April 13, 11:36 AM
District Court
Defendant Lobby No.4
EVIDENCE A small badge in the shape of a sunflower cast in a lustrous metal. Bears the scales of justice printed in the middle. [https://imgur.com/Fd1HrLb.png]
Attorney’s Badge
I worked hard for this thing! I always wear it pinned on my lapel. Smaller than I thought it would be.
A manila dossier with a document poking out of it. [https://imgur.com/49pYbOT.png]
Autopsy Report
Victim’s name: Dr. Nix Kaput
Time of death: Some time during April 12th
Manner of Death: Blunt force trauma to the right side of the head.
A grease-stained printout with an illegible transcript on it [https://imgur.com/FPaA15t.png]
Greasy Transcript
Bears the record of an e-mail conversation where Georgina Mole threatens Dr. Kaput.
A legible version of the transcript. In it, Georgina Mole asks for something, which Dr. Nix Kaput denies on grounds of lack of funding. Georgina then threatens he'll be sorry he said that. [https://imgur.com/IbWThoS.png]
PROFILES A young man with green hair and clear blue eyes. Wears a linen shirt with two opened buttons on top, through which one can see a pendant. [https://imgur.com/is283rh.png]
Drake Closer (Age 26)
That’s me! I’m a Defense Attorney. I’ve never lost a case before. (Never won one, either… but let’s not focus on that.)
A headshot of a young woman. She has a mess of curly red hair that is dyed green around her face. Wears crescent-shaped glasses with a rim along the bottom and a lab coat. [https://imgur.com/LL9Nhmr.png]
Georgina Mole (Age 21)
My client. She was a laboratory assistant in a hoity-toity research lab. Now, she’s on trial for murder.
A middle-aged looking man with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a lab coat. He has a thick beard the same color as his hair [https://imgur.com/GSxkC4P.png]
Dr. Nix Kaput (Age 59)
The victim. Once a very distinguished scientific researcher. Now a very distinguished corpse.
A large man wearing a celeste suit and a red-and-white checkered napkin. He has a straw hat on his head, with black sideburns poking down. He's eating a sandwich. [https://imgur.com/TuakEoM.png]
Mash Lumper (Age 53)
The prosecutor on this case. Despite his carefree demeanor, he's a very competent prosecutor with a good case history to his name.
“...Well?” I stand at the dispenser near Georgina, who took a decent amount of help to get out of the courtroom. “We’re hanging in there, yeah?”
“I…” She’s gripping the crook of her elbow with her gloved hand, “I didn’t do it. I didn't kill him.” She’s begging me to believe her. I’m surprised to realize I do.
“Well, I know that, and you know that. Everyone else in there’s pretty sure it was you, and it will take some convincing to bring them to our side.”
I slide her a cup of machine coffee and sit across from her. I take a deep breath and check my watch. “Okay. Court’s back on in about twenty. I can’t go back in there the same way I left. I need you to give me something to hit them with. Are you up for that?”
She doesn’t drink the coffee, but having something to grasp seems to help her re-center. She nods.
“Alright. Good,” I pull out a notebook. “Can you tell me what that was about? That email exchange… It was pretty damning stuff.”
“I… I don’t have anyone.” She’s absent-mindedly stirring the cup with her left hand. “My parents have been out of the picture for a while, and I’m only really able to stay in school because of a scholarship fund. I’m going to finish my degree soon, though, and graduate school? That’s a mess to get into. Especially in science. You need to have some experience in a lab, scientific publications to your name… It’s a lot.”
I nod.
“My chances of getting accepted at the moment are microscopic. Beyond microscopic. Atomic. I’m about to finish school, so the scholarship would be out the window. Without that to support me and without the necessary experience… There’s no way I could make it for a year on my own. That’s why I asked Dr. Kaput to take me on. Just for a year, so I could get some actual experience, and maybe sneak my name onto a publication.” She loses traction at this point. “He said there was no money for it.”
“Isn’t the lab you work in a pretty well-established one?” From my —admittedly limited— investigating, I recall them being on the receiving end of a few research grants.
“There’s surprisingly little money in science. A lot of what you get goes straight into new experiments, new materials… It’s a sack with a hole in it,” she shrugs. "Still, after all that time… I just felt I was owed that opportunity, you know? I got a little heated.”
“Hence why you told him he’d be sorry.” That certainly helps put that conversation into context. “That threat… Was it an empty one?”
