Chapter Text
Edgeworth had used what he called 'mind chess' in quite a few cases at this point, both for merely legal purposes and whenever he just wanted to cut to the chase while talking to his coworkers, so naturally, he has become quite good at it over the years, being able to crack most people open in only a few minutes
However, he knew Wright would be quite more…difficult
Even after years of knowing each other and working together for close to a decade, the man can be tricky to get to talk. Hell, he didn't mention the nature of his disbarment to Miles for almost three years! Granted, he had changed since then, trusting more his pears and stopped making side schemes that put multiple careers, including his, on the line.
But when it came to his emotions, Wright was worst than a locked up drawer, he hardly would tell anything about his feelings to his own daughter, much less his colleagues.
And even tho his exc- ahem, concern about the Lawyers secret was it involving the case, his reaction to Larry's comment was quite clearly rooted in emotion, in which one the Prosecutor didn't yet know, but he would at least need to try to figure them out, if only for the good of the case.
No second reasons at all, truly
Not even a bit of curiosity of what he could be hiding from him that he decided to entrust in Butz instead
Not even a speck of fear that the person he trusted the most in the whole world no longer trusted him back, not at all
He needed to figure out the secret for the case's sake, so even if he knew he wouldn't get very far on his first try, he had to give it a shot, even if it was risky
"Funny that you bring secrets up, Wright" Miles finally started "Last I checked, you were the one that got defensive when Butz mention 'keeping important secrets from people'"
Sure it was a bold shot, but in his experience, trying to reveal someone secretes can be quite like chess, and the more defense your opponent has over it (which in Wright's case, was quite a lot) the harder it would be to break over time, so opening with such an offensive move was an actual strategy
…that would prove itself almost useless with the attorney
Phoenix's face went blank for a few seconds, but then he just smiled and said "Oh please, Larry is just blowing things out of proportion as always, I just don't think is important enough for you to know"
A clear bluff, that much was obvious for both the attorneys, but the chief prosecutor didn't have many ways to call it out as it stands, his only 'proof' was that his demeanor became quite similar as the one he would normally use in court, more distant and a bit cold compared to how he would normally work with Edgeworth, which may have upset the Chief Prosecutor more than it should
He could already see the Lawyer's defenses going up, like multiple chess pieces being placed on a board, and the man's defense was clearly quite formidable
For now, it was better if he just bid his time, it was clear that the defense lawyer wasn't going to crack any time soon.
"Fair enough" he finally concluded, after a few seconds of silence "lets go talk to the servers, shall we?"
The two attorneys started going towards the kitchen in complete silence, both submerged in thought about the other's secret and trying to craft an excuse theory on how it may be related to the case, because of course they were still thinking about the case, what else could they be thinking about? how clearly the others defense went up as soon as they were questioned? how they trusted the most didn't seem to trust them back anymore? of every single scenario that may hae led them to hide whatever it was they were hiding? how their own secret was killing them even more now that it was coming to question? pfff, don't be ridiculous!!
They were so submerged in thought, in fact, that they almost didn't notice that they were already at the door of the employee area if it wasn't for a young woman in uniform who stoped both of them in their tracks
"Uhm, excuse me" the girl said, snapping the attorneys back to reality "this place is both closed and an employee only zone" she said while pointing at the sign of the door behind her "Who are you two?"
"Ahem" the prosecutor cleared his throat, trying to clear up his head and get back with the case "I'm the chief prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, and this is Mr. Butz's defense lawyer and my trusted colleague, Phoenix Wright" the former man introduced, to what the latter waved
"Oh" the worker noted "You are here for Ms. Sheff murder, aren't you?"
"We are indeed" Edgeworth confirmed "I take it you are the waitress in closing duty today"
"Yes" the server acknowledged "My name is Servy Wetres" she presented herself
The woman seemed rather…tired. Bags under her eyes, her long brown hair in a messy bun that had clearly been made several hours ago, she talked slowly and in very low voice, as if she already had to force her voice during the entire day. She seemed rather apathetic of the whole ordeal, not out of malice, but of genuine exhaustion
It seemed like what Larry said about the second waitress having a long shift was true, which also meant-
"You were the last person in the kitchen by the time leading up to when the body was found, correct" the chief prosecutor wanted to confirm
"Yeah" Ms. Wetres mumbled "I was tired after working, I had night duty yesterday and had to be here today because the only other waitress is in training right now" the worker started to, rightfully, complain "and to top it off she had to leave early because of a family emergency" she groaned
"W- couldn't anybody else cover for you??" the defense attorney interrupted, genuinely concerned for the hellish work ethic this place seemed to have
"Or at the very least to lower your work load" the prosecutor agreed, equally horrified at the horrible work place the woman seemed to be trapped in
"Well, we don't have any other servers left, most people couldn't exactly 'keep up' with the cheff's work ethics, sorta speak" Servy explained "she also owned the restaurant, so she had pretty much a say in about anything regarding how we work"
Every single second anybody mention anything about the internal workings of the restaurant both of the attorneys became more and more certain that the place was basically made to torture its staff
"But why go to the kitchen? wouldn't a break room be more comfortable?" Phoenix asked, at this point more out of concern for the young woman's mental and physical health than anything else
"We don't have one of those here, the closest thing is the 'employee area' where the body was found" the waitress informed "altho is just an old closet where we used to stash the inventory, the kitchen got a bigger one recently, so some of us have been using it as a little rest place" she continued "the cheff didn't like it tho, would always scold us if she saw us resting there, so I always went to the kitchen to pretend to be busy so she would leave me alone"
The concerned of the lawyers only grew bigger and bigger with every word that came out of the servers mouth
'Is it even legal to to not have break rooms for employees???' the lawyer thought, to what his college, almost as a response, asked the server "Aren't restaurants obligated to give break rooms for employees?"
