SWD: Chapter 3

It was now a new day here in Peach Creek, with December 19th being today's date. The heavy snow from yesterday was no longer on the ground, though it was still bitter cold this early morning. We could see a car driving down the road, heading toward the local police department. Inside the car was Phoenix and Miles, who were both dressed in their usual business suits rather than their casual attire; though they still had their winter coats with them that they had yesterday. Phoenix's attire consisted of a dark blue suit with a dark fuchsia red tie, while Mile's attire was a dark fuchsia red suit with a white cravat instead of a normal tie. (Very fancy)

Once they arrived at the station, the two men got out of the rental car to go inside. However, when they stepped inside the building, they noticed that the workers in the department were unusually busy despite it being very early in the morning.

Miles looked around the entrance to see the secretary, who was busy talking on the phone, "Yes sir! We're looking into who's responsible for this! Mr. Wells is currently at the jail cell this happened at…"

Miles began to make a frown, "Sounds like something bad happened."

"Uh… How bad are we talking here?" Phoenix asked.

"There's only one way to know," Miles stated before walking off to where the jail cells were located, "Let's go find Detective Wells."

"Hey, wait!" Phoenix yelped as he went after Miles.

The two men traveled to the cells, only to see that there was a bunch of officers gathered near one of the jail cells. Once they approached the scene, they saw why everyone was in a panic. Someone was lying on the floor in this cell, a blanket over their body and head; they were dead, whoever this person was.

"Hey, who are you two?!" Asked a nearby officer when Miles and Phoenix walked over to the scene. The young officer was going to ask more until he was stopped by a detective next to him, "Easy there, kid. They're guest of mine."

The detective turned to the two men, "Seems like you heard about what happened here."

"Not at all, we just arrived a moment ago; we didn't even have a chance to ask what happened," Phoenix stated.

"I assume you are the head detective here?" Miles asked.

"Yes. The name's Detective Nicolas Wells," Wells nodded, "It's very nice to meet the two of you. I heard nothing but praise about you from Mr. Layton."

"Heh, well I wouldn't go that far in saying that I'm any good…" Phoenix stated, trying to be humble from the compliment, "Besides, it's not like I was the one who was requested for this job; Mr. Layton only contacted me to see if Miles would help."

Miles looked back at the scene, "What exactly happened here?"

Mr. Wells made an exhausted sigh, "It seems one of our inmates got hold of some pulls made of cyanide; they died from taking several of those pills. A suicide."

"Oh. Geez," Phoenix visibly cringed slightly at the details, "That's an awful way to go…"

Miles noticed something about the cell the body was in, "This is a cell for two inmates. Did the other inmate also die the same way?"

"You got sharp eyes, Mr. Edgeworth. I'm impressed," Mr. Wells stated, "But no, the other inmate is still alive. Thankfully, it looked like he was forced to take only one-half of a cyanide pill. He's currently being treated at the hospital in critical condition, but it's unknown if he can recover or not."

Mr. Wells gestured for the two men to come with him so they could talk away from everyone else, "Sorry to spring this up on you two, but we're going to need some help on this case as well. The victims in this were the ones on trial; Vergil and Rita Bishop."

Both Phoenix and Miles were shocked, with Phoenix being the most shocked while Miles only made a frown at the news.

"The one who died was Rita and Vergil is the one who survived," Mr. Wells continued to explain, "We believe Rita forced her husband to take half of a pill before ingesting the ones she took on her own volition. Rita had no injuries on her, but Vergil had a few bruises around his wrists and throat, suggesting he was pinned down by force to take the pill."

"But… how would they even get pills like that?" Phoenix asked.

"We're currently checking and investigating everyone that was here when the incident happened, but someone from the outside likely gave the pills to them so they could take them. The body was found about an hour ago, and the time of death seems to be a few hours before then."

"I see," Miles stated before narrowing his eyes, "It's possible that this was not a suicide, at least not by choice. The mafia they worked for could have given those pills to silence them."

"Yes, it's very possible that's the case. They never confessed which mafia family they were working for before this happened…" Mr. Wells replied before making a sigh, "What a mess."

Mr. Wells took his cell phone out of his back pocket, "Either way, I need to contact the FBI agents who are currently raising their kids; they were the ones who arrested Vergil and Rita, so we'll need them to help us contact the FBI on this case."

"Please do," Miles stated, "We should pay a visit to these agents at their house, so please tell us their address and that we're on our way."

"Oh, of course, their address is…"

Meanwhile, back in the Cul-De-Sac, we zoomed in on Double D's house, where we could see Matthew in the kitchen, finishing a bowl of cereal that he was eating. His sister was still asleep, going through one of her 'lazy days' at the moment while his parents were close by in the living room, discussing their plans to build the basement bedroom to the house.

Matthew noticed that Double D had not left his room all night after dinner, nor had he seen him at all this morning, 'I highly doubt he's still asleep… I wonder what he's up to?'

