Turnabout Visitor

"Miles Edgeworth"

- Let me make one thing very clear. No one gets away with committing murder in my office. No one.

Episode 1: Turnabout Visitor is the first episode of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. It concerns the murder of a detective in Miles Edgeworth's office.

The crime
It was 1:16 a.m., and two people were talking. One asserted that a prosecutor's job is to find the accused guilty. The other asked why he was going to do what he was about to do. The former replied that he would use any means necessary to get a guilty verdict, and shot the latter. He then declared that he was, and must always be, a prosecuting prodigy.

It was 2:05 a.m. inside the Prosecutor's Building. Miles Edgeworth was coming back to his office in Room 1202 after a month abroad. However, he noticed that his office door was unlocked. Entering the office, he discovered a dead body. Suddenly, a shadowy figure aimed a pistol at Edgeworth. The intruder then shot at a wall, causing Edgeworth's old jacket from his early days as a prosecutor to fall to the ground. Edgeworth warned the shooter that no one would get away with murder in his office. In response, the assailant merely backed out of the office.

Beginning
It was 2:56 a.m., and Edgeworth was in his office along with two police officers. Edgeworth had gone overseas for a month, only to find his office in a mess, with various objects thrown to the ground, some of his files in disarray, and a dead body on the floor. Dick Gumshoe burst into the room, having just heard about the murder. Shocked at the sight of the room, Gumshoe insisted that they start investigating. Edgeworth agreed that the culprit wouldn't get away with what he'd done, but he knew that they would first need information.

Edgeworth began to wonder why the murder had happened in his office. He knew his office could only be accessed with a key. He told Gumshoe that he would have to find a connection between the two pieces of information being considered, and concluded that the killer and the victim had met here intentionally.

Investigation
The investigation began. One of the officers told Edgeworth about a suspicious object he had found: a revolver that had been left on the floor, a model usually used by detectives. Edgeworth examined the victim's body and found that the victim had been shot in the abdomen. Edgeworth made notes about the victim's body and stored it in his organizer. He also noted that the pile of books strewn next to the body implied a struggle. Edgeworth also found the victim's ID; he was detective Buddy Faith. Edgeworth concluded that the revolver belonged to Faith, and indeed he found an empty holster on the body. The culprit had shot Faith with his own pistol. Examining the pistol more closely, he found that only one bullet had been fired.

Suddenly, a man ran into the room, running through Gumshoe and expressing shock at Faith's death. Noticing Edgeworth talking to him, the man introduced himself as Jacques Portsman, saying that "Jim" (as he called Faith) had been his investigative partner. Portsman quickly accused Edgeworth of the murder, but he had been overseas the whole time, and Gumshoe had been given the key to the office. Portsman then accused Gumshoe of the murder, but Edgeworth told him to calm down, and Portsman agreed and offered his help in solving the case. He told one of the officers to take a picture of Portsman crying over Faith, while Edgeworth took this opportunity to examine his old jacket.



Edgeworth immediately noticed that there was a "contradiction" in the portrait frame containing the jacket and the bullet hole. Having called it a "contradiction", Edgeworth was reminded of Phoenix Wright's cross-examinations, though he had his own ways of getting to the truth. The contradiction was that Faith's pistol had been fired only once, so the gun that the unknown intruder had fired had to have been a different one. Edgeworth also told Gumshoe to remove the frame, revealing Edgeworth's safe. Every prosecutor's office had a secret safe like Edgeworth's, but Edgeworth hadn't used his safe. However, while the rest of the safe was dusty, the keypad had been wiped clean. Edgeworth concluded that the killer had been after the safe's contents. Knowing this, Edgeworth realized that he had been wrong about the mess of books next to Faith's body; rather than a struggle, the killer had been searching Edgeworth's bookshelf!

Edgeworth told Portsman that they couldn't bring back the dead, and that they could merely find the truth behind the murder. Portsman agreed and helped Gumshoe reorganize the fallen books onto the bookshelf. After the books had been replaced, the moment of the crime became clearer. At first, it seemed that Faith had been shot standing in front of the bookshelf, and then the killer had moved the body to search the bookshelf. However, Edgeworth noticed a hole that the fatal bullet had made in one of the books as it passed through Faith's body, but the hole was too low to have come from someone shooting someone else in the stomach. Edgeworth realized that the killer had ransacked the bookshelf before shooting Faith, and then had made a mistake in reordering the books. After shooting Faith, the bookshelf had been ransacked again.



One of the books was missing, and the books around the spot in which it was supposed to sit had bloody writing on them spelling "Gumshoe". Portsman considered the writing enough evidence: "Jim" had clearly written his killer's name on the books. Edgeworth noticed that something was strange about Portsman's behavior, and asked about the details of Portsman's deduction. He told Gumshoe that the questioning process would be just like cross-examinations in the courtroom.

Portsman's Logic
According to Portsman's deduction, Gumshoe had cleared the bookshelf to make it look like robbery, and that he hadn't noticed the bloody handwriting implicating him. He claimed to hear "Jim's" voice telling him to capture the culprit. However, Edgeworth objected to the reasoning, pointing out that a book had clearly been removed after the murder, so the killer couldn't have missed the bloody writing. Edgeworth concluded that the message had been a diversion. Portsman congratulated him on his "Olympic gold" rebuttal, and then he called for the only other person who had access to the room: a guard at the Prosecutor's Building, who had the master key. Gumshoe hung his head as Maggey Byrde was brought in. He feebly tried to confess to the crime, and then Portsman moved to his next argument.

