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Justin Lawson is a major character appearing in Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. He is an inspector for Scotland Yard. He has a "brute-force" approach to things, and is said to be the polar opposite of Alfendi in many ways.

Plot[]

Only read this section after finishing the game! Click to skip spoilers.

Dealings with a killer[]

Four years prior to the beginning of the events of Layton Brothers: Mystery Room, Justin was investigating alongside his partner, Inspector Alfendi Layton, Commissioner Barton, and Hilda Pertinax, an interpol investigator on the infamous Jigsaw Puzzle Killings, an internal name given to a series of homicides that had reached a whooping headcount of 26 victims in less than a year, with each subsequent murder increasing in violence and gruesomeness with the next one, so much so that Scotland Yard had been forced to keep the matter completely hidden from the public eye, as not only widespread panic would have otherwise erupted across London, but also to prevent any possible wannabe copycat to further muddle the investigations. With no discernible pattern whatsoever, the most vital and sole evidence connecting these seemingly separate murders, were a series of connecting puzzle pieces, with one of them purposely left at each scene of crime for mysterious reasons.

However, while appearing as a law-abiding policeman, Justin was truthfully in cahoots with Keelan Makepeace, an unhinged cold blooded killer and the physical perpetuator of most of the murders, as a friend on the inside of the force.

Keelan had originally been taken in by Justin just after his first murder, but for reasons currently unknown, instead to arresting him, Lawson recruited him as a killer, ordering him to continue killing under threath of incarceration.

Probably under orders from Lawson, Keelan purposely left a puzzle piece at the scene of each crime for mysterious reasons, Lawson doing the same by placing other puzzle pieces at crime scenes of murders unreleated to Keelan, thusly adding to the total 15 killings executed by Makepeace under Justin's order, 11 other puzzle pieces. Most of the victims were completely unreleated to Keelan, with his involvement further covered up by Lawson, who while pretending to dutifully investigate these crimes, was instead destroying vital evidence to muddle the police proceedings; in particular, during the one exception where Keelan instead killed one of his acquaintances, he got close as never before to being caught, forcing Lawson to intervene by stealing two incriminating photoes.

Nevertheless, thanks to his brilliant mind, Alfendi got closer to the truth, eventually concluding that Keelan Makepeace, one of the suspects for murder of the rich man, had to be the one responsible for the physical execution of the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings homicides. However in a reckless move, while his collegues were still prepating, Alfendi went ahead to Keelan's hiding place, Forbodium Castle, without any backup.

The official version of the events that then happened there was as follows:

Justin, Hilda, and Commissioner Barton, all rushed to the scene in a hurry, but as soon they arrived, they heard a gunshot, and decided to split up in order to quickly find them; Justin was leading the charge, as he proclaimed to having visited Forbodium before, and suggested for the Commisioned to prowl the castle grounds, and for Hilda to take the Central Tower. A few minutes later, while the Commisioner was searching the castle grounds in front of the main gate of the castle, and Pertinax was exploring the top floor of the Central Tower of the castle, they both heard Justin shouting from the roof of the East Tower for Alfendi to not shoot anymore and to stand down. While the Commisioner could only see Justin leaning from the East Tower from his lower position, Hilda was instead able to glimpse at the scene from the slit windows, seemingly seeing exactly what Justin would later descibe as Makepeace and Alfendi, both on the rooftop of the West Tower, guns trained on each other, with Keelan holding his right side in visible pain, while Alfendi was closing in to the cornered man while deviously grinning, his gun pointed squarely at Makepeace, the latter too injuried to try to properly fight back. In reality, Pertinax wasn't able to see Layton at all, but in the state of panic she was, she became sure she did.

Allerted by Lawson about the location of Alfendi and Keelan, the Commisioner headed to the West Tower from the ground floor, but eventually found the way towards the rooftop blocked, forcing him to begin to hack at the door with an emergency axe, delaying his arrival. Meanwhile, while he was occupied by the door, both Justin and Pertinax began moving towards the West Tower, Hilda forced to descend the entire Central Tower due to all the connecting doors leading to the western one being blocked with the exception of the ground floor one, while Justin had to descend the roof of the East Tower from the external woodden stair. Just as Hilda had reached the bottom of the West Tower, and Justin the end of the external stairs, two more gunshots rang into the air. After finally breaking the door down, the Commisioner together with Hilda were the first to arrive on the scene, findind both Alfendi and Makepeace in pools of blood, the former barely alive due to a shot in the chest, Lawson joining them soon after. Everything seemed to point out that Layton had shot Keelan in the head in cold blood, only for himself having also been shot in retaliation.

