“I can’t even tell you how relieved I am to hear you say those words,” she said, her voice rife with emotion. “We need you on our side, Mitch, and now I feel like you’re really with us all the way.”
Despite the praise, Mitch’s expression remained downcast.
“Even with a diagnosis of DID, Grace, I cannot say in court that Penny was suffering a psychotic break when the murder took place.”
“I don’t think you have to now,” said Grace. “How could she have killed Rachel if her hands were bound?”
“You still think she’s innocent?” Mitch sent a hand running through his mane of silver hair. “Grace, how do you explain her being covered in blood, holding the murder weapon?”
“She was there,” Grace said. “Penny was there, of course. But she was tied up. Then … well, she was untied. Simple as that.”
“And she was standing close to Rachel when someone else killed her,” Annie added. “That’s how the blood got on her.”
“After the murder,” Grace clarified. “And that’s when Penny went into a fugue state, like she did the night her father died … no memories for us to access.”
“Or she has trapped memories,” Annie said. “Memories she’s parsed out to her alters and we’re getting them from her in dribs and drabs. You’ve said that’s a possibility.”
“Right,” said Mitch. “But that still doesn’t answer: Who did the killing?”
Mitch was looking at the board that Grace and Annie had constructed, with the cards and yellow string connecting various suspects with different theories.
“Either Vince or Maria,” said Grace with definitive authority.
“Motive?”
“Vince to stop Rachel from blackmailing him. Maria because … well, she’s the firebrand psychotic,” said Annie, who had her answers at the ready.
“What about these?” Mitch tapped a finger on the cards with locations written out. Places like Topeka, Alaska, and Chicago. Grace had all the names memorized. All in all, Penny had listed off fifteen unique locations while in a dissociative state of mind.
“We don’t know,” said Annie. “They mean something to Penny. Jack thinks they could have something to do with drugs. Locations where Penny went as a kid when Rachel was plying that trade, or they could be places she and Rachel talked about on the night of the murder. We just don’t know.”
“Same as with the book,” said Mitch.
At ten past the hour Navarro showed up. He draped his suit jacket over the back of a bridge chair at the foldout table that Grace had helped Annie assemble. Grace wasted no time getting right to it.
“She was tied up that night,” she said, showing Navarro the report and pictures from Mitch’s medical examiner contact. “It changes everything.”
Navarro, who had been preparing for an entirely different defense, looked as though someone had sucker punched him in the gut.
“This is potentially great news,” he said, not sounding at all elated. “But I don’t think it’s the game changer you think it is.”
“Why?” asked Grace.
“A jury won’t go for theoretical,” he said. “They’ll follow the evidence. She was tied up, so what?”
“Who tied her?” asked Annie, hitting her closed fist against the table. “Someone else was involved. Had to be.”
Navarro did not look convinced. “Maybe Rachel tied up Penny, Penny escaped, and then she killed Rachel. Possible? Justification for murder? I think not. Either way, a rope mark isn’t going to convince a jury this was self-defense, not with all the forensic evidence to the contrary, and we don’t have another suspect on trial.” Navarro’s hands went to his hips as he struck a defiant pose. “Is that enough reasonable doubt to acquit? That’s what you’re after now, right? This is not an insanity defense. You’re talking about going all the way to a not-guilty verdict. She was covered in blood, holding the murder weapon. I don’t see how we get there.”
“Grace raises a good point: How could Penny have untied herself, with rope marks like those? Hard to believe. And how could she have killed the way she did if she was bound?” asked Mitch. “It was a violent, frenzied murder. Hard to pull off if you can’t bend your wrists.”
“I don’t know,” Navarro admitted with a shake of his head.
Grace’s whole face lit up as a thought came to her. “We have to show it,” she announced excitedly.