“What now? What happens next?” Grace asked.
“Next she’ll be arraigned. We’re still sorting out the indictment, but given her history, I’ll petition the court for a full psychological evaluation.”
“Do you think we can win on an insanity verdict?”
Navarro raised a hand as an indication to proceed slowly and with caution.
“One step at a time, like I said. This is a marathon, not a sprint. But the court should grant a request to have her hospitalized at a secure facility for the evaluation period, twenty days to start, and it could be extended from there.”
“A hospital,” said Grace. “That’s good, right? It’s better than jail.”
Navarro’s face harbored a cryptic look. “There’s only one state hospital with the strict security the court will demand that takes patients of the same age and gender as Penny.”
“And that is?”
“Edgewater State Hospital,” Navarro said, his voice carrying evident dismay. “It’s part of the Mass Department of Correction.”
“But it is a hospital, right?” Grace asked.
“Yes, but Grace, I’m just being honest here, knowing Edgewater, its reputation … I have clients who are sentenced there, and, well, it’s not the best place in the world. It’s less healthcare facility and more housing for the criminally insane. In fact, part of me thinks prison would be better.”
CHAPTER 5
WE DIDN’T GET ALL the details until we gathered at the kitchen table in Swampscott. It was just the three of us—Mom, me, and Ryan—though I’d swear I felt Dad’s presence like a ghost hovering in the room. Mom told us what happened, starting from the detective at the door to seeing you as you were, covered in blood, like that scene in the movie Carrie—the one starring Sissy Spacek, forget the remake.
Mom’s a stoic, doesn’t like to show her vulnerable side. But that night, her dazed look, the way her jaw was set tight enough to crack the bone, told me the burden was more than even she could bear.
I was shaken to the core, couldn’t believe my ears, but Ryan’s reaction, well, it sort of surprised me. He looked—I don’t know exactly how to put it—but I guess smug is the word, sitting there, sipping an icy Coke, like he knew all along that you were dangerous and one day something like this would happen.
As your alters became more apparent Ryan couldn’t take it, wanted less and less to do with you, stopped trusting you entirely. I don’t know how much of his distancing was your DID, which he didn’t believe was real, or that he continued to blame you for Dad’s death.
You know what, I worry about Ryan. When you carry that kind of resentment around long enough it stews inside, cooking blame into a foul-tasting anger.
But nothing compares to your anger, does it? After your arrest, you put someone else in charge. Your switches have lasted days, maybe a month even, but never for this long. Almost a year and a half now since you’ve been gone, the entirety of your time locked up in that psych hospital while awaiting trial. It feels a bit like you abandoned us, ran away, leaving us with the harshest, cruelest, most caustic and hard to handle of all of your alters.
You left us with Eve.
I still don’t know if you were excited to see your birth mother or if all that was just an act. Did you know from the moment she made contact with you what you were going to do? What you wrote to her in your first exchange was either quite tender or quite cunning. All this time later, I’m still not sure.
I am sure that I miss you, Penny. I really do. You’re my sister and I love you, and I always will, no matter how the court eventually rules, in your favor or not.
Over the year and a half you’ve been away, I’ve amassed pages about your case for my film diary. I know all the maneuvers Attorney Navarro has made on your behalf. I also have a detailed inventory of all evidence gathered. I can tell you this: the prosecution has a lot more of it than the defense.
Mom won’t say it often, but she’s mentioned it on occasion, the possibility that somehow you’re innocent. I call it wishful thinking, but there was a guy—Vince Rapino is his name—who piqued my interest early on. Rapino was something of a two-bit criminal from Lynn, same town Rachel lived in, who allegedly put crime aside to start an auto repair business. His name was on the lease to Rachel’s apartment, which is how the police found out those two were having an affair. Rapino was married at the time, but he wasn’t a suspect because he had an alibi, thanks to his wife. That is a bit unfortunate for you, because from what I’ve read of him he’s a real dirtbag.