Putting his pen to his legal pad, Navarro appeared ready to jot down some answers. Whitmore nodded to Mitch, as if to give permission to reveal something of consequence.
“We found a note tucked inside the Bible Darla carries around with her,” Mitch began. “The Bible was on her bed. I had to take a picture of the actual note because it’s evidence now.”
Mitch got his phone out, opened his Photos app, cleared his throat, and began to read.
“‘Darla, sorry to tell but Penny Francone calls herself Eve slept with Charles.’” Mitch paused, looked up, and flicked his gaze from Grace to Navarro. “That’s the grammar, not quite correct, I know.” He continued to read. “‘I saw pictures. Can’t get to show you’—written with the letter U,” he clarified, “‘but they were doing it. You should do something about it.’”
Mitch handed his phone to Navarro, who showed a look of surprise, his arched eyebrows cresting even higher on a broad forehead.
“It’s written in blue crayon,” he said.
Navarro passed the phone to Grace.
“Like a child’s handwriting,” said Grace, making careful study of the image before handing the phone back to Mitch.
“Any idea who wrote it?” inquired Navarro. “Ms. Whitmore, does Penny have enemies here? Obviously, somebody was trying to incite Darla to violence, and I strongly suspect she hasn’t made her stance about Charles a secret.”
“We’re trying to figure that out right now,” Whitmore replied. “But you three are the closest to her. Has Penny talked to you about any threats she’s received recently, any confrontations with somebody? Anything, anyone we don’t know about?”
“Not off the top of my head,” said Mitch.
“What about the weapon, the knife?” asked Grace. “Where did Darla get it?”
“We’re not sure at the moment,” Whitmore confessed. “We’re in the early stages of the investigation. We’re not even sure how Darla knew where Penny would be.”
“Maybe someone was feeding her information,” Mitch suggested. “A guard perhaps? CO Blackwood jumps to mind … I reported him for excessive force that day when Eve switched to Penny. Did he get reprimanded?”
Whitmore appeared to be in thought.
“Oh yeah … suspended three days without pay,” she recalled from memory following that brief bout of silence. “Lost out on a promotion as a result.”
“Nothing like a punch to the pocketbook to inspire revenge,” Navarro said.
“It’s an interesting angle,” Whitmore agreed. “Easy enough for us to explore. But typically these conflicts are escalated between the guests, not the guards. Any chance that Penny is an instigator, Mitch?”
“Eve can be confrontational, no doubt, but I haven’t been here long enough to know if she’s acquired a lot of adversaries amongst her peers,” Mitch said.
“I’ll put that question right back to you, Dr. Whitmore,” said Grace. “Who the hell did my daughter piss off?” She didn’t mean to come across harshly, but it had been a heck of a day.
Whitmore returned a tight-lipped smile, but did not appear aggrieved. “I suppose we have a lot of potential suspects, don’t we?” she said.
“How are we going to keep Penny safe?” Grace wanted to know. “Where’s Darla now?”
“At present, Darla is confined to a room for twenty-two hours a day,” Whitmore said. “And she’ll be moved to a secure adjustment unit soon enough. So, back to Penny. Is she the type to push someone hard enough to want to do her in? The more personalities, the more chances there are to rub someone the wrong way, I suppose. She upsets someone and that someone uses Darla as a proxy, a weapon so to speak.”
“Could be,” said Mitch. “There’s a potential here that she doesn’t have DID, but rather a complex presentation of an antisocial personality disorder with a disregard for right and wrong, compulsive lying, arrogance, superiority complex—I could go on.”
“If that’s the case, I’m less inclined to put much focus on CO Blackwood,” Whitmore replied.
“That day in the interview room, Penny told us she was a very bad girl—well, Chloe did,” Navarro reminded everyone. “Maybe she was talking about this other alter of hers, the one with the chaotic personality state Mitch was hoping to reach. Could be that’s the alter who upset Darla.”