Athena epilogue

“Wow, Athena, I can’t believe you convinced the fisherman to testify. With his testimony, we have an airtight case for once. Good job!”

It was the next day, right before the trial. Athena was back to wearing her colorful yellow suit, and her boss was seemingly ignorant of her adventure from the day prior. All was good with the world.

Athena smiled, rubbing her nose. “Oh, you know how persuasive I can be.” She showed her boss her victory sign.

“I would like to give you a bonus, but sadly, we’ll have to use that money to cover your legal fees.”

“W-what legal fees?”

“Well, just this morning we received news that the owner of a local studio is suing you for breaking and entering, along with attempted burglary.”

“W-w-what?”

“Don’t worry. I happen to know this particular woman, and my good pal on the **** Gumshoe is willing to testify on your behalf. I couldn’t convince her to drop her suit, but trust me, this case will not last even a day in court. We even have a local tourist who promised to provide a picture that will at least exonerate you from theft.”

“B-but that means the case will still reach court! The photo submitted as evidence.” Athena slapped the desk, Widget glowing red. “We can’t let that happen! Once something goes in the court record, it’s going to stay there forever!”

“If I were you, I would be more worried about your vandalism charges.”

“There’s another lawsuit?”

“Afraid so. The Minimarket around the corner is suing you for the attempted destruction of their security equipment. Namely, the backdoor camera.” Like a rising thermometer, a hot blush spread from Athena’s neck all the way to the tip of her head.

“Oh, but don’t worry. The case is very flimsy, apparently only based on a short recording. I haven’t seen it yet, but how bad can it be? We are just going to go to court, review some footage, and then you’ll be home free in the afternoon.”

“Oh god,” Athena said, buckets of sweat dripping from her face. “They are going to show the security footage to the whole court, aren’t they? To the judge, the bailiff, the… W-who’s the prosecutor?”

“Good news! It’s your old pal Simon Blackquill for both cases. I’m sure he’ll take one look at the footage and decide that the case is not good enough.”

“…yes… I’m sure he’ll laugh at the charges…”

“Erm, Athena, are you ok? Why are you smiling so… creepily?”

“Well, boss, you know what you always say. The worst of times is when lawyers have to **** their biggest smiles…”

Athena's final DP score: 7