For the curious, this is a canon picture of Edgeworth's phone. In 2018. This fuckin guy.

[glassinine]

"You've reached the voice mailbox of Miles Edgeworth. Leave a message; I'll return your call."

Comments

[beenwaitinglong]

[Yeeeep.

Fortunately, Godot is ready to get off that subject.]

There was something else I wanted to ask you. Your esteemed legal opinion on a client I've just taken on.

[glassinine]

[Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh thank God. Edgeworth responds, just a little too emphatically and a little too quickly:]

Yes! Go on.

[beenwaitinglong]

[Someday, Godot will call up just to compliment him and thank him for things and listen to him squirm. But today is not that day.]

His name is Cameron Sutter, age 21. A college student of no real esteem, member of a fraternity house and overall average party-animal joe.

Last week, Mr. Sutter was caught trespassing in a local software company by a security guard. He was found in the basement server room, busily taking apart an expensive server, shoving pieces of it into a backpack as though intending to steal it, piece by piece.

He's been charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, and of course, burglary.

[glassinine]

[...Curious. Edgeworth frowns slightly.]

The case hasn't crossed my desk. Though if I were to guess, I'd think it were some fraternity hazing.

[beenwaitinglong]

Ah, but here's where it becomes interesting.

Mr. Sutter has absolutely no memory of breaking into the building. He has no recollection of what he was doing there or why he was stealing.

And it gets even better from there.

[glassinine]

...Go on.

[beenwaitinglong]

Mr. Sutter had no idea what he was actually stealing. He's an art major, you see, and quite poor with technology and computers. The server he was dismantling was a highly advanced, highly sophisticated piece of equipment.

It would take someone who knew what they were doing not only to take it apart, but to know what pieces were valuable and important.

[A pause for a sip of coffee.]

[glassinine]

[All right, that part really is interesting. Hm.]

Was he intoxicated?

[beenwaitinglong]

He was tested for the presence of drugs and alcohol by the arresting officer. All that was found was the remnants of one beer he'd consumed four hours prior to the time of his arrest.

Are you ready to hear the real kicker?

[glassinine]

Please.

[beenwaitinglong]

It simply was not possible for Mr. Sutter to have made his way to the basement room the way he did.

He entered through an unlocked window in an office on the second floor, avoided every security camera on the way down, and even knew the security code for the server room, which is changed on a regular basis. Were it not for one last camera catching him in the basement, he wouldn't have been caught.

And yet, Mr. Sutter has never set foot in SoftCo Systems before.

Sheer, blind luck? I find that hard to believe.

[glassinine]

[Well.

That is quite the puzzle.]

Do any of his fraternity members have any connection to the company?

[beenwaitinglong]

Good question. The police have so far found no connections between the fraternity and the company. No parents employed there, not even a janitor.

In fact, there seems to be no connection whatsoever between Mr. Sutter and SoftCo.

[glassinine]

Hm. What about friends? Perhaps Mr. Sutter has contacts amongst the more technologically astute students on campus? Or perhaps not friends - perhaps he had a debt to settle.

[beenwaitinglong]

I thought about that. While it's true Mr. Sutter is quite popular, and knows many of the other students in other departments, his closest friends are in his fraternity. None are what you might call "the type" to be capable of this.

And Mr. Sutter swears up and down that he had no reason to commit the crime, and absolutely no memory of doing it.

It's easy enough for someone to feign ignorance, of course. However...

[glassinine]

How altogether curious. You've impressed upon him attorney-client privilege, of course? That he cannot incriminate himself to you?

[That's not a real question; of course Armando has. It's more Edgeworth marveling over it.]

[beenwaitinglong]

I have.

Mr. Sutter can't afford an attorney, and his parents are, sadly, quite convinced he's lying and refused to help him. So he was passed on to me. We've spoken at length, and he should be more than aware that he can tell me the truth. But the story hasn't changed.

It sounds insane, but I'm inclined to believe him, for some reason. I don't think he was aware of what he was doing.

[glassinine]

Hm. Well. I suppose the next step is to investigate whether there are any among our number with the ability to erase memory, in that case.

[beenwaitinglong]

Ha...!

It sounds ludicrous to even bring it up. But it's the only thing I can think of-- that powers were involved.

[glassinine]

Indeed so. Truthfully, even the thought of resorting to that defense has me...nervous.

[beenwaitinglong]

Yeah. And you're not the only one.

I don't think I'll need to go that far. I have a defendant with no memory nor any ability to commit the crime of which he's accused. The prosecution will have a hard time wrestling with that one.

[glassinine]

Hm. Who's the prosecution on the case?

[beenwaitinglong]

No idea. I guess it's been juggled a bit by people who don't even want to think of getting into this argument.

[glassinine]

Would you like me to find out?

[beenwaitinglong]

If you're so inclined.