BONKER'S CHOCOLATE FACTORY
FRONT LOBBY
1:10 PM

“This lobby is incredible!”  Maya's jaw was slack and her eyes sparkling as she stopped just inches out of the door, gazing upon the lobby to the Bonkers Chocolate Factory.  For the entrance to an office building, ware house and factory it was very elaborately crafted, looking more like a fun house than a place of business.

“Did a clown design this place?”  Nick asked, stepping around Maya as the girl stood in the entrance petrified by glee, Nick filled with feelings from the opposite side of the spectrum.

“It is a bit jarring the first time you see it, sir!”  Maggey confirmed, herself not very fond of the tacky décor and carnival decorations.  “But that's just what kind of person Mr. Bonker was!”

“Completely jarring?  As weird as everyone says that he is that does sound like a good word.”  Nick began to walk forward, accompanied by Maggey, while Maya remained at the doorway, enraptured by the décor.  “Come on Maya, we got to go.”

“But Nick!  It's so amazing!  I'm stunned by how incredible this place looks!”  Maya refused to budge, sternly standing in place even as Nick walked back, grabbed her arm, and tried unsuccessfully to tug the heavier girl along.  It was difficult enough to move Maya at her normal weight, much less at three times that.  “It's just like how it looked in that documentary, Bonkers for Bonker!  Except even better!”  

“Nick, Sir!”  Maggey yelled out to Nick as a couple of workers began to approach her.  “If you and Maya don't come you're not going to get any free samples!”  Maggey had grabbed a few chunks of chocolate from the plates carried by costumed workers and delightfully popped them into her mouth, savoring the creamy chocolate.

“Free samples?  Oh boy!” Like a dog running to the sound of a can opener Maya bounded off to Maggey's side, Nick dragged along for a ride still gripping onto the sleeves of her robe.

“Down girl, down!”  Nick frantically shouted, slammed into Maya's cushiony side as she came to a quick stop at Maggey's side, bouncing off Maya and falling onto his pride.

“Look at these new chocolates!  They're so wonderful!”  Maya beamed as she popped treat after treat into her mouth, rubbing her stomach happily as she let creamy blocks of cocoa melt in her mouth.

“Thank you very much, miss!  We Goopa Loopas work every hard on these things, you know?”  Nick groaned and closed his eyes as he dealt with the pain of a sore butt, opening his eyes in a second to find himself eye level with what appeared to be a bizarre orange dwarf.  “And what about your pal here?  Is he gonna have anything or is he just gonna sit on the floor?”  The diminutive man wore a pair of striped  footie pajamas with orange that matched his skin and pink that matched his wispy, curly cotton candy hair.  He was short and chunky, his skin covered in orange face paint, and with an accent surprisingly tough for his stature.

“Maya!  What the heck is this?”  Nick yelled, the tiny orange man filling him with a cocktail of fear and confusion.

“Nick, don't worry!  He's just a Goopa Loopa!”  Maya said happily, patting the small man on his curly top.  “He won't hurt you?

“A what?  He doesn't look like a turtle to me!  Where's his shell?”  Nick stood up, the Goopa Loopa's eyes following Nick the whole way.

“Nick, I said Goopa Loopa!  Not whatever you're thinking of!”

“I'm not just any Goopa Loopa,”  the tiny man yelled.  “I'm the top Goopa Loopa!  Soopa Doopa!”  

“The top Goopa Loopa?  Soopa what now?”  Nick grit his teeth.  He could feel his head starting to ache from all the wordplay.  “Maya, what's he talking about?  Can you translate it into something less crazy for me?”

“Nick, don't you know anything about anything?”  Maya shook her head, frowning at Nick's ignorance of all things Billy Bonkers.  “The Goopa Loopas bring the chocolate in from Cocoa Island and make it into all of the delicious foods they serve here!  It's all on the back of the wrappers!”

“Hey, I eat the candy!  I don't follow it's lore or anything.”

“Us Goopa Loopas are the backbone of  Mr. Bonker's factory!  We run the machines, make the chocolate, grow the cocoa beans, and collect chocolate eggs from the Easter bunnies.”  Soopa Doopa, who stood on level with Nick's chest, looked up to the attorney, craning his neck up the whole time.  “I mean, you are here for the tour right?  If you are, you chose a pretty crappy time to come here, with Mr. Bonker kicking the bucket at all.  It's a shame really, he gave me my job. Good man.”  Soopa Doopa wiped a tear off his cheek, smudging off a bit of orange face paint in the process

“I'm not here for the tour,” Nick said, displaying his attorney's badge for Soopa Doopa.  “I'm here as Jimmy Pocket's defense attorney.

