind since they got the first missing report. July 12th, Regina Berry had gone missing after a party in her cousin's house. It was the typical case where a difficult kid disappeared, and no one was surprised. "She will be back," "She disappeared once and was with her boyfriend," "She is always arguing with her parent, maybe she got on a bus and left town," people said. But Miles didn't believe in that stupid stereotype, he believed in logic and facts, and his ingenuity told him that Regina had no reason to vanish on her own: she had no money and didn't express to any friends the will to leave. A missing kid was a missing kid, he did not care about stupid presumptions about a runaway fourteen-year-old girl. A month later, on August 16th, Penny Nichols also went missing while she walking back home from the town library. This time, the smart girl was the one who was taken. Then, as the two cases seemed to be related, they started investigating them as kidnappings. So, everybody started to worry about it and the case caught the attention of the media. Every morning, the State TV report started with information about the case: images of Penny and interviews with his parents and classmates. In the last ten seconds of the report, a picture of Regina, a piece of very brief information about her, and a "missing" sign. Edgeworth hated when the media went invested in the cases he was investigating. He knew the culprit was watching the TV every fucking day, enjoying his moment of fame. Miles could even imagine the psychopathic smile on the kidnapper's face.
"Due to the circumstances…"
Edgeworth was taken out of his thoughts when he heard Prosecutor Skye's voice. If Chief Fey had said anything else, he had not paid attention to it. Probably something about the governor being extremely worried and stuff.
"The lack of resources and evidence is making these cases harder and harder to solve, also…" She paused. "A third missing girl was reported on Saturday morning. Now that we have three kids missing. The circumstances are complicated, so the federals have decided to take part in the investigation."
Her announcement made everyone in the room start whispering to each other. Miles knit his brows and looked at Chief Fey. "I'm sorry, she just told me. " he could read on her lips. He nodded, showing that he accepted her apology. Miles knew he could not be anticipated of everything, every time and every day, but something inside his mind made him feel uneasy. Kay took a moment to look at him.
"Don't worry. Fuck the federals". Kay whispered.
"Quiet, please." The capitan said with her authoritarian tone.
Everyone obeyed. Miles looked at Lana, who gave him a confident look. Did that mean he still would be able to investigate the cases? He hoped so.
"As I was saying." The prosecutor continued. "The FBI decided to help us. So, we will be collaborating with them. To make things easier, three agents have moved to Atlanta. Their presence is not a reason for all of you to feel less worthy, that motherfucker is kidnaping girls from Georgia and I am going to put him in jail myself."
Prosecutor Skye's words made people more encouraged, Gumshoe even clapped. Southern nationalism was not something that Edgeworth resonated with, but he was happy to know that he would be able to work following his method. Or, at least, that was what he thought.
"Prosecutor Lana Skye is right. We should treat the agents like our partners, not enemies or rivals…"
Now, Edgeworth knew those words were addressed to him. He could do teamwork, of course, he could, but he was not open to following anyone else's rules. Once again, he was not paying attention, but deep inside his thoughts, trying to think clearly and still hoping that his way of working would not be disturbed.
"Well, I think it is time to meet them."
Chief Fey opened the door while the Prosecutor finished the sentence. That was the moment he knew he was totally, and absolutely fucked.
A young girl with long black hair, wearing beige pants, a white shirt, and a purple blazer entered the room. Following her was a dark brown-haired guy with a very formal outfit that consisted of blue pants, a white shirt, a red sleeveless waistcoat, and a light blue tie. He was also young, something that concerned Edgeworth. "Really? They have sent me some rookies?" He thought. But, no, he was wrong. A tall, black-haired guy around his age took a stance in front of everyone after greeting the captain and the Prosecutor. He was wearing a full dark blue suit and a red tie. Kay turned around and made what Miles considered a "What the fuck." facial expression. He just took a deep breath looking at the young detective.
"Thank you, Captain Fey and Prosecutor Skye. We are glad to be here. I am sure everyone will do a good job solving this case."
Miles took his time to examine the spiky-haired guy's body language. His voice sounded confident, his hands moving around, his eyes going across the room... His jacket was perfectly ironed... But he didn't notice that the man looked at him, curious about his actions.
"I am Phoenix Wright, Ace special agent. Nice to meet you."
And then, everything was just silence in his mind. Miles Edgeworth was fucked up.
When Phoenix received the news, he was lying on his couch: he had to travel to Georgia to help the local police department solve some kidnappings. He packed his things that Sunday afternoon, ready to spend an uncertain time in the southern state. The agent had travelled a lot since he became a member of the federal agency, so he was used to packing a large amount of clothes in the "little" space that was his big suitcase. He threw in some suits, shirts, pants, a couple of pyjamas… Even included some summer clothes, because Georgia was still hot in the autumn, right? Nevertheless, he was not going to check that. After making sure everything was going to be fine while he was abroad, Phoenix left home and went to the airport to meet with his team.
"Nick!" Maya called when she saw him.
