"Yeah, well, that still doesn't prove Bobby did it!"
"We've only been looking at suspects who were at the Ritché during the murder."
"Any officer from Truncheon Tower could have done this crime!"


"I'm sorry, Ple- Promethea."
"Robert has been an excellent detective in all the time I've known him."
"I don't wish to condemn him, but... you're wrong."




"As you can see from the car park footage, he's the only one who approached the body."
"He's the only one who had the opportunity to plant the stopwatch."


"B-but... Well, what if-"


"No, that's enough."
"Really hoped I could get away with this one, but Kerberos is too sharp for that."
"I admit it. I killed Bux."


"No!"
"I trusted you! We trusted you!"


"I'm sorry. But I have no regrets."

[Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbMDthff1zc]


"Here. I want this added to the court record."

It was an old case file, for 'Lea Marple'. Noxx read over it, quickly becoming surprised.


"Why, this case... It bears many similarities to the present one!"
"It was deemed a suicide. The victim jumped to her death from a tall building."
"Her time of death was confirmed by a stopwatch on her person."
"Simple coincidence so far, but there's more..."
"The autopsy report noted 'unusual damage' to the head."
"It doesn't appear the matter was looked into any further, however."


"That file... It's my mother's case file."
"The similarities go deeper than that."
"The official story is that she committed suicide, but that's a lie."
"She was murdered. Shot through the head."

"I looked into it myself, off-record."
"The official conclusion never sat right with me."
"Eventually, I learned the truth..."
"She was murdered by a hitman. We actually managed to arrest him a while back for an unrelated crime."

"The one who hired him, however, was Bux Biggson."
"You're all well-aware of the influence that man wielded."
"It was a simple matter for him to hurry the case along."
"Get it closed as a mere suicide."

"I imagine my mother had gone to him after the divorce."
"Brook, my 'father', had cut her off financially. She was facing ruin."
"She probably requested financial support from her ex-lover."
"Of course, Bux was a money-grubbing bastard. He wouldn't have agreed to anything."

"Perhaps then, mother tried to threaten him."
"My existence was proof of their affair. She could go public and cause a scandal."
"It's enough of a motive for him to have had her killed."
"Would keep her silent. Hiring a gunman's cheaper than paying a blackmailer."

"No-one else thought anything was strange."
"It was all too easy to believe she'd committed suicide due to the divorce."
"Of course, I felt otherwise, so spent years investigating by myself."
"I hoped I could assemble a strong enough case file to put Bux away, like I did Brook."

"Reality wasn't so kind."
"Didn't matter what I found out, who I talked to, what I did."
"Bux was too powerful for the law to bring down."
"Oh I got close; closer than anyone, I'm willing to bet. But it wasn't enough."

"That's when Mr Pink came to me with an offer."
"If the law couldn't touch him, I could only take justice into my own hands."
"Mother's murder was just the tip of the iceberg. He had a number of criminal acts to his name."
"He was a monster, and one way or another, he needed to be stopped."

"I wasn't willing to settle for just killing him, though."
"I wanted him killed the same way my mother was."
"That way, when the partial truth of his death came to light, so too would hers."
"The world would see what really happened to her, and that he'd been the one to do it."

"On top of that, while I didn't want to be caught, I couldn't let someone else take the fall."
"That's where Deid came in."
"A crazy plan, I know, but I wanted to pin the blame on someone beyond punishment."
"It was supposed to become clear after just a bit of research that 'Deid shot Bux'."
"That way I could show the connection to mother's murder without outing myself as Bux's killer."
"Ella and Aiden, as usual, got in the way of that... So, instead, we got this song and dance."

"Still... even with all that planning, I... got cold feet."
"In my original plan, I'd be seen at the soirée at the 'time of death', and that would be that."
"Bux would go up to the roof, alone, then later it would seem like he'd jumped to his death."

"Once at the soirée, however, I... I just had to have one last conversation with the man."
"It wasn't part of the plan, and could have even jeopardised it, if anyone saw me go up there."
"Well, actually, that is what happened in the end. I really made a mess of things."
"But I just had to try. I had to see if there was, somehow, any hope of redemption in him."

"Of course, I was sorely disappointed."
"He was just the same as he always had been."
"All the conversation did was strengthen my resolve."
"You know how it went from there."

The courtroom was silent after that. Promethea looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't put it in words. Kerberos had his head bowed, hat obscuring his eyes.


"Truly, a tragic tale..."
"There is much to unravel there, it seems."
"For now, though, I have received a clear confession."
"I shall not prolong this trial."
"With a heavy heart, I find the defendant, Robert Milverton..."

Pat: 2
Edgar: 2
Kris: 0
Maria: 2
Light: 1
GUNS: 3
Akari: 1
Mai: 2
TV Head: 1

Winners: Pat, Edgar, Maria, Mai
SUPER WINNER: GUNS