“Oh, you are eh?  So I can drop this Goopa Loopa act then?”  Soopa Doopa sighed with great relief and pulled off his curly pink wig to reveal a short buzz cut of brown hair below it.  He produced a wet handkerchief from the pockets on his costume and wiped off his orange face paint.

“Nick!  Look what you did!” Maya yelled as Soopa Doopa continued removing his make up.  “You've killed the immersion, Nick!  I thought you were going to get to grill a real live Goopa Loopa!”

“It's a good thing we didn't bring Nick on the real tour with us, huh Maya?”  Maggey shook her head.  “Imagine what would happen if some kids saw Soopa Doopa take off his mask.  That'd ruin their day for sure!”

“What?  I'm not trying to ruin anyone's day!”  Nick protested as Soopa Doopa dabbed the last glob of orange off his face.

“Don't you worry about it.  I was wanting to get this face paint off anyway,”  Soopa Doopa replied, tossing the handkerchief into a nearby garbage can.  “Anyway, my name is Terry Vision.  I'm the head of the Goopa Loopa crew and the public relation division of Bonker's Chocolates, Candies, and Sweets.    It's a pleasure to meet you.”  He extended his hand to Nick, who reached out to complete the hand shake.

“Phoenix Wright.  Attorney.  As I said, I'm here to learn more about the murder.”

“Jimmy seemed way too nice!”  Maya protested.  “He offered us tea!  I mean, would a killer offer tea!  Unless he was a butler, maybe, but I didn't see him wearing any tuxedo!”

“I agree with both Maya and Nick, sir!”  Maggey declared.  “I've met Jimmy before and he's too nice and too close to Mr. Bonker to do anything like that.”

“Trust me, I can't believe anything that happened either.  Mr. Bonker was a good man.  He gave me this job, a chance to put all of my acting talent to use, so I owe a lot to the guy.”

“And what about Jimmy?  Do you think he really could have killed Mr. Bonker?”  Nick asked.

“Jimmy had a heart of gold. He loved Mr. Bonker like a father, and he loved his job more than anything in the world.  He was always so gracious for everything he earned and came in every day ready to do some good for the company.  He didn't mind being second in command and was ready to take over the reigns when Mr. Bonker finally decided to move on.  But the man would do anything for his grandparents. He'd give them the world.  They were the only thing more important to Jimmy than his job, his grandparents”  Nick peeked over to Maya, who seemed to be tearing up some, her heart moved by the sheer kindness and selflessness displayed by the young Mr. Pocket. “ And they're the reason  why I think he just might have done it!”

“What?”  Nick, Maya, and Maggey yelled out together, stricken with emotional whiplash as Terry Vision looked off into the distance thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

“You said all of those nice things about him and then accuse him of being the killer?  How can you do that?”  Maya shouted.

“I'll admit that it makes for an interesting character testimony,” Nick commented aside, also finding Terry's accusation somewhat harsh.  “Why do you think that Jimmy Pocket would kill Mr. Bonker when he felt that he owed the man so much?”  Nick was finally able to get some information he wanted.

“Jimmy did love his job, but his grandparents liked it even more.  It brought them from the slums to the
city and from a broken, leaky house to a nice senior citizen's home.  Jimmy'll give those four whatever they want, he spoils them.  And you know what happens when you spoil something?”  Terry pointed at Maya.

“It starts to smell really bad?”  

“Wrong!”  Terry pointed at Maggey.

“They become dependent?”  She suggested.

“Good answer, but there's still more.”  Terry pointed at Nick.  “Whaddaya think, law boy?”

“They want more.”  Nick stated.  Terry began to smile and snapped his fingers.

“Yeah, Jimmy's grandparents are starting to get greedy.  They want to move up to a nicer home in Hawaii, they want fast cars, they want fine spirits, and Jimmy is too much of a door mat to tell them when it's too much.  Jimmy likes to keep his grandparents happy, a bit too much if you ask me.”

“I thought it was the children that were supposed to wring their elders dry!”  Maya gasped.

“Yeah, like how you do with me,”  Phoenix pathetically muttered from the side of his mouth.

“That's why I still have my doubts about his innocence.  If his grandparents wanted the money enough I bet Jimmy might break and do whatever it takes to keep them happy.”  Terry pulled out a cigarette from his costume and lit it, inhaling and exhaling a puff of smoke.  “That's life, attorney.”

“Well, we still need to find out more about the circumstances of the crime.  We need to look for possible suspects who might have had a grudge against Mr. Bonker and would like to take his place at the head of the company.”