"I don't know" she shrugged "is not like it would matter with Ms. Sheff, anyways, the woman had more connections than most politicians, she could get any case or charges dropped any day of the week"
The life long friends looked at each other in almost complete disbelief, altho it made fair sense, people like Kweint had a stake in the restaurant, so it was obvious that they wouldn't want it to close down, even if it was at the workers expense
"Hmm" the prosecutor reflected "I'll make sure to talk with the new owner when all of this is settled, for now, when did you get to the kitchen exactly?" he interrogated
"I didn't check the time, but as soon as the cheff went to talk to the painter" the young woman responded
"Really?" the black haired man said in surprise "and she didn't come back at any point"
"Nop, or at least, I didn't see her and she didn't me, god knows she would have flipped out if she saw me 'lazing up in the kitchen' again. Plus we didn't have much work since the zone where the artist was working was closed"
"Was anyone else with you the rest of the day?" Edgeworth inquired
"Lots of people came and went in and out of the kitchen, cooks, assistants, trainees." the waitress listed "I only talked to a few of my work friends while they were passing by"
"Did any of them mention anything weird? going to meet with the boss, discuss new dishes, stuff like that" the defense attorney elaborated
"Well, Vet did say he would go to the old storage" the worker admitted "And the cheff normally made sure all the inventory was moved to the new place every time she got the chance to get out of the kitchen, so he might have talked to him"
"Do you have any idea when he might have gone there?" Phoenix interrogated, mentally replaying the timeline of events that led to the cheff's body being found
"Uhhh, I don't know the exact time, but it was definitely at least an hour after I got into the kitchen" Wetres tried to recollect
The Victim went to talk to Larry at 9:20 and ended their conversation at around 10:20, if the worker Ms. Wetres was talking about did end up running into her, then that would both give a new lead to the case and potentially release Wright's client from custody, as he would no longer be the last person to have talk to the cheff before her death. Sure, it wasn't particularly strong in either side, but for such a rushed case where there wasn't even an autopsy yet? It was their best shot
Both of the lawyers knew this, nodding at each other before greeting the helpful worker to go and try to search for their now 'primal' lead
They were both silent again for few seconds as they walked away from the witness, this time not out of mental speculation and spiral at the possibility of losing the trust of the one they loved cherished, but simply because they didn't have to
Be it from having served for years in the same field or for working together for so long, Miles and Phoenix knew what the other was thinking at almost any given moment during a case, be it working against or with each other
They were the best person to work with in the others opinion, even if they could be quite frustrating at times, there was no one else the other would trust as much for basically anything, especially with cases
Sure, there where other people that they worked with almost at the daily that they knew where good at their job and that they even quite liked working with. But nothing would ever top the feeling of comfort and familiarity that both of the men had when working together. Merely because of how knowing each other so well helped them at work, of course
Not because of how seeing each others face made them smile uncontrollably
Not because the sound of the others laugh is one of the sounds that they hold the most dear
Not because of the feeling in their chest they would get even just thinking about each other
Not because every second they spend together felt better than the last
Not because every moment spend apart made them feel like they were dying
Not because seeing each other felt almost as necessary as air
Not even because…
The childhood friends snapped themselves out of their train of thought. They were going somewhere weren't they? something about a possible lead?? neither of them could really remember or concentrate enough about the mater
Even tho both of them were pretty disoriented because of…reasons, the first one to notice about the others strange attitude was Wright
This isn't really giving him much credit, tho, as the prosecutor besides him had his eyes completely out of orbit, looking around like he was going to be found shoplifting
"Pshh, are you ok?" the defense attorney laughed, looking at his friend like he was a mad man, a bit hypocritical, one must admit, giving that the man himself would look the same if he wasn't so good a bluffing
"I'm fine" Miles groaned, avoiding looking at his colleague directly at the eye
"Please, whats got you so worked-"
"Is none of your business" the chief interrupted, starting to walk a few paces faster
Phoenix almost stoped in his tracks, confused on what warranted the reaction of the silver haired man, but he remembered that his friend was, in fact, hiding something from him.
And the fact that he seemed to be thinking about it mid case only proved that it must be related, of course
Whatever it was, Miles reaction to even being questioned about it gave him an opening to try and break some of the locks that the magatama showed him when he initially asked about it