( No Title )
In Justice We Trust (98739 words) thesavagesabretooth
With Simon Blackquill and Athena Cykes assigned as their psychologists, the Phantom and Fulbright must grapple with their identity, their deeds, their future, and their love for the twisted samurai whom they betrayed.
All the while, Edgeworth and Wright find their relationship tested as they walk the narrow path between pursuing real justice, and the dark age of the law.
–
December 25, 8:20 am
At the airport, Phoenix had insisted on taking the photograph of their target– Mr. Lovelace– and using it as a starting point to check the baggage area for clues. Miles didn’t understand his methods and didn’t think anything would come of it but he gave him space to do so, hanging back with Gumshoe as Phoenix paced the baggage claim floor, holding up the picture.
“There’s a thin line between madness and genius, Gumshoe.”
“I dunno, I think Mr. Wright tumbled head first off the bridge into madness years ago, sir,” Gumshoe replied.
“Hm. Perhaps. And yet, he still gets results. It’s shocking every time.” He watched idly as Phoenix paced the floor.
“Maybe it’s ‘cause he thinks like a crazy crook, so he catches them.” Gumshoe chuckled. “Hey uh..actually sir, there’s somethin’ I gotta tell you.”
“It may be, indeed. But, oh?” he looked up curiously, away from Phoenix’s antics and at the detective instead. “What is it?”
“I ran into Mr. Justice today, sir. He uh…ain’t along with Athena at the scene.”
That brought Miles up so short he practically jumped. “He’s not?”
Gumshoe grimaced.
“Given that she nearly got pummeled by him this mornin? No. He ain’t. He was stormin’ around the hotel lookin’ for you, sir. Sounded like he found out about Robert Halblicht, and started beatin’ the man in the middle of the restaurant. Athena interposed herself , and he stormed off…” Gumshoe’s expression was..complicated , to say the least. He rubbed his chin. “…I had a little talk with him after that, but he wants to talk to ya about the fact he’s expected to work in the vicinity of Clay Terran’s killer.”
Miles’ heart sank further and further into his stomach as Gumshoe spoke. He felt the blood drained out of his face.
“Oh… oh no. Oh sweet Justitia…” Miles turned and grabbed Gumshoe’s lapels. “In all the commotion I forgot to tell him about Halblicht! I wanted to keep it private! To give him space to be upset– but I never got a chance and it completely escaped my mind this morning that I– oh no, I–”
“Yeah he ain’t taking it well, sir.” Gumshoe grimaced futher, even as Miles gently shook him by the coat. “He’s uh…not happy he was the last to know. And he ain’t happy about Bobby neither. So uh…I got him calmed down a little…had a chat with him and he ain’t in a fury no more, but he wants to talk.”
Miles let his head fall against Gumshoe’s chest and headbutted him repeatedly–if softly– as if he were slamming his head against a wall.
“What has been wrong with me the last few days, Gumshoe? I can’t keep making mistakes like this. I’m going to get someone killed.”
“Nobody’s died yet, sir. Still time to set it right, yeah?” Gumshoe put his hand atop the man’s head, sighing. “I think you’re tired, Mr. Edgeworth…can’t blame ya, of course. It’s been a hell of a week. “
Miles leaned there for a moment, soaking in the big, earnest idiot’s strength and patience.
“It’s been a hell of a week,” he murmured. “Believe me, Gumshoe, I would have slowed down if I could, but this could be our only opportunity to root the Phantom’s organization out of the shadows– our one lead. I couldn’t hesitate– but I am making mistakes, that is undeniable.”
“Someone’s gotta stop these bastards, sir. After the stuff we all heard? We can’t let it stand…we got our chance and we’re gonna go all the way with it.” He smiled that big, dopey Gumshoe smile at him. “Yeah, you’ve made mistakes, sir…but it’ll work out. Everyone makes mistakes. I know I make ‘em all the damn time!”
Miles took a deep, deep breath and straightened up. He fixed his hair, and nodded. "You’re right, you’re right of course. Though thank lady justice my sister isn’t here at present to hear you say that. We were raised to be perfect, you know.”
He smiled at Gumshoe like it was a joke, but it was the furthest possible thing from a joke. The way that Miles had been made, a mistake was worse than a sin. A sin could be forgiven, a mistake? Never.
Gumshoe’s new that Miles wasn’t joking though. He didn’t laugh.
“Well, sir. Look where perfection got Mr. Von Karma. The world’s shortest bungie jump.”
The black humor wrenched a miserable, black laugh out of Miles, though, and he slapped Gumshoe in the chest.