“No, I did follow through with it,” she chuckles darkly. “I was so upset… All that research, all those materials. I’d been there. They were the result of the work I put in —for free, mind you,— so I figured if he was going to destroy my career, I would at least put a dent in his. That day, right after lunch… I disconnected the liquid nitrogen storage.”
“The what now?”
“Liquid nitrogen —it’s what we use to keep our samples stored in the long term. It’s very cold, and it’s very important it stays that way. I switched the machine off, so as the liquid nitrogen was spent, no new one was pumped in. Overnight, the samples would’ve been ruined.”
~~~Liquid Nitrogen Storage added to Court Record~~~
A chest-style freezer with a blue trim. It is cracked open. [https://imgur.com/nFQ9WO5.png]
Liquid Nitrogen Storage
Used to keep samples at freezing temperature.
Georgina disconnected it shortly after lunch the day of the murder.
“Later in the day, after cooling down, I regretted doing that, which is why I returned to switch it back on. That’s when I found him, dead…” The tears are starting back up now. “He was inside the liquid nitrogen tank.”
Is that why they were unable to determine the time of death? It would make sense if the body was frozen right after the murder… Still, that’s pretty grisly.
~~~Autopsy Report updated in Court Record~~~
A manila dossier with a document poking out of it. [https://imgur.com/49pYbOT.png]
Autopsy Report
Victim’s name: Dr. Nix Kaput
Time of death: Sometime during April 12th
Manner of Death: Blunt force trauma to the right side of the head.
Body was found inside liquid nitrogen storage.
EVIDENCE A small badge in the shape of a sunflower cast in a lustrous metal. Bears the scales of justice printed in the middle. [https://imgur.com/Fd1HrLb.png]
Attorney’s Badge
I worked hard for this thing! I always wear it pinned on my lapel. Smaller than I thought it would be.
A manila dossier with a document poking out of it. [https://imgur.com/49pYbOT.png]
Autopsy Report
Victim’s name: Dr. Nix Kaput
Time of death: Some time during April 12th
Manner of Death: Blunt force trauma to the right side of the head.
Body was found inside liquid nitrogen storage.
A grease-stained printout with an illegible transcript on it [https://imgur.com/FPaA15t.png]
Greasy Transcript
Bears the record of an e-mail conversation where Georgina Mole threatens Dr. Kaput.
A legible version of the transcript. In it, Georgina Mole asks for something, which Dr. Nix Kaput denies on grounds of lack of funding. Georgina then threatens he'll be sorry he said that. [https://imgur.com/IbWThoS.png]
A chest-style freezer with a blue trim. It is cracked open. [https://imgur.com/nFQ9WO5.png]
Liquid Nitrogen Storage
Used to keep samples at freezing temperature.
Georgina disconnected it shortly after lunch the day of the murder.
PROFILES A young man with green hair and clear blue eyes. Wears a linen shirt with two opened buttons on top, through which one can see a pendant. [https://imgur.com/is283rh.png]
Drake Closer (Age 26)
That’s me! I’m a Defense Attorney. I’ve never lost a case before. (Never won one, either… but let’s not focus on that.)
A headshot of a young woman. She has a mess of curly red hair that is dyed green around her face. Wears crescent-shaped glasses with a rim along the bottom and a lab coat. [https://imgur.com/LL9Nhmr.png]
Georgina Mole (Age 21)
My client. She was a laboratory assistant in a hoity-toity research lab. Now, she’s on trial for murder.
A middle-aged looking man with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a lab coat. He has a thick beard the same color as his hair [https://imgur.com/GSxkC4P.png]
Dr. Nix Kaput (Age 59)
The victim. Once a very distinguished scientific researcher. Now a very distinguished corpse.
A large man wearing a celeste suit and a red-and-white checkered napkin. He has a straw hat on his head, with black sideburns poking down. He's eating a sandwich. [https://imgur.com/TuakEoM.png]
Mash Lumper (Age 53)
The prosecutor on this case. Despite his carefree demeanor, he's a very competent prosecutor with a good case history to his name.
“Alright.” I look to the courtroom doors. Seems like the recess is ending soon. “This would’ve been good to know before walking in this morning, but this… it seems like a good enough start.”
“I-I’m sorry,” Georgina tugs at her gloved fingers one by one. “I know I should’ve told you this earlier, but… I guess I wanted you to believe in me. That I hadn’t done it. I didn’t think they would use it against me right from the gate.”
