|
|
|
The papers say Phoenix Wright lost his case defending Maggey Byrde in another murder. Funny thing is, Phoenix never took that case. Is there really an imposter attorney running around? Phoenix appeals Maggey's case to get to the bottom of it.
Date: January 6th through
8th, 2019 Phoenix and Maya are catching up after New Years when Gumshoe busts in, and he's not happy. He shows off an article, published last month, that talks about lawyer Phoenix Wright losing a murder case--the defendant being former police officer Maggey Byrde. Phoenix claims he didn't take a case last month, but Gumshoe and Maya convince him that he has a responsibility if someone is using his name. As Gumshoe returns to the station Phoenix and Maya go to the detention center and meet with Maggey. Since leaving the force Maggey has been working as a waitress at the French restaurant, Trés Bien. She was working one day last month when she noticed two men talking; one of them slipped something into the other man's drink, who died shortly afterwards of poison. She passed out from the shock and when she woke up the police arrested her, claiming to have found the poison vile in the pocket of her apron. During the trial there was a witness, but he didn't see the other man that Maggey did. The restaurant owner didn't, either, and she was pronounced guilty. Phoenix asks about the lawyer who defended her, and Maggey admits that he didn't really seem like Phoenix except for the spiky hair and blue suit (he was taller and talked with a Brooklyn accent). Apparently no one in court questioned that it might not have been Phoenix, either. That's the judge for you. Phoenix visits Trés Bien, but it's empty, and all he finds at first is a newspaper with the words "MC Bomber" and "$100,000" hand written on it. He takes it back to show Maggey, who tells him that "MC Bomber" was the name written on a CD case that the victim had. Back at the restaurant, Phoenix finally meets the owner, Jean Armstrong--a giant pink man who spouts French. He claims to have been in the kitchen when the murder took place, and only came out when he heard Maggey fall over. He didn't see the second person Maggey claims to have seen, but one of his regular customers was there, and witnessed everything. When Phoenix asks what possible motive Maggey could have had for killing the man, three Psyche locks pop up, but before he can try to break them he realizes the magatama has gone missing. He and Maya head to Vitamin Park in search of the witness Armstrong mentioned. They meet Victor Kudo, an old man who comes to the park to feed birds. He's currently looking for employment and isn't very helpful. When Phoenix goes back to mention this to Armstrong, he gets the wrong idea and hires Maya to be his new waitress. Maya gets dragged off. While she's busy, Phoenix goes back to the station and talks to Gumshoe, who explains the victim in the case was Glen Elg, a computer programmer. It was the first time Glen had set foot inside Trés Bien, but apparently Maggey had a good motive for killing him, as proved in the last trial. Not only could no one account for the second person Maggey claims to have seen that day, they also couldn't find the MC Bomber CD she'd insisted was at the scene. Godot will be prosecuting the appeal. Phoenix returns to the restaurant, and runs into a creepy-looking woman dressed in black and wearing bandages. She quickly leaves without saying a word, and then Maya pops up, dressed in the Trés Bien uniform. She insists that Phoenix try some of the food, which turns out to be truly awful. A search of the kitchen uncovers Maya's magatama, and also a bunch of bottles of aromatherapy oils that Armstrong was giving out as promotional gifts. Among the bottles is a green one with a slightly different shape and no label. Phoenix takes it as evidence. Back at Vitamin Square, Phoenix finds a pink moped with twisted handle bars and a broken headlight. When he tries to inspect it, a man shows up with spiky hair, a red tiger shirt, and a very orange tan. Phoenix tries to introduce himself, but the man shouts "I'M PHOENIX WRIGHT" and rides off on the moped. Phoenix then talks to Gumshoe back at the station, and hands over the strange bottle he found in the Trés Bien kitchen. Armstrong is starting to look more suspicious, as Gumshoe relates that the chef is actually $500,000 in debt. Phoenix returns to Vitamin Square to talk with Victor, and by picking his Psyche Lock reveals that Victor goes to Trés Bien often so that he can see the waitresses in their skimpy uniforms. Armed with a new idea, Phoenix drags Maya over, who calls Mia. Victor turns giddy and cracks. He admits to having witnessed the murder, but he didn't see Maggey's mystery customer. He does tell Phoenix, though, that Armstrong is a kleptomaniac with a criminal record. He even writes a small haiku saying as much, which Phoenix takes back to help break Armstrong's Psyche lock from earlier. It turns out the "motive" for Glen's murder is that just before his death, he won the lottery, worth $500,000. He even shouted "I won!" when he heard the numbers announced on his walkman. The winning ticket disappeared after the murder, but Armstrong swears he doesn't have it (he did try to swipe it, but ended up taking the wrong one). Phoenix accuses Armstrong of killing him for the winning ticket, and Armstrong tries to explain, but then Godot shows up and interrupts with his usual trash talk. Day 2 First day of the trial. Godot is as hostile towards Phoenix as ever. He calls a rather nervous Detective Gumshoe to the stand, who sets up the details of the crime. Glen Elg, computer programmer for the company Blue Screens Inc., was murdered sometime between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, having been poisoned with potassium cyanide in his coffee. Maggey was the one that brought the coffee to him, and the only other people in the restaurant at the time