“So indeed, my friend. So indeed.” He took another deep breath and straightened his cravat. “Alright. Let’s go see if Phoenix has found anything– and then we’ll have a look at the security footage. And Gumshoe?”
“Yessir?” Gumshoe asked with a tender edge to his recovering smile.
“I expect you to help catch me again if I make any more mistakes. Thank you for helping take care of this one.”
December 25, 9:15 am
The investigation of the interior of the second car ultimately had not turned up anything of use. The body, however, was a different story.
The second body had been shot, much the same as the first one had. In the front of the head, but also additionally in the throat.
“Kind of puts a damper on the ‘bystander’ theory,” Halblicht considered. He glanced at Athena, perhaps looking for her own insight. Though he was smiling, Athena couldn’t read anything from him at the moment.
Athena’s own emotions also felt numb– they always did during an investigation despite the way she’d express intensely to signal to her usual investigative partners the ways she knew she must truly feel under the static discord in her chest.
She smiled back at him with a nod, brushing her hair from her face as she tapped out another note in Widget’s system. “…it puts a major damper on the bystander theory. This looks like it was part of the plan…it’s the same style as the first body’s, right? Ema said it seemed to be the same weapon, same method…I can only imagine it was intentional.”
“Yes, and given that they were shot twice, we can probably conclude that one shot missed.” Halblicht pressed his fingers together, smiling still, but seeming deep in thought.
Athena nodded slowly, her brow knit gently as she tapped at the illusion of a screen. “That’s my guess too…the shot to the throat, then in the head to finish them off…”
Simon came back around from the other side of the car. “Everything’s burned to hell. There wasn’t anything useful in terms of evidence in the front or back seat that I could find. Some scraps of clothing, but they’re unidentifiable.”
Kelso slid out of the front seat with a grimace, dusting ash off her coat with a sigh. “And there ain’t anything in the front seat, either…fire did its job, unfortunately for us.”
From the edge of the scene, Sheila was watching them intensely with her arms crossed, radiating a strange emotion that Athena hadn’t been able to properly place during their conversation.
“The two cars theory is becoming more likely, strange as it sounds,” Simon considered. “My main question now is what of the blood on the pavement.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Athena murmured. “After all…if there were two cars, and they were each executed in the cars themselves from a distance, there’d be no way the blood from either victim would get on the ground. Meaning it was either from the killer, or there’s something we’re missing…right?”
“Could be unrelated.” Kelso mused with a flip of the bullet between her fingers and a quiet huff breath. Athena couldn’t tell the emotion from it…subtle frustration, maybe? “Or from the killer, of course.”
“But the killer shot at range,” Halblicht pointed out. “The question would be how would they have been injured.”
Athena pointed to him with a nod. “Exactly. Exactly. The killer shot at range, taking out two agents of Interpol…we don’t have any sign except the blood that anyone was injured here, and it’s too close to match the distance of the bullet wounds. So that means we’re missing something, or there’s something wrong with our thinking.”
She bit her lip “…in situations like this…Mr. Wright would tell me to turn my thinking around and look at it from another angle.”
Kelso fussed with her sunglasses again. “Coulda been an injury that was inflicted when the killer was torching the cars. People are clumsy, coulda cut their hand or something.”
Simon cocked his head. “Ah, so your theory is that the cars were torched rather than going up naturally? It’s certainly the likeliest scenario given what we know about the culprits.”
For some reason, Sheila in the periphery started snickering again, and Athena could hear her trying to stop herself. As she was laughing, a musical tune started playing from her direction– her phone ringing.
“That’s my theory, yeah.” Kelso nodded. “goes along with everything we know, right?”
Athena looked up towards the sound to see Sheila stifle her laughter enough to answer the phone with her wolfish grin and a cheerful “hello~.”
It was odd…the emotions she picked up from the woman when she laughed were strange…a mixture of jagged, muted sorrow and almost performative, intense joy that overshadowed all else.
Simon’s gaze followed Sheila as she answered her phone, then he turned back to Kelso. “It does. But we’ll see how the facts bear out.”
For some reason, as she hung up the phone, Sheila began to laugh again, doubling over and bracing herself against the SUV. It looked like it hurt. It sounded like it hurt as Athena swiped to the mood matrix and watched the sorrow and anger dimly pulse after an initial spike only to be drowned in the flashing yellow light of joy.
Sheila hung up the phone and strode over with a wave of her hand and the ghost of a snicker on her lips.
“Great news, pack,” she purred as her features stilled once more. Casually, she pulled out a tube of lipstick and began fixing her makeup in her compact mirror. “….Forensics got back to me about the plates.”
