Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

Turnabout Betrayal, Part 2

April 21

Prosecutor's Office

3:25 PM

Chrysalis Starr

It didn't take us long to find Prosecutor Cruz and his little sister. They were standing further down the hallway where the crime took place. They were speaking in hushed tones, so I couldn't hear a thing. Cotoli and I looked at each other for a moment before continuing forward slowly. We were noticed before we could overhear anything, not that we were intending on eavesdropping.

"What do you want?" came the harsh voice of Prosecutor Cruz. He hadn't even bothered turning to face us, instead looking at his little sister instead.

"Um... We're the defense team for this case," I explained, trying to hide my nerves. It didn't work, as when I got anxious, it was pretty clear.

I admit, I expected Prosecutor Cruz to say something snappy at me for my explanation, but he didn't. Instead, he turned towards us. His eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses. "Good. We need your help," he told us. He seemed much more relaxed than I had anticipated. I would have expected him to get angry with us for coming, as he definitely had a temper, and I doubt his grief was helping that much.

"You do?" Cotoli asked, a frown on his face. "What is it you need from us?"

"I want you to defend my younger cousin," Prosecutor Cruz replied, crossing his arms. "She's the suspect on this case, and I already know she didn't do it... And I will find the culprit behind this..."

"Wait... Your cousin is the suspect?" I questioned in surprise. "I thought she was a visitor from Italy who doesn't speak any English..."

"She is. She came here to begin with because she's my cousin on my father's side," Prosecutor Cruz said. "She wouldn't have come if she wasn't going to visit my family for the first time. My father is Italian and is fluent in it. He taught it to me and Nikki, so we were supposed to help her around, but things didn't work out like that... I need to know who did this to him."

"If you speak Italian... Perhaps you can help us translate what she's saying. We don't know any Italian, which means we could use your help. We believe that she didn't commit this crime. If you want our help to save her, we'll easily offer it. Even if you'd rather we didn't get involved, we want to save her. We can't let an innocent person go to prison for the fault of the system," I frowned.

"In that case, I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you in on the details of the case," Prosecutor Cruz mumbled. "You're lucky this case is the way it is. If it was any different, I would not be so willing to tell you what I know."

"I... I'm sorry about your father," Cotoli told Prosecutor Cruz, looking up with an empathetic sadness in his eyes. "It must be hard to lose a parent this way..."

Even if Cotoli wasn't saying anything about it, I knew he was thinking about his own mother. Natasha Morix had been one of the most important people in his life, and when she died... Well, everything was different afterwards. This was probably making him think back to when he had lost her. I reached out my hand slowly and took his before giving it a squeeze. He did the same, doing his best to keep it subtle.

"I... We can talk about that part later. For now, let's focus on the case at hand," Prosecutor Cruz said, looking away from us to concentrate on the toes of his shoes. Even if he was staying quiet, I knew he was trying to drown his grief out by working on the case. If he found the person who had killed his father, he couldn't get distracted by his grief in the silent moments in between large discoveries. It was a dangerous way of dealing with his emotions, but I couldn't really get snippy with him for it. After all, I had been the same way nearly my whole life, especially in situations where Pieter was concerned. If you do other things, it's harder to think about what you've lost.