“Wait… what?” Violetta asked. “Jaim’s footprints?”

“That’s quite right.” Lyili smiled. “I noticed them in my investigation around the pond. All Brad did was confirm my suspicions.”

Fuck. This wasn’t good. This morning, Jaim was up in the stands, not down on the field. That didn’t leave many other times for him to have been there, especially if they were clear enough for Lyili to identify by sight.

The king scratched his chin. “But… what does this mean?” Was there really a point in asking? It was obvious what Lyili was going to say.

“It means our young thief used the cart to dispose of the body,” Lyili said. “As for who was responsible for killing him, the blame may belong with our two blue haired thief.” She pointed over at the guillotines. “Then again, I’m not ruling the child out.”

“Alright, hold on a second,” I cut her off. “What about the other footprints, huh? Both Sidkik and McGee were there too!”

“Indeed, Sir Allard.” Lyili leaned forward, her smile only growing more annoying. “But unlike the boy, they both have ample reason to have stepped there. They aren’t the ones that need to explain themselves.”

Shit. Why did she have to be all logical about it? Why couldn’t the prosecutor have been Yaika or Minzfel? Or the king? Literally anyone but Lyili, really.

“Okay!” Violetta suddenly shouted. “If that’s how it is, then I think it’s time we hear Jaim’s side of the story!” Wow. Not a bad idea. She was proving to be a better assistant than I would have ever expected.

“Hmm…” the king sighed. “Miss Lyili?”

Lyili crossed her arms. “I have no problem with it, your majesty. Sir Allard has yet to show me why he needed Sir McGee to testify. He’s more than welcome to buy more time.”

Ouch. I was hoping I was a little less obvious than that.

“Very well!” the king said. “Please remove the tape from young Jaim’s mouth.”

Mel walked over to the guillotine with her usual vacant smile. In one motion, she ripped the tape right off of the green haired brat’s face. Only the finest treatment here in demon court.

“Jeez, it’s about freakin’ time!” Jaim screamed, his voice so shrill that my first instinct was to punch him in the face. I would never do that, of course. Not by choice anyway. That said, if he kept being that obnoxious, my body might move on its own.

“Jaim,” I tried to speak a little softer than normal. “You were at the stadium last night, weren’t you?”

Jaim scrunched up his face like someone was trying to force a spoonful of steamed broccoli down his throat. “I might’a been there, yeah.”

“Can you… uh, maybe tell us what you were doing there?” I could feel annoyance already creeping into my voice.

“Please, Jaim,” Violetta added, her kind tone much more convincing than mine. “Just tell us the truth.”

Jaim didn’t answer. Must… not… punch.

Finally, Suza spoke up. “Jaim… you have to trust Mr. Allard and Ms. Violetta, okay?” Once again, much nicer sounding than me. I assumed it had something to do with the fact that they didn’t hate children. Yeah, it was probably that.

“Ugh, fine!” Jaim rolled his eyes. “I was there, okay? I followed Blue Diamond.”

“You followed the… phantom dine-and-dasher?” the king asked. Once again, dining and dashing had nothing to do with this. Why even have words? Clearly it didn’t matter what they meant.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I… saw her drive by the orphanage,” Jaim said. “I’m an expert thief too, so I wanted to see what she was doing. I stowed away inside the van.”

Violetta gave me a worried look. Suza’s van had been in the parking lot, and now he was talking about Blue Diamond’s. There was no way anyone was going to let that pass without even a single comment about how suspicious that was. They had to.

The king narrowed his eyes. “You say… this Blue Diamond woman was driving a van? And you somehow… stowed away in it?”

Yes, here it was. It’s not like I wanted Suza’s secret to be exposed, but this was insanely stupid. Just for the sake of my sanity, I needed someone else to notice how obvious it was.

“Then you weren’t wearing a seatbelt, young man!” the king blurted out. “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt!” Oh my god.

“Wait a minute…” Yaika gasped like she had just won demon bingo. “I think I just noticed something.” Hey, if I had learned anything today, it was that Yaika was surprisingly smart when she needed to be.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“He saw the van drive by, right?” Yaika pointed around the room for some reason. “Sneaking into a moving van sounds extra dangerous!”