Reason for suspicion
Portsman insisted that Byrde had used the master key to gain access to Edgeworth's office and had killed Faith there. She knew Gumshoe, which made him a perfect scapegoat for her. This time, Edgeworth pressed Portsman, asking about how sure Portsman was about his argument. Byrde claimed that someone had stolen the master key around 1 a.m. Portsman denied this claim, and added that Byrde's motive had clearly been theft. Edgeworth disagreed; Byrde could not have known about the safe, because only prosecutors knew about those.

At this, Portsman became quite nervous and angry. He then threw in his own conclusion: "Jim" had been the thief! Portsman had told Faith about the safes, and Faith had stolen Byrde's master key to ransack Edgeworth's safe. However, Portsman claimed, Byrde had stopped him... permanently. Portsman then requested that Edgeworth, Gumshoe and Byrde leave the office, for they were all potential suspects. Gumshoe was furious, but Edgeworth knew that he had to agree to Portsman's request for now.

Investigation
It was 4:18 a.m. Edgeworth reminded Gumshoe and Byrde that the master key was the crux of Portsman's argument, so the hallway was the logical place to continue their investigation. Under a visitor's sofa in the hallway was the missing book with the last bit of the bloody "Gumshoe" on it, though a few pages were missing. Edgeworth noted that this book was from the high prosecutor who had occupied Room 1202 before Edgeworth had occupied it. The stolen pages were from a ten-year-old case.

Edgeworth asked Byrde about the master key. Byrde reiterated that she had noticed that it was gone around 1 a.m., and then it had reappeared again at 2:30. She had left it in the open after using it herself to open a door for Jacques Portsman, who had lost his own key. That was around midnight. Byrde had then pretended to lock the office behind Portsman at 1:30, because the key had gone missing then.

Edgeworth investigated the door to Room 1203, Portsman's office. He noticed that the door was locked after all. He requested that the forensics investigator lift the fingerprints on the doorknob of Room 1203, and only the prints of Portsman and Faith were found, proving that Byrde had in fact unlocked a different door. Edgeworth examined the base of the basketball hoop next to Room 1203, and noticed that it had been moved slightly. He also found a note under the door from Faith, telling Portsman that he had obtained three pieces of evidence for him, and that they'd perhaps meet later.

It was now 5:12. Edgeworth was now convinced that Portsman was the real killer, and he moved in for the kill.

Portsman's rebuttals
Portsman asked Edgeworth how he could have gotten into Room 1202. Edgeworth replied that Portsman had tricked Byrde into opening Room 1202 by switching the number plates on Rooms 1202 and 1203 and moving the basketball hoop beside Room 1202. Portsman then claimed that he had been in his office the whole time, but Faith's note under his door disproved that. Byrde had to have opened Room 1202 because her prints weren't present on the knob of the door to Room 1203. Indeed, Portsman had been the thief, but Faith had found him out, so Portsman had to silence him.

Portsman's alibi
Portsman laughed and claimed that he had merely wiped the doorknob after Byrde had touched it. It would also be impossible to disprove that Faith's note had been from even earlier in the day, and that Portsman had simply forgotten. Portsman also claimed that he had been at the Criminal Affairs Department during Edgeworth's confrontation with the unknown gunman. Gumshoe confirmed this alibi with Criminal Affairs. The alibi was airtight.

Edgeworth thought his logic through once more. He realized that the gunman had to be someone else. The gunman had shot using a different pistol, as Edgeworth had found earlier. This second invader also explained why Edgeworth's bookshelf had been searched twice.

Edgeworth laid out his theory now. The first invader, Portsman, had come to steal from Edgeworth's office, and he had ransacked the bookshelf and then rearranged the books in the wrong order. Faith had then caught Portsman in the act, and Portsman had killed him. However, a second intruder had entered the office, ransacked the shelf a second time to find the case file that he wanted, and threatened Edgeworth when he came in. Portsman was unfazed, however, because Edgeworth's story was still unproven conjecture.



Portsman reiterated his alibi. When Edgeworth asked about Faith's note, Portsman replied that it had been about two items from a case from a day earlier: a gun and a pendant. This directly contradicted the note, which mentioned three items. Gumshoe wasted no time searching Portsman for the third piece of evidence: a videotape about a certain "KG-8 Incident", which had fresh blood on it. It would not be difficult to confirm that this was Faith's blood. Now completely cornered, Portsman swallowed his gold medal in panic and fainted.

Aftermath
It was 5:47 a.m., and Jacques Portsman had just been arrested for murder. Byrde thanked Edgeworth and was glad that she could see Edgeworth's deductive skills outside of the courtroom. She also noted that Portsman had been a rather shifty prosecutor in general. Rumors abounded of forged evidence and intentionally backing out of specific cases. What Portsman was after was also never revealed. Edgeworth knew that there had to be more to the story, and that Portsman was just one of the mysteries that had to be solved. Edgeworth noted that they still didn't know why the second intruder had stolen the case files.

Just then, the forensics officer informed Edgeworth about a card that he had found in the office. The card had the mark of a three-legged raven. Edgeworth recognized this as the mark of the Great Thief Yatagarasu, who was a vigilante thief who would expose the corrupt dealings of various corporations. However, the Yatagarasu hadn't appeared in a long time. Was the Yatagarasu the second gunman? Edgeworth realized that these events should have been expected after what had happened in the last two days...

Development
This episode was revealed in the Tokyo Game Show 2008 trailer. The same trailer was then translated and shown at Captivate '09.