Edgeworth returns to his office only to find it the scene of a murder!  And not just any murder, the murder of a detective!  Gumshoe, I thought you were office-sitting!?

Date:  March 14, 2019
Victim: Buddy Faith
COD:  Gunshot wound
MW: Gun
Guilty: Jacques Portsman 

March 14, 1:16 am

Two figures stand in Edgeworth's office in the dark.  One is shot, and we see Jacques Portsman holding the gun. 

March 14, 2:05 am.  Edgeworth returns to his office after about a month and finds it unlocked.  A dead body lies in one corner of the room and, hidden in shadow, a man with a gun orders Edgeworth not to turn around.  He shoots down Edgeworth's suit display case and then flees the scene of the crime.

Officers arrive at the scene, including Gumshoe, and he and Edgeworth decide it's up to them to head the investigation.  They learn that the victim is Buddy Faith, a detective, and that the murder weapon appears to be his own revolver which was left at the scene.  Only one shot had been fired from it.

As they search the room Jacques Portsman bursts onto the scene, and is very shook up by the sight of his partner dead.  When he realizes that Edgeworth is the office's owner he at first accuses him of being the murderer, but Gumshoe quickly defends him, saying that only he had the office key while Edgeworth was away.  He then accuses Gumshoe, but Edgeworth  manages to calm them both down.  Jacques apologizes for getting too emotional and asks for them to give him a few minutes with his partner; he even asks one of the CSIs to photograph their last moments together. 

Edgeworth and Gumshoe leave him alone, instead investigating the display case holding his old suit (from 3-4).  He points out that because there was only one shot fired from Buddy's gun, it couldn't have been used to kill Buddy and shoot down the case.  There must have been another weapon on the scene, possibly even another person.  Hiding behind the case is a wall safe that only prosecutors know about.  They find that it has been tampered with as if someone tried to break in, but Edgeworth assures that it was empty to begin with, so nothing could have been stolen.  By looking at the safe and the files scattered around the body, Edgeworth deduces that the killer's motive must have originally been theft.

They replace the files on the shelves, and find one in particular that the bullet struck.  However, with the files in order the bullet hole is too low on the shelf to have hit Buddy in the stomach.  Gumshoe suggests that they put the files back incorrectly, because the white files labeled "0" are at the bottom and should be at the top, but Edgeworth insists that's where they've always been.  When they rearrange the files so that "0" is on top the bullet hole matches the coroner's report: for some reason, the killer took the files off the shelves, put them back incorrectly, and then pushed them all off again.

Further investigation reveals that Gumshoe's name has been written in blood on some of the files that were not pushed off.  Jacques resumes his accusations, saying that Buddy wrote the name of his killer just before he died as his final message (sound familiar?).  Edgeworth points out that one of the files with the name written on it is missing: if the killer took one of the files, there's no way he could have missed his name and not done something about it.  Someone must have planted Gumshoe's name on the evidence.

Jacques agrees, and says that if it wasn't Gumshoe, the only other possibility is the security guard who has the building's master key: Maggey Byrde.  He calls her in, and Gumshoe immediately rushes to her defense.  He even tries to confess to the murder to save her, but Edgeworth calms him down.  He reasons that Maggey can't be the killer because whoever it was went right for the hidden wall safe, which only prosecutors know about.  The killer has to be another prosecutor.

Jacques looks nervous for a moment, but then confesses that he told his partner about the safes in each prosecutor office.  He supposes that Buddy stole Maggey's master key and snuck into the office to ransack the safe, but was killed by Maggey when she caught him committing the robbery.  Edgeworth can't refute him immediately, and he, Gumshoe, and Maggey head out into the hall to regroup and collect more evidence.

Hiding under a bench they find the missing file, with some of its pages torn out.  Edgeworth explains they're simply the court records of a case 10 years ago, headed by the prosecutor who used his office before him.

Maggey says she first noticed the master key was missing around 1 am, but it mysteriously reappeared at 2:30.  She had left it sitting out because she used it earlier that night to let a prosecutor into his office when he forgot his key: in fact, it was Jacques.  Because no one is allowed to lend out the master key, Maggey let Jacques into his office at 12, and then he called her back at 1:30 to lock up after him.