“Nick has a point, sir!”  Maggey chimed in.  “Anyone who wanted to be head of the company would need to get both the head and the heir out of the way, so why not do it both at once?  Kill two birds with one stone!”  Maggey caught herself and blushed as she covered her mouth.  “That doesn't make me sound like some kinda killer, doesn't it?  Just because I was accused twice doesn't meant that any killer instincts are rubbing off on me!”

“I would also like to know more about the circumstances of Jimmy's hiring, as well as anyone else who works here.  I couldn't get much from Jimmy himself, so perhaps you might want to share?  Could there be any grudges coming from the hiring process?”  Terry's throat tensed up and his eyes narrowed, his mouth falling open slightly as his cigarette slipped out from his lips

“Kid, don't go digging up those kinds of things.  I don't feel like talking about that, okay?”  Nick's body jerked as the room went dim, three of the large red Psyche Locks appearing to impede Nick's progress once again.

(More of them?  It seems like there's a bit of a history involving Mr. Bonker's hiring process.)  Nick pondered the situation and breathed out heavily.  

“If you want to know, look for it yourself.  The president's office is pretty full right now, but I bet you could get into Jimmy's office easy enough.  There's only one guy in there, and it's some scruffy looking guy.  He's rooting through the desks looking for something, I guess.  You might not find exactly what you want in there but I bet there's still prime info if you dig around.”  Terry shrugged his shoulders and snuffed out his cigarette with his foot.  “I don't even know if he's with the police or not, but I didn't figure like bugging the poor guy.  He was dressed sort of like a hobo.”

“Big guy, scruffy, old coat?”  Maggey perked up.  “Sir, I think you're speaking of detective Gumshoe.”

“Something like that.  Beats me.”  Terry pulled up the sleeve of his jumpsuit and glanced at his digital wristwatch.  “One twenty, eh?  I think I'll go take my smoke break now.  The fuzz has been bugging me all day, so I haven't had any chances to step out and relax.  Come talk to me later if you find anything interesting.”  Terry left the group behind as he exited the lobby, leaving Maya, Nick, and Maggey alone once again.

“We should listen to that freaky little man,” Phoenix noted. “I bet we can find some info about the applicants if we look hard enough.”

“And Gumshoe's in there too, sir!”  Maggey shouted eagerly as the two Goopa Loopa workers serving left with empty platters.  “I'm sure he has prime information for us!”  

“Yep!  He'll slip up and tell us something good about the case!  And we can look for some snackage on the way there!”  Maya cheered, ready to continue the investigation with all food out of the way.

“Then let's get a move on,”  Nick declared, with a smile.  “But please girls, let's not have too many snack pit stops!  We're not running on unlimited time here!”

–

JIMMY POCKET'S OFFICE
1:22 PM

“Modest and poorly decorated.”  Phoenix examined the office of Bonker's Chocolate's vice president, Jimmy Pocket.

“Just like it's owner?”  Maya suggested, noting that aside from paperwork, filing cabinets with their contents pulled out, and a few Bonker's Chocolate posters, Jimmy's office was quite plain for a VP's.  The worn out furniture, probably brought in from Jimmy's own home, looked more at home in a waiting room than such a prestigious place.

“Huh?  You better not be talking about me!  Just because my cover's a bit worn out doesn't mean that I'm not worth a look!”  Detective Dick Gumshoe, his green coat looking as if it had seen better days, spun around, sending a bundle of papers stacked in his arms fluttering through the air, and glared at Phoenix.

“No, I wasn't talking about you!”  Phoenix shook his head.  “I was talking about this office!  If it weren't for you being in here I would've never guessed this belonged to Jimmy Pocket.”

“Oh, so I'm guessing Mr. Ace Attorney is here to squeeze some evidence from poor old Gumshoe, huh pal?  Well that's not going to work today!  My lips are sealed!”  Gumshoe snubbed his nose at Nick and crossed his arms, adamant to not let vital information slip from him this time.

“Gumshoe, sir!”  Maggey saluted the detective out of habit, a jiggle rising from her belly to her chest a she stood prone, hand to her head.

“Huh?  Maggey?”  Gumshoe's eyes opened wide as he looked down at the young woman, who smiled as she saluted, and quickly relaxed.  “How did you end up here?  What did Phoenix Wright drag you into this time?  Is he going to use you as leverage so he can get me to spill the beans on the case?”

“I didn't drag anyone into anything!”  Nick protested, not wanting to stir the angry Gumshoe.

“He's right, sir!  I came here to pick up some samples for the restaurant.”  Maggey looked around the now messy office, with the files opened up and examined, and furniture rearranged and pushed around.  “But I'm not sure if I chose a good day to come here.  Maybe I should come back here when there's not a murder investigation going on!”