“That’s okay. I believed you this morning, and I still believe you now." I get up and offer her my hand. "Now, what do you say we get in there and give them a proper walloping?”
She takes it and smiles for the first time all day. “You betcha, man.”
April 13, 12:01 PM
District Court
Courtroom No.4
I walk back to my spot. The recess has brought the audience down some, but it’ll still be a long way before they’re ready to take my side on anything. The judge retakes her seat and brushes some lunch crumbs off her toga —Is that potato salad? The prosecutor across from me is still on his pre-hibernation binge.
The gavel bangs and the judge calls the court back into session. This cues Mash Lumper to put away his sandwich and take a long drag from a thermos he manifests out of his briefcase. “Very well, ladies n’ gentlesirs!” His southern drawl is already pulling the audience into a lull, “The prosecution would like ta call as its next witness Mr. Cash Gripster, the manager o’ the facilities in which this oh-so-terrible incident did indeed transpire.”
Shortly after, the muscular man is brought to the stand. He’s wearing a light blue blouse with more than a few buttons undone. Underneath it, above rippling tan muscle, sits an absolute monstrosity of a gold chain. He sits down and properly tucks his purple handkerchief back into his chest pocket.
“Wouldja kindly state yer name and occupation?”
He flashes a disarming smile of perfectly white teeth and runs a hand through his chestnut hair. “Cash Gripster’s the name. I am the manager of the research laboratory once led by Dr. Nix Kaput.”
“Merci beaucoup,” Mash continues. “Now, ye’ve got a mighty interesting’ yarn to spin for the people in this courtroom today, have ya not?”
Cash pulls out a nail file and cleans up one of his hands. “That is indeed the case. I’m here to testify to finding the defendant, Miss Georgina Mole, in the act of committing awful murder.” He smiles warmly and tilts his head.
The audience whispers and I look to my client. She gives me a worried-looking thumbs-up. Okay, I center myself. Moment of truth.
“The stage is yours,” Lumper sits back down.
~~~Witness Testimony: What I Saw~~~
“I came back to the lab late in the evening. It must’ve been close to 8, I imagine.” He’s tapping his finger against his bottom lip, reminiscing. “I had gotten an alert on my phone that the liquid nitrogen tank had been open for over ten minutes, and I came to check it out before the samples spoiled overnight.”
“That’s when I saw her,” he points to the defendant, “standing over the body. The murder weapon was on the floor. She had clearly just dropped it.”
Murder weapon? I find Mash with an interrogating look. He pulls out a mallet with a thick rubber head from his briefcase, encased in a plastic evidence bag.
“The prosecution would at this time like to enter this ‘ere nail-tapper into record.” The bailiff comes by and receives it, showing it to the judge. “You may not be surprised ta hear it, but it bears the defendant’s fingerprints.”
“It does?!” Both Georgina and I explode at the same time. I look at her. She didn’t know about this? Her eyes are quivering in confusion. That’s a no.
~~~Murder Weapon added to Court Record~~~
A rubber-capped wooden mallet with a spatter of blood on one side. [https://imgur.com/IYuMnMy.png]
Murder Weapon
A rubber-capped mallet. Bears the fingerprints of the defendant's right hand.
EVIDENCE A small badge in the shape of a sunflower cast in a lustrous metal. Bears the scales of justice printed in the middle. [https://imgur.com/Fd1HrLb.png]
Attorney’s Badge
I worked hard for this thing! I always wear it pinned on my lapel. Smaller than I thought it would be.
A manila dossier with a document poking out of it. [https://imgur.com/49pYbOT.png]
Autopsy Report
Victim’s name: Dr. Nix Kaput
Time of death: Some time during April 12th
Manner of Death: Blunt force trauma to the right side of the head.
Body was found inside liquid nitrogen storage.
A grease-stained printout with an illegible transcript on it [https://imgur.com/FPaA15t.png]
Greasy Transcript
Bears the record of an e-mail conversation where Georgina Mole threatens Dr. Kaput.
A legible version of the transcript. In it, Georgina Mole asks for something, which Dr. Nix Kaput denies on grounds of lack of funding. Georgina then threatens he'll be sorry he said that. [https://imgur.com/IbWThoS.png]
A chest-style freezer with a blue trim. It is cracked open. [https://imgur.com/nFQ9WO5.png]
Liquid Nitrogen Storage
Used to keep samples at freezing temperature.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Georgina disconnected it shortly after lunch the day of the murder.