were the chef (Armstrong) and Victor. Phoenix tries to argue that maybe Glen didn't actually drink from the cup, and was poisoned some other way, which gets him a face full of Godot's coffee. Godot shows a picture of the cup which clearly shows lip marks on the edge. It also has the victim's fingerprints on it. Godot then presses Gumshoe for the motive - the $500,000 lottery ticket, which was discovered in her apron pocket. Godot presents the apron itself where the ticket was discovered, along with a brown vile of poison. The apron is stained with coffee and something red, and when the Judge questions if it's blood, Godot doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. He yells at Gumshoe for not telling him about something that important, though it turns out the stain is just ketchup (leading to Godot's infamous, "Do that again, and I'll make you drink 17 cups of ketchup!" line). Phoenix finds it strange that Godot didn't notice the red stain on the apron, but then the court proceeds. Gumshoe continues his testimony. He explains they were able to identify the victim based on a bag of prescription medicine that was found at the scene - it had Glen's name on it, but the medicine itself was missing. Phoenix tries to argue this missing medicine might be the source of the poison, but is quickly shot down, as the medicine was actually for Glen's busted ear drum, and was not meant to be ingested. Convinced that the case isn't quite as open and shut as it first seemed, the Judge asks for the next witness. During a short recess, Maggey is furious with Gumshoe for having given such damaging testimony to her. She calls him a traitor and never wants to see him again. Back in court Victor takes the stand, and testifies that he saw Maggey slip a white powder into Glen's cup just before serving it. Through some pressing of what the waitress looked like, Victor confesses he only saw the uniformed waitress from behind. Then, when questioned about Glen, Victor claims he was flipping through the newspaper with his right hand, and drank from his coffee with his left. With his left hand also, he adjusted his radio earpiece (it was only in one ear). Phoenix objects - not only does the lip marks on the coffee cup indicate he used his right hand, Glen's left ear was the one with the broken eardrum. Victor must be mistaken. Victor's testimony is called into question. He tries to add that when Glen fell over the table, dead, he knocked over a flower vase that soaked the table. Phoenix shows a picture of the crime scene, which shows the vase completely undisturbed. The Judge decides he's seen enough and adjourns for the day. Phoenix and Maya return to investigating. They go to visit the police station, but Gumshoe isn't around and everyone is in a panic over something. They discover the detective instead at Trés Bien, listening to the lottery numbers being played over the radio. They always announce winners just after 1:30. He gives Phoenix directions to Blue Screens Inc., the victim's place of work. The owner is Lisa Basil, who invites Phoenix to have a look around. He discovers a calendar at Glen's work station with "Meet with Tigre" written on the date of the murder, along with a couple Psyche Locks on Lisa. Phoenix and Maya return to Trés Bien just in time to hear the scary woman in black from the day before threatening to burn Armstrong's restaurant down if she doesn't get what she wants. After she slips out, Armstrong is convinced to explain - he borrowed $500,000 from the loan company Tender Lender to help with his restaurant, and is now in debt and under their thumb. The owner of Tender Lender is Furio Tigre, a short tempered Brooklyn man with a pink moped. On the way to pay a visit Phoenix runs into Gumshoe, who's being called back to the precinct on some emergency. He gives Phoenix a lunch set of wieners and rice to give to Maggey on his behalf. At Tender Lender they run into the scary woman again, introduced as Violetta. As she makes tea for her guests they snoop about and find the MC Bomber CD Maggey remembers from Trés Bien, as well as a pack of Trés Bien matches. They slip out before Tigre can come back. On the way they meet Victor again, who insists his testimony that day was exactly what he remembered. He also adds that he was the one that called the police the day of the murder - Armstrong ordered him outside to do it, and it took him at least five minutes to find a phone booth. Thus, Armstrong was alone with the body for some time. Phoenix can't find Armstrong to confirm, so he heads to the detention center. Maggey refuses to eat the lunch Gumshoe sent her, so Phoenix and Maya chow down instead. Back at the police station, they discover the emergency Gumshoe mentioned was due to the police's computer systems being ravaged by a virus. In fact, it's MC Bomber. The police had been threatened with such a virus before by some underground criminal organization, and now they're desperate to find out who created and sold the product. Back to Tender Lender. By searching a blue suit in the corner that looks suspiciously like Phoenix's, Maya uncovers a lawyer's badge made out of cardboard - Tigre is certainly the imposter. On cue he shows up, and displays a startling amount of sucking-up in Violetta's presence. Once he leaves, Violetta explains that she owes Tigre her life and would do anything for him. Four months ago, she was involved in a near fatal car accident, and it was Tigre who came to her rescue. When Phoenix tries to get more details a bunch of Psyche Locks pop up. Phoenix has to leave those at first, but learns through Gumshoe that Violetta is actually Viola Cadaverini, the granddaughter of powerful crime lord Bruto Cadaverini. The Cadaverini Syndicate controls the underworld and is untouchable as far as the police are concerned. Not people to be messed with! Back at Blue Screens Inc. Phoenix breaks Lisa's Psyche Locks. It turns out that Glen