“No, please don't leave just because there's a few policemen around!  Pardon our dust, pal!”  Gumshoe laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, walking towards the door as he tried to keep Maggey from leaving.  “Though I'm guessing this murder investigation is why you are here!”   Gumshoe accusingly pointed at Nick.

“Well, you would be right.  I'm here to defend Jimmy Pocket.”

“And once we declare him innocent will win all the chocolates I can eat!”  Maya cheered, licking her lips as her eyes sparkled.

“Don't you mean all of the chocolates we can eat?”  Nick asked, ignored as Maya drooled, lost in a candy day dream.

“Jimmy Pocket, huh?  He seems like an okay kid.  He even offered the police some tea as they dragged him off to the precinct.”

“That's nice of him!” Maya smiled.  

“That's ridiculously British of him.”  Nick added.  “This guy is almost unreal.”

“But it's always the nice ones that snap and go nuts on their bosses!  That's why I make sure to be as rough as possible, so my boss doesn't get suspicious and can me, pal!”  Gumshoe produced a case file from his musky coat.

“I don't think I'd have to worry about you snapping on anyone, sir!  You're too nice for that!  Like a big teddy bear, or a friendly wombat!”  Maggey smiled, wanting to uplift Gumshoe's mood some.

“You're too kind,”  Gumshoe sniffed, his gruff heart warmed up with Maggey's praise.  “But the murder itself seems awfully grizzly.”  He passed the file off to Nick.

“Time of death estimated at 11 AM due to ruptured carotid artery.  A pen from the office of Jimmy Pocket was found with the suspect's finger prints, presented by the suspect.”  Nick tucked the report under his arm.  “I'll definitely agree with you that it's rather morbid, but that doesn't quite add up.  Why would he give the murder weapon to the police?”

“That wasn't the only thing he left behind at the crime scene.  Don't look in the trash can, please!”  Gumshoe gagged.  “I almost lost my noodles!”

“I won't,”  Nick groaned, about to “lose his own noodles” from Gumshoe's description.  “With that description it sounds like he could've stumbled onto a crime scene.”

“That, or the guy had his regrets!  He thought he could be the cold, heartless killer, but the second he saw blood?  BLOORF!” Gumshoe bent over a nearby trashcan and pantomimed the act for Nick, Maggey, and Maya.  “Then he calls the cops.  Either way, having second thoughts doesn't hold up in court, pal!  A change of heart won't set you free!  You do the crime, you do the time, pal!”  

“So are you sure no other fingerprints were found?”  Phoenix asked.

“None.  Mr. Bonker required that every worker to wear gloves.  It was to preserve the purity of the chocolate, you know?”

“Mr. Bonker cares about the chocolate's quality more than anything, sir!”  Maggey stated.  

“Yeah, that's why his candies are top stuff!”  Maya and Maggey were standing by Jimmy's desk, picking out chocolates from a small dish and popping them into his mouth.

“These circumstances are still all very odd.  It'd make a setup very possible,”  Phoenix noted.

“We're just working with what we got.  We can't trust the suspect just because he acts nice and brews good tea.  If you can find a good alternative, present it in court tomorrow, pal!”

“Hey, Nick!  We're going to go look for something to drink!”  Maya yelled as she and Maggey waddled to the door, needing something to cleanse their pallets after eating a bowlful of creamy chocolates.

“We'll be back in a moment, sir!  Don't you leave without us!”  Maggey yelled as she followed Maya out.

“I hope they don't get into anything too crazy,”  Nick sighed, shaking his head.  He knew it might be unwise to let two hungry young ladies loose in a chocolate factory.  “Speaking of crazy, I do have to ask...  Who am I going to be going up against in court tomorrow?  Edgeworth?  Von Karma?  Is it going to be some dark figure from my past out for revenge?  Or is it going to be someone totally new?  Oh god, I hope it's not going to be a rock star,”  Phoenix groaned, his head aching as he thought of all of the loonies he found himself facing in court.

“You got it right with number two,”  Gumshoe replied.

“Von Karma?  Really?  You seem pretty calm to be working for Von Karma.  Normally you'd be a total wreck, more so than usual I mean.  I thought she always kept her scruffy dog on a short leash?  When's she going to show up and start mocking me and calling me a fool?”  Phoenix's head began to ache even more.

“That's the weird thing!”  Gumshoe began to guffaw happily.  “I have no clue why but when  I called her and told her about the case she said she was refusing to even leave the office.  I guess she has a cold or something, or maybe she got a bad haircut.  Either way, I'm not going to complain.  I feel like a new man without her around!  She's not even bugging me over the phone!”

