Sunday, June 1st

Detention Center

Something about that kid still didn't sit right with Apollo. He seemed nice, except for that outburst at Athena. What right did he have…?!

Either way, he was pulled out of his thoughts when a man entered on the other side of the glass. He was relatively short, only about an inch taller than Apollo himself, with fading orange hair and warm blue eyes. The lawyer had expected him to be much younger, but he could easily see the streaks of gray in the man's hair. "You must be the attorney I had my son find." He spoke with a Scottish accent so faint it was almost buried, and a serious, almost monotonous, tone.

He nodded. "Apollo Justice. Nice to meet you."

The man returned the favor. "Locklan Key. Hello, Chase," he said, with a sad little smile. "Sleep well?"

The boy seemed a little ashamed as he responded without meeting his father's eyes. "Hey, Dad. Mostly. You?"

"It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. And you, Trucy? It's been awhile since you were over for that science project. How have you been?"

She grinned, lifting the mood in the room. "I've been good. That thing brought my grade up by a whole letter!"

"Glad to hear it."

After a short pause, Apollo asked, "So, Mr. Key, could you tell us a little about what happened?"

He closed his eyes. "The party Art threw for his new movie ended when the police showed up to investigate the death of Myrtle Marshall." Apollo heard Trucy whispering to Chase about how they were not only friends with a movie star but on nickname terms, and he ignored them as Mr. Key began to speak again. "Most of the guests were outside, but I had been in the house so they decided to question me. I was let go and went home, but the next morning they arrested me for the murder."

"What about during the party?"

"I had been talking with the writer of the original book for an hour or so, when we were interrupted by shouting and Myrtle stomping by. About a minute after she passed, I realized I needed to use the restroom and excused myself to do so. Before I got back, the author had discovered the body." He frowned. "I'm the first to admit that I have no alibi."

Apollo sighed. No alibi certainly wasn't helping things. On the bright side, though, at least this client didn't have a family who might kill him, a language barrier, an irrational fear of the outside, or any reason to think he might be a demon. "I have one more question for you."

"Fire away."

"Did you kill Mrs. Marshall?" The look on Mr. Key's face was convincing, but Apollo surreptitiously grabbed onto his bracelet to make sure.

"Even though she wasn't a very likable person, I would never do such a thing."

Good. Nothing seemed out of place. Apollo nodded. "Then I'll be happy to take your case."

The man breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you." He turned to his son. "Chase, stay out of of trouble, now."

"Heh. Heh heh. Don't worry, Dad." This time, Chase was definitely not meeting his father's gaze. Apollo didn't need the constriction of his bracelet to tell him the boy was hiding something.

Mr. Key raised an eyebrow but said nothing other than, "Goodbye, and good luck," before he was escorted back to his cell.

As soon as he was gone, Trucy pressed. "What trouble did you get into already?"

"None!" Chase responded. Apollo's bracelet didn't agree.

"You do realize that your nervous tic is super obvious, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The boy deliberately avoided their eyes and tried to walk out of the room casually.

"We can both see subconscious movements people make when they're nervous and not confident about what they're saying. It's pretty clear that you're hiding something." The pair followed, Apollo chipping in. He was interested to see if this secret confirmed his earlier suspicion.

Chase sighed. "I, uh, kinda had an outburst at a news reporter and everyone in the city is now out to get me."

Both of the others recoiled. "What happened?!" Trucy prodded.

"This one reporter was being really rude about my dad and I kinda snapped and yelled at him that my dad was completely innocent. On camera. Live. And now that everyone knows I'm the son of the man they think killed Tom Marshall's wife they all hate me."

Apollo flopped. Great. So his family won't kill me but the entire city might. Is it too late to walk away and find a calmer case?