A rubber-capped wooden mallet with a spatter of blood on one side. [https://imgur.com/IYuMnMy.png]
Murder Weapon
A rubber-capped mallet. Bears the fingerprints of the defendant's right hand.
PROFILES A young man with green hair and clear blue eyes. Wears a linen shirt with two opened buttons on top, through which one can see a pendant. [https://imgur.com/is283rh.png]
Drake Closer (Age 26)
That’s me! I’m a Defense Attorney. I’ve never lost a case before. (Never won one, either… but let’s not focus on that.)
A headshot of a young woman. She has a mess of curly red hair that is dyed green around her face. Wears crescent-shaped glasses with a rim along the bottom and a lab coat. [https://imgur.com/LL9Nhmr.png]
Georgina Mole (Age 21)
My client. She was a laboratory assistant in a hoity-toity research lab. Now, she’s on trial for murder.
A middle-aged looking man with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a lab coat. He has a thick beard the same color as his hair [https://imgur.com/GSxkC4P.png]
Dr. Nix Kaput (Age 59)
The victim. Once a very distinguished scientific researcher. Now a very distinguished corpse.
A large man wearing a celeste suit and a red-and-white checkered napkin. He has a straw hat on his head, with black sideburns poking down. He's eating a sandwich. [https://imgur.com/TuakEoM.png]
Mash Lumper (Age 53)
The prosecutor on this case. Despite his carefree demeanor, he's a very competent prosecutor with a good case history to his name.
A muscular tan man with chestnut hair and a beard. He's wearing an open cyan shirt with a gold chain that can be seen underneath. Has a crumpled-up handkerchief in his left chest pocket [https://imgur.com/poXuU9Z.png]
Cash Gripster (Age 37)
Manager at the laboratory where the crime happened. Overly concerned with his outer appearance.
That… certainly throws a wrench —mallet?— into things. A weapon with her fingerprints on it and the blood of the victim is as close as it gets without outright video evidence. Still, though. If my client is innocent… there’s no way that’s what he saw. He must be lying.
I’m bringing my full powers of concentration down on the Court Record. There’s gotta be something… Suddenly, it comes to me. This… It’s a piece of evidence that I have, but that no one else would know about in this trial.
“Objection!” I look at the prosecutor, whose lunch seems to have gone down the wrong pipe. I have an ace up my sleeve, too. “Witness. You claim you received an alert on your phone… that the liquid nitrogen storage had been open for over ten minutes?”
“Why, yes.” He pulls out a hand mirror and begins to pluck his eyebrows, barely registering me. “It is delicate equipment, you see. If the temperature readings on it get too high, it is programmed to send me an alert. It's a state of the art machine. Very expensive.” He looks me up and down, “Not that I’d expect you to relate.”
“Well, that’s interesting.” I look to Georgina and she meets my eyes. She’s realized it too. “Because that is impossible.”
“I-Impossible?!” Mash Lumper has finally cleared his airway and raises the brim of his hat, incredulous.
“Indeed.” I hold the little note I made between two fingers —my clients confession of her only actual crime— and fling it across the room to the bailiff’s desk.
A chest-style freezer with a blue trim. It is cracked open. [https://imgur.com/nFQ9WO5.png]
Liquid Nitrogen Storage
Used to keep samples at freezing temperature.
Georgina disconnected it shortly after lunch the day of the murder.
“That e-mail exchange… It was damning evidence, that’s for sure. My client intended to make the good doctor pay. But not with his life. With his research.” Time to spin my own yarn here. “This is why, in a moment of weakness, she disconnected the liquid nitrogen storage earlier in the day.”
Cash looks like he’s taken a gut-shot, stuck with his tweezers pulling at an eyebrow. His forehead begins to bead with sweat. “S-she what?!”
“Therefore,” I continue. This is no time to let up. “There is no way you could have received that alert! The machine would not have been able to send it!” Both he and Mash exchange a look. Cash hadn’t told him, and it’s taken both of them out at the kneecaps. “Why were you at the laboratory so late last night, Mr. Gripster? What were you up to that you’d have to lie about to this court?”
“O-objection!” Mr. Lumper pulls the handkerchief from around his neck and scrambles into an upright position. Finally time to put in a shift, eh? “Your honor, this is not relevant to the trial! For whatever reason, my witness was there, and he’s simply here to testify as to what he saw!”
