Commotion and rumble dominated inside the courthouse at Morth City, as the man charged with first-degree murder entered the halls dressed in an orange uniform and handcuffs.
It was Charles Blackburn, ringleader of Code Sanguinary, also known as the Deserter General. Blackburn had white hair covering his head, and a thick white beard upon his old, wrinkly face. His dark blue eyes looked tired and restless as he was dragged to the table beside his attorney. Officer Edward Elwin, who was sitting among the crowd, was overjoyed to see the wretched criminal come to justice.
It was all thanks to Roycen McAllister, who served as an inside informant in Code Sanguinary, and supplied the incriminating footage of Blackburn beating and eventually killing a man with his bare hands. The victim was Serik Sanders, a member of the Justicars that was caught by Blackburn’s men. Blackburn gave him the personal treatment in an attempt to squeeze out any information he may have had regarding the Justicars’ headquarters location, a detail that is currently hidden from all the mob gangs in Alataria, and even the police force. Upon realizing the man was of no value to him, Blackburn put a bullet through Serik’s forehead.
Since the trial was held behind closed doors, its contents forbidden to be documented by the media, a mass of reporters and journalists waited eagerly outside the room's large wooden doors for the a statement about the verdict of the case. Edward could hear the flock through the doors, talking amongst themselves, probably placing bets on what Blackburn's sentence would be.
After a call for order and a few formal introductions that fired off the trial, Judge Hicken addressed Blackburn. "You are charged with the first-degree murder of Serik Sanders. How do you plea?"
"Not guilty." Blackburn didn't show any sign of hesitation as he declared his innocence. His voice was rough and old. A few whispers were heard among the crowd inside the room as a result.
The first person to testify was Vernes Price, the officer who led the case against Blackburn. Vernes was about 40 years old.
A grumpy old asshole with a receding hairline. Edward summarized the man in his head. As Vernes took to the stand and spoke about how his informant had worn a hidden camera and managed to take footage of the heinous crime, Edward noticed Blackburn’s eyes squinting with anger. I hope you rot in prison. He thought. People like Blackburn belong behind bars. He hoped that others like Reus Mallistrom and Sunyula Trife would follow Blackburn to the courthouse, but he feared that was too much of a demand. The difference between Blackburn and those two was that they were smart enough to buy almost half of the police force in bribes, while Blackburn was unwilling to do such a thing on a base of principals. Blackburn was a respected general of the Alatarian army once, but after the events of the Tearful Rebellion he resented the government so much that he became a deserter, and formed Code Sanguinary with fellow deserter soldiers who agreed with his cause. That was why he was named the Deserter General.
In a country like Alataria, it’s often hard to get criminals locked up. Not only do a lot of them manage to keep themselves under the police’s radar by slipping the right amount of cash into the right pockets, but inventions like the gloves-shoes-mask set also known as Elastics, a recently popular means of leaving no trace of DNA at crime scenes, had made it very difficult to get incriminating evidence.
Blackburn, however loyal to his values, also made a target out of himself when he refused to play the game of bribes. That's why it was necessary to bring him down using an inside informant, who could supply evidence by video. Roycen McAllister was hoping to catch one of the organization’s gun trades as well, but he was considered too much of a tenderfoot to be present at those trades, and with the Chief of Police breathing down his neck, they had to settle for a murder charge. Blackburn deserves to be prosecuted for so much more, but then again I guess when it comes to justice in Alataria, you have to take what you can.
While Vernes mumbled on and on, another officer walked through the entrance doors and made his way in a hurry to the prosecutor’s table. The officer looked very nervous. Edward wondered what caused it. With Vernes’s rambling in the background, the nervous officer whispered something into the state attorney’s ear, which made the attorney’s eyes widen in shock. "Your honor, I have to ask for a private audience in your office right now." The attorney rose to his feet and made his request. Judge Hicken looked at him with a narrow eye. "Sit down, we're in the middle of a witness statement," he scolded him.
"Your honor, I have to insist," the attorney said. Judge Hicken made a long, grumpy sigh. "This better be good. The trial will resume in 5 minutes." Hicken banged his gavel and got up from his high chair. He walked through his office door which stood right beside his high station, with the two lawyers from each side of the trial following at his tail.
What's going on? What could the officer possibly tell the state attorney that would cause him to make such a fuss? Tumult was dominating the room once more, as the crowd around Edward was wondering the same question that he was. Edward saw the nervous officer whispering in Vernes’s ear, as Vernes mingled within the sitting crowd. He noticed Vernes’s eyes widening the same way the state attorney’s had. He wouldn’t let his curiosity settle. He had to find out what was going on.
"Vernes!" Edward called as he got up from his seat and made his way to the grumpy old cop. "What’s going on?" he asked once he reached him.
Vernes looked grumpier than ever, letting off a tired sigh before opening his mouth. "The key evidence that we were supposed to show now… it's missing. Someone replaced the flash drive that had the original footage file on it with a different one in the evidence room at the station."
"What?!" Edward was shocked. "How could this happen?"
Code Sanguinary don’t work with cops out of principal, everybody knows that. They couldn’t have a bought off the cop taking care of this, so… who did this?
"I don’t know." Vernes sounded defeated. Edward knew what his tone meant. It meant the one thing Edward feared.
And then Vernes confirmed his suspicions. "This trial is lost.
Blackburn gets to go free." No… this can’t be happening… we finally have a high ranked criminal before a judge and now he gets to walk out of it?
"Does Dillard know about this?" Edward asked.
"Probably."
The judge returned from his private session with the lawyers, and as soon as everyone in the room returned to their proper seats, he read his announcement with the strike of his gavel. "Due to… unforeseen difficulties, this courthouse will resume Mr. Blackburn’s trial on this day, next week, at 12 PM."
The commotion returned at full upon hearing his decision, and Judge Hicken had to knock his gavel multiple times to restore order. He's giving the police a week to find the missing evidence. If no one finds it during this time… Blackburn walks free. Edward looked at Blackburn, who sat beside his attorney at the defense table, trying to spot any sign of gloating on the ringleader’s part.
Blackburn’s face was devoid of any emotion. You couldn’t tell if he was happy or sad about everything that had just occurred.
Did he plan this? Did he see this coming? The questions burned in his mind.
Once everyone dispersed out of the hall, the reporters who were nested outside charged at the attorneys of both sides with microphones and cameras. Questions regarding the trial's outcome were soon all that Edward could hear, and so he sought to get away from the crowd. As he glanced back, he noticed the shocked expressions on their faces, as one of the attorneys announced that the trial has been pushed back by a week, with no verdict delivered. When he was asked why that was, he simply thanked the reports and stormed away, leaving them in a cloud of bafflement. They were told not to let the media know about the missing evidence… this must be Dillard, our dear Chief of Police, trying to prevent APD from looking like a bunch of morons.
Edward caught up with Vernes as he saw him pacing away in haste. "Vernes." He grabbed his arm. "Please tell me you're going to do something about this. I mean, this is your case, you ran it—"
"Look, kid, I don’t know what to tell you. If the evidence is gone, then it's gone. Besides, I didn't even want the damn case.
It was fucking Dillard who dropped this on me."
"Are you kidding me? It’s bad enough we only charged him with a fucking murder when we KNOW this guy is responsible for so much more, now you want—"
"Look, if you care about this so much, why don’t you just take the fucking case?" Vernes stormed off, refusing to continue the conversation. Fucking coward. If you think I'm just going to sit quiet you're wrong, you grumpy old fuck. I'm going to get that evidence. Whatever it takes.