Page 9 of The 24th Hour

Mary Elena said, tersely, “I heard.”

Gaines nodded and went on.

“The jury is going to want to hear your side. Schneider may call you to the stand and pummel you with questions. So, it’s far better if we call you. The defense will still question you, but they won’t have as much control.

“Now, according to Cates, you followed him to the second floor. You asked him for rough sex, then when he hurt you, you said that he raped you. Schneider is going to push hard on that. Quoting his client, he’ll say that Cates met a woman named Olivia who told him, ‘I want you to take me hard and fast and now.’ In other words, the defense position will be that the sex was your idea but that you changed your mind after the fact. And that you were in full control of Olivia.”

“I didn’t know she was out,” Mary Elena said. “She doesn’t talk that way. I only remember that when I went into the room and was looking for the ladies’ room, that guy asked me who I was. I said, ‘Elena.’ I don’t remember anything else until the police came.”

“This is important, Mary Elena. Did any of your alters tell Cates that you have DID?”

Mary Elena said, “I can only tell you what I know and what I’ve said. I went into Xe Sogni to use the ladies’ room. A waiter said it was upstairs, so I climbed that spiral staircase. Then I woke up on the floor, naked and hurting everywhere.”

Gaines said, “You told Sergeant Boxer that your name was Loretta. You told her, ‘He raped us.’ You’ve just said that you were on your way to the bathroom, then woke up on the floor without memory of this rape. That’s a contradiction, isn’t it?”

“Noooo. I remember going up to the ladies’ room. Iremember being on the floor. I remember hurting. But I don’t remember talking with Sergeant Boxer.”

“So, it was a different personality—Loretta—who was attacked by Cates? Where was the personality called Olivia? Did either one of them tell Cates that you have dissociative identity disorder?”

“I don’t know. Do you understand, if an alter comes out, she is protecting me? I don’t know what happened when Olivia or Loretta were fronting. But I knew from thepainthat I had been raped and beaten. And that had happened.Do you understand that?”

CHAPTER 6

THE ATMOSPHERE IN the room was still quivering in the wake of Mary Elena’s anguished protest. Yuki tried to signal Nick Gaines to take the intensity down, but he didn’t see her. His eyes were fixed on Mary Elena and he kept talking at her.

“Schneider is going to try to trip you up, Mary Elena. You said, ‘He raped us.’ Forgive me for saying so, but while your body bore the physical evidence of rape, you don’t remember a thing about that attack, who said what to whom, if another person was present, if that person was a facet of you, or even if Cates got Olivia’s okay. You don’t remember what happened in that room, isn’t that right?”

Yuki was as transfixed as Mary Elena, who stared at Gaines with her mouth hanging open. She pushed up against the back of her chair, pulled her legs up to her chest, gripped them hard with her forearms—and then blasted Gaines.

“Who are you?”

Shockingly, her voice had changed. To Yuki, she sounded like a very young girl.

Yuki said, “Mary Elena?”

Without looking at Yuki, Mary Elena shouted at Gaines. “You’re baddddd. Mama and I don’t like you.”

Gaines put out his hand to stop Yuki from interfering.

“Who areyou?” he asked Mary Elena.

“I’m Lily. You know I’m Lily. Don’t talk to my mama like that.”

Yuki said, “Nick, I’ll stay with Lily.”

Gaines gave Yuki a look likeI’ve got this,but Yuki said his name again, louder. He stood up and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Yuki turned back to the formerly composed woman of twenty-eight, now crouched in a desk chair, panting like a frightened child.

“Lily, I want to help. What can I do for you?”

“Go away. Leave me alone.”

“Okay. I’ll be right outside the door.”

Lily didn’t answer. Yuki didn’t want to leave Lily alone, but witnessing Mary Elena assume a new persona while sitting across from her was unnerving. She needed a plan.

Hesitating, Yuki left Lily in her office and closed the door. She startled when she saw Gaines standing only feet away.

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