However, this was not what truly had happen:

That first shot that was heard was in truth the gunshot that had hit Alfendi in the chest, causing him to instantly pass out and collapse, entering a coma. While he was laying unconscious, Lawson saw the scene from the East Tower, but instead of calling for help, he lied, creating a hoax by falsely shouting out for Alfendi to put down his gun, misleading both Hilda and the Commisioner. This is because, unbeknownst to everyone, Lawson was in truth all along, for reasons unknown, the one enabling the actions of Keelan to continue, the two of them having also planned beforehand how Makepeace should have acted during their raid at Forbodium Castle. Like they had planned, Keelan, after shooting Layton, began acting as if he had been shot in his right side, making it look like Alfendi had instead shot him, tricking the witnessing Pertinax, who had been directed to the Central Tower for this exact reason, Lawson scream being the final touch to complete the false premise in Hilda's mind.

Following the charade, Lawson, then quickly, and rather recklessly, crossed over the tiny ledge on the outside of the Central Tower, climbing along the ivy vines that grew along it, in order to reach the West Tower from the East one. Once he was on the West Tower's roof, Lawson picked up the gun of Alfendi and then, much to the killer surprise, shot Makepeace two times, once in the left side, then in his head, ending his connection with the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings and pinning Makepeace's death on Alfendi, before fleeing the scene the same way he came from. However he hadn't realized to having erroneously shot the wrong side of Keelan, creating an inconsistency with what Hilda had seen. He also couldn't bring himself to finish of Layton, a dear friend of his, and instead left him alive.

Thanks to the speedy aid from the Commisioner and Hilda, Alfendi Layton miraculously survived his injuries, albeit barely.Despite Hilda having come to belive in the charges, finding herself unable to trust him anymore, she, the Commisioner, and, at least apparently, Lawson, all worked tirelessly to clear Al from the charges, but the investigation turned out to be a disaster, with evidence continuing to stack up against him; furthermore, all of their hopes were suddlently and completely crushed by the confession of guilt from an Alfendi Layton none of them knew at all. As it turns out, during Alfendi's recovery in the hospital, while at his bedside, Lawson secretly attempted to hypnotise him in his sleep to influence his memories of what had happen, but due to his lousy job, he instead accidentally became responsible for Al's multiple personality disorder, creating the "Placid" persona, who became the main identity of Alfendi. While this suited Lawson for the moment, since once he awoke from the coma, Placid Alfendi immediately confessed to the crime just as planned, Justin became however afraid that the original persona of Al, "Potty" as he would later be nicknamed, would eventually reveal the truth, so he began keeping a close eye on Al for signs of recovery.

Placid confessed to the crime, but on the other hand, Potty had no recollection of shooting at Keelan and refused to talk due to his suspicions of having been framed; as a result of this unusual situation, the death of Keelan, and as such the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings case as whole, couldn't be declared solved, and as such remained opened for the next few years. Justin, in his paranoia, still kept the case file about Forbodium Castle on his desk instead of archiving it, something he would later come to regret.

File 003: A Murder Staged[]

His role in the case was as a case requester. He assigned Alfendi, and his current partner, the rookie detective constable Lucy Baker, to solve the murder of a famous actress, Gloria Blaise. He then appeared again in the ending of the case, reporting the findings of the follow up investigation. Amazed that the pair was able to figure out the true mastermind behind the delict, he inquired "who" really solved the case. When Alfendi took an early leave with an excuse to physically recover from his earlier shift of identity, Lawson was left alone with Lucy, who made the mistake to mention said personality changes.

Justin, now aware that some form of the old Alfendi had returned active, inquired Lucy if he during said changes had ever mentioned suspicious, unfamiliar names or places; when she informed him that Potty had not done such a thing, Lawson asked Lucy to discreetly report to him if "Potty" Alfendi ever did so, framing it as it would had been better for Alfendi to not know of the tip, request that Lucy shackily agreed to oblige.

File 005: The DJ's Swansong[]

Lawson made an appearance in the Mystery Room once the case was closed, searching for his subordinate, detective sergent 'Sniffer' Hague, instead finding Lucy and Alfendi. Asking once again if the latter had any "incidents" lately, he was then surprised by the sudden emergence of Potty, shocking him that Layton could change between his two personas so easily.

Potty began taunting Lawson about their past partnership, and the location of their last face-to-face meeting, which Lawson responded in tone declaring that Potty's refusal of telling the police what he knew there was the cause of the case still not being closed. Potty still played dumb, which propted Lawson to shoo him away; Potty once again taunted that Lawson knew exactly where he could found him, and that he would always be free for his old partner at any time, before becoming once again inactive.