“My goodness, you’re right, pumpkin!” Ughhhh.

Lyili cleared her throat. “Safety aside, I find it very interesting that Madam Blue Diamond was also driving a van to the same location where Madam Suza’s was spotted.”

Okay, there we go. Back on track. If anyone here was going to catch on, it was going to be her.

“I can only come to one conclusion to explain this.” Lyili pointed at the guillotines. “Madam Blue Diamond!” Yes! She was going to say it! “You stole Madam Suza’s van to frame her, didn’t you?”

I flipped my table. “Come on!”

The whole room looked at me like I was crazy. Yeah, as if I was the crazy one. Fuck everything.

“R-Ryley?” Violetta asked, taking a huge step away from me.

Lyili actually looked surprised for once. “What… did you do that for?”

“Just forget about the fucking van!” I yelled. “Jaim, where did the van go?” Okay, so technically this was still about the van. Whatever.

“B-Blue Diamond drove it to the stadium…” Jaim said.

“Did she go inside?” I asked, still heaving.

“No… she just sat in the van,” Jaim said, pausing for a moment. “But I saw someone down on the field.”

“Where on the field, exactly? What were they doing?”

Jaim furrowed his squiggly eyebrows. “They were down by the pond with a shovel. After they left, I went down to see what they were doing, but I didn't find anything.” I guess that explained his footprints being there.

More importantly, fucking fuck. “Who was it!?” I shouted. This was my chance to finally turn this around.

“I don’t know…” Jaim shrunk back.

“Come on, any details you can remember!”

“It was just some blob with hair…” Uhh… that was oddly specific. I mean, it’s not like there was a suspect that fit that exact description standing at the stand right now.

“Fuck yeah!” I tried to hit the table, but realized it was still on its side. “McGee, care to explain yourself?”

The room was silent, and it dawned on me that it had been that way for a few minutes now. I glanced around to see everyone staring at me, eyes wide in horror.

I turned to Violetta, who was still standing at a distance from me. “W-What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Violetta squeaked. “It’s just… you’re acting kind of scary right now…”

Scary? I looked to the throne to see the king nervously watching me like some kind of uncaged animal. I guess… the table flipping thing probably wasn’t the best course of action.

“Uhh… I’m sorry, everyone,” I said. “I should have explained. You see, uh, outbursts like that are pretty common in the trials back in my world.” In movies, anyway. “I just wanted you all… to experience a… real trial.”

No answer. Yeah, this wasn’t going to work.

“Hurray!” Yaika put her hands into the air. “Ryley’s not crazy, everybody!” The room let out a combination of relieved sighs mixed with nervous laughter.

“Very convincing, Mr. Allard!” The king laughed. “You really had me going.”

Lyili’s cheeks were bright red, her eyes moving up and down my figure. “Very convincing, indeed…” This must have been that ‘eye undressing’ thing I kept hearing about. It was just a creepy as it sounded.

“You really scared me, silly!” Violetta slapped me on the arm. “Let me know if you’re going to do something like that next time. I’m your partner, remember?” Apparently, it totally worked after all.

“Y-You’re all just too gullible.” I forced a laugh. “C’mon. You know me. I’d never freak out like that for real.” Maximum bullshit overdrive.

“I suppose you’re right.” The king let out a sigh of relief. “Now… where were we?”

“Your majesty,” McGee’s voice cracked. I turned to see his hair frazzled from all the gross slime sweat pouring from his body. “I have… to confess something.”

“Confess something?” The king leaned forward. “Are you confessing to the murder?”

“No!” McGee shook his top half vigorously. “I didn’t kill anyone!”

“Then what are you confessing to?”

“I was out on the field with a shovel because I was, like, burying something…” Yeah, no shit. “Magnets…”

I narrowed my eyes. “Magnets?”

“Yeah, bro.” McGee used his tentacles to smooth down his hair. “I buried them… because I’ve been cheating.”

“No!” Violetta grabbed onto her horns so hard I was surprised they didn’t come off. “This can’t be happening!”