Legally Brunette (Ace Attorney style GameLit)

Mina and her friends rushed as fast as they could back to the backlot studio–a place they had spent all their day and now all their night it seemed. Mina couldn't believe the vengeance and anger she had inspired in Flan. At least, she assumed it was Flan who had returned to butcher the director of Legally Brunette. But there was one question that echoed in her mind…Why Artie Decor and not her? After all, she has rejected her biggest fan, not Artie. But when she got to the director's office–the scene of the crime, it was completely barricaded off with yellow tape.

"What the huh?" Mina asked. "Why can't we go on there?"

A familiar scrawny voice answered: "Because. The chief has deemed the crime scene too bloody and gruesome for this story!"

Mina turned around and saw Deputy Sparky Electra and Chief Rita O'Law standing behind her. "Uhm…" Mina said raising a finger. "What gives? I didn't know Gollywood fell under your jurisdiction, Chief O'Law?"

"It doesn't," the middle aged, yet wrinkleless police chief answered.

Sparky stepped forward, his blonde and spiky hair crammed beneath his police cap. "The chief was trying out for the live action casting of Spirit In the Machine. They said they needed an imposing, tall police woman with a husky voice."

"Sparky, heel," the chief responded and the deputy submissively stopped speaking. "That's none of their business. After all, I was trying to fulfill my dreams of being a glamorous Gollywood starlet as a girl, despite the fact that I was too scary and muscular to be one."

The chief raised her gloved finger to point it straight at Mina. "But that's neither here nor there. Because you, Mina Hawkins, are a prime suspect in this murder case."

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Mina squeaked. "Me-me-me?!"

The chief raised an eyebrow on her otherwise frozen face. "Disguising yourself as an opera singer won't do you any good, Hawkins. Because we've already reviewed the tapes and you have some explaining to do…"

Mina pointed a finger towards her face. "I do? Why?"

Rita O'Law continued to be quite frank with her, even if that wasn't her name. "You and the director got into a fight over him endangering your boyfriend with throwing knives on the set. And you were so furious with him, you even held one over him while yelling at him!"

Mina double then triple gulped. It was true. The Le Savage incident involved her sweet darling and a monstrous mime slicing his sleeve open. She was so miffed by Artie Decor that she told him what for.

But…she also forgave him. After all, he really decided to listen to her direction and make a much more accurate biopic. By the time she left, her and Artie were a Gollywood dream team ready to tell a story of love, loss and law.

But now it was over and she was accused.

"But how did the victim die?" Mina asked.

"Sheer butchery!" Rita O'Law answered. "It looks like a meat processing plant in there. We found the murder weapon lying next to what was left of the victim. We ran it to test for fingerprints."

Mina started taking deeper and deeper breaths. So much that Ashley and Blind both moved to grab her arms and comfort her. "Relax, love," Blind answered. "Obviously the murderer's fingerprints will be on the knife."

Ashley glared…knives…at Blind. "So will undergrads. She held that knife.too, remember?!"

Even with a pair of amazing partners holding her tight, Mina knew Ashley's blunt words were true.

She held that knife in her hands. A weapon that has done such awful things to Artie.

Mina cleared her throat. She had one last question. "Was there footage of the murderer and Artie? I remember when he called me, he said he was being chased by someone."

Rita O'Law looked sadly at Mina. "There was. But you won't like it at all. The last time we see Artie Decor alive, he is being chased by someone in a perky pink legal outfit, long brunette hair and matching pink heels."

The heat seemed to escape Mina's body as she turned cold. This murderer has truly thought of everything to set her up for the perfect crime.