Ace Attorney: Fading Bloodlines

Turnabout at Midnight, Part 7 (James)

Lily and I explored the crime scene, hoping to find some sort of clue. We had come here right after the trial and hadn't stopped looking since, but we weren't having any luck. I guess the bad luck of the black cat is spreading to us...

"There has to be some sort of evidence to use against the killer around here somewhere. Evidence doesn't just disappear," Lily declared.

"Yeah... But what could it be?" I asked. "Regardless, I'm sure a flower as beautiful as you will discover the truth soon enough."

Lily turned bright red and turned away from me to hide her furious blushing. "Let's get back to looking..."

I nodded and turned back to the evidence shelves that surrounded us. "I keep on hearing about a case from sixteen years ago. Maybe we can look back on that and see if we can find anything of that nature," I suggested. 

Lily began sifting through the files nearby. "Yeah. That sounds like a nice and reasonable idea," she agreed. Eventually, she reached the section of the file from sixteen years ago. "Do you know when it was?"

"Niamh told me that the case took place in October of 2016. October 17 through October 19, to be specific," I explained.

Lily frowned. "That's weird... The file should be right here, but I don't see anything. Somebody must have taken the file or something like that, because there's nothing here. Before that is September 30, 2016 and after is October 22, 2016."

I tried not to scream over 'October 22, 2016' because I heard about that case. It was back whenever I was doing investigation things with that one prosecutor The one with the odd friends and the strange choice in attire. You know, the one who's overly obsessed with cravats. 

"Are you okay?" Lily asked. I guess that she had noticed how tense I was getting. 

"I'm good," I lied. Lily didn't seem to notice I was lying (thank goodness) and turned back to the investigation.

The doors to the evidence room were flung open by Prosecutor Shield and Niamh. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I think that... I think that maybe... The Spadarona siblings have something to do with this case," Niamh declared.

"The Spadarona siblings?" I repeated. "Aren't they the weird ones with the crazy hair colors?"

"Yeah. All of them had Psyche-Locks. Xoie had red, Yamato dark red, and the other two black," Niamh explained. 

"Wow... That's pretty wacky," Lily frowned. "I've seen the dark red Locks before. It's a mix between emotionally scarring and your everyday secret."

"That's what I thought that meant, but I wasn't sure since today has been the first time I've ever seen them," Niamh said. "Anyways, I think that they might know who the culprit is."

"Do you think it might be one of them who did it?" I asked. "It's possible."

"I don't think so," Lily said, shaking her head. "Why would they feel the need to attack those two, anyways? It doesn't make any sense."

"Besides, the only link between the two victims is the case from sixteen years ago. The one where the victim was undetermined," Prosecutor Shield declared. "I bet that it would be the culprit from that, and, assuming my memory serves right, they would be 6, 11, 12, and 13 then. Auralyn would have been 6, Xoie 11, Yamato 12, and Takuya 13. That makes them far too young to think of attacking anybody."

I could have sworn I saw Niamh tense up in the corner of my vision. 

"It's not like we have proof to show that they know anything, anyways. It might be best to leave it alone until we can find some sort of proof to show that they did it," Lily suggested.

"True. Let's get back to trying to find the culprit," I said.

We all began to search the crime scene from top to bottom. It didn't look like any clues were going to be found, but then... Then... 

"Look! It's a glass shard!" Lily gasped. She was messing with the shelf where the file was supposed to be. 

"There's a glass shard in there?" I asked.

"I read through the case file from sixteen years ago before I came here. Apparently, it was used against a second victim during the investigation," Niamh announced. "But what would it be doing here?"

"It might be best to take it with us, just in case it turns out to be useful evidence," I suggested.

"Who wants to take it?" Niamh questioned. "I can't... It's all I can do to not pass out when I look at how sharp it is..."

"I'll take it. I'm perfectly fine with holding it at my house," Lily declared. She picked up the glass shard and dropped it into a pocket of her dress. 

"I don't think that any other evidence is lying around. The culprit sure did clean it up well. And unlike most cases, they didn't return to the scene of their crime, which I find strange," I frowned.

"Strange or not, let's end our investigation here. We can see how things unfold during the trial tomorrow morning now that we have this evidence and Ms. Rell's testimony," Prosecutor Shield said. "Come on, Lily. Let's go home."

While Lily and Prosecutor Shield left, Niamh and I walked out. "Do you think that the culprit is really the one who committed all those crimes from sixteen years ago?" I asked.

"I'm not sure... I'm just hoping that nothing else goes wrong..." Niamh whispered.

Too bad her hopes wouldn't end up becoming reality.

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Yes I just did that

Deal with the cliffhanger because I'm mean 

Ciao 

-Digital