Work Text:
Gregory didn’t want to take too long at the prosecutors’ offices. Not that there was anything wrong with the offices, it was more the concern that Miles would be home from school soon. He knew the younger boy could care for himself fine but he did hate the thought of the other returning to an empty home. Logically, he knew Miles would be fine if he was a little late. He also knew his son understood the importance of his work and how fluctuating the hours could be at times. Miles was a smart and understanding young boy. Gregory couldn’t ask for more with how patient and even downright thrilled with his profession as Miles was. But even with all that being as true as it was, Gregory still hated it.
So, this was an easy in and out. He really only came because Badd had said he would be around the offices that day and he needed to ask about some evidence for a case. Thankfully, he was able to find the detective and gain the correct papers needed. Even with time to spare as he smiled down at his watch.
He was making his way to leave when a call stopped him.
“Greggy-boy!”
He turned to look at the detective that bounded over to him with a smile large and bright enough to rival the very sun.
Gant’s smile was practically contagious as Gregory found himself easily smiling in return.
“Good afternoon, Damon,” Gregory nodded to the other. “Both you and Tyrell are here today. Must be a hell of a case to have both of you running around the prosecutors’ offices all day like this.”
Gant gave another hearty laugh before smacking a hand to Gregory’s back. The force almost enough to topple the defense attorney. “It’s definitely been a bit crazy around here and the department. Doesn’t help that Ol’ Manny personally called in the lot of us to investigate.”
“He did?” Gregory asked curiously. He found that a touch odd. Of course Manfred was known to never leave any stone unturned and would personally push any length to make sure his cases were perfect. But even then, the idea that he had called in multiple detectives in one go… “It must be quite something, then,” he muttered his last thought aloud.
Gant gave a nod. “Still, it was weird I haven’t really seen him outta his office all day.”
Gregory looked up in surprise at that. He hadn’t gone to the investigation himself? Not even to the department? That really did sound odd. Sure, Manfred always held an almost aloof aura to his words and how he acted outside of court. But there was nothing aloof or dismissive about the way he conducted his cases. Gregory knew that to be fact.
He gave a hum in thought and let a finger rest against his lip.
“What’s up?”
“Huh?” Gregory looked back to Gant again at the question.
“You got that classic noir brow furrow look you always do when you’re putting things together.” The detective gave him a knowing, yet questioning, smile. “Whatcha’ thinkin’, Greggy-boy?”
“Ah,” Gregory gave a light chuckle. Did he really give off a ‘noir’ face when he was thinking? “I just find it odd that Manfred would leave the whole investigation up to the department. Not that I don’t believe you are all quite capable. More just—”
“Manny’s pretty thorough,” Gant finished.
Gregory nodded. “Precisely.”
The detective gave a hum. “I noticed that too,” he admitted. It only took a split second for his usual face-splitting grin to be plastered on his face. “Who knows with Manny!” He laughed out.
The nonchalant laughter didn’t actually relax Gregory the same way it seemed to with Gant. He couldn't help that feeling in his gut. The same feeling he always made a point to follow. But he didn’t want to make a scene. Instead, he offered Gant a smile and nod.
“Yes,” he agreed, “who really knows. I should be taking my leave now.” Gregory lifted the file in his hands up with a nod in place of an explanation.
The gesture was understood as Gant gave another harsh, yet friendly, pat to his shoulder before waving him off.
Gregory walked towards the exit just long enough til he was sure Gant couldn’t see him. He then made a sharp turn and beeline to the elevators. He liked Gant a lot, but he also knew Manfred didn’t. Not that he hated the other but he definitely got easily annoyed by his naturally loud and larger-than-life personality. But, either way, if Gregory was to get to the bottom of his current inquiry, he knew he’d have to do so on his own. Gant’s presence was more likely to cause Manfred to clam up in frustration.
Once the elevator dinged to the proper floor he stepped off, not before looking both ways down the halls. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of necessitated stealth to his actions. He wasn’t doing anything illegal, but he also was still on a bit of a time limit with Miles, and couldn’t afford to be stopped and questioned or even have another join him.
He stepped before the correct office door and gave a knock to its wooden face. It took an oddly long moment before the call of “come in” could be heard from behind.
Gregory opened the door slowly, looking inside before taking any steps. When he was sure there was only the prosecutor inside, he walked in, closing the door behind him. “Mr. von Karma,” he greeted with a kind smile. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
From behind his desk, the famed international prosecutor sat in all his unbothered glory. “Mr. Edgeworth,” he greeted in return. But there was something off. Gregory noted it the moment the words left the other's mouth. What it was was still to be seen. “No, not particularly,” Manfred replied to the question given to him. “I was just organizing through my latest assignment to start making my cases.”
The one he called so many detectives on, Gregory thought to himself. He took that answer as an allowance to stay and walked closer to the other’s desk. “I met with Badd and Gant today, it must be quite something.”
“Yes,” Manfred hummed. He placed his papers flat to the desk before lounging his hands and upper arms over them. He was still stiff as a board but Gregory knew him well enough to catch the relaxed position indicating no disinterest in the conversation. “Three dead all in the same spot but with different causes. A tragedy but a strange conundrum all the same.”
Gregory gave a nod. “Sounds like it. Any connections?”
“Only one,” he offered freely. Manfred was much less clammy with information when Gregory wasn’t his opposition.
