The Perfect Liar (Last Stand 5)
Page 11"Kalyna mentioned him to me one time."
Maria seemed reluctant again. "Do you remember when that was?"
"A week or two before the incident."
"What'd she say?" Ava felt as if she was tugging the information out of Maria, but at least Kalyna's neighbor was stil with her, stil responding.
"She was on her way out when I met her in the hall. I asked her if she had plans for the evening--you know, the regular chitchat you do with neighbors--and she said she had a date with a pilot. I asked her who it was, and she said Captain Trussell."
A date? Kalyna had given Ava the impression that they'd never been out together prior to meeting up at the Moby Dick. "So she had some interest in him before that night?"
"Definitely. And she was giddy with the thril of letting me know she had what so many other women want." She grimaced. "But the fact that she was excited about being with him--proud, even--makes what he did to her all the worse."
"You believe Kalyna, then. You have no doubt she's telling the truth?"
Maria tapped her fingers against her water bottle. Ba-ba-bump. Ba-ba-bump. "Of course I believe her, don't you? I mean, why would she lie about something like that?"
"It happens."
She shook her head. "No, I saw her. She was definitely traumatized.
And somebody beat her up."
"You don't think she could've done it to herself?"
Her jaw dropped. "What? No!"
"That's it? We're done?"
"We're done. Unless there's something else you'd like to tell me...."
"Oh...no. Nothing else. Thanks for the water." She grabbed her keys and started out in a hurry, but her footsteps slowed as she got to the door, and she turned back. "Ms. Bixby?"
Ava had been watching her, wondering about her true feelings toward Kalyna. "Yes?" she said hopefully.
Maria stared at her feet, then frowned. "There's one thing that sort of bothers me."
"What is it?"
"I--I didn't mention it to the prosecutor or the defense lawyer because, well, I keep telling myself it doesn't have any bearing on the case. But--"
biting her lip, she moved close again and lowered her voice "--I feel sort of guilty about keeping it to myself."
At last, they were getting somewhere. Ava waved her back into her seat. "What is it, Maria?"
She sat down and leaned halfway across the table. "What I told you about Kalyna and men?"
"You said she was too friendly."
"I might've understated it a bit. She...she sleeps around a lot."
Ava pushed her smoothie aside. "You know that even though she's not bringing men to her apartment?"
She's a self-proclaimed nympho who brags about her exploits."
"What kind of exploits?"
She hadn't bragged to Ava. She'd acted quite innocent.
"Kinky stuff."
"Are you sure it's not all talk? Something to get attention? To shock you?"
"I don't think so." She wiped the condensation from her water bottle.
"One time I invited her over for a drink," she explained. "We got to talking, and she asked if I'd ever been with another woman." She checked behind her, as if she was afraid she'd be overheard, even though they were the only customers in the shop and she was already whispering. "When I said no, she asked if I was ever tempted to see what it would be like."
"You think she's g*y?" If Kalyna was a lesbian, that would explain why she'd tried to put on the brakes with Trussell. Maybe she showed interest in men as a front; maybe she overcompensated with the whole nympho routine.
"I doubt it. It's definitely men she likes. This was just a way to get me intrigued, show me how daring she is."
Their conversation was doing little to build Ava's confidence in Kalyna Harter, which was a disappointment. She didn't want to be faced with a difficult dilemma. If Kalyna had really been victimized, she'd need Ava's full support. But Ava couldn't ignore this. She had to see her client realistically.
"Why do you feel this is relevant?" she asked.
Maria held up a hand. "I'm not done yet. When she asked me if I'd ever...you know...I joked that the only way I could get interested in another woman was if there was a man involved."
"A threesome."
"And what did Kalyna say to that?"
"She said she'd like to include me sometime." Maria tore at the label on her water bottle. "I didn't believe Trussell was all that interested in her, so I asked her if she could convince him to join us. I wanted to see if she'd been lying about him before."
"And?"
Her chest rose as she drew in a deep breath. "She smiled as if she was eager for the challenge and promised me she'd do it."
"Is that what she was attempting to arrange on June 6?"
"If so, she never called me. Maybe she knew I wasn't serious. Maybe she wasn't serious, either." Maria held her long hair off her neck and fanned herself. The day was so hot, the air-conditioning wasn't helping enough, and this was a conversation she clearly didn't want to be having.
"But when the whole rape thing came up and Trussell's name was brought into it--that gave me a funny feeling. I knew Kalyna would love to be with him. So why would she invite him to her apartment and then tell him no? I honestly can't imagine him having to force her. Not the way she was talking."
"There could be a lot of reasons she changed her mind." Ava managed a smile. But the fact that Kalyna had been discussing Captain Trussell in such a light--and well in advance of the incident--troubled her, too. The defense would certainly make an issue of it if they found out.
"I didn't mean it, so she probably didn't, either," Maria said again.
Ava fell back on the pictures she'd seen and the fact that there wouldn't have been time for someone else to enter Kalyna's apartment after Trussell left. Kalyna's testimony had been convincing, too. They'd gone over the incident in two separate meetings, and Kalyna had cried during both. "It doesn't matter if she was the pursuer, Maria. At some point, she wanted to bail out, and he resorted to violence. There's no excuse for that."
"Right. I agree. So...I don't need to tell anyone else about...about that embarrassing discussion? I mean, if someone were to interpret it the wrong way, it could ruin my career. You know how the military is, the whole 'don't ask, don't tell' thing."