Matthew sat up from his chair to place the cereal bowl and spoon he had in the sink, "Maybe I should check on him."

Matthew proceeded to walk up the stairs to Double D's room. He could see that his door was closed, "… Double D?" Matthew stated to say as he knocked on the bedroom door, "Are you awake?"

It took a few seconds to hear Double D shuffling things around in his room, "Y-Yes, I'm awake!" he replied with a slight panic. He opened his door to see Matthew in front of him; it looked like he had already got dressed for the day, even though Matthew had not seen him at all earlier, "My apologies, is there something you need?"

"N-No, not really. I was wondering if you were awake or not because I didn't see you at all this morning…" Matthew stated that before making a worried face, he had noticed the bags under his brother's eyes that seemed to form last night. "Is there something going on?"

Double D stared at Matthew in silence before making a small sigh, "No, it's nothing. I've sort of been having trouble sleeping lately," he then gestured to all the sewing fabrics and materials next to his desk, "I've taken advantage of my lack of sleep schedule to work on Jennifer's present."

"Okay…" Matthew muttered before weakly shaking his head, "Sorry if I interrupted what you were doing."

"Oh, it's no problem at all!" Double D gasped before making a small smile to him, "Thank you for checking on me, but please don't try to worry. I'm fine."

Matthew was silent to him, "If you say so… I'm gonna go check on Serena. She's still asleep in one of her 'lazy days' again."

Double D made a worried face, "Oh dear, not again… I feel like Mother and Father should take her to a specialist about her constant sleeping."

"I've been thinking that too, but that's up to Serena," Matthew replied before he began to walk away with a wave, "I'll see you later then."

Double D could only watch as Matthew walked back down the stairs to check on his sister. He made a sigh to himself, lifting his right hand to look at it for a moment, 'I don't know why I'm being so hesitant about telling them…' Double D thought, biting his lower lip with nervousness.

Double D was unsure if the others noticed this or not, but it seemed like the ice powers he had started to come back. Thankfully, it looked like it was not causing any problems like last time or like how it used to be during his childhood before being adopted.

He did not know how or why this happened, but he concluded that the powers sort of come and go in different phases. It was something they had never noticed before due to them always being injected with the drug every week for so long. Though if that were the case, why did his powers stay dormant for so long before coming back earlier this year? 'The human body is an enigma sometimes…'

Double D knows he should at least tell his mom and dad that his ice powers are back, "I should tell them now while I'm still thinking about it."

Double D began to leave his room to walk downstairs to his living room. He came to a stop at the bottom step when he saw his mom and dad were there; it seemed like his dad just picked up his cell phone and put it on speaker phone to talk to the person who called him, "Mr. Wells…?"

"Sorry for calling you so early this morning, but something bad has happened here at the police station," Mr. Wells began to say, "You might want to try and gather everyone else so they can hear this."

Everyone in the room made either a worried face or an angry frown, "What happened?" Aiden asked.

"… Rita Bishop is dead, and Vergil is in critical condition at the hospital."

A sense of dread washed over them at the breaking news, "W-What…?"

"We're still investigating what happened, but we wanted you to know that Mr. Edgeworth will be arriving to talk to you soon. He's agreed to help us out since he was going to be the prosecutor against them."

"I see… Thank you for informing us," Wendy stated.

"It's not a problem," Mr. Wells replied, "… But try and stay safe, please. This could be the work of the mafia family they worked for."

"Right… Goodbye."

Aiden hung up the phone, leaving everyone speechless from the news that was dropped on them.

"… D-Did I hear that correctly?"

Aiden and Wendy turned to see Double D walking toward them from the staircase, "Did s-someone really try to kill them?"

His parents were silent from his question. They knew their kids held a deep grudge against Vergil and Rita due to how they treated them in the past, almost to the point of torture. Serena and Matthew were Vergil and Rita's children, while Double D was taken in due to his mother's passing shortly after he was born. They told them that they were constantly being trained to handle their powers, but they never knew why they had to train, nor did they ever leave the places they were living in. They were forced to stay in isolation for so long, with Serena and Matthew suffering the most…

"… We're currently unsure," Aiden replied.

Wendy walked over to her son with a stern face, "Eddward, we know how you and the twins feel about them, and it's okay to have that sort of anger pass by you," she began to say as she placed her hands on his shoulders, "But you also need to understand that holding onto grudges is not a good thing."

"I-I… I know, Mr. Layton has told me that, and I understand," Double D replied with a nod.

Aiden made a sigh before picking his cell phone back up, "I'll contact the others and ask them to meet up in the center parking lot. You should get Matthew and Serena."

"I know," Wendy replied as she began to walk off toward the twin's room, leaving Double D where he was standing.

Double D felt so conflicted with what he just heard; he needed to know more about what happened before deciding how to feel…

Author's Note (August 1st, 2024): Ooo! Spicy! Can't wait to write more of this later.