“Objection! Your honor, the why he was there is extremely relevant.” Can’t budge here. It’s the only chink in the prosecution’s armor, and I have to dig in. “He might’ve been doing something innocuous, or…” Am I really going there? I think I am. “Or he might’ve been committing murder!”
The crowd around us is abuzz. The judge has to pound the gavel a few times before they’re even ready to come back down to a normal level. “Mr. Closer!” She punctuates each syllable, “Are you accusing this man of murder?”
“Your honor, I’m simply espousing the possibility that he might be a suspect as well.” My heart is going a mile a minute, but I have to look confident here. For Georgina. “And if he is, it is imperative that we hear why he was in the laboratory the night of the crime.”
She weighs my words and comes down on the side of not quite belief, but careful consideration. “Witness,” Cash swallows. “Please testify to this court as to the actual reason you were in the building yesterday night.”
“R-Right.”
~~~Witness Testimony: Why I Was There~~~
Cash Gripster dabs away the sweat on his brow with his purple handkerchief and fans his face.
“Alright, yeah. I may have not given you an exact account of events,” He puts a hand behind his neck and begins to explain while giving a shy smile. “Dr. Kaput had called for a meeting the following day, and it was only when I got home that I realized I had left some very important documents for it on my desk.”
He’s regained command over himself now, and begins to tuck errant strands of hair back into his otherwise perfect toupee. “Out in the open like that, anyone might’ve seen them. Despite how I look, I am only human. I made a mistake and rushed back to fix it.”
“That is all,” he flashes me a smug smile.
“Incidentally, the prosecution did find record o’ this aforementioned meetin’ in the victim’s personal device as well.” Mash gives the witness a bitter look out the corner of his eye then produces a screenshot of the victim’s e-mail tray. The meeting reminder is plainly visible on the calendar.
~~~Meeting Reminder added to Court Record~~~
A calendar with a date marked on it using a checkmark [https://imgur.com/dpN2JFG.png]
Meeting Reminder
A reminder for a meeting on April 13th between Dr. Kaput and Mr. Gripster to talk about the lab's finances.
EVIDENCE A small badge in the shape of a sunflower cast in a lustrous metal. Bears the scales of justice printed in the middle. [https://imgur.com/Fd1HrLb.png]
Attorney’s Badge
I worked hard for this thing! I always wear it pinned on my lapel. Smaller than I thought it would be.
A manila dossier with a document poking out of it. [https://imgur.com/49pYbOT.png]
Autopsy Report
Victim’s name: Dr. Nix Kaput
Time of death: Some time during April 12th
Manner of Death: Blunt force trauma to the right side of the head.
Body was found inside liquid nitrogen storage.
A grease-stained printout with an illegible transcript on it [https://imgur.com/FPaA15t.png]
Greasy Transcript
Bears the record of an e-mail conversation where Georgina Mole threatens Dr. Kaput.
A legible version of the transcript. In it, Georgina Mole asks for something, which Dr. Nix Kaput denies on grounds of lack of funding. Georgina then threatens he'll be sorry he said that. [https://imgur.com/IbWThoS.png]
A chest-style freezer with a blue trim. It is cracked open. [https://imgur.com/nFQ9WO5.png]
Liquid Nitrogen Storage
Used to keep samples at freezing temperature.
Georgina disconnected it shortly after lunch the day of the murder.
A rubber-capped wooden mallet with a spatter of blood on one side. [https://imgur.com/IYuMnMy.png]
Murder Weapon
A rubber-capped mallet. Bears the fingerprints of the defendant's right hand.
A calendar with a date marked on it using a checkmark [https://imgur.com/dpN2JFG.png]
Meeting Reminder
A reminder for a meeting on April 13th between Dr. Kaput and Mr. Gripster to talk about the lab's finances.
PROFILES A young man with green hair and clear blue eyes. Wears a linen shirt with two opened buttons on top, through which one can see a pendant. [https://imgur.com/is283rh.png]
Drake Closer (Age 26)
That’s me! I’m a Defense Attorney. I’ve never lost a case before. (Never won one, either… but let’s not focus on that.)
A headshot of a young woman. She has a mess of curly red hair that is dyed green around her face. Wears crescent-shaped glasses with a rim along the bottom and a lab coat. [https://imgur.com/LL9Nhmr.png]
Georgina Mole (Age 21)
My client. She was a laboratory assistant in a hoity-toity research lab. Now, she’s on trial for murder.
