Morix: Web of Mistrust

The Theatrical Turnabout, Part 4

May 18

Defendant Lobby No. 3

9:25 AM

Cotoli Morix

Much to my surprise, I was not the first person from the defense team to arrive at the courthouse. Deirdre and Yuri were already there by the time that I walked through the doors to the defendant lobby, and I regarded them with a degree of shock. "I didn't expect to see you two here so soon," I admitted. 

"We were worried," Yuri told me, rising from her seat on the couch. "I guess I was really bothered by what Chrysalis had to say yesterday about the case... This murder was definitely premeditated, but we don't have any ideas as to why that was the case. There are a lot of strange things going on."

"I want to know what happened to get the body moved from the bathrooms to the stage," Deirdre frowned. "The bloodstains wiped up on the bathroom floor are more than proof of where the crime took place, but that doesn't explain how the body was moved all that distance without anybody noticing. It's a problem that I feel we need to find a solution to as soon as possible."

I nodded. "You're both right... I'm hoping that we'll be able to unravel everything sooner rather than later," I told them firmly. I felt a vibration in my pocket, prompting me to look down and pull my phone free of its place snugly between two pieces of fabric. "Detective Erikson just texted me..."

"What did he say?" Yuri questioned eagerly, standing up on her toes to get a better view at my phone. Our height difference seemed clear as day in that moment, though I didn't have much time to acknowledge it. After all, there was limited time before the trial, and if this was about what I suspected it was, then we didn't have a moment to waste. 

I gasped as I read the text to myself. I paraphrased it once I was finished for the sake of the other two. "He got the knife tested by the forensics team. The knife prop we found definitely had something odd about it... The handle was able to detach from the knife itself."

"A removable handle?" Deirdre echoed with a small frown. "That's not the sort of feature I would expect to see on a prop knife like that... Then again, I suppose that if the glue grew unstable, it would be easy to tear apart if you used enough force..."

I nodded. "Yeah. The handle was definitely not removed by normal methods. It would make no sense for the handle to come off naturally... So that means somebody intentionally pulled it off, but that's not all," I told her. "The knife handle... It tested positive for having blood on it. In fact, there was blood all over the handle on the knife."

Yuri let out a gasp. "That... That's definitely important!" she cried out. "If you ask me, that's going to be the perfect way for us to start to unravel the case the prosecution has set up for us. I mean, if we can show that the knife handle was removed, then..."

"Then we can use it to our advantage, yes," Deirdre agreed, finishing the sentence for her. "But that does beg the question... Why was the knife handle covered in blood in the first place? I mean, the blade itself doesn't sound as if it was bloodied at all, so that's rather odd..."

"The fake blade on the knife was covered in Chrysalis' fingerprints," I told the two girls. "That does make sense given that she's supposed to use it in the show, but... You would really expect the prints to be on the handle, and yet, it doesn't sound as if there were any on that area of the knife."

"If you ask me, we're going to have to figure this out as soon as possible. It has to fit into the puzzle somewhere. We simply need to slide the pieces into place," Deirdre said conclusively. She looked to the ground with a light frown. "I'm not sure where this is going to lead us, but we had better figure it out soon... The trial is going to be starting soon, and it might be best if we went in with our ducks in a row."