The room grew louder and more impassioned from what the outrageousness that had just transpired. Everyone has their own opinion on the Duke and what he had just done to his so-called girlfriend. Why would he do that if he loved her as much as she claimed he did?

The Duke was silent as his girlfriend was on the receiving end of embarrassment. She was helplessly adrift in an endless sea of jeers and judgement. "Dukey...why would you..."

"I'm sorry, m'dear," he said. "I cannot tell a lie before the court. Besides, you merely did it to defend your good, old fashioned loverboy. What's serving a life sentence in the name of love?"

Mina slumped to her knees on the podium, unable to stand beneath the weight of betrayal.

"Well," the judge answered. "I'm really sorry to say this child. But you had made a phone call to this duke during the murder. Regardless if I believe this man is who he purports to be, he still was witness to what transpired."

She turned to Larry, who was grinning and dancing in his reaper robe, having reaped another victim. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but everything is pointing in favor of this lout."

Larry smirked from beneath his hood. "I'll willingly take your lashing tongue, your honor, if it's lashing in my favor."

"If there are no further objections," the justice said, "I do believe we have enough evidence for the jury to deliberate."

Raven watched Mina from the defense stand. She had slumped over in sadness, her outfit now as frumpy and droopy as her face. Crystalline tears trickled from her eyes and dropped to the floor. "Pleaseth..." she lisped. "Somebody help me. Anyone. I didn't do it...."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Raven's mind flashed to a young girl. One much younger than Mina. In fact, so young she was still in diapers. She had tanned skin like him and strong face like her mother. He would do anything for this little tyke. And even though him and Mina were only 13 years apart, she too was just a child in the face of the law.

With a loud squawk and a bold finger thrust in the judges direction, he unleashed a Hail Mary.

"Hoooooold it!"

Everyone in the room, from the judge, the jury, the prosecutor, the audience and even the janitor cleaning up a few French fries someone had dropped on the floor from their lunch took a pause. The birdbrain had something to say.

"Please!" Raven cried, begging the audience to hear his plea. "I want to look at the evidence one last time! If I've learned anything from studying law, sometimes one last look at the evidence and change an entire case!"

"Where'd you learn that?" Larry sneered. "Playing too much Eagle Attorney on your Wintendo PS?"

"Well yeah," Raven said sheepishly. "But come on, throw me a bone here. If not, you can bar me from the rest of this case!"

The judge was silent, but her old eyes sized up the situation. "Very well. You have five minutes and then I don't want another squawk outta you."

"Thank you, your honorable honor!" Raven said. "Now let me see here."

He looked at the murder weapon sealed in a bag, the autopsy report of how Juan Incognito was killed and the circumstances themselves. There was something incredibly off about everything.

First, Mina may have been packing a lot of neon bracelets, but she wasn't one to casually carry a gun. She said she had found it in the back alley...conveniently.

Second, the brand of the gun itself. It wasn't just an Uzi, but one made from a gun dealer in Liverpool called an UK-zi.

It had gone off in the back alley, and Mina was holding it, but...

Thirdy, and this was something that was impossible to ignore:

The bullet entered the back of Juan's head. Mina had said he had cornered her. Unless she had homing magic bullets, there was no way this gun could have shot him the back of the head.

At last, Raven had finished sizing everything up. "I have come to a conclusion your honor. And there is something incredibly fishy going on here. And not just fishy," he narrowed his eyes at Mina's phone with the Duke still on it. "Catfishy..."