A middle-aged looking man with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a lab coat. He has a thick beard the same color as his hair [https://imgur.com/GSxkC4P.png]
Dr. Nix Kaput (Age 59)
The victim. Once a very distinguished scientific researcher. Now a very distinguished corpse.
A large man wearing a celeste suit and a red-and-white checkered napkin. He has a straw hat on his head, with black sideburns poking down. He's eating a sandwich. [https://imgur.com/TuakEoM.png]
Mash Lumper (Age 53)
The prosecutor on this case. Despite his carefree demeanor, he's a very competent prosecutor with a good case history to his name.
A muscular tan man with chestnut hair and a beard. He's wearing an open cyan shirt with a gold chain that can be seen underneath. Has a crumpled-up handkerchief in his left chest pocket [https://imgur.com/poXuU9Z.png]
Cash Gripster (Age 37)
Manager at the laboratory where the crime happened. Overly concerned with his outer appearance.
So much for all that. I feel the judge’s glare burning onto the side of my face. It feels… judgey. “Well then, Mr. Closer,” she’s holding her gaudy spectacles in one hand while she reviews her notes. “Was that everything you hoped for? I must say, it is looking to be pretty clear-cut. The weapon, the fingerprints… All signs point to your client as the guilty party.” She looks at me with a measure of something —is that kindness?— in her eyes. “I understand this is your first case, and you may want to make a splash, but… this is just how some of them go. It’s not too late to enter some kind of plea for a reduced sentence.”
“No, wait!” I remember how devastated Georgina was during recess. How she smiled when I told her we'd win it. She’s not guilty. But then, he… I look at the witness on the stand, who’s applying some sort of moisturizing cream.
Did his being there really have nothing to do with the murder? It could be, but… He says he saw the weapon. That she had clearly just used it. Can that be right? How could he know she had used it? If my client’s telling the truth, she didn’t do it. Which means she never used that mallet to strike Dr. Kaput. If so, how did her fingerprints get on the weapon? Could she have used the mallet at another time? Is that even something they use in a laboratory…? Hang on!
It’s a laboratory.
“We’re waitin’, tiger.” Mash Lumper is re-attaching the handkerchief around his neck as he hungrily peruses the contents of his lunchbox —I mean, briefcase.
“Georgina Mole!” I point to the defendant with a hurried desperation. “In this laboratory of yours… Is it customary to wear gloves?”
“Um, yeah, man.” She looks puzzled, but holds her ever-gloved hands up for me to see. “Any scientist worth their salt puts their mitts on! I even have my own for outside the lab.”
“Don’t you find it strange, Mr. Lumper?” I play relaxed, now. I calmly spin my finger as I weave my yarn and unravel the prosecution’s. “The accused, my client, works in a laboratory. By her own admission —and I’m sure plenty of her coworkers will corroborate this— she always wears gloves while she’s there. So, riddle me this: why would someone that’s already wearing gloves take them off to commit murder?” I cap the train of thought by pointing back at him. Ball’s in your court now.
“Why, I… Um…” He scratches his head under the straw hat. “That is mystifyin’.”
“W-why does it matter?” Cash pipes in again. He’s clutching his handkerchief and dabbing away sweat almost as quickly as it forms. “Her fingerprints are on it, so she must’ve done it! She took that mallet and hit him in the head because he couldn’t afford to hire her! Must I do all your jobs for you?!” He slams a fist on the podium in front of him. “The evidence is right there!”
“You… You shame all researchers!” Georgina’s voice cuts through the crowd. “‘The evidence is right there’? Any self-respecting scientist knows not to take things at face value! You have to dig deep and find out the truth of things!”
“Can it, you! Who are you to say who’s a scientist? You couldn’t even get hired as one!”
“No, she has a point,” I realize. “Her fingerprints have no business being on that murder weapon, and yet they are.” My hand absent-mindedly plays with the pendant around my neck as I ruminate. My thumb traces the well-memorized outline of the eye filigree on it. “So, how do fingerprints end up somewhere they have no business being? On top of that, the wrong ones?”
Cash looks like he’s swallowed a fly. “The… The wrong ones?”
“Yes. If you look at the defender, it is plan to see: she is left-handed. Think back: fiddling with her glasses, stirring her coffee… she’s done it all with her left. And yet, her right hand’s fingerprints are on the murder weapon.”