Being tight-lipped was always an annoyance but to some extent Gregory understood. Years of corrupt individuals who sat in their very seats caused tensions between the professions. It was part of the reason Gregory took great strides to try and remedy such issues.
“All of them were a part of the same graduating class of a local university. Even had a few similar classes.”
Gregory nodded in interest. He crossed his arms with one hand coming up to touch at his lip. “Could be a classmate. Possibly someone with a grudge against the school or them.”
Manfred replied with his own nod. “About the consensus among the detectives. There is a suspect I’m set to prosecute in two days time. He seems to fit the bill quite perfectly.”
Gregory gave the other a look. “Still,” he began. “You have to question the motives. Of the whole class why these three?”
“We have a few theories. All of them provided by fellow alumni.” Manfred picked up his papers and tapped them to his desk, letting them fall into perfectly organized place. “I’m confident in the work given on this investigation. I believe I will have the court seeing the light of truth within ten minutes flat. Not a second to spare if I can keep that Gant from paddling off on asinine tangents.”
Gregory couldn’t help the humored breath that fell out like a sigh. Maybe if he had the time he’d sit in on the trial. Two days, that was a Saturday, wasn’t it? He could even bring Miles.
Right. Miles. Time limit.
Gregory shifted in his stance. Ready to throw down his hand. “Such an intense case, I have to ask: what was the crime scene itself like?”
There was the smallest pause in Manfred’s movements. So minuscule that an untrained eye would miss. Hell, possibly even the trained eye itself. Maybe it took more than training but instead knowledge and understanding of just how the man before Gregory functioned. Knowledge, in itself, that few seemed to be able to get a hold of.
The pause was quickly rectified as he instantly looked up to Gregory, matching his gaze. “I didn’t attend the initial investigation.”
Gregory didn’t look away. Keeping the lock between their eyes just as tight. “Really? That’s surprising.”
“And why would you believe such a thing?” the prosecutor questioned as if the thought humored him.
“I’ve never known the perfect Prosecutor Manfred von Karma to skip out on an investigation like this. Especially such a puzzling case. Something that he put so much else on hold for to give his full attention.”
A twitch in the man’s eyes. He knew he’d been caught.
The smallest pull at the corner of Gregory’s mouth. He leaned back and crossed his arms, careful of his files. A brow raised towards the other, asking for any sort of rebuttal.
Manfred gave a huff and looked away, breaking their gaze. The move actually surprised Gregory enough to stand almost to attention. He was sure the prosecutor would have kept it going. Manfred never relented. Whatever was going on was definitely causing him to pull back more than Gregory had ever seen.
A few possibilities ran through his mind. The worst case scenario coming first, that something was wrong back home, possibly even involving his daughter. He quickly threw that one aside. Gregory knew if there was something going on with Franziska to cause him to be so off his game Manfred wouldn’t even be in America, let alone working. The infant was a precious jewel to Manfred, more treasured and beloved than the very gems that adorned his person on the daily. Not that Gregory didn’t understand. He was easily the same with Miles.
The other possibility that spawned made him give pause. Not going to an investigation on such a massive case, the way his words held something off, almost lethargic to them, being so easily backed into a corner and holding up little to no fight. The pieces clicked together like their sides were magnetized. There was a chance he was wrong but, “Are you sick?” Came out with the confidence one needed to present a counter theory to Manfred von Karma.
Manfred snapped to look back at Gregory.
Caught.
Gregory crossed his arms once more, this time while also letting the rest of his body lose any tension that had entered during his mock-interrogation. He sighed. “Manfred—”
“I am not sick,” he barked out with a frown. Putting more into his words to try and cover the, now clear, exhaustion that laced his voice.
Gregory paused at that. He knew Manfred. In fact, he’d grown to know him quite well at this point. Manfred didn’t take sick days. He never had and probably never will. Originally, Gregory chalked that up to a scary good immune system (and where that could possibly have something to do with it) he began to wonder just how many days the prosecutor spent hiding in his office and forcing back sneezes or downing cough medicine like candy.
Saying something like “you should go home” or “someone else can take your place for the trial” would only fall on deaf ears. Manfred was quite hard headed about certain things. Especially things he believed would come in the way of his ‘perfection’.
He looked at Manfred during this pause of thought. Really looked at him. The way his face and body, even in his frustration, seemed to sag with exhaustion. He seemed paler as well; sickly so. Gregory knew he had to find some way to keep this man from killing himself over work of all things.
“Alright,” he nodded.
“Alright?” Manfred questioned with a suspicious glance.
“You said you aren’t sick,” Gregory responded. “I’ll leave you to your work then. I’m trying to get back home before Miles, as well.”
“Ah,” Manfred mumbled, clearly taken aback by the lack of a fight. “Right. Well. It was pleasant speaking with you for the moment. Please make sure to close the door behind you.”
“Of course,” the attorney nodded and took his leave with a polite wave.
While he stood in the elevator he pulled out his mobile and dialed in the number he had memorized. He’d recognized the name on the file for the split second it was visible to him. “Marvin Grossberg? It’s Edgeworth. I was hoping you could do an old friend a favor, if it isn’t too much trouble, of course. Would you mind putting in a request to push back that triple homicide trial? The prosecution asked me to call, they need more time to investigate and I’m sure it would help on your end as well.”