Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

The Explosive Turnabout, Part 10

April 25

Courtroom  No. 5

1:15 PM

Lily Shield

"Well, I wasn't in control at first. Niamh was walking out of the Prosecutor's Office at the time, and since I was in her body, I was forced to leave with her. That was when she heard some stirring, so she walked over to where the victim was with the knife and the bomb. Then, she passed out, and I took over," Nevada explained.

"What did you do after you took control of your shared body?" I asked, though I got the feeling I already knew the answer. Her disposition had changed greatly, and I got the feeling that she was finished hiding things from us now that Prosecutor Lin had stepped in with her amazing persuasive skills.

Nevada hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I realized what he was going to do, so I fought him. I grabbed the knife when he set it down, and after that, I... I stabbed him. I didn't know for sure if he was dead, so I kept on stabbing him until he stopped moving. I grabbed the bomb after that and hit it against his head. The door wouldn't open, so I forced it open on his head. I'm not exactly strong enough to force it open, so I had to use his skull... Then I cut the bomb from the inside out, which meant it couldn't go off anymore," she explained, swallowing and looking down at the floor. I have to admit, I felt kind of bad for her. I wouldn't have if she had killed an innocent person, but she had saved lives by killing Cormous (if that was even his real name), and for that, I was happy to go easy on her.

"So, this is your way of confessing to the crime," Judge Frost realized, nodding slowly. "I can't say I'm surprised, given what we had heard up to this point... Go on though. What else did you do at the time of the murder?"

"Well, I was absolutely covered in blood... I say that, but I really mean that Niamh's jacket was covered with blood, so I had to get rid of it. I tossed it into the cellar underneath the Prosecutor's Office and ran upstairs. I was really tired, so I wound up falling asleep on the couch in the hallway. That was when Niamh took control again, so I don't remember anything after that," Nevada explained.

"Cellar?" I asked in surprise. "I didn't realize there was a space like that underneath the Prosecutor's Office. How long has that been around?"

"Since it was made," Prosecutor Cruz replied. "You see, they store evidence down there that's sensitive to temperature. There's a fridge inside that can be used to keep stuff cold. It's not used too particularly often, but most of the people who work there know that it exists. My guess is that Nevada here found out about it through word of mouth one time while she was out and in control."

"Yeah, you got it... I figured it would be the best place to hide something that I didn't want anybody to find since not many people would think to look down there. I mean, you just said you didn't realize it existed," Nevada pointed out, casting her gaze over to me, Yuri, and Deirdre for a moment.

"You're officially saying that you killed the victim then," Judge Frost murmured, nodding slowly. "I understand now. Do you know what this means, witness?"

Nevada hesitated before sighing. "Look, I don't think I should get in trouble for this. He was going to blow up the building, so I killed him before he had the chance to do so. Should I really be shamed for something like that? I'm sorry I didn't tell everybody about that little bit sooner, but I thought you were lying to me to get me to do what you wanted. A lot of people have done that before, and I'm tired of dealing with it. You can't blame me for not talking about it when I grew up hearing that talking about it was a bad idea. You should just ask the people I was with before all of this happened. I just--"