Morix: Web of Mistrust

Turnabout Masquerade, Part 15

November 22

Morix Law Offices

4:30 PM

Victoria von Graye

I found myself feeling rather strange as I returned to the agency. Everything just felt off somehow, but I knew what the reason was despite my best attempts to ignore it. It had to be due to everything that we had learned over the course of the past day. The trial and its aftermath had been a chaotic matter, and it grabbed me away from my regular life and pulled me into something that I didn't know how to describe. It was a mess, to say the least, and I didn't know how I was supposed to respond to it. I guess that numb was the best way to describe my initial reaction given that I hadn't actually responded internally quite yet. I knew about what had happened, but it was hard to actually tell myself that it was real and not just some twisted fantasy that I had conjured for myself. 

"We need to talk to Detective Umber as soon as possible," Yuri announced, pulling me away from my thoughts. I nodded my agreement and began to scan the area with my eyes. She had to be around there somewhere. It was just a matter of pinning down where she was precisely. I found myself frowning soon afterwards when locating Detective Umber proved itself to be more difficult than I expected. 

Yuri suddenly gasped and began to tap on my arm rapidly. I glanced down and noticed that she was pointing towards a large hat that stuck out among the crowd of investigators, and I knew that had to be Detective Umber. Her hat was large enough to be seen from a decent distance away, and I didn't know of anyone else who would ever even dream of wearing something that big on their heads. I didn't know how she was able to keep herself balanced with all that extra weight on her shoulders, but I decided that it was best to not think about. It was probably only going to give me a headache in the end anyways. 

We approached Detective Umber carefully, and I noticed that she was deep in conversation with Prosecutor Umber. I hadn't been expecting the man to be there as well, but given that they were twins, I supposed that it wasn't as far-fetched as I would have thought. He wasn't on the case, but then again, neither was she, so this was part of the deal, it seemed. 

"I don't think that we should be doing this anymore," Detective Umber was saying in a low voice. She had stepped away from the rest of the crowd, and Prosecutor Umber was listening to her carefully. "It's been so long since we started, and... I don't know. It just doesn't feel right. If you ask me, we're betraying everything that we should be against. You've noticed it, haven't you? He's changed, and that should be our cue to pack up and get out as quickly as we can. What if something happens when we aren't paying attention? This is an awful situation for us to be in, and we have to escape it."

For a long moment, Prosecutor Umber was silent, and I knew that neither one of them had noticed us quietly approaching yet. "You're sure of this? You don't think that you're mistaken?" he finally asked when he managed to pull himself together. There was something strangely urgent to his voice that struck me in an odd way, and my stomach tied itself into a knot as soon as I heard how intense his words were. Just what was he talking about?

Detective Umber nodded furiously as soon as she could. "Yeah, I'm positive. I saw him walking out at the time that he would have had to if he was going to do something like this... I even checked the clock because I wondered why he was leaving so soon. There aren't any other possibilities as far as I'm aware. He did this, and we have to make sure that everyone knows it. His goals aren't worth it. There's a chance that they never were. What loyalty do we have to him anyways? Some distant connection that we were never given the chance to explore? It isn't enough for me," she told him. 

Prosecutor Umber was silent for a long moment before he nodded. "You're right. If this is what you think is for the best, I'll come with you. I've had my doubts for a while, but I was afraid of what would happen if I said anything. Fine. If you think that this is what we need to do, then you can consider me at your side," he replied.