Amicus Curiae (Ace Attorney Fanfiction)

Chapter 5: Turnabout Saviour Part 3

Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to the QuoteV user "Heaven is female sane" who requested this update! Thank you for enjoying my story; it makes me really happy that people like it. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

"OBJECTION!" Ariel Payne's voice screeched from the defence's side of the courtroom. I haven't even said anything yet! I thought. What on the world is she objecting to?
"Ms Payne, my witness hasn't even had a chance to testify yet," Mr Edgeworth said, slamming one hand down on his bench.
"Your witness...yes, I'd like to voice my opinions on the credibility of 'your' witness," Ms Payne said, sneering.
"What is the meaning of this?" The judge asked sternly.
"Well, Your Honour, I couldn't help overhearing something before the start of today's trial that I feel I should bring up," Ms Payne began. I had a bad feeling about what she was going to say.
"You see," she continued, "I heard this young lady talking with her parents in the prosecution's lobby earlier. Miss Chime seemed unusually...chipper this morning. I wondered why on earth a twelve year old would seem so willing to come to a dreary old courthouse during a holiday. And just as I had that thought, this child's mother mentioned the fact that this young lady dreams of being a prosecuting attorney when she grows up. Isn't that interesting?"

Just what is she getting at? And what in the world was she doing hanging around the prosecution's lobby? Only prosecutors and witnesses are allowed in there! I wanted to give this woman the same icy glare that Mr Edgeworth was giving her-but I didn't. Because I suddenly got a nasty feeling about where Ms Payne was going with this...

"Ms Payne, ignoring your location within the courthouse for just a moment, just where exactly are you going with this tangent you're going off on?" The judge's face was very serious as he looked directly at Ms Payne.
"Isn't it obvious, Your Honour? She may have dreams of greatness in the courtroom, but at present, little Miss Chime is just a child, who surely cannot grasp the seriousness of this situation, and her duty to the court as a witness on the stand."
Mr Edgeworth slammed the bench again. "Ms Payne, if you have a problem with this witness, just go on and say it! We haven't all day."
"Fine, but you're not going to like it, seeing as you probably went to a few lengths to make sure nobody realised this. This witness...is biased!"
The people in the gallery started mumbling and whispering as soon as Ms Payne screeched those words. The judge banged his gavel and yelled, "Order!"
As soon as the gallery had quieted down, he continued: "Ms Payne, are you suggesting that, as she wishes to be a prosecutor when she grows up, the witness may deliberately give testimony that is favourable to the prosecution, regardless of what she may have seen that would be favourable to the defence?"
"You can't deny that it's possible, Your Honour. Firstly, think about the circumstances surrounding this witness's presence in the courtroom-Edgeworth calls a bunch of other witnesses, only calling this one, who many would say is more likely to be reliable as she is older then the rest, when the trial reaches a stalemate!"

"Ms Payne, need I remind you that we literally had no idea that this witness existed until Avery Yungboi finally explained that he met her after being 'kidnapped by the ghost'?"
"Can you prove that you had no idea she existed until then?" Ms Payne crossed her arms and grinned.
Can I please get on with my testimony? I thought. How dare this woman say that, as if I'm not even in the room, and before I've even had a chance to say anything at all?
"Naturally. By the simple fact that the Chime family were supposed to return to England today," Mr Edgeworth replied, grinning.
"How does THAT prove that you didn't know she-" Ms Payne began, but Mr Edgeworth interrupted her.
"Isn't it obvious? As you said before, this witness is the oldest of the children who went on the tour. Therefore she WOULD have been the first of the children I'd have called, had I known that she existed, especially as she would be leaving during the three day trial period. It was pure luck that Avery brought her up when he did, otherwise she would have left the country before we could hear what she had to say. In short, if I'd planned to take advantage of any bias her testimony may have, as you're claiming I did, she would have been the FIRST witness I'd have called!"

