Monday, June 2nd

Foley’s Mansion - Security Room

Russi hadn't been kidding; this footage was pretty incriminating. Everyone in the house, aside from Mr. Key, was shown before the crime. There didn't seem to be any way to deny it…

“Play it again.”

No, there was definitely something going on. It didn't matter if it took three times or a hundred times, Apollo would find the missing piece. The reporters had been satiated by the information they got during the trial, and so now there wasn’t a time restriction on the investigation.

Mr. Foley played the footage from the kitchen again, and Apollo watched as Ms. Marshall stormed in, martini in hand, and walked towards the door. And then, inevitably, the screen went dark before anyone else joined her. He sighed.

“Polly, I think we need to look around for something else before we tackle this again.”

As much as he hated to admit it, she was probably right. Still, something was bothering him about this. “Maybe… Maybe there’s something wrong with the security camera?”

“Heh, even though that was nothing more than grasping at straws, you seem to have hit the nail on the forehead, Herr Forehead.”

Yet again, Prosecutor Gavin had appeared behind him. Apollo raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that the camera in the kitchen is, indeed, broken. It looks like someone punched through the lens. How they snuck up on the camera without it seeing them… I’m at a loss.”

Apollo tried to think up a snarky comeback, but gave up after a few moments. He sighed. “What exactly happened?”

“The camera glass is shattered, but there are no fingerprints or anything else that could lead to the culprit.”

Apollo flopped. “Well, that's less than helpful.”

“Ja, exactly my point.”

Security Camera added to the Court Record

Wait a moment… glass… shattered glass…

“Oh! Hang on.” Everyone turned toward him. “Mr. Foley, could you play the footage one more time?”

The actor nodded and started it over. They all watched as it rolled through, Ms. Marshall stalking into the kitchen yet again.

“There!” Apollo suddenly shouted. He pointed with gusto at the screen, as Mr. Foley paused the video. “She has a martini in her hand, but the glass was never found anywhere, was it? Why is that?”

“I… don't know.”

“And this umbrella looks familiar… like the one in the crime scene photo.”

“I've cataloged that as evidence already; it's in the kitchen. Shall we?” Prosecutor Gavin gestured grandly at the door, letting lawyer, who rolled his eyes, and his partner through.

(O)

Monday, June 2nd

Foley’s Mansion - Kitchen

“Here it is.” Prosecutor Gavin pulled an evidence ziplock from the collection of evidence that was sitting on the kitchen counter. The bag held a wet, broken umbrella that most definitely matched the security footage.

Paper Umbrella added to the Court Record

“It probably just fell out of the glass, though, ja?”

Apollo thought for a moment. “No, I don't think so. It's all wet, even on top. It looks more like the whole glass fell, and smashed on the ground. It would've spilled on everything nearby, including the umbrella.”

“I see. That does make sense. But what does it matter? Why would the criminal have gone through the trouble of cleaning up that glass?”

“That's… actually a good question.” Apollo flopped.

Trucy put her hand on her chin. “Well, if we turn our thinking around like Daddy always says, that might help. So maybe we should ask why they needed to instead. What was so special about that glass?”

Apollo ran through all the other evidence that had been tampered with in his mind. The knife, the sink, the camera, the glass… what did it all have in common? “Hmm… what if there was something incriminating about the glass? Something that gave away the true identity of the culprit.”

“Should we be looking for it, then?” Trucy said.

“Yeah, I think so. But I'm not sure how we’ll be able to tell when we find it.”

“Ah, that I can tell you,” said Prosecutor Gavin. “The martini glasses were all handcrafted with a distinctive swirling pattern. When we find it, we can compare it to the glasses that are still intact.”

“Perfect! Then Trucy and I will go start the search.”

The prosecutor nodded. “One more thing, ja? The knife you brought up yesterday… the lab found it consistent with the original stab wound. You were right that it is the real murder weapon.”

Apollo resisted the urge to shout “Yes!” and instead said, “Great,” with a nod in return.

“Ach, and you should probably have a copy of the security footage.”

Security Footage added to the Court Record

Trucy said, “Thanks, Prosecutor Gavin!” and the pair left to begin.

After three hours of searching, they were no closer to finding the glass, and they still hadn’t managed to find out much about Mr. Marshall. Apollo wanted to keep looking, but Trucy was getting hungry and it was getting late. At the very least, they had run into Ema, who had said she would be searching during the trial tomorrow since no one had been successful and it was pretty important evidence.

Eventually, Trucy had managed to drag Apollo back to the Agency, where he looked over the Court Record again and tried not to feel too hopeless.

It didn’t work very well.