Returning to his Placid persona, Alfendi was then harshly scolded by Lawson for his recklessness in wanting to deal with his seemingly unhinged "brother" on his own, arrogance he maliciously implyed to be stemming from being the son of such an esteemed father. Since Al was still sure of his decision, Lawson backed down, whishing him all the best while also warning Placid that things could turn against him.

File 008: Ham and Cheese[]

After being absent in person for a while, he appeared again, discussing with Lucy of the recent reappearance of Keelan's daughter, Diane Makepeace, a young woman just as unhinged and bloodthirsty like her father, who during her own recent murder spree had met Alfendi and Lucy and was able to gave them the slip. Lucy asked to be informed about the investigation of the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings, which Lawson obliged, telling the official version of the events that had befallen at Forbodium castle four years prior.

They however were soon joined by Hilda, who had also recently returned to London, and informed them that she had received an invitation from Diane Makepeace herself, where she was demanding them to meet her at Forbodium Castle, revealing that she had shortly before lured Alfendi at the location under the theat of detonating a bomb at "a school, a hospital or Lucy's home" if Al had failed to show up alone. While Hilda and Lucy rushed to the location, where Lucy was then kidnapped by Diane and forced to solve a grim reconstruction of a past crime of Keelan that Alfendi was unable to crack, Lawson seemingly remained behind at the police station and get aid for their mission.

After allerting the Commisioner, Justin ran ahead of the reinforcements and arrived at the location while still unseen by the people inside, he began moving towards the room where Diane was detaining Alfendi, planning to kill her out of sheer paranoia about what her father could have told her.

File 9: Good Cop, Bad Cop[]

Just as Diane was going to kill Al in revenge for her father's death, misguidedly beliving him to be responsible for it, Justin saved Al's life at the last second, as he couldn't bring himself to watch his friend die, by shooting Diane dead in her right temple, having arrived from a direction Diane thought being secure and thusly taking her by surprise, by using again his secret shortcut. He then put the gun he had just shot, of which he previously had filed out the serial number, into the lap of Alfendi, to pin the blame on him yet again. Feigning to having just arrived, he vouced in favor of the recently re-emerged Potty explaining himself, curious to know how much he remembered of the past incident.

Having previously secretly swiped the case file of four years prior from Justin's desk, Potty was able to point out the various incostintencies in both Diane's and Keelan's murders, such as the gunshot wound in the temple of Diane, the discrepancy between wich side of Keelan was shot, and the impossibility of Hilda actually witnessing him cornering Keelan, arriving at the conclusion that the culprint of these two cases had to be the one and the same, and that culrint could only have been Justin Lawson. However, when faced with the conundrum on how he would be able to move himself from the East to the West Tower, Potty lost steam, allowing Placid to resurface. Much to the dismay of Lucy, Placid was still quite sure of the veracity of his memories, and once again confessed to the murder of Keelan. However, before he could be taken in, following a pep talk from Hilda, Lucy got her confidence back, and, now backed up by Pertinax, who also had come to belive in Justin's guilt, Lucy was able to point out the Ivy vines. With his horrible memories proven false, Placid gladly teamed up with Potty and Lucy to take apart the last of Lawson's excuses, putting the last nail in the coffin by pointing out just how much microscopic evidence Lawson was now having on his body after rubbing himself against the ivy vines and the tower's outer wall.

Justin finally gave up, somewhat relieved to having finally discovered, as the mental pressure of the last four years was becoming way too much; these past few months in particular, with Potty's re-emergence and the return of Diane, being so stressful, Lawson was at his wits' end. He admitted to not having in him the will to finish off Layton or watch him getting killed, as he still truly considered him his friend, as well as confessing in his role as supporter, then killer of Keelan, as well as killing Diane mostly out of paranoia.

He however categorically refused to elaborate as to why he got involved with Keelan in the first place, simply saying "let's just say some bad people were getting a little too powerful", leaving the mystery behind the jigsaw pieces still open and unexplained.

While he did not revealed his motives even while interrogated by the police, only revealing to having added 11 jigsaw pieces to unreleated murders, he did however privately reveal to Al how he was able to brainwash him, something that brought great embarassment for both of his personas.


Spoilers end here

Trivia[]

  • Justin Lawson may be a parody of the term, "just in law, son".
  • Notably, Lawson never revealed what his motives were, even under extensive interrogation, leaving open the possibility that one day say motives will be revealed in a sequel.
  • There is another character named Justin Lawson in Criminal Case: Mysteries of the Past.
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