Birdbrain's Lawyering Co. Mid October, 10:00 AM Wednesday

A brisk October day and Mina sat confined to her desk. She'd rather be pumpkin picking or hay riding in the farmlands outside of Business Park, but instead, she had a brand new case to deal with. At least she has her pumpkin spice latte and a yakking birdbrain to help her.

It was funny to her. She was still defending Santiago, it was only the gender and her true name that had changed.

What did this detective have against either of the Montero's, and especially Monica that made him single her out? The two Montero's were such a team and everything they did was in union, that she concluded one thing: "It had to involve the real Maria Santiago!"

Or did it?

Mina buried her head in a pile of papers on her desk. The young attorney groaned loudly. She was more loco and confused than this case was.

All the while, Raven chilled at his desk with his legs rudely piled on top of it. With his arms behind his head, he didn't have a care in the world. He whistled an insipid tune from the old Mandy Griffith Show.

"Why are you so happy?" Mina asked with a long face. "You know if we don't find out something about this case soon, we're both gonna get the walloping out life from that big bot attorney!"

Raven opened his eyes and smirked. "I like big bots and I cannot lie!"

Mina lowered her eye lids. "Really? Flippin' really? That's all you got for me? Clearly when you studied crime and pun-ishment, all you retained was the puns."

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"Elementary school, my dear Mina," Raven said, pretending to be Hemlock Moans, a world famous fictitious detective. "You're just thinking too hard about this whole case. After all, you are merely forgetting one witness. One guy who could tell you more about this case than anyone else."

"Who?" Mina asked.

And before Raven could say a word, her eyes illuminated. She stuck two fingers beneath her nose and made them curl all while going "haw haw haw!"

She nodded. "Yes yes yes! Of course, but how do you know he's going to tell the truth? If he really killed Jem Diamond, you really think he's not gonna stretch the truth like some kind of croissant dough?"

Raven kicked off of his desk and spun around in his seat, turning like a gambling wheel towards Mina. "Oh I wouldn't just ask him about that, my protege. I think what's more interesting is his involvement in this case. After all, he is so invested that either he has no life...orrrr no alibi."

Mina's eyes sparkled. She say straight up on her seat. It was true. There was one case listed on his Leakipedia article that was mentioned, but no details were available. Apparently, the Toronto police had classified it, but it was the beginning of Croix-Saint's involvement with the police force. Perhaps Maria Santiago was involved too? They had to reach the detective to find out!

"Well," Mina said, "I'm ready when you are to pay a visit to Creepy Croissant's hotel room, Raven?"

"Yeppers!" Raven nodded. "I think it's time to..."

The familiar Ninja Kitty chiptune played dramatically on Mina's phone. "Who could want me now?" she asked with curiosity in her eyes.

It was Ricki Montero. She picked it up. His high pitched whine dramatically cried out to her. "Oh Senorita Mina, it's horrible!"

"What the huh is going on?" Mina demanded. "Are you okay, Ricki?"

Raven smirked. "Maybe his sequins are out of sequence on his new dress."

Mina shushed him. It was hard enough to discern what was going on with Ricki Montero wailing over the phone. "It's horrible! We've been robbed! All of the gems mi hermana stole, they're gone! They've been RE-STOLEN!!!"

"What the what?" Mina said, nearly dropping the phone and cracking the touch screen.

"We were going to return the gems to the authorities, but when I returned home, our apartment was broken into! Oh eets terribleeeee!"

"So..." Mina said at last. "Someone stole from a thief? Somebody get out the ironing board because we've got a mega case of irony to iron out!"