“That's weird.  I'd think that she'd be putting herself in a disadvantage by not coming out here to investigate things herself.  I thought this was the prosecutor who wanted to defeat me at any cost?”  

“Hey, pal, quit being a dummy and looking a gift horse in the mouth!  I know I'm not,”  Gumshoe yelled, staring Nick down.  “Just snoop around, do that objecting thing you do with the pointy finger, and win this case!  You know the deal!  But I'm not going to go easy on you!  I'll find some evidence that Von Karma will use to send you reeling!”

“I got it!”  Phoenix gulped, not used to this sort of energy from Gumshoe.  (He must be a different man without a prosecutor around to keep kicking him while he's down) Nick pondered.

“But enough about work, your personal life...”  Gumshoe raised his eyebrows and leaned in.  “You've been keeping that assistant of yours well fed these days, haven't you?”

“Well, she does most of the feeding for herself,”  Nick replied, before doing a double take at Gumshoe's implications.  “Wait?  What do you mean?”

“Hey pal, nothing's wrong with having a big lady around as company!  I think they're great to hang around.  Why, ever since Maggey's put on that weight I've been spending more time around her and I've been eating like a king!  It's just like how it was with Mama Gumshoe, that woman could cook up a stew like you wouldn't believe!”

“I have nothing to do with her weight gain!”  Nick protested as Gumshoe rubbed his stomach happily.  “She left for a couple weeks to do some business and when she can back she was huge!  I didn't do anything!”

“That's just how it happens!  When you first meet them, they're thin.  You turn around for a second and blam, they're twice their size!  It's nature!  But anyway, stick around her!  When you're around a nice, large lady you'll never have to starve on ramen and generic soda again!”

“Just forget about it, Gumshoe.  We can talk about girls all we want once this case is over with.  Right now I really don't have too much time to make small talk.  If you don't mind I'm going to snoop around to see if I find anything interesting.”

“You're not going to find anything really interesting around here that I haven't, but feel free to give it a shot.”  Gumshoe shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.  “I'm gonna keep it up though, they're not letting me head to the crime scene yet.  They're still looking for evidence for the case and samples for toxicology.”  Phoenix examined the enormous mess Gumshoe made of the room.  

“Oh, I wonder why they won't let you in the crime scene”  he muttered, stepping through the paperwork obstacle course.  He paced idly about the room, his eyes skipping past all the sheets of paperwork Gumshoe had strewn across the floor, and towards a few colorful magazines sitting on the table.  “And what are these?”  He stepped over a pile of paper and picked up the pair of magazines sitting on the table, investigating their covers.  “Rental Properties for the Rich and Richer.  Fast Cars For Sale Magazine?  Now what would he be doing keeping this around?”  Phoenix flipped open the car magazine, saw the extraordinarily high prices accompanying the exotic automobiles, and shut it right back up.  “Now I just feel poorer than ever,” he lamented as a tiny piece of notepad paper slide out from inside the book.  

“Now isn't this interesting,”  Nick scanned the paper, reading the names and times hastily sketched out on it.  “So he had a meeting with Octavius Bloomp at 10:15, right before the murder?  And another short one at 9:45 with Veronica Peppers?  And a 9:25 meeting with Terry Vision with Lucy Indigo.  These are awful close to the murder.  It wouldn't be a stretch if a couple of these people had lingered around long enough to kill Mr. Bonker right before it hit eleven.  I might need to see if I can find out a bit more about these meetings.”  Nick briskly scanned the paper, knowing that he couldn't linger too long on this meeting.  He still had to visit the most important place, the scene of the crime.  

“It looks like he didn't leave too many notes on the meeting.  Still, I should at least write down the scheduled.  It's not a good sign seeing those magazines there, though.”  Nick frowned as he once again spied the magazines full of pricy products.  “I'm sure Franzy will try and use Jimmy's love for his grandparents against him, and with all of these magazines full of pricy products sitting around it might make him awfully suspicious.  Hopefully scruffy will overlook them.”

“Huh?  What's that?”  Gumshoe asked, turning up from a stack of file folders.  “What are you going on about, pal?”  

“Nothing at all,” Nick replied.  “You keep on looking through here, all right?  I've got to move on now.”  Nick slowly walked towards the exit.

“Trust me, I'm going to make Franziska proud!  She's not going to whip me once she sees the haul I'll bring!”  Gumshoe was beaming as he pushed aside another stack of papers, ready to move on to the next.  “And if you run into Maggey, ask her if she wants to go out for ice cream when I'm done!”

“I'm sure I'll remember to,” Phoenix said as he exited Jimmy's office, ready to move on to the scene of the crime.