Ace Attorney: Andrew Dalmin

   Chapter 2 Part 3

   Upon entering the crime scene, it became quite apparent of just how sketchy the restaurant was.  It had occurred in an alley behind the restaurant.  To describe it simply, it looked almost exactly like how dark alleyways are portrayed in movies.  It was certainly dark, bar a single light by the back door, and it wasn't the brightest light ever.  The alleyway was covered in graffiti, and the walls looked like they were going to collapse.  This certainly was a good place for illegal activity, especially murder.
   Apparently, the prosecutor had meant what he said.  There was not a single policeman around, and the place looked completely untouched, besides white tape around where the body used to be.  To be honest, it was a little worrying.  Granted, what the prosecutor had said sounded like complete overconfidence, but then again Brandon used to have the same overconfidence and he certainly wasn't a pushover.
   "No, Andrew," I consoled myself, "You are not going to win or lose this battle depending on who's better, you are going to win this battle because you have to."
   I began looking for evidence right away.  As I soon realized, not having the police here was actually not as good as I had originally thought.  I had no idea how the man was murdered, what he was murdered with, when he was murdered, and all of those answers had been taken away with the body.  I couldn't help but swear under my breath.  Sometimes, I swear fate loves to mess with me.
  "Why aren't you investigating?" Aaron said, walking up behind me.
   "Aaron, there's nothing here to investigate.  Normally, we'd gather all we could from the policemen, and then use the info they gave us to find anything out of place in the crime scene."
   "Well then why don't we ask...oh."
   Aaron's face drooped instantly.
   "Aaron, Since they're not here to ask, we don't know what to look for.  We might be able to find a few things that could be out of place, but nothing that could be called evidence.  It's pretty much pointless."
   We both stood there for a minute, taking in the whole situation.  This new setback meant that there wouldn't be any sharing of evidence until we were in the courtroom, giving us no preparation time and an even slimmer chance at winning an already impossible case.  Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
  Suddenly, I heard something.  Two voices, at the entrance to the crime scene.
  "Aaron, get behind that box, someone's coming."
  Both of us quickly ducked behind the box, wondering who could possibly be coming to a place like this.  Hilariously enough, one side of the box had been taken out, and peekholes had been drilled into side facing the entrance.  Just how criminal was this place anyways?
  Curious as usual, I went into the box and looked through the peekholes.  It was a woman...no, two women.  One was unusually tall and wore a professional looking uniform.  The other was about average height and was carrying around quite the camera.
  "Are those TV reporters?"  Aaron said questioningly. "What are they doing here?"
  "Shhhh!" I whispered. "Be quiet and listen!"
  We both put our ears against the peekholes and listened.
  "Ugh...this place stinks!" Said one of the women.  "Oh my god, like, they should, like, clean this place out or something."
  Oh no.  Not an obnoxious female, not now.
  "Please stop complaining," said the other woman.  "I dealt with your hour-long complaint about your boyfriend earlier, I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now."
  Finally.  Someone with common sense.
  "Oh fine," said the annoying one with disgust. "It's not like I wanted to be, like, your partner anyways."
  "I wasn't exactly happy about being yours either.  How much perfume did you put on this morning?"
  "Not enough.  It's going to take, like, five hours to like, get this stench off of me."
  "Believe me, it's an improvement."
  "Ugh..."
   Wanting to get a better picture of the two, I looked through the peekhole again.  The normal sized one was fairly skinny, absolutely covered in pink (including her hair), and had enough makeup on to bring Bratz dolls to shame.  The other one had black hair in a ponytail and was much plainer.  She looked fairly mature compared to the other woman, probably the one that wasn't annoying.   The annoying one put her hands on her hips.
   "Like, why are we here anyways?  There's, like, nothing here but garbage."
   The taller one rolled her eyes.
   "You didn't have to follow me.  You can go hang out at the entrance if you want."
   "You could've, like, told me that, like, hours ago."
   "We've only been here for a few minutes."
   "Whatever."
   The annoying one stomped away, and I mean stomped away.  The whole look of disgust, closed eyes, arms straight down.  If she entered a competition on "Most Dramatic Woman in the World", she would at least make second place.
  The taller woman looked around, and then began walking toward us.  Uh oh, this wasn't expected.  I quickly turned to Aaron.
  "Aaron, don't make a sound.  Quiet your breathing if you have to."
  Thankfully, she didn't appear to notice us.  She walked right past the box and headed towards the area where the body had been.  She stopped in front of it and stared at it blankly.  Aaron instinctly attempted to yell at her for touching the crime scene, but I quickly covered his mouth before he could say a word.
  Then, for no reason, she began to cry.  I couldn't help but stare at her.  Why was she crying?  Was she related to the victim?  Was she his lover?  Were they good friends?   Why did she come here?
  "I'm sorry..." she blurted out through snuffles, as I continued to watch in growing curiosity.  Was she confessing something?
  "I know you didn't do it...you were tough, but you never had enough anger to actually kill someone..."
  Wait a minute...does she mean...
  "Everyone says you did it, and I know the evidence points to it...."
  Evidence?  She knows something about the murder?
  "...but I know it wasn't you...I don't care what it looked like, it couldn't have been you.  And yet tomorrow I am going to have to testify against you..."
  Wait, could it be...did she witness the crime?
  "...so I just came here to say that I'm sorry, for everything that's happened to you ever since he left..."
  Wait...what!?  She knows about...was she that...
  "...hopefully, all of this will blow over someday, and we'll be friends, just like we used to be."
  She turned around and walked towards the exit, still crying.  She stopped at the exit, said a few words to her companion, and both of them walked out of sight.  I sat there for a few minutes, putting together everything I had just heard.  She had obviously been apologizing to Brea, my client.  She sounded close to her, although I had never seen her before.  It also sounded like she was a witness to the crime, though she may not have actually seen it.  She was clearly connected to the crime, that much was certain.
  I turned to Aaron, a plan hatching in my head.
  "Aaron...do you know who that reporter is?"
  He nodded.  "She's Jenna Wolf, one of the reporters for the TV station nearby.  Why?"
  I ran my hands through my spike of hair.  "Remember the time I told you about my time in elementary school?"
  He nodded again.  "Yeah, you said you spent most of it spying on girls with a group of boys."
  I grinned. "Time to revisit the past."