Part 15: First Day of Juan's Trial part 2

: He is a man who claims to have had an excellent view of the people going in and out of the Louvre at the time of the incident. I call upon Monsieur Toussaint Kingly.

: Could the witness please approach the stand and recite the oath.

Goofy







: Oh, right. The oath. Uh, I swear to speak without hatred and without fear, to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

: Please state your full name and occupation for the court record.

: My name is Toussaint Kingly, and I am a person who fishes.

: A person who fishes? So you are a fisherman?

: Oh. Oh! Is THAT how it is? I thought the French justice system was better than this...

: I beg your pardon?

: Here comes Toussaint Kingly, the kingfisher.



: Well, you are carrying a fishing rod...

: And? And? Can a man not carry a fishing rod, reel, and bait without being branded a fisherman?

: Look! Look! The prosecutor is carrying a riding crop! CLEARLY, he must be a horse jockey!

: Oh, for pity’s sake. Fine, fine, We can list your occupation as “person who fishes”, and not “fisherman”.

: Thank you.

: Actually, why do you carry a riding crop, Severin? I’ve never seen you ride a horse.

: My sex life is none of your concern, Jayjay.



: This is veering quite far off the course. Could the prosecution please get back to his questions.

: Is "his" correct here?

: Of course, your honor. Monsieur Kingly, is it true that you were nearby the Louvre at the time of the incident?

: Yes. I was sitting upon a railing of the Pont des Arts.



: That’s right.

: And what were you doing at the time of the incident?

: I was fishing.



: So you would have had plenty of opportunity to see the people who entered and exited the palace. Can you tell us who you saw?

: Well, the Louvre's a busy place. Naturally I saw a lot of people. But at 9 am, I saw the king, Louis Philippe himself, enter the building. He was surrounded by his entourage, of course. Then, around 9:30 am, I saw this shifty-looking fox lurking around the entrance.

: Your honor, I object to the witness's use of the term “shifty-looking”. It's a vague and biased description.

: No, really! He looked super shifty! I saw him rubbing his paws and cackling gleefully.



: Rub the stern of a rose, you say? As if he were applying something to the flower, perhaps?

: Well, monsieur, I really shouldn't speculate...

: Of course. It was wrong of me to ask such a leading question.

: ...But yeah, it definitely looked like he was putting some sort of powder on the stem!



: Members of the court, it sounds like what we have here is a direct witnessing of the defendant readying the murder weapon! The defense claims that the rose was never poisoned, and yet, here we have a man who saw the poison with his own eyes.

: I smell perjury.

: You do?

: No question. He saw a shifty-looking criminal readying poison and cackling near the scene of the crime? That’s not believable at all.

: I think you might be right. I wonder if I have any evidence that calls Toussainfs story into doubt.

: Your honor, I would like to cross-examine the witness.

: Really? This nonsense again? You just heard the witness directly describe your client readying poison on a rose. What is there to question?

: I'm just trying to uncover the truth, your honor.

: UGH! Fine. Do your thing. Go on, Falcon. Go make a fool out of yourself.



Trial Turnabout



: Monsieur Kingly, you say that you were sitting upon the railings of the Pont des Arts on the morning of the incident.

: Yup.



: Is the Pont des Arts a good fishing spot?I assumed you would be better off fishing upstream, away from the city.

: It's okay. You would think the pollution would scare off the fish, but some species thrive in it. I managed to catch a seventy centimeter zander from that spot the other day.

: Really? A seventy centimeter zander? What bait were you using?

: Good question. See, some like to use worms, but I’ve found that a good roach will always triumph.

: I object! This is completely off-topic.

: Sustained. Discuss your fishy business once the trial is over.

: Monsieur Kingly, you had a good view of the Louvre's south entrance, didn't you?



: What about the other entrances?

: The other entrances? You mean, like, if you were entering from Tuileries Gardens or the Place du Carrousel? No, I couldn't possibly see those areas from the bridge.

: But of course, that isn't relevant. Monsieur Kingly witnessed Prince Juan entering the South entrance with flower in hand, and that's what counts.





: Monsieur Kingly, you say that you saw the king himself enter the Louvre.

: Indeed I did.

: Who did you see in the king's entourage?

: Well, there was the king himself. Obviously. And there were quite a few guards... maybe four or five, including a big dog who I hear is the guy who died, Major Howl. I think that was all.

: It is to my understanding that the king does most of his work in the Palais Royal, which lies to the North of the Louvre. So it's a little strange that you saw the king enter from a South entrance, is it not?

: I know what I saw, monsieur!

: Jayjay, there's little reason to doubt that the king entered the Louvre from the South. Are you really calling this basic fact into question?





: Monsieur Kingly, you claim that you saw a “shifty-looking fox”.

: Yup. Super-mega-shifty.

: That’s not a valid testimony. All foxes are shifty-looking by default.

: Woah! That's not cool.

: Mon Dieu, Jayjay! It's the 19th century! You can't just throw out slurs like that in this day and age.

: I'm just saying-

: No, you listen.



: Well said, prosecutor.

: Slurs are archaic. Now we, as a society, can hold back animals we don't like through much more subtle, institutional means.

: Right.

: Wait, what?



: There must be at least one hundred foxes in Paris. How do you know that the fox you saw was Prince Juan?

: Well, he was wearing a suave hat that hanged low over his eyes. I hear that's how they wear them in Spain. And I’m not much of a fashion expert, but the rest of his outfit looked quite out of place for the French winter.

: Is that all you're going by? His fashion sense?

: Oh! I nearly forgot. I heard him call a passer-by “senor”. I thought that was peculiar.

: ...Well, that's him alright.



: Monsieur Kingly, you say that you saw a fox rubbing the stem of a rose.

: Yup. Saw it with my own eyes.

