Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

Turnabout Below, Part 4

May 29

Blocker Law Offices

2:30 PM

Cotoli Morix

When Victoria and I arrived at Blocker Law, the first thing we did was try to find Detective Erikson. He had to be around here somewhere. We would need to hear what he had to say if we wanted to find the truth, but I had no idea where he was.

"I wonder if they got swallowed up by the chaos that is this crime scene," Victoria murmured, looking up at me nervously. "I don't know where he could be... I suppose we'll just have to see if the universe blesses us with good luck."

"I have faith everything will go well," I told her, trying to sound a lot more confident than I felt. I had a bad feeling about everything we had been told by Polly, and I had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. Detective Erikson would hopefully have more to tell us about regarding Marcus Moore and the case, but I couldn't say for sure. I hadn't expected his entire existence to be wrapped in mystery, but since that was how it was, there wasn't anything we could do to change it. If Polly had been trying to find out more about him for ages but ultimately came up short, were we sure Detective Erikson would be successful? I had no way of saying for sure, but I had a bad feeling about it. My stomach was tied tightly into a firm knot.

Detective Erikson came walking out of the building soon after I spoke. I smiled to myself as Victoria sighed in relief. "Detective Erikson... I'm glad to see you're alright. I was concerned you found yourself in trouble due to all the chaos of the crime scene. Is there anything new that you have found out?" I asked.

"I did find out something, though I can't say for sure if you'll find it helpful. I'll leave that up to you to decide," Detective Erikson replied. "Marcus Moore's existence is mysterious. He never got the chance to work at the law office... He's been missing for many years, and he only resurfaced when he applied to this job. After he didn't get it, he disappeared once again, and nobody knows where he is now. It would be easier to track him if we suspected the crime was recent, but it was a while ago. I don't know if we'd be able to find a trail to him."

"That's unfortunate... How are we supposed to think about where he could have disappeared to if we don't know where he is now?" Victoria murmured, shaking her head. "I mean, I know that's kind of the point of going missing, but we can't track him if he went missing so long ago. We don't even have a defined date, which could make this a lot easier to pull off. All of this is giving me a headache, and we've just started trying to figure it out."

"I'm sure we'll reach there soon enough," I assured her. "For now, let's sit down and start to talk about what we need done. I'm sure Detective Erikson has quite a bit of helpful information for us." I glanced around, and upon realizing there was nothing for us to sit on, I shrugged. "I suppose we could stand. That's fine with me."

Detective Hayes came stumbling out of the crowd, a sigh leaving his lips. "I didn't realize there were so many people around here... It's hard to navigate when there are so many of them," Detective Hayes frowned, cringing as a police officer pushed him with a shoulder. "Ow."

"Come on over. Let's sit down and tell them all about what we've learned. I know we wouldn't have found out all we did if not for both of us investigating, so what you did to help was incredibly helpful," Detective Erikson said, encouraging the younger detective with a small smile. He placed a hand on the smaller man's injured shoulder. "How about you start?"

Detective Hayes nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. "Okay... Well, we heard that Marcus Moore went missing a long time ago... I'm talking about nearly thirteen years ago. It was ages ago. He left behind his wife and son to make another life without even divorcing. There were many attempts to find him, but nobody knew for sure. We suspect that his disappearance was deliberate on his part," he explained.