Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

Turnabout Below, Part 5

May 30

Defendant Lobby No. 6

9:20 AM

Cotoli Morix

I arrived at the courthouse as soon as I had the chance. I sat down on the couch and began to stare at the ground. I had no idea what I was going to be doing today. Obviously, the plan was to try and get Polly out of the detention center, but I didn't know how we were supposed to pull that off. Solving a murder was hard enough when you knew the time of death, and not having such a crucial detail made the work a million times harder. I didn't know how much I took autopsy reports for granted in the past until a case finally came where it was impossible to get one. We could only wait until something showed us the time of death.

I had no idea who we were supposed to be going up against in the courtroom either. I had texted Ghastly to ask if he had assigned a prosecutor yet as soon as I got the chance to do so, but I never got a reply. Surprisingly, he didn't respond in the dead of night when I was trying to sleep, and part of me missed that already after just one night of him not doing it. After all, I had been counting on him to offer me a response, and when he didn't, I was left clueless and frustrated with no ideas on what to do next. I couldn't get mad at him since he didn't know how desperate I was, but it was still a bit aggravating.

Lily, Yuri, Deirdre were supposed to be coming by to watch the trial. Chrysalis, on the other hand, I wasn't quite so sure about. She had spent the night with Anton since he was in immense distress after hearing that Polly had been arrested. He hadn't wanted to be alone, and she was happy to be there to comfort him when he asked. She texted me late the evening before to say that she wouldn't be coming home. I didn't know if the plan was to have her dropped off so she could come watch or if she was going to be staying back with Anton to keep him from getting too stressed out by the chaos of court.

Either way, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Chrysalis being there wouldn't have changed much about the outcome of this case. She hadn't been given the chance to do any research, something she regularly would have done if I was in a state of panic and desperation like this, because she was busy with Anton. The universe seemed insistent on showering me with the perfect lineup of horrible outcomes to keep me from finding success in this case. I couldn't exactly change the way the world as a whole worked, but I felt like slamming my head into a wall more and more as the seconds ticked by. What did I do to anger the universe to such a degree?

"Mr. Morix?"

I practically jumped out of my skin upon hearing Lily's voice above me. I held one hand over my chest, hoping that would calm my rapidly-beating heart. "Oh, you startled me... I didn't realize you were going to be here so early," I told her, letting out a shaky sigh. I had been so busy thinking about how hopeless the situation at hand was that I never even bothered to observe my surroundings. I really was off my game today, wasn't I?

"It's okay. Can I sit?" Lily asked, gesturing to the couch.

I nodded and moved to the side to offer her some extra room. Lily took a seat soon after, looking at me with a small frown. "You look like you have a lot on your mind... If you want to rant it out, I'm happy to listen. You know me. I'm great at listening... I think," Lily said, smiling lightly at her own joke. She let out a small laugh before focusing on me once again. "Well, go on. Let it all out."

I paused for a moment before sighing. "We don't know when the victim died. That's the main thing that's bothering me. Because we don't know when the victim died, it's hard to talk to any witnesses. Countless people went in and out of that agency since the death of the victim. We can't ask all of them what happened since nobody saw her get murdered. If someone had seen it, there would have been reports about it much sooner. On top of that, I don't know who the prosecutor is. I was hoping to try and form an alliance with them, whoever they are, but that's not exactly possible when I don't know who I'm trying to get into contact with," I said. The words came out quickly, and they were barely coherent to me despite them coming out of my lips.