Simon held out his hand and let Taka land on his arm as he smiled. “Oh? I hope it’s something interesting, Ash-dono.”
The woman’s smile didn’t leave her face as she pointed to one of the cars.
“That’s our agent’s car. We had one match from our database on the plates, and security footage of that very same soon to be burned out wreck leaving the airport with the agents. One.” She held up her finger. “One. Isn’t that interesting? It’s the one that slammed head on into the side of the other.”
Kelso looked at the car that was swerved into the barrier with a low whistle “…huh. I knew they wouldn’t have used two cars…”
Athena slapped her hand against her knees. “I knew it! Which…actually brings up a big question? Why’s there a body in the extra car? If it’s one of the agents, it’d mean it’d been moved. If it’s one of the targets…where’s our missing agent?”
Halblicht cocked his head toward Ash. “I assume that if one of your agents, if they’d escaped, would have reported in by now if they were capable?”
“The instant they made it to town. Every wolf in Lang’s pack knows to howl.” She snickered again, and covered her mouth “…that’s what Lang says, anyhow. In layman’s terms…it’s top priority to report the instant you’re able. Especially if a comrade is killed. The fact we’ve got nothing implies he’s dead, or a traitor.”
She smiled in a way that gave chills that cut through the static in Athena’s heart. “And I’d certainly know if we had traitors in Lang’s pack.”
Kelso was flipping the bullet between her fingers again as she stared at the car. “So it’s possible that someone moved the body…or one of the pack managed to crawl away only to die somewhere nearby?”
Simon glanced down at the ground where the luminol had shown up. “The blood didn’t lead away from the wreck.”
“No sir, Prosecutor Blackquill,” Halblicht nodded. “It was only between the two vehicles.”
Athena nodded. “And it was wiped up by someone, as if they didn’t want anyone to know.”
She traced her finger from one car to another. An agent trying to struggle to safety wouldn’t waste precious time wiping it…and I can’t wrap my head around why the killer might mop it up…”
“So what we’ve got is a scene that was tampered with after the fact,” Simon said. “Someone– our shooter presumably– manipulated the scene in some way after the fact, at the very least to remove the blood, and very likely to torch the vehicles. Athena!”
He turned to her with his sharp smile, fingers on his chin.
Athena’s head shot up as her smile unconsciously mirrored his own “Simon!”
The facts spun in her head, forming connections and making theories and logical leaps.
“What was the purpose of our culprit concealing the blood between the cars?” he asked.
“To conceal their actions and throw us off the investigation” Athena murmured thoughtfully. “my guess is to hide the fact that someone bled between the two cars… likely one of the corpses… maybe it was moved from one to the other, right? To confuse us with the number and occupants of the cars.”
“But why would they bother?” Halblicht asked. “Just to throw us off the track for a little longer? Or for some other reason.”
“Good question, half bright,” Simon drawled. “Why don’t we have a look at that blood again. Skye-dono, if you could light us up?”
Ema Skye nodded as she hurried over and began spritzing luminol over the area, flipping her glasses down with a nod. “You’ve got it. Give it a second to react.”
Athena leaned over , watching curiously with a tilt of her head. “…my guess is to obscure a crucial fact of the case…by leading us to an assumption.”
The path of the blood was illuminated. There wasn’t a lot of it, all things considered, a few drops here and there. Aside from a few stray other drops, most of it seemed to be concentrated–as Athena followed the path– between the front driver side of the first car– all the way around to the passenger side of the second car.
“…it’s a trail from the first car to the second.” She traced, pacing along the line of drops and smears.. “…someone wanted to hide the fact the body was moved…. from the passenger side of the second car, to the driver side of the first.”
“So then presumably the apparent ‘driver’ of the first car is, in actuality, our second agent after all,” Simon observed. “Who did the first car belong to, and why conceal it?”
Athena nodded at him. “exactly…and why conceal it.” She walked up to the first car with a furrow of her brow and a frown. “…it could have belonged to the killer. The person they were tailing from the airport. As for why…”
Kelso wandered back over, stepping over the luminol soaked bloodstain to lean towards the cars with a casual ‘hum’.
“That doesn’t make much sense to me. Why’d the enemy agent bother?”
Halblicht, meanwhile, was following the blood trail back and forth with a look of consternation written carefully on his face. He turned toward them. “Ms. Cykes, Prosecutor Blackquill…”
Athena tilted her head up at him with a concerned furrow of her brow, her growing quiet concern pulsing within her.
“Yeah, Detective Halblicht?”