“Uh… That’s…” He’s on the ropes now. I just need to figure it out. How do fingerprints appear without the hand grabbing the weapon? How does left become right? I look at Cash, furiously wiping away sweat with his purple… handkerchief?
Of course!
“Georgina… May I have the glove on your right hand?” I walk over and extend my hand. Georgina deposits her glove in it after some grumbling about ‘proper scientists.’ Then, I turn to the judge, who has just finished quieting the room after the latest outburst.
“Allow me to show you, your honor, how my client was framed last night… By none other than Mr. Gripster right there.” The room is dead quiet as I press my own fingers against the tip of the removed glove and push through, flipping the glove inside out. “My left hand, her right hand’s fingerprints. I suspect this is how Mr. Cash Gripster sought to incriminate Georgina for the murder he committed. He realized, of course, that she is left-handed. And so he used his left hand to kill Dr. Kaput with the mallet. He just failed to account for the fact that when he put on her discarded glove, it would be mirrored.”
“Well I’ll be…!” The judge’s expression is pure shock. I turn to the prosecution’s bench, where Mr. Lumpster has confused his hat for another sandwich, and is gnawing on it as his whole countenance becomes as red as his handkerchief’s pattern. Cash is pulling on his hair hard enough I think he might actually come away with a chunk of perfectly moisturized scalp.
“H-Hang on!” He grasps the golden chain around his neck with his other hand, pulling it taut as the ligaments on his neck bulge out. “You-you can’t prove that! You can’t prove I did that! All you’ve said… It’s all circumstantial! It’s baseless! Y-Yeah! I watch this stuff on TV! I know you need something more solid than that to put someone away!”
He’s not wrong, but… “Mr. Cash Gripster. Am I to assume you were held overnight as you gave your testimony? You’ve had no time to go home, or really touch up at all, yes?”
“Y-yeah. That’s right.” He re-tucks what remains of his luscious locks and wipes away all the perspiration from his face. “It’s been hell on my pores, let me tell you.”
“That’s quite alright, I don’t need to hear about all your skincare troubles. Instead, I would like to try and paint a picture here: It’s late in the evening. You’ve managed to lure Dr. Nix Kaput into the cold storage room and, wearing one of Georgina’s discarded gloves, you have just killed him and dumped him into the liquid nitrogen. Tomorrow the body will be found, but with no deducible time of death, the fingerprints on the weapon, and the recent friction between the deceased and my client, it’s a dead ringer for who’ll be blamed here.” I shrug. I am calm. I have attained breezy, and it feels like I’m flying while everyone else walks. “So you step away, presumably to clean yourself of the blood that no doubt splattered back on you. I have no delusions we’ll find any traces of that —you work in a laboratory, and I’m sure there are plenty of chemicals there that could remove the blood without a trace. You go back into the room to make sure everything’s perfect when —catastrophe! The girl you are trying to frame is standing in the crime scene. You have to appear as though you just stumbled into this. Do the right thing —call the police, give a statement. But there is a piece of evidence that you have on you, that you haven’t gotten rid of yet. And you can’t do it now, not while she’s there and can see you, and certainly not later, surrounded by police and lawyers. So you keep it on yourself, somewhere inconspicuous. Then, —and I don’t blame you for this, it has been a long night,— you even forget you put it there, and begin to use it as though it were another thing entirely. Does that sound about right?”
“W-What are you talking about?” He can feel I’m onto him, but he hasn’t realized I’m not just chasing a scent. My teeth are closed around his throat already.
“Say, that handkerchief you’ve been using… It looks an awful lot like this glove I’m holding.”
Realization strikes everyone at once like lightning. He looks to his hand, where he’s grasping the nitrile implement. With a yelp, he drops it and stares at it, utterly at odds with himself. I walk over and pick it up with the edge of my pen. “Your honor, I believe if you test this glove for fingerprints, you’ll find two sets. Miss Mole’s on the outside… and Mr. Gripster’s on the inside.”
“N-No! NO! NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOO!!!” Cash yanks on his golden chain with each yell, until it snaps against the force and he tumbles backwards with inertia, collapsing on the floor.
…
…
“W-Well, unconventional as this trial was…” The judge has composed herself after my little display of showmanship, and the bailiff hurries to put a much less distinguished chain around Cash’s wrists. “I believe there is only one ruling this court can come to:
Not Guilty."