Edgeworth points out that 1:30 was during the time that the key went missing, and Maggey admits that she only pretended to lock  Jacques's office rather than admit to him that she had lost the key.  But when Edgeworth investigates the office, he finds that it's still locked.  He also takes note of the fact that the number plate on the office door slides easily, and that Jacques has a basketball hoop set up right outside the door.  Sticking out from under the door is a slip of paper which is signed by Buddy Faith and reads, "I brought the 3 pieces of evidence you mentioned on the phone, but you don't seem to be here so I'll come back later."

Edgeworth has one of the officers nearby dust the doorknob for prints and finds that Maggey's are not on it, so unless someone went to lengths to wipe down the knob Maggey actually did not open the door earlier.  Claiming to know who the killer is, Edgeworth leads them back into his office to face Jacques.

Jacques says he couldn't have killed Buddy because he had no way of getting into the office, but Edgeworth explains it was easy: he switched the number plates on the doors and moved his basketball hoop in order to trick Maggey into opening the door for him.  Jacques objects saying he was in his own room the entire time, but then Edgeworth reminds him of the note slipped under his door from Buddy.

Jacques laughs off Edgeworth's accusations.  He claims that he wiped Maggey's prints off his doorknob himself because he's OCD like that, and that he simply didn't notice the note under his door.  More importantly, he has an alibi: at the time when Edgeworth returned to his office and was threatened at gunpoint, he was at the police station.  Gumshoe checks the alibi and is crushed to discover it's legit.  As the police are about to lead Maggey away Edgeworth goes back through everything he's learned, and comes to one logical conclusion: there was more than one person that broke into his office that night, and therefore Jacques's alibi does not acquit him of the murder.

Jacques challenges him to present evidence, which Edgeworth does not have, so instead he asks Jacques to testify further about his alibi.  Jacques does so, explaining that Buddy brought him 2 pieces of evidence that he needed before he left for the police station.  Edgeworth objects, showing the note again, which indicates there were 3 pieces Buddy brought that night.  Gumshoe searches Jacques and discovers the third piece: a VHS tape with fresh blood on it belonging to the victim.  Completely trapped, Jacques passes out.

Maggey is thrilled to have been exonerated, but not all the mysteries have been solved: they still don't know who threatened Edgeworth and stole the court records from his office.  As they ponder, an officer arrives and delivers a piece of evidence discovered in the room: a black card with a white mark on the front, wich Edgeworth's office number and "retrieve the evidence" written on the back.  Edgeworth and Gumshoe recognize the mark as belonging to Yatagarasu, a famous vigilante thief who disappeared from the public eye seven years ago.  But for the pair of them, the name Yatagarasu is even more familiar...

As a prosecutor himself, Jacques knew that Edgeworth had a wall safe hiding behind his old suit, but was unable to find the documents he needed there.  He also searched the files on the shelves, taking them all off in the effort, and when he replaced them mistakenly put them in the wrong order.

While this was happening, Buddy arrived with the evidence and looked for Jacques in his own office.  When he didn't find him he left a note under his door, but before he could leave he heard someone rummaging around in the supposed-to-be-vacant office next door and investigated.  When he found Jacques trying to rob the place, Jacques stole his gun and shot him in the stomach.

Meanwhile, a second thief reached through the window of the security office and stole Maggey's master key, also intending to sack the office.

Jacques tried to cover his tracks by writing "Gumshoe" on the files, knowing that Gumshoe alone had the office key, and stole  the evidence Buddy had on him before leaving.  What he didn't realize was that because Buddy had had the evidence on him before he was shot, some of his blood got on the VHS.  Jacques asked Maggey to lock up after him, but because she didn't have her key anymore she only pretended to.  Once she had gone Jacques replaced the number plates and the basketball hoop and went straight to the police precinct to cement an alibi.

The second thief came to Edgeworth's office and, finding it unlocked, rummaged through all the files again.  This time he found what he was looking for and took one of the files with the bloody lettering on it, but on his way out Edgeworth returned.  The man threatened Edgeworth with his handgun and disappeared (for now...!).