Mr Edgeworth was right; we were supposed to go home today. However, while we were packing our cases at the hotel we were staying in, we were all called down to the lobby and escorted to the police station. My parents had given the detective in charge of the case some statements on the day that the whole thing happened, and we'd been told that we could leave on the day that we'd planned to. But apparently that wasn't enough; they specifically wanted me to testify in the trial of the suspected leader of the smuggling operation that Avery and I had stumbled across. So a new flight had been booked and we'd driven to the courthouse this morning after an early night. The police has said that since I was a child I didn't have to testify if I wasn't comfortable with it, but if they needed more information, then I really had to. I didn't agree to it simply because I would get to stand in a real courtroom, and I certainly didn't do it to make sure that the suspect would get a guilty verdict. I agreed because my testimony was obviously needed to find the truth behind the smuggling operation.

"Ms Payne," the judge said sternly, "given the position we're in regarding this case, and fact that today is the last day of the trial, I cannot allow you to have this witness disregarded, especially as she has not yet spoken. If she does appear to be unfairly biased against the defence, we will surely know it, and THEN her credibility can be called into question. Now, I believe we should adjourn for a fifteen minute recess, and when we reconvene we shall hear Miss Chime's testimony." The judge banged his gavel and stood up from his chair. Ms Payne looked annoyed by this-she'd gone to all that trouble to try to get rid of the prosecution's final witness, which would probably win her the case, and I was still behind the stand. Didn't this woman care about the truth at all? Or did she simply care about winning the case, even if the defendant was guilty?

"The nerve of that woman!" Mum exclaimed. "Who does she think she's trying to fool; it's obvious she's trying to get Cornelia out of the case."
"Yes dear, but at least they're still giving her a chance to testify, and I'd hope so after the trouble we went through booking a new flight," Dad replied.
I agreed with Mum, but I didn't say anything. I was going over what I would say again. Ms Payne would point out anything in my testimony that made it sound like I was just trying to get the prosecution to win the case. Of course I would tell them exactly what happened; I just had to make sure I didn't accidentally say anything like "Teeman must be guilty" or "It had to have been Teeman, it couldn't have been anyone else". I was also taking some notes on the lawyers' courtroom techniques in my pocket notebook, which I took with me everywhere. I kept notes on court cases that had been in the news, and even fictional ones from books and movies that I'd heard about. I was in the middle of writing about what to do if the defence accuses your witness of being biased when the bailiff called us all back into the courtroom. I put my notebook and pencil back in my pocket and followed my parents back in.

When I was back behind the witness stand the judge banged his gavel and announced, "Court is back in session for the trial of Gill Teeman. Miss Chime, are you ready to testify to the court about what happened in the cave?"
I nodded and said, "Yes, Your Honour."
"Very well. Please tell the court about what happened when you discovered the smugglers' hideout."

"We had taken a break so that our tour guide could call someone about the kids that went missing," I began. The judge nodded for me to continue. "I sat down and leant against the wall, but then the wall gave way and I fell backwards. I was pushed backwards and something hit my head, and I think I was knocked unconscious by whatever hit me." I brushed my hair back to reveal the scrape on my head, which I'd discovered in the hotel bathroom mirror later on the day of the tour.
"Oh my!" The judge exclaimed. "That must've hurt."
Mr Edgeworth looked like he was thinking. He paused for a moment and explained, "I'd say Miss Chime was hit by a sharp rock or something similar. While investigating the hideout, a mechanism was discovered that could send something falling onto someone unless the fake wall was pushed from a certain spot. Come to think of it, we did discover a medium-sized rock that had blood on it, however it was previously disregarded as all the other 'blood samples' tested in the cave turned out to be fake blood, such as that sold at costume shops near Halloween. Although the rock was a decent distance from the large pool of fake blood where Avery was hiding, it was ignored as it was thought insignificant."
"Bailiff!" The judge called. "Call the police department and ask them to analyse the blood on the sharp rock discovered at the crime scene. We shall take a twenty minute recess while we wait for the analysis to be performed, then we will reconvene to hear the rest of what Miss Cornelia Chime has to say."