The compact spray bottle made it effortless for Eve to self-administer the narcotic. The effects of it were almost immediate.
“How do you feel?” Mitch asked.
“Yeah, feel good,” she said. “I mean … yeah … kinda nice.”
“Okay,” said Mitch.
He had Penny’s file folder on the table, from which he produced a grainy photograph, taken by the police on the night of the murder. The image focused closely on the red rings surrounding her wrists. He was thinking of what Whitmore had said about the unusual marks, wondering if ketamine might help release a memory to explain them.
“Do you recall being handcuffed on the night of your arrest?” he asked.
Eve focused closely on the image. “Oh God, my wrists are so fat and ugly,” she groaned. Then, looking up at Mitch, said, “Yeah, I remember.”
“Did it hurt? Did you say anything to the police about the handcuffs being on too tight?”
Mitch put the picture away. There was no way he’d show her any of the other images from the crime scene. Eve contemplated the question, seeming more relaxed by the second.
“No,” she said quietly with a shake of her head. “Don’t think so.”
“Got it. What do you remember from yesterday?”
“Yesterday?” She sounded unsure why yesterday would matter at all.
“Yes. Can you tell me about your day yesterday?”
“Well…” Eve began. “I did the morning stuff … breakfast, clean up, a little outside time … oh joy, oh rapture. I had a meeting with you in here and it smelled terrible … ammonia or something. The help really needs to be more careful with their cleaning products.”
The help? Mitch barely stifled a laugh. She remembered his second attempt with the ammonia, the one that failed, but she’d omitted the crayons, which had also failed to trigger a switch after that first success. He’d have to go back further.
“What about the day before? Anything stick out in your mind?”
He was thinking of Chloe and her drawing.
“Hmmm,” said Eve. “No … I had group in the morning. God, I hate group. So many people here have really big problems.” She paused to send Mitch a playful smile because she understood she was one of them. “I met with my lawyer, and then I met up with Mother in that bright room … and you were there.”
“And?”
“And we talked and that was it. No, lunch, now that I think about it.”
“Nothing unusual?”
“Nope. After Mother left I got something from the vending machine, went back to my glorious cell, and hung out until dinner. It really is action-packed around here.”
Either Chloe was lodged in some compartment deep in Penny’s subconscious, or this girl was a marvelously deviant liar.
“Do any of these places have special meaning for you, Eve?”
Mitch read from the list of locations Chloe had recited in her trance, ones he had transcribed into a small black notebook.
“Michigan … Florida … Key West … Alabama … Alaska … Charlotte … Chicago…”
Eve shook her head at them all.
What could it mean? he wondered.
“Do you ever think of yourself as a bad girl?” Here he was quoting Chloe.
She sent him a lopsided, somewhat mawkish grin.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Do you think I’m a bad girl? Do you think I’m a brutal killer, Dr. Mitch?”
Mitch gave it some thought, happy to see the ketamine was still working. Everything about Eve appeared more relaxed.
“My job isn’t to judge you, Eve. It’s to help you.”
He fired off some questions from the Competency Screening Test, curious to know if she’d pass.
“Do you know what you’re charged with?”
“Murder in the first.”
She was far too cavalier for any jury’s liking.
“Do you understand what you’re alleged to have done?”
“I killed my birth mother, Rachel Boyd, with a knife. Or was it a candlestick in the billiard hall?”
Clue.
Eve.
Lord help me.
Mitch could go on, but all the answers she’d give would confirm what he already knew. She could stand trial for murder and she understood right from wrong. She could resist the urge to kill. But could Ruby?
“I’d like to try something else, if I may,” he said.
Eve eyed him apprehensively. “News flash, I’m not into that,” she said sharply, and Mitch’s face immediately reddened.