Chapter Text
Flashlights, screams, forensics - everything is passing by Phoenix without him registering any of it. His eyes, his ears, his entire brain - all of him can only be focused on the red sport car in the parking lot in front of him, behind the yellow bands of the police.
A forensic bumps into him on his way to the crime scene. Phoenix stumbles on his side, almost falling, remembering just in time to catch his balance back. But the sudden crash has the advantage of pulling him back into reality.
Readjusting his suit, Phoenix advances toward the car, but when he tries to go under the yellow band, a patrolman slams his arm on his chest.
- Sir, you can't go there !
- I'm a lawyer, Phoenix mutters, his eyes still locked on the vehicule.
- Sir...
- I... I need to see it...
A huge palm slams on the shoulder of the man in uniform.
- It's okay, pal. He can come in.
Both Phoenix and the patrolman look up at the huge detective in his old trenchcoat.
- Gumshoe, the policeman in uniform protests. What are you...
- He can come in, Gumshoe repeats in a quite angrier tone.
After one last puzzled look, the patrolman lifts his arm up, allowing Phoenix to reach the detective.
- Detective, the lawyer breathes. Is it... is it true ?
Gumshoe's eyes get a frightening dark tint. Phoenix doesn't know if he is burning to know more, or if he is too scared to ask for more. Either way, Gumshoe gravely answers :
- The investigation has just started. But...
The detective turns to the car.
- It surely seems like it.
Phoenix's deglutition gets stucked in his throat, blocking its disgusting taste inside his mouth.
Before he realizes it, his legs direct him behind Gumshoe, to the side of the red sport car. Inhaling deeply, he gathers the courage to glance inside, toward the driver's seat. That luxurious brown leather seat tainted with a sticky dark red fluid.
- Is this..., Phoenix begins before his throat gets too tight for him too continue.
- Blood, Gumshoe confirms with a nod. And a lot of it. 0.5 gallons exactly.
Phoenix feels his spine shivering.
- Maybe... maybe that's not his, he hopes out loud.
- It is, Gumshoe hammers in his ears.
- Maybe...
- All of it. It's all Mr Edgeworth's blood.
Hearing his name out loud puts a dark veil in front of Phoenix's eyes. It's true. It's all true. This morning, in the prosecutor's office's parking lot, as he was heading to the courtroom, Gaspen Payne had stumbled across a young girl fumbling inside Miles Edgeworth's very distinctive car. As he grabbed her by her frail shoulder, he realized she wasn't fumbling, she was cleaning. With a pierced handkrief and some bleach, she was trying to erase the bloodstain on the seat.
That's when Gaspen Payne yelled so loudly that the entire prosecutor's office, up to the top floor, heard him, and the bravest ran to him in the underground parking lot. The girl tried to run away, but with a perfect whip's swing, Franziska von Karma caught her by the ankle, slamming her face first to the ground.
Then they all noticed the red sport car and its seat tainted in blood visible through the factured window. But...
- Where is he ? Phoenix mumbles, fighting back the urge to sob.
Gumshoe shakes his head again.
- We didn't find him. But... with so much blood...
Phoenix hardly swallows.
- So much blood...
So much of Miles' blood. In his car.
A girl, unkown to the entire prosecutor's office, trying to clean it off.
- He can't be, Phoenix weeps as his tears roll down his cheeks. No, he can't...
The world spins around him. His vision blurries, and before he knows it, he is on his knees, in front of the bloody car.
- He... he has a case. He wanted to talk about it. He... he can't be...
He is unable to keep it up. His last sentence dies in his throat at it drowns under his tears. Unable to look at reality anymore Phoenix shuts his eyes tight and locks them with his hand, as his weepings resonate in his ears.
Miles is gone. The culprit has been arrested.
The case is clear. So clear.
Too clear...