April 13, 2:33 PM
District Court
Defendant Lobby No. 4
"That sniveling snake, man!" Georgina is fuming. She pulls on one of her gloves until it snaps, then produces a new one from a pocket in her lab coat and stretches it on so violently I can't help but worry it'll be turned into confetti as well. "To think he... He was going to frame me! For murder! I could've fried for that!"
"I don't know about all that..." I take my eyes off the door for a moment to check the message I got as the case was closing:
'Great job out there, mijo. I watched it all like a proud mama hen (^_^)
Don't leave too quickly, I'll sneak in and say hi.
-P'
I'm snapped out of it by Georgina waving her hand in front of my face. "Yo, man, you listening to me? I get that your job's, like, done for the day, but if you're gonna bill me for the hour I want you to listen for the full dang hour!"
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. You were saying? I heard up until 'sniveling snake.'"
"That was at the start! I'm... Ugh!" She pulls out a third glove and begins breathing into it as if it were a paper bag. It seems to calm her down some. "Sorry, man. I'm just so frazzled by all of it. My brain's firing in all directions."
I direct her to sit down and gently pat her on the shoulder. "Listen, I can't say I've been where you are, but I'm kind of there with you. The case, the win... It was real touch-and-go. There's a world where you walked out of that room and into a prison van. That's, like, majorly spooky."
"Wow." She snorts. "You suck at this, man."
"Yeah. Yeah, I really do, man. If only Paula was here... She'd know what to say to put you at ease."
"Paula?"
"My mentor. She taught me everything I know." I crack a smile. "This was my first case without her."
"O-Oh. Is she also..." She looks at the autopsy report.
"Oh, gosh! No! No, she's fine. She just wanted me to do this on my own. Very sink or swim, that one. She'll be in soon to say hi."
"That's nice. At least she cares about you, you know? I don't think she'd kick you out on your ass if you asked for help."
"I don't think that's entirely fair, cariño," says a voice behind us, suddenly. I'd recognize the playful, motherly tone anywhere. I jolt up.
"Paula! I didn't see you come in!" I give her a hug. "Georgina, this is Paula Ramirez. I was apprenticed under her until just about last week. Paula, meet Georgina Mole." Although, from the way she shoved me into this case, I imagine there's already some connection between the two.
"How would you know?" Georgina is locking down Paula with hostility in her eyes. "He may or may not have deserved it, but the facts are clear. Dr. Kaput didn't exactly jump at the chance to help me. I was free help to him, and he was all too ready to let me go."
She slumps down on the couch, and Paula takes a spot next to her. "Honey, I didn't know Dr. Kaput, so I can't speak for him, but having been a mentor myself, I can promise you this: There is not a soul out there that does not want to see their apprentice thrive. And I'm sure that's what the doctor thought as well. Don't you think, Drake?"
She gives the Court Record a pointed look from the other side of Georgina's shaken figure. Something in here? "Yeah, of course, um..." I thumb through the evidence. What in here could show Dr. Kaput was making an effort to help Georgina? Autopsy Report —no. Murder Weapon —definitely no. Oh.
A calendar with a date marked on it using a checkmark [https://imgur.com/dpN2JFG.png]
Meeting Reminder
A reminder for a meeting on April 13th between Dr. Kaput and Mr. Gripster to talk about the lab's finances
I pull out the meeting reminder and show it to Georgina. "If you recall, Cash testified that Dr. Kaput called a meeting to talk about the laboratory's finances. Given how it took him by surprise, it can't have been a regular talk about the status of the lab's finances. No, I'm willing to bet, in fact, that he called that meeting to see if they could make room to pay you a wage. Keep you on until you were on your feet, at least."
Georgina takes the evidence with shaky hands and begins to sob.
"There, there," Paula rubs her back and lets her cry it out. She steps up after a while and joins me in a corner. The girl needs some privacy now.
"Poor little thing," she hands me a glass of water. "How are you holding up, mijo?"
"Me? You know, setting up. My own firm... It's a lot messier than I thought it would be."
"It's what you always wanted, no?"
"And so much more." I think about the piles of boxes back at the office, and all the bureaucracy I'll have to set up. "So, so much more."
She flashes a kind smile. "Might be good to get you some help soon, maybe."
"That's a good one. You know anyone that'll take peanuts to be the assistant to the smallest lawyer firm in the city?"
She looks back to the girl in the lab coat.
"I know one person."