Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

Turnabout Below, Part 13

May 30

Morix Law Offices

6:30 PM

Cotoli Morix

When we got to the agency, Victoria practically ran up to the door of the building. She gestured for me to follow her, and I trailed behind her at a much slower pace. I was ready to hear what everyone had to say, but I was somewhat nervous about it as well. I swallowed nervously before stepping into the elevator, letting the soft buzz claim my senses. Victoria didn't say anything while we were in there, but I could see her fidgeting out of the corner of my eye, and I realized that she was somehow even more nervous than I was. I hadn't even thought about that being possible, but Victoria found new ways to surprise me.

The doors to the elevator opened when we were on the right floor. I watched Victoria dash out, and I followed her, shoving my hands into my pockets. I fidgeted nervously with my Magatama, praying that the world was kind to us with this revelation. I had a somewhat bad feeling about it, to be honest. I couldn't say why that was, but I couldn't bring myself to be too excited. My stomach was tied in a tight knot.

When we walked into the main room of that floor of the agency, I could see Lily, Deirdre, Yuri, and Chrysalis scattered about. Lily was pacing back and forth frantically. Deirdre was writing something down while Yuri looked over her shoulder. Chrysalis was sitting in her own chair, staring blankly at her hands. She seemed numb to the world around her, which wasn't entirely foreign to Chrysalis, though it was concerning regardless.

"Mr. Morix!" Lily chirped, halting her pacing once she realized I had arrived. "Hey there, Victoria!"

"I guess now is the time to start explaining everything that we found," Yuri murmured, nervous openly for one of the first times since I had met her. Yuri was headstrong and confident most of the time, and seeing her quiet and anxious was unsettling. I sat down to make sure that I didn't feel too sick when she started talking. My bad feeling was only worsening, and I didn't think I could keep up with it.

"What did you find exactly?" Victoria asked, tilting her head to one side as she looked at everyone. While she was waiting, Lily flopped dramatically onto the couch, and Victoria sat down next to her soon after. Concern was written clearly on Victoria's face, and I could tell that she knew just as well as I did that we were in for a wild ride.

"Well, we have two bits of good news and one piece of bad news," Yuri began, trying to fake a smile as she looked in my direction. "The good news is that we figured out who Marcus Moore looks like. Plus, we were able to put a bunch of other information about him together, which means we have a pretty complete understanding of what he has been up to in the past few months."

"The bad news is that the person who happens to be Marcus Moore is far from pleasant," Chrysalis sighed.

"It's Cormous," Deirdre eventually spit out after the silence got to be so long and heavy it was suppressive. "Cormous Arme is the one and only Marcus Moore... Or rather, he was."

Victoria let out a yelp of surprise, and I knew that if she had been drinking anything in that moment, it would have wound up splattered all over the ground. Her face had grown incredibly pale faster than I knew was possible. "Wait, really?! Cormous was the same person as..." Her voice trailed off, and she slammed her palm against her forehead. A million thoughts were swirling through her head at once.

"We didn't fully realize it until after we started to compare pictures. When we did figure it out though... Well, as I'm sure you can guess, we were far from happy," Deirdre began. "We were so focused on trying to forget about Cormous, to shove him out of our lives, that we didn't recognize the picture until we had one to compare it to. Cormous Arme is an anagram for Marcus Moore. I'm sure you remember the case where Detective Erikson was accused of murder, yes? The culprit was an assassin working with the Emsthorpe group, and he was using an anagram of his actual namae to hide his true identity. The same is the case here, meaning that Cormous, or rather, Marcus, worked as part of the Emsthorpe ring while he was alive."