Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: The Frigid Melody

The Bloodstained House pt. 2

"Good morning, Ms Hill."

When Jack looked up from wiping down her bar, she gave Phoenix the dirtiest look he had ever seen outside his former clients or colleagues.

"Oh," she said unenthusiastically. "Hello."

"Oof." Phoenix cringed as he closed the door behind him and shut out the biting breeze. "That's a loaded greeting. You're mad at me?"

Jack didn't reply, only scowling as she furiously battled with a tea stain on her bar.

"Can't say I blame you," Phoenix continued as he approached her bar and passed the empty chairs and tables. "I'd be mad at me too if I was in your situation."

"Here to check out of your room?" Jack asked without looking up from her bar.

"Yeah, more or less," said Phoenix as he took a seat on one of the stools. "Trucy and I can't leave until the bus swings by, and that won't be until the day after tomorrow, but it looks like it'll be better to hang around the Professor's cottage with Luke."

"So you've heard from her?"

A shock of realisation suddenly rushed down Phoenix's spine. Crap. As far as the rest of the village knew, she was still missing. And she herself had told him to act nervous! What could he say? Could he avoid letting slip that he knew she was alive and well?

"...not yet," he lied, "but I know she must be out there somewhere."

Wait a second. His nervousness at being asked that question... would that work? Would she buy that? She wasn't saying anything or looking in his direction, so it was difficult to tell if she had caught on, but if she hadn't, then he'd be fine, right?

"I trust my daughter, Ms Hill," Phoenix told her, and hoped for once that his confidence came across as forced. "She's clever. Resourceful. Wherever she is, I know she's going to be okay. Especially if she's got the Professor with her."

"You're happy with the idea of your daughter being out in the mountains with a murderer?"

Phoenix didn't reply. The entire village was convinced that Layton was a killer, and by this point, there wouldn't be any purpose to trying to argue about it.

"Gets pretty cold out there at night too," Jack added.

"Oh, trust me," said Phoenix. "I've learned that by now."

"Plus there's the Painted King's horde," said Jack, and she cast another dirty look in his direction.

Hmm, maybe it would be better not to admit that he could see them without looking through a special stone.

"Hey," he said casually, "they're fine if you just steer clear of them."

"It'd probably be more realistic to give up on searching for that girl," Jack said flatly, "and look for what's left of her instead. Check the Horde to see if she's become one of them. With no Minstrel to keep them calm, it'll be even less safe to go out at night than it was before."

Wow. Now she was telling Phoenix that his daughter was most likely dead. He had really lived up to his personal expectation of making every single person here hate him, hadn't he?

"Actually," he said to steer the conversation away from that horrible suggestion, "that's something I wanted to speak to you about."

"You mean how you and your little friend took the Minstrel down from the Pictish Shrine, meaning he couldn't soothe the Horde for the entire night?" Jack demanded, clearly struggling to contain her fury. "And how your actions directly led to the death of our mayor?"