: How far away were you from the south entrance? Twenty meters, perhaps? Thirty? I'm somewhat doubtful that you can make out powder being applied to anything at those sort of distances.

: Monsieur, I don't claim to have seen the powder itself. I said that it ~looked like~ he was applying powder to the flower stem. It could have been a wax, or a liquid, or whatever. But the guy was definitely putting something on the flower.

: I see. Well, that's nice and vague.



: Are you certain that the fox was handling a rose, and not some other type of flower?

: Pretty sure. The red petals stand out quite nicely on a gray January morning.

: So you are confident? You are absolutely sure that you clearly saw a bright red flower in the fox’s hands?

: What are you getting at, Jayjay?





: What if Prince Juan didn't enter from the south entrance? What if he approached the Louvre from...



: ...Tuileries Gardens, to the West?

: That’s a big “what if". Do you have any evidence that Prince Juan entered the Louvre from Tuileries gardens?

: As a matter of fact, yes, I do. I have definitive proof that Prince Juan approached from the west, not the south.

: Hey! I know what I saw, monsieur!

: I'm doubtful too. Go on, Jayjay, show us this “definitive proof“ that Prince Juan entered from the Louvre from Tuileries gardens.





: A book page?

: Page 44 of of Don Quixote, specifically. It was found just outside the Louvre’s West entrance.

: This proves nothing.

: I'm not done yet. Take a look at this.



: This is the book Prince Juan has been reading in jail since his arrest. I believe he has had it on his person for some time. And yes, page 44 is missing. That was the first thing I checked.

: You do realize what this means, don't you, Severin? The defendant was present in Tuileries Gardens prior to entering the Louvre. This also means that, in all likelihood...



: He could not possibly have been seen by Monsieur Kingly from the Pont de Arts!

: W-what? I know what I saw, monsieur!

: A fine theory, Falcon. But maybe the defendant took the long way around. One can still travel from Tuileries to the Louvre’s south entrance by walking along the river.

: An extra two kilometers of walking just to enjoy the pre-murder scenery? Let's not say silly things, Cocorico.

: Okay. Maybe the defendant deliberately left the page there to mislead the investigation.

: Now you’re the one who's blindly speculating!

: I-it’s not blind speculation! It's a viable hypothesis!



: When torn between two seemingly equal hypotheses, we must side with the one that imposes the fewest assumptions. Which of these theories takes fewer assumptions:

: One. The page from Prince Juan’s book fell out on his way to the Louvre’s south entrance. Two. Prince Juan deliberately planted the page on the off-chance that it would be discovered, then he took the long way around.

: How dare you! The nerve of you to lecture me on such basic philosophical concepts-

: I’ll stop lecturing you when you stop making such basic mistakes.

: Monsieur Falcon! Please calm yourself! What is the point of all this yammering?



: N-no! Everything I’ve said is the truth!

: I suspect that the witness isn’t even a fisherman.

: I’m NOT a fisherman!

: See? He admits it himself.

: Th-that's not what I meant!



: Prosecutor, you have something that will put this arrogant Falcon in his place, don’t you?

: I must concede.

: You concede?!

: On this point, at least. Falcon’s evidence strongly suggests that the key component of Monsieur Kingly’s testimony is false.

: Ah! Nooo!

: This doesn’t mean that Prince Juan is innocent, of course. All Falcon has demonstrated is that this particular witness is unreliable.

: But I did see something! I really did! Alright, so maybe I didn’t exactly see a shifty-looking fox. I made that part of the story up. But I did see a swan lurking around the south entrance on the morning of the murder!

: ... A swan?







: It's that late already? Curses. I was hoping we could have the case wrapped up in a single trial session.

: It is a shame. But ultimately, an accurate sentencing is always preferable to a speedy sentencing.

: Yes, alright; I don't need to hear your moralizing. Court will resume this Friday, the 21st of January, at 9 o’clock. Don’t be late. Prosecutor, do your damned job. Get this stupid fox a conviction already.

: I will do my best to ensure that justice is served, your honor.





: Yeah. No doubt about that.

: But something’s bothering me. Why would that fisherman guy, Monsieur Kingly, lie on the witness stand?



: Well, it’s possible that he was coerced or bribed.

: That’s just what I was thinking! Maybe the real murderer threatened the fisherman into making up a story about Prince Juan.

: Let’s keep an open mind. Anything is possible at this stage. But to be perfectly honest, something else is bothering me about the trial...



: Judge Romulus. He’s acting without a shred of professionalism. He’s obviously more interested in securing a guilty verdict than he is in discovering the truth. But why?

: Maybe he has a vendetta against Spanish royalty.

: I’m not so sure. There must be something else at work here...





: A letter for me? I wonder why it wasn’t sent to my office...

: Have you been demoted to courier status, Rupert?

: Oh, hush hush, Sparrowson. I don’t need to be, uh, pitied by a first year dropout.

: Ooh, good come-back. So what does the letter say, Falcon?

: It’s... it’s a threat. A threat made with cutout newspaper letters.

: Woah! I didn’t know those things actually existed! Let me see.





: ... Scary.

: There is no question that this letter originated from Major Howl’s murderer. He - or she - must be aware that we are getting close to uncovering the truth.

: Sounds about right. But why would a person write with cutout newspaper letters like this?

: Masking one’s handwriting would be the most common reason. Although, I can’t help but wonder why they would bother, since we don’t have any handwriting samples to compare it to.

: We’re... still going ahead with our investigation though, right?



: Oh yes, absolutely. If a lawyer were deterred every time they received a threatening letter, they would never get any work done. Besides, with only three days before the next trial session, we can’t afford to be worrying about petty things like this.

: Tuesday... Wednesday... Thursday... wow, you’re right. Let’s make those days count.