was an avid gambler, which left him very much in debt. He had to borrow $100,000 from Tigre, and in order to pay him back, created the MC Bomber virus to be sold on the black market. Another search of Tender Lender turns up a repair bill hidden under a Daruma doll. Phoenix uses it along with his other evidence to break Viola's locks. In her accident, Viola hit some kind of motorbike, and would have died if not for expensive surgery that Tigre paid for - on million dollars. Viola wanted to believe that Tigre paid because he cared about her, but the truth is HE was the one she hit (as a bad ass loan shark, Tigre could never be injured by something as puny as a car hitting him on a cheap moped). Viola's grandfather blamed Tigre for the accident and demanded he pay the expenses. Tigre could never stand up to the Cadaverini and was forced to comply - he was more scared for his life than he was concerned at all about Viola. When Viola admits this to Phoenix and herself, she hands over the medical records as evidence. Tigre had to pay back all the money by the end of last year, necessitating he do something awful... Phoenix tries to talk to Armstrong at Trés Bien again, but is interrupted by Tigre. Tigre admits he doesn't give a damn about Viola and demands Phoenix give back the medical records. Phoenix refuses and takes a nasty punch, but just before Tigre can burn the evidence Gumshoe shows up. With plenty of mob-busting experience under his belt Gumshoe keeps Tigre busy while Phoenix and Maya make their escape with the evidence. Day 3 Before court, Gumshoe makes an appearance, apparently in one piece. He finally has results on the mystery bottle Phoenix discovered with Armstrong's oils the first day of the investigation. It's Glen's missing ear medicine, but what was it doing in the kitchen? There are fingerprints on the bottle but they weren't able to determine whose. Armstrong is called as the first witness. In order to clear up the mysteries from the day before, he explains that the day of the murder there was a huge mirror set up in the restaurant, and that's why everything Victor saw was on the wrong side. But Victor was right about where Glen's eyepiece was - his hands and radio were the parts under contention. Phoenix breaks through Armstrong's testimony and proves there was no such mirror. The inconsistencies between Victor's testimony, Maggey's story, and the evidence still stand. The only solution is that the two witnessed different events - the murder Victor witnessed was a fake! Someone pretended to be Glen, and that's why his earpiece was in the wrong ear. There was also someone pretending to be Maggey, so that Victor would witness a waitress putting poison into the cup. Armstrong tries to argue there wasn't time - Victor entered the restaurant just after Glen, who died only a few minutes after that. He speculates this was just after 2:00 pm. But Phoenix reminds them of the lottery program Glen was listening to. They always announce the winners at 1:30. If Glen didn't come in until 2:00 or later, why would he be listening to a radio show that ended half an hour ago? In a ear he'd just gone deaf in? The entire crime that Victor witnessed contradicts the facts. Godot demands to know what then happened to the REAL Glen. Phoenix argues Glen was already dead by then, hidden in the kitchen. His ear medicine was discovered there, having probably fallen out of his pocket. When pressed further Armstrong admits to helping accomplish this, but insists he was forced to. Phoenix guesses it was Tigre, and court is suspended for a few minutes so Tigre can be found and brought to the stand. During the break, Gumshoe takes back the medicine bottle with the mystery prints, determined to get it examined as the final evidence. Tigre takes the stand. His roaring sends Maya and the Judge diving under their desks. He claims to know nothing about the murder - he sat at his office all day. Phoenix points out that Glen supposedly had an appointment, but Tigre claims they were supposed to meet at Tender Lender and Glen never showed. He's never even been to Trés Bien - a lie Phoenix quickly shoots down with the pack of matches. Phoenix continues to drive home his point that Tigre is the culprit who set up a fake crime scene, with the help of the "waitress" Viola. After some more hiding under desks Tigre demands motive. Glen owed $100,000, due that very day. But then he won the lottery - he could have easily handed over the ticket and that would settle everything. Tigre had no reason to kill him. But Phoenix shows that Tigre actually was in need of a million dollars, fast. The Black Market MC Bomber would be worth at least that much, and would have paid off all his debt. THAT was the real motive. And then, in order to assure he wouldn't be suspected, Tigre set up Maggey and even defended her in court to make sure the crime was pinned on her. Everything fits. Except there's no conclusive evidence. There's still no proof that Tigre put poison in Glen's coffee. Just as the Judge is getting ready to state a verdict, Gumshoe charges in with his evidence! Back in the defense lobby, Gumshoe hands over the green medicine bottle. It has Tigre's fingerprints on it, but because the bottle didn't hold poison it can't be used as decisive evidence. Still, Phoenix accepts it and decides to play a bluff. Back in court, Phoenix presents the bottle. He tells Tigre, "We all know what's in this bottle, and your fingerprints are all over it." Tigre scoffs. He tells Phoenix that doesn't prove anything, since it can't be the bottle of poison - it was in a brown bottle, not a green one. Tigre gives himself away: he couldn't have known what kind of bottle the poison was in unless he used it himself. Tigre is hauled off, and Maggey is declared innocent. Though Gumshoe is still too ashamed to face her, Maggey this time accepts the lunch he prepared for her as they celebrate her freedom. |
|
|
