Ace Attorney: Quiet after the Hurricane

Turnabout on the Waves, Part 3

May 29

Rhiza Lake

11:50 AM

Chrysalis Starr

We ran into Cassidy standing on the edge of the lake near the largest dock in the area. There were roughly twenty boats all tied up there, but none of them stuck out as looking too peculiar. She was staring down at the ground in silence, so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice us at first. It took a small tap on the shoulder from me to get her to turn around, but even so, her gaze was distant, like she still wasn't entirely present. "Hello, Chrysalis," she said with a small smile. She looked at Lily briefly before refocusing on me. Cassidy and I had a few things in common, one of the notable ones being how shy we could be around people we didn't know. I knew that was effecting her now since Lily was here. I'd just have to step up and introduce them, it seemed.

"You must be Cassidy Rinko," smiled Lily warmly. "My name is Lily Shield. I'm the lead attorney on this case. I take it that you already know Chrysalis here. We're working to defend your friend Neptune. We'd really appreciate it if you could tell us about what you saw the day of the murder. Could you do that for us?"

Cassidy's shoulders relaxed slightly. Lily's sweet approach was already making her feel better from what I could see, which made me happy. I didn't want Cassidy to be upset. Yuri would get mad at me over it. "Um... Sure..." Cassidy told us quietly. I could tell that she was still thinking about other things, but I wasn't entirely sure how to go about addressing it. Then again, I had known her for years, so perhaps the direct approach would be the best way to go.

"Is something wrong, Cass?" I asked, a frown on my face. "You seem a bit out of it today. Are you feeling sick at all?"

"No, nothing like that... I'm just a bit tired," Cassidy told me with a shake of her head. "I've been here for ages now. I just want to go home and rest for a little while. The police haven't questioned me in a few hours, so I feel like I should be able to leave, but they don't really want me to... I've tried to call Ghastly to get him to pull some strings, but it hasn't been working. He isn't answering his phone, so I've just been stuck here." She let out an exhausted sigh.

I shook my head with disproval. "Who here wants to bet that he's asleep and hasn't picked up his phone since he's been too busy sawing logs?" I asked. Cassidy let out a small but forced giggle and raised her hand. Even if she was still tired, I was glad I could at least get a smile out of her.

"If you would be so kind, could you tell us about what you saw at the time of the crime?" Lily questioned of her. "You seem to be friends with our client, at least from what she told us, so you'd be happy to explain it all, right?" I could tell she was trying to make Cassidy laugh a little bit since she was picking up on the tense atmosphere. I wasn't entirely sure if it would work since Cassidy warmed to people rather slowly, but it was at least worth a shot.

Cassidy nodded, though she didn't laugh. "I was here yesterday as moral support for Neptune. She wanted to talk to a detective that was here to watch a boat race, but she didn't want to come alone. I offered to go with her. We eventually found him and started to talk to him, but he was obsessed with wanting to see into her bag. Neptune refused to let him inside of it, saying that it was her private business, but the investigator didn't seem to care. She eventually stormed off, but I followed her. We were going to leave right afterwards, but he managed to get her bag while we were starting up the car. You see, one of the tires was a bit deformed, so we had to use a pump in her trunk to fill it out again. Her car is a bit old and beaten up, so she's used to having to carry around stuff to fix it," she explained. "She's got all sorts of stuff in her trunk. It was a bit messy though since she isn't exactly the most organized of people, so we had to dig out the pump before we could work to fill out the tire. The bag had been just at her feet, but he had snuck up behind us while we were looking through the trunk."