Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

Turnabout Betrayal, Part 9

April 23

Defendant Lobby No. 4

9:35 AM

Cotoli Morix

I wasn't going to lie, I was dreading this trial. Everything that we had learned about up to this point just implied that it was going to be horrible, that it was going to end badly, and the thought made me sick. Despite all our efforts, we still hadn't made any progress in tracking down the killer. Without somebody to claim committed the crime, Ms. Giuseppe was going to be much harder to free. Was it still possible even without another suspect? Yes, technically. Had I been anticipating using such methods back when this case first began? No, definitely not.

Chrysalis and I sat down on the couch sitting up against the wall in the defendant lobby. She looked exhausted, and I could tell she hadn't slept much the night before. Even if there wasn't much we could do about it now, she still wanted to find the killer more than anything.

After the investigation had finished up the day before, she started searching for any clues left behind that would point us to the culprit's true identity. Due to her wide reach of influence as the leader of the Oracle project, she had all sorts of resources at her disposal. However, her investigation came up short the way that ours had. We were going into this trial session with no ideas as to who could have done it, and we would have to hold our ground despite this roadblock. In other words, it wasn't going to be much fun.

"Chrysalis, you really shouldn't stress yourself out too much," I told her with a heavy frown as a way of breaking the silence. I didn't think she would really be in much of a talking mood, but it was something to start with, and from there, maybe we'd be able to find something else to talk about. Judging by how sunken her eyes looked, she needed it more than expected.

"I can't help it. If we don't pull out a victory here, then we won't be able to find a way to free Ms. Giuseppe. That's important to do," Chrysalis frowned, shaking her head. "But we can't figure out who the culprit is, so there's not much we can do today."

"You're thinking of it as wasted time then. I can't particularly blame you for thinking such given that we tried so hard to find the truth but ultimately came up short in our investigation. All we need to do is find one little piece of evidence to figure out who did it. From there, we should be able to drag them onto the witness stand... At least, that's what I'm hoping. I don't know for sure how this is going to work out, but it's something to hope, right?" I told her.

Chrysalis nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right... I don't know who did this, but they are surely going to suffer as soon as they're found out," she grumbled.

"I wish there was more we could do, but I guess for now, all we can do is try and hold off the verdict for as long as possible. At least we have the prosecution on our side. If Polly and Prosecutor Cruz weren't in the mood to help us out, then we would be in some serious trouble," I said.

"You're right there. Without a bit of help, then this would be much harder than it already is, and we're grasping at straws as it is. All we need is one piece of evidence, one serious foothold to keep ourselves from slipping... The problem is that I don't know where we can find such a thing. We finally had a killer smart enough to clean up their crime fully. It's so aggravating," Chrysalis sighed.

"There has to be some evidence left behind though. I mean, no crime is executed perfectly. There has to be something lingering at the scene of the crime, or something in the building as a whole, that will point us to who did it," I pointed out hopefully. I knew she was going to notice I wasn't exactly telling the truth, instead telling her what I hoped was the case rather than what I thought was going on.