Navarro sent a questioning glance Mitch’s way. “Dr. McHugh, is it possible that one of Penny’s alters is suppressing some of her memory?”
Mitch massaged his beard in thought.
“Possible, yes,” he said. “Likely, no. I think it’s as I told Grace, an information overload, one alter bleeding into another. It made Penny feel like someone else was in the room with her when in actuality, she was alone.” Mitch took a long pause. “I guess given the gravity of the situation we shouldn’t discount anything, but I wouldn’t pin our hopes on it.”
“Understood. Regardless of what we think of his alibi, Rapino’s ex-wife insists they were together that night, and the police bought it. Let’s change gears,” Navarro said to Mitch. “We could really use you as an expert witness at the trial.”
A dark cloud seemed to pass before Mitch’s face as he shifted uneasily in his chair.
“Yeah, I’ve been giving that a lot of thought.”
“And?”
“And…” Mitch let the word hang in the air, while Grace, sensing trouble, curled up inside. “And I keep coming back to the fact that this case was lost when it was allowed to go to trial.”
“It’s just not a very high standard for competency,” Navarro said. “The forensic psychologist gave Penny the evaluation at the courthouse and later again at Edgewater. She understood the charges against her and could assist with her defense—like I said, not a high standard. We argued that one of Penny’s alters might have been responsible and that alter might not meet the competency criteria, but Judge Lockhart was concerned we were elevating her personalities to the status of persons.”
“Which is exactly how it should be,” Grace replied bitterly.
“The judge doesn’t agree, and there’s no room for negotiation there,” said Navarro, offering his assessment in a neutral voice.
“Right,” said Mitch. “Which puts us back to the trial and an insanity defense—which, to be perfectly honest with you all, no psychiatrist I know could argue and win.”
For Grace, it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room in a single rush.
“Why do you say that, Mitch?” Navarro asked. “The murder appears disorganized, frenzied. Penny didn’t bring a weapon, made no attempt to escape even when Rachel called nine-one-one. It shows lack of planning and total lack of awareness on her part.”
“She wrote a hit list that had Rachel’s name on it,” Mitch reminded the room, as if everyone had forgotten the obvious. “Rachel abandoned her, and there will be no shortage of psychologists willing to testify that long-simmering resentment could have triggered extreme violence. Penny may have gone there with murder on her mind, and in the aftermath, she froze. You’re the expert on the law, Attorney Navarro, but that seems like a winning argument for the prosecution to me.”
“Our focus is on her different personality states,” Navarro said. “We know the Eve persona is dark. She’s the one who wrote the hit list, not Penny. We’ve got witnesses to testify to that effect, and I’ve got an expert lined up to talk about DID, because I know the ADA will argue it’s not a valid diagnosis, but I’d rather it be you, Mitch. Having Penny’s doctor on the stand, someone who is also an expert on the condition, would help us tremendously, I think.”
“I could be convincing about DID being a real condition,” Mitch said. “But I can’t at this time give Penny that diagnosis until I work with her some more. She could have a borderline personality disorder … or…”
“Or you think she’s psychotic,” Grace said in a sharp tone. “That she just … what? Murdered Rachel in cold blood for the damn fun of it?”
Grace could feel the anger well up inside her.
“I can’t get on the stand and simply go by what’s in her medical file unless I am in full agreement. I need to have time with Penny to form my own conclusion, which could be that she has DID, or … it could be something else.”
Grace bit her lip to keep from saying something she’d later regret. Mitch wasn’t telling her anything new, he was simply confirming her worst fears. She also understood that the insanity defense was rarely used, and for good reason—it seldom worked. Of all court cases, only 1 percent attempted that defense, and of those, it was successful only 25 percent of the time.
“Where is your comfort level with helping us?” Navarro asked the question Grace was thinking.