Morix: Web of Mistrust

Turnabout Masquerade, Part 9

November 21

Morix Law Offices

2:10 PM

Yuri Rinko

Deirdre was the one who started off the explanation of the case's events, something I have to admit that I naturally expected her to do given how she usually was about these sorts of things. She had always been the type to take charge, and that rang true even in this situation. "The victim was attacked in the lobby of the agency that we work at. We believe that the culprit was a man with white hair who followed the victim to the scene and used her key to follow her inside. The victim in question is widely believed to be Eileen Liyle," Deirdre began to explain. 

Detective Umber's reaction was immediate, and it sent a shiver sprinting up my spine. Her eyes went wide with shock before she managed to cover it up. "I... I see," she forced herself to say, but I knew that there was something going on. It was as clear as could be given how pale she had been, even if the reaction had only lasted for a second. 

"Is something the matter?" Victoria questioned, seemingly have picked up on the same thing that I had. "You look awfully nervous all of a sudden... If you know something about the case, then you can go on and tell us about it. We can use all of the help that we can get to find the truth, you know."

Detective Umber shook her head. "There's nothing to worry about. I promise. I guess it just surprised me to hear that there was somebody with white hair involved with all of this. You don't see many people with that hair color around here," she explained with a shrug that was trying to lighten the mood but instead only made her look more tense than ever before. 

"That's true," I agreed. The only person that I knew with white hair and pale skin had been Cassidy, but she had been gone for a while now. She didn't fit the description of the victim's assailant either given that her hair wasn't even completely white; it had streaks of black in it before her death. Plus, she was far too small and frail to fit the description. She had supposedly gotten the white hair from our father, not that I would be able to confirm nor deny such a thing. After all, our mother had dark brown hair with pink highlights, something that she passed onto Venus but not me or Cassidy. Then again, who cared to think about my father much? He hadn't mattered for a long time as far as I was concerned, and he wouldn't be important until he crawled out of the hole he had disappeared into shortly after I was born. 

I shook myself free of those thoughts as Detective Umber continued. "Is there anything else that you know about the culprit that might help to put the pieces together?" she questioned. She still seemed nervous, but she was doing a better job of hiding it this time around. She began to fiddle around with a piece of her hair, likely because she wanted something to occupy her hands while she was as anxious as she was. 

"Hm... I can't think of anything," I remarked with a loose shrug. The fact that the culprit was likely on a tight timeframe was one fact, but that wasn't exactly going to do us much good in the long term. Detective Umber was clueless as to the facts of this case. It was why she was asking us about it all in the first place. 

"Would you happen to know anything about the culprit of this case?" Victoria asked. I got the feeling that she was just as sure as I was that Detective Umber was involved with all of this somehow, not that I could blame her for jumping to such a conclusion. Detective Umber seemed so unnaturally anxious, and given how perky and upbeat we were used to her being, it offered a serious case of mood whiplash that didn't settle well with any of us. 

Detective Umber was silent for a long moment, simply staring at us all. When she finally snapped out of her trance, she shook her head violently. "I don't... I don't know anything," she forced herself to say. "Why would I? It's not like I'm all that involved with the affairs of your agency, and if anybody I knew was acting strangely, then I would have noticed it by now. I promise that there's nothing that you should hear about that you aren't already aware of. Everything is just fine."