[TBP] Turnabout of the Elements (Investigation!)

[Enthalpy]

It's a good question! Surprising of Ledger, but evidently, Joseph Gray takes no notice. The actual Arthur Aldridge makes no reaction.

"It happens occasionally. Moving somebody like Smiles to a considerably less important post is nothing peculiar."

[Ferdielance]

Crowe unzips his briefcase and pulls out something that looks like a little pair of pincers on a handle. With a button press, the handle telescopes out, the pincers snap around Ledger's badge, and he zips it back in. "Dropped this," he says, handing back the badge nonchalantly.

Either Crowe has back problems or is quite lazy. "Mind if I look at that record to see Moebus's timing?"

[Enthalpy]

Joseph Gray moves inside the booth and begins fiddling on the computer. "His car is recognizable enough, so it shouldn't take long to find. When should I start looking?"

Fulbright - oh, he's still here - thinks back. "He says he left about half an hour after his conversation with Ms. Riemowski ended. If Smiles's timeline is an hour off, he was done at around 8:15."

Gray nods again. "Staffing was minimal that night, so odds are it would have taken him longer than it should have to leave." Before you can respond, Gray speaks again, "Here we go." He points towards the camera footage of the front gate. Even though it's dark, it's light enough that you can clearly see Ross Moebus in his car - timestamped 8:26 PM.

[Ferdielance]

"Thanks," said Crowe. "So... It would have taken time for Moebus to get his car keys?"

Don't want the defense to make a mountain out of a little time difference if there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. And Kranf left her car keys, so maybe Moebus would have, too.

"Did anyone see anything strange or unexpected about either Nick Johnson or Alexandra Kranf when they arrived?"

This probably won't go anywhere... But these are the basic questions the first prosecutor should've asked, the ones that keep biting us in court.

[Calvinball]

"How long should it have taken for him to leave?" Connie asks, looking curious as she bites at the inside of her cheek. There's something in the back of her mind... "And do you think Ross Moebus would've known staffing would be minimal that day?" (Less staffing means fewer witnesses, after all... but if Moebus could know, then Mr. Johnson could probably know too, huh?)

A light goes off in Connie's eyes, and she quirks an eyebrow. "Wait... staffing was minimal that night? The night a federal inspector was showing up? Isn't that... strange?"

[Enthalpy]

"I saw both of them enter," responds the guard who is actually doing things, "and have nothing unusual to report. As for Mr. Moebus, I vaguely recall people saying that the valet station was having troubles. That would probably add time to his schedule, though I can't attest to specifics."

He now turns to Ms. Harper and her questions. "There was nothing abnormal about it. Because the 50th anniversary celebration was the next day, a lot of people decided to take the Monday or early Tuesday off to get it as a four-day weekend. The stranger part was that the inspector chose a day like that." Hmm... Perhaps it's not that strange if her supervisor is to be believed...

If only all witnesses were this straightforward when asked questions!

[Ferdielance]

Crowe nods curtly. "Thanks. We'll check in with the valet if we can. Any questions from anyone else?"

While the others are asking their questions - if any - Crowe snaps some quick pictures of the entrance and environs with his cameraphone. Again, he doesn't expect to find much, but it's better to take a picture you don't need than to need one and not have it. A few quick words to Fulbright should get that footage of Moebus added to evidence as well.

"Looks like if Moebus did somehow hide anything on campus, he didn't have long to do it," says Crowe to Ledger, loudly enough for the defense to hear. "Doesn't prove he didn't remove anything, of course."

[Calvinball]

Connie re-examines the footage, and she strains to see what Ross Moebus is wearing. She recalls that he mentioned he had a sweatshirt - a hoodie with pockets. If he still had that with him in the car, he could've hidden the portable hard drive inside that after removing it from the island using whatever means necessary (possibly the thrown-off-the-island idea).

Connie perks up at Crowe's remarks, and she nods, looking a little more confident now that Crowe apparently seems to be conceding something. "So Moebus's innocence isn't as cleanly proven as you might wish, right, prosecutors?" she says, seeming proud of herself for... some reason. Little by little, she's regaining scraps of her old arrogance, it seems. But only little by little.

Of course, the trial in question is that of Nick Johnson, not Ross Moebus, and Connie is with the defense, not the prosecution, so whatever "victory" has been achieved is a small one, if any at all.

[Ferdielance]

"No need to badger him when he's not even here," says Crowe, dryly. "Prosecution's job's to stand up for its witnesses. But we're looking at all the angles. Even the inconvenient ones."

A shade reproachfully, he adds, "You should do likewise," and seems to close up for a moment.

Indicating Ledger with a quick nod, Crowe says to the guards, "This man's got some experience with paperwork. Mind if he looks through the entry/exit and valet records for anything relevant to the case."

[Enthalpy]

"You'd be better off going to the valet themselves for that, and the entry and exit records are... rather large. Are you looking for anything in particular?"

Meanwhile, Ms. Harper finds that Moebus's story checks out - a hooded sweatshirt, and you can barely make out some pockets. Score one for the defense.

[Calvinball]

Connie blanches slightly at Crowe's rebuke, but she nods. "R-right," she says before coughing, discomfited by Crowe's stern (if rightfully so) tone. Unwillingly, she thinks back to the trial and to how her high pressure questions and accusations towards Ross Moebus led to him being taken off the stand for his own sake, and she swallows. She never experienced that sort of situation prior to today; she got very firey and passionate and angry in all her trials, but never before had anyone had to leave the courtroom altogether because of it.

"How - how is Ross Moebus?" Connie suddenly asks of the prosecution, unable to not feel somewhat concerned. "I mean... have you heard anything about him? He's... fine, right?" They would know, right? Since he's their witness? That's what Connie's hoping.

[Bad Player]

Spoiler : OOC :

Phew, that was one long cross-examination!

[Enthalpy]

Fulbright pipes up, "He's as nervous as you'd expect, given everything that happened yesterday."

[spd12]

Spoiler : ooc :

Whoops, again. Sorry, last weekend got a bit busy and it also took me a bit of time to think of something to even ask. I couldn't in a timely manner of 'before I think about going to bed tonight,' so have a joke instead for now.

"Huh?" Ledger looks up. "Oh, my badge? ...I dropped it..."

A distant look grows in his eyes as he takes it back to, naturally, put in his pocket where it will almost inevitably fall somewhere else again. "...It was almost evidence..."

...Okay. This line of conversation need not continue, its singular joke told.

(time and revelations pass)

Ledger is indeed surprisingly capable with handling paperwork if asked and pushed forward to do so - so long as one keeps a caerful eye on where the paperwork ends up the moment he's done going through them, as... the gigantic pile of loose documents that got mixed up and shuffled around all over the prosecution bench the last day would have shown. (There also lies the issue about the rule where no one but the detective touches evidence... this may be a secondary reason why Crowe put this term forth!)

"I don't know, after yesterday, I'm... kind of nervous as I'd expect, given everything?" Ledger unhelpfully adds a comparison that will lead no one to anything good, rubbing the back of his head. At least he hasn't somehow accidentally pitched his badge into a trashcan yet, or something. "That's... normal. Nothing suspicious..."

Beat.

"Right?"

[Enthalpy]

Fulbright looks around. "Do we want to move somewhere else, or are there some last questions to ask?"

Prosecutor Crowe evidently hasn't finished his thought, but Fulbright seems to be getting impatient...

Spoiler : OOC :

Apologies for being so sluggish with this! It's a very busy time of year for me, but it's all downhill from here. I have up to page 30 put on the Wiki, and I should have the map made sometime this week.