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]

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.

[glassinine]

[There's the sound of typing for a moment, and then - ]

Ah. No. You shouldn't have problems.

[That is said very dryly.]

[beenwaitinglong]

No?

Dare I ask?

[glassinine]

Lambert. He's an incompetent.

[beenwaitinglong]

Oh good. Is that the guy with the bad rug off-center on his head?

[glassinine]

Er - no. He's the one with the large pinky ring.

[beenwaitinglong]

Ugh. What self-respecting man wears a pinky ring?

In any case, I'd like to get this matter settled, but then I think I'd like to look into it a little on my own. Do you suppose there's any way to tell if one of our number might have powers conducive to an act like this?

[glassinine]

Hm. The government has files, obviously, but being as they're keener on winning us over than preserving the lives of their own citizens, I don't think they'll give those up. Asking around, I suppose.

[beenwaitinglong]

I was afraid of that.

Ah, well. It'll be a fun project, we'll say.

[glassinine]

There's a reason I quite detest "fun."

[beenwaitinglong]

[He doesn't even want to comment on that. Why make the jokes when Edgeworth makes them for him?]

I don't know if there's a precedent in this sort of thing. But if I'll be defending it, I'd like to find out.