Ace Attorney: Web of Mistrust

Turnabout Mansion, Part 6 (Chrysalis)

//November 2, 2029. Umber Mansion, 2:29 PM//

Immediately after the trial, Lily, Yuri, and I decided to raid the mansion for more evidence. I hoped deep down for a witness that was (hopefully) the culprit. We had to get Niamh out of that detention center as soon as possible. It stinks there. Believe me. I know nice and well how bad that place is. 

"Let's see if there are any other witnesses to the crime," Lily suggested. I swear that she took the thoughts right out of my head!

Yuri nodded. "Somebody here has to have committed the crime. My power says loud and clear that she's innocent."

"You can tell if people are lying, right?" Lily asked. 

Yuri nodded again. "Why do you ask?"

"If a witness says anything crazy, tell us. For Niamh's sake," Lily told her. 

I swear I saw Yuri's eyes dance my direction. I let it roll off my back, though. If she was curious about her life before the amnesia, then she can go and look it up herself. I made that pact with Venus and Cassidy four years ago for a reason. 

"You okay?" Yuri questioned, snapping me from my thoughts about the old days. Before life sucked. Before the project made a mess of any chances I had of a normal life. 

I nodded just a tad too violently. "I'm fine!" I've forged evidence, accidentally messed up in court when testifying (both of which were during VY-3/Venus' murder), but saying 'I'm fine' all the time is still the lie I hate telling the most. Truth be told, I never feel fine, despite how much I insist I am. 

Yuri shot me a suspicious glance before returning to the topic at hand. "Anyways, let's go and find our witnesses!"

"You won't have to look far."

A man walked in the room. He had bleach blonde hair that went rather well with his pale blue eyes. He had a white jacket over a light blue shirt. A red bow tie was around his neck. He had white pants on with black shoes. The man's gaze was serious, though it still couldn't combat that of Anthony Umber or Niamh Tenniswood (this guy's a close third for most interrogative stare, though). 

"Who are you?" Lily asked in confusion. 

"I could ask you all the same thing. I don't recall any lovely ladies such as yourself being involved with the night of the murder," the man told us. This man had some sort of familiar aura to him. I had a gut feeling I knew who I was comparing him to, but I tried to hold this feeling at bay. If he was related to that man, I was running. 

But I shouldn't make assumptions so quickly, I guess. He could be different. 

"I'm defense attorney Lily Shield, and this is Yuri and Chrysalis. We're the defense team on this case," Lily introduced. Yuri nodded in his direction, though I'm positive she was every bit as suspicious of this man as I was. 

"You and I share an occupation then," the man noted. I observed that a golden badge was pinned to his jacket near the collar. It had a circular shape, so he most certainly wasn't a prosecutor (I am will aware that he just said that! Stop judging me!). "My name is Timothy Gam."

I knew it!

"G-Gam!?" Yuri stammered. Even Lily turned more than a little bit paler than usual. Memories of our last debacle with a Gam rolled through our brains. Bal Gam... He killed and tried to get me convicted for it. He killed alongside Tora (NEVER DO THAT), drugged everybody at the agency, and locked us inside (we didn't get out until the police finally showed up, and they certainly took their sweet time!). I took a step back subconsciously, not wanting to be any closer to the man who had done so much to hurt us. 

"Y-you wouldn't happen to be related to B-Bal, would you?" Lily finally choked out, breaking the stunned silence that hung over us. 

Timothy nodded. "Bal is my younger brother. Why do you ask?" I suppose he was trying to dart around the topic of his brother being a murderous fiend. 

"J-just asking," Lily murmured. 

"You three wouldn't happen to work for that agency? The one where Bal pretended to be a lawyer to get in?" Timothy questioned. 

I hesitated before nodding. "Why?" I was already devising theories of how to indict him for the murder. Why get attached when he'll just get carted off like all the others?

"I just wondered... He mentioned something about pursuing a lead a long time ago... Last year. He said that he had found out something dirty about a law agency. That's about the time when Bal went inside... And got caught for murder... Twice, even!" Timothy answered. He was using more ellipses than my brother did when he was acting shy around Polly. And let me tell you now: that's quite a feat. 

"...Any details about this dirty secret?" Yuri asked, her face more unreadable than stone. Her mind, however, was much easier to explore. I got the sneaking suspicion I knew what she was thinking about. I had to live with it everyday, after all.

"Some stupid stuff about forged evidence," Timothy answered. I seized my left wrist with my right hand. As my fingers closed around the scarred zone, I forced myself into showing no emotion. No reason to get Venus involved in something such as this. 

"Back to our original topic," I said, my voice pure monotone. "You said you saw something."

"I saw a hooded person run out of the victim's bedroom with a bloody knife. That's about it. But I suspect that the prosecutor will call me since there are no other witnesses, as far as I know," Timothy replied. 

"Thank you for speaking with us," Lily told him, forcing an obviously false smile. 

"I should be on my way now. I'll see you in court tomorrow," Timothy smirked before walking away. 

I already had a gut instinct about this guy. 

And it was none too pretty. 

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obviousnessisoverlyobvious 

I keep on wanting to go and type case 3 but there's only 4 parts left here, so I might as well just persevere. But I do have two chapters of that case typed, which I will be spamming y'all with after this case is done. 

I think I'm going to keep typing now this case is getting interesting with all these SBS references ha-

-Digital