He waved and smiled while approaching Maya and Apollo. Maya was his forensic specialist teammate, she was the one who held the autopsies and made sure to check the criminological aspects of their cases. Also, she was Phoenix's best friend. After all the years of working together, they had bonded. Apollo was his apprentice, a young detective with a brilliant mind. They met in the FBI annual meeting when Apollo was just a freshly graduated police rookie. His degree in law and security made him stand out, so Phoenix decided to embrace him under his wing. The three made a perfect team of intelligence and messiness, a combination that might be annoying for the chiefs in Quantico. But, Phoenix Wright was their Ace Special Agent after all, nobody could complain.
"Have you read the file, Mr. Wright?" Apollo said without taking his eyes off his phone.
"Of course," Phoenix answered. "But I want to hear your opinion first, Polly."
He forgot to read it, but he would not say that. Apollo chuckled. Then, he put away the phone and took a file from his brown bag. A "CONFIDENTIAL" sign in a big red font was outstanding in the beige folder.
"Two girls disappeared this summer, Regina Berry on July 12th and Penny Nichols on August 16th. Yesterday, Iris Hawthorne was reported missing. The three of them vanished in a radio of sixty miles. Regina and Berry studied in the same high school, Iris was a year younger than them." Apollo explained. "They are between the ages of thirteen and fourteen."
Phoenix nodded. "Any conclusions?"
"Right now we have very brief information. The testimonies evidence that they did not know each other and had no friends in common. Ms. Jones and Ms. Berry knew each other from high school, but they have not talked since more than five years ago. So, there is no relation between the victims, but the distance and the time between the disappearances -around a month- indicate that we are talking about the same author."
"Is there any evidence that indicates that these are kidnappings?"
"Regina's phone lost signal near her neighborhood and Penny's schoolbag was found in a dumpster. Iris disappeared in her own home, the window was open and there were signs of violence." Maya explained.
Phoenix nodded again. Seemed like a typical serial kidnapping case.
"Iris' kidnap is different," Apollo added. "A change in the modus operandi can mean that he is an opportunist, not an organized criminal. The time-lapse can be explained by the kidnapper feeling the sudden urge to do it again."
"Good job, Agent Justice," Phoenix congratulated him.
Apollo smiled and gave Phoenix the file. "Maybe you want to read it again in the plain, Mr. Wright."
Phoenix took the folded file and thanked Apollo. After that, a police officer took them to the private jet. Courtesy of the FBI. Once on the plane, he briefly read the file while talking with his partners about random stuff. This case was going to be a good opportunity for him and Maya to work with her sister. Phoenix met Mia years ago at a conference and they became colleagues, they even collaborated on a case a while ago, so he was excited to work with her again.
"My sister called this morning, she is excited about having us there," Maya said. "Nick, we should probably think about making a presentation."
"Why?"
"Because we have to impress. We are the FBI, c'mon Niiiiiick." She insisted.
Maya was a little too enthusiastic sometimes, but he appreciated her spontaneous ideas.
"Okay, okay… Why don't you make a slideshow with the information and use some photos? I can write information with our hypothesis. What do you think, Apollo?"
Apollo nodded in response. "It is a good idea, Miss Fey. I'll help."
"YAY!" Maya screamed out of excitement.
The flight was not going to be long, but they preferred to work fast so that when they arrived, they could rest and prepare everything for the next day. While writing some conclusions, Phoenix decided to read the case file in detail. After reading for a while, suddenly, he noticed a small annotation at the end of Regina Berry's page.
"Hey, Apollo, did you write this?"
Apollo looked at him while Phoenix pointed the note with his finger.
"No, sir."
Maya turned her attention to the conversation and took the file with her hands.
"Related to the missing girl from Alabama." She quoted. "Ah! I noticed it before. It is probably Inspector Edgeworth's annotation. He was the one who started the investigation of Regina Berry's abduction as such. He refused to believe it was a runaway situation." Maya explained and handed the file back to Phoenix.
The special agent nodded and immediately searched for recent cases of girls disappearing in Alabama, finding that the most recent was dated two years ago. A teen girl vanished in a small town near Georgia, the case went cold due to the lack of resources and evidence. Then, he searched for that called "Inspector Edgeworth". The profile of a guy with grey hair and serious looks appeared immediately on his computer's screen. He was the same age as him and had a brilliant career. It was one of the kind of genius police agents that you usually see on films and TV shows. Phoenix was fascinated and could not wait to work with him. "This guy could be in the FBI… " he thought.
And there they were, finally facing each other at the meeting room in Atlanta's police station. Miles knew who Phoenix was, he was easily recognizable because of his fame for being a vain and chaotic investigator. Miles Edgeworth had to work with that man and, without even crossing a word, he already knew it was going to be tough for him. Phoenix on his side, saw Edgeworth at the back, arms crossed and upset expression, looking at him like he was about to murder him right there. So, it was obvious to the special agent that the inspector did not want him there. He sighed and then introduced himself. And this was just the beginning of everything.