“I found something a little curious. There’s more blood concentrated here at the back of the second car. Not a lot, but more than you might expect. Plus ah… did you notice there are a few drops that just sort of go off in a random direction?”
Simon looked between Halblicht and Athena. “Hmm, show me.”
Halblicht saluted eagerly. “Yes sir! Right here…” he pointed, and Athena did notice that there were a few drops that went off away from the two wrecks. And then here, there’s almost two fingers worth blood, which is more than the rest of the trail.
The glow of the luminol at the back of the truck was the largest in the trail.
“Perhaps the killer lingered here for a moment?” Simon mused. “Hauling a body around can be difficult.”
Athena felt a sinking sensation in her stomach as she walked over “….or they paused here for a long moment for some other reason…”
She traced the projected drip from the trunk to the ground with her fingers as she visualized the scene.
“At the trunk. Lingering.” her eyes fell on Simon and Robert with a grim smile. “if it wasn’t exhaustion, why would someone linger by a trunk instead of taking a shorter path around? Especially holding something so heavy as the deadweight of a corpse?”
Ema made a hissing sound through her teeth. “ah…shit.”
Halblicht smiled carefully at Athena and nodded, then he asked; “Ms. Skye– do you think you could get the trunk here open for us?”
“I’ll get on it.” Ema broke out her tools with a grim set of her jaw. “gonna take me a minute…lock’s probably fucking melted shut.”
Athena nodded to Halblicht.
Why obscure the crime scene? Why drag the bodies around and wipe the blood? Why put a victim in a car they didn’t own, and linger with the weight of a bleeding body by the trunk of a car?
The questions hovered on Widget’s screen, the web between each piece of data entwining them together under her steady finger.
“I don’t think we’ll like what we find.” she mused softly.
Kelso wandered over to put a hand against Halblicht’s arm, as if to steady herself as she watched Ema work the trunk.
“Got any theories, pretty?” she asked towards Athena with a tired half smile.
Athena noticed Halblicht jolt very slightly as he was touched, and he put on a brilliant, goofy smile and adjusted his tie, as if flattered. “Oh, a few, miss agent!”
Athena was almost sure that he’d intercepted the question from her, rather than been genuinely confused who it was directed at.
Kelso laughed, glancing sidelong at him with an amused little smile.
“Alright, pretty. Lay ‘em on me. Because I’m stumped.”
Athena’s fingers hovered delicately near the tab for the mood matrix as she watched Ema work through the pale blue of her screen. She gave Halblicht a thankful smile, before tapping over to the matrix.
December 25, 9:30 am
Gumshoe’s eyes were getting tired, that was for sure. He, Mr. Edgeworth, and Mr. Wright had been reviewing the security footage for the better part of an hour already. There was a lot to go through, but admittedly, it had already yielded results that they’d called into Lang– they’d watched the two agents drive off in the parking lot after an unmarked car.
“Oof. Dunno how the lab boys do it, sir.” Gumshoe grumbled, “the light off these damn screens is turnin’ my brain to jelly.”
Miles rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “I hate to say it, but mine as well. Perhaps we need a break– a moment to discuss what we’ve learned and see how the facts bear out and what our next move should be.”
Phoenix, however, was still hunched over the video controls, running a segment back and forth.
“Whatcha got there, Nicky?” Gumshoe leaned heavily over his shoulder, squinting at the screen.
“It might be nothing,” he murmured, squinting at the screen “But…”
Miles came in and leaned over him from the other side. “But what, Wright? Is it another one of your famous turnabouts?”
Phoenix flushed and chuckled a little, rubbing his chin. “I don’t know about that but… didn’t you tell me that Agent Kelso wasn’t able to follow the target and the other agents out of the airport?”
“Yeah, that’s why we weren’t sure about the uhhh…” he waved his hand, “number of cars the agents left in, right? She missed the actual departure and caught up in a delay.”
Phoenix pointed at the screen, at a small figure in the bottom while the agents’ car was pulling out of the lot.
“That’s what I thought. So uh, am I crazy, or is that Agent Kelso there, getting in her car?”
Miles narrowed his eyes. “What?”
Phoenix hit play on the recording, and– though the quality of the video left much to be desired, Gumshoe saw it too. Agent Kelso getting in a car, which then pulled out of the lot.
“….yeah, that sure does.” Gumshoe squinted at the car as it pulled away. “….looks a lot like Agent Kelso getting in the car. Not many people dressed like that in the area…face matches too.”
Phoenix turned to Miles and slowly asked. “Why wouldn’t Agent Kelso have reported it if she followed the agents and the target?”
“A very good question, Mr. Wright. A very good question indeed.”
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