Liar Liar Read online

  “No. I was too frightened. I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

  “After the incident you described, what happened next?”

  “I got up, unlocked the door, and ran back to my dorm.”

  “Did the alleged assailant follow you?”

  “How would I know?” For the first time, Mary Ellen sounded exasperated. “I didn’t hear anybody running after me. It’s not like I’d stop and look around to see.”

  “Can you tell us again why you didn’t tell your roommate what happened?”

  She drew a long, impatient breath. “I was ashamed, like it was my fault for being there. And I was afraid no one would believe me because Doshan is a big deal on campus. Everybody thinks he’s such a great guy, and me—I’m just nobody. But the people at WAR told me that didn’t matter. I was a victim of a crime; I’m suffering, and I want justice. People who say ‘Well, it’s a he-said, she-said’ are just plain wrong. They’re siding with guys, who will always deny being rapists.”

  Goodman regarded her for a long moment. “Have you ever seen a demonstration staged by the WAR organization?”

  “No.”

  “Have you read any of their literature?”

  “After I talked to the counselor, she sent me some of WAR’s brochures. I looked through them.”

  “Do you realize you’ve just repeated, practically verbatim, some of the slogans that appear on placards carried by WAR demonstrators.”

  “No. That’s not—” Mary Ellen was starting to cry again.

  Goodman turned away. “Thank you, Ms. Barnes. That will be all.”

  By now it was 4:30. The judge adjourned for the day. Once again, the women filed into the waiting room to confer before going home for the night.

  Nicole had one order of business in mind. “Sue, remember I told you that Mary Ellen couldn’t sleep last night? I think that’s one reason she fell apart on the stand. Can we arrange for her to see a doctor and get some sleeping pills?”

  “We’ll take care of it,” said Sue. “I know someone who’ll prescribe by phone. But, since it’s a sleeping pill, it will have to be picked up in person. I’ll tell the doctor to make it out to Alise so she can sign for it and bring it to you at the Windward.”

  They agreed to meet at 8:45 the next morning to strategize before court. They left by a back delivery door to escape the building without encountering the media.

  Five

  It was several hours before Alise arrived at the suite to drop off a small white pharmacy bag containing two bottles. One was labeled Valium, the other some kind of generic sleeping pill. Sue had already texted Nicole instructions: “Have Mary Ellen take one Valium right away, another half in the a.m. The sleeping pill is for bedtime. Keep the pills on your person at all times. Don’t let her get her hands on them.”

  After Alise left, Mary Ellen came out of her room, flushed, puffy-eyed, and disheveled. Nicole handed her a single Valium. “Do you want water?” she said.

  Listlessly, Mary Ellen shook her head. She popped the pill in her mouth and swallowed.

  Nicole checked her watch. It was almost 8:00 p.m. “I’m going to order from room service. What do you want?”

  “A burger and a Coke, I guess,” Mary Ellen said. “I’m really not hungry.” She got up from the couch and disappeared into the bathroom.

  Nicole ordered Moroccan lamb with a side of spinach for herself, the burger and Coke for Mary Ellen. It wasn’t long before a young woman arrived with a serving cart carrying their orders. She unloaded two dome-covered plates and the beverages onto the dining table, parked the cart next to the door, and left.

  Nicole sat down, waiting for Mary Ellen to join her. After a good ten minutes, she decided to find out what was taking so long. She was about to knock on the bathroom door when the girl came out.

  Mary Ellen—her face now washed, her hair combed—was looking marginally better. But, as soon as she sat down at the table, she put her hands over her face and began to cry.

  “What’s wrong?” Nicole said. “You did really well today.”

  “I’m in so much trouble,” Mary Ellen said. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What Doshan’s attorney said? About it being a sin to bear false witness? He’s right, and I—I —” By now Mary Ellen was crying so hard it was impossible to understand her. She put her head on the table, shoulders shaking. After a while she looked up and met Nicole’s eyes. “It was all a lie—everything I said in court. It wasn’t rape.”

  Nicole was stunned, hardly able to take this in.

  “It was just like his lawyer said,” Mary Ellen went on. “I asked Doshan to walk me home. I’d met him before. He came to Bible study a few times. I liked him a lot, and he was really nice to me. He doesn’t deserve any of this.

  “That night, we were passing his dorm on the way to mine. He stopped and asked me up to his room. I knew what was going to happen, and I was scared, but I wanted him. I really did. I was sick of being the meek little girl who never had any fun. When we got there, he asked my consent, and I said yes. It took two months for me to work up the courage to go to the school health center and tell them he’d raped me.” She started crying again.

  “But why?” Nicole said. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because someone has something on me, you know, a video of me and Doshan having—” She broke off, unable to finish the sentence. “I don’t know how he got it. He said he’d post it online unless I told the school that Doshan had raped me. I kept putting him off. But finally he said time had run out, and he was putting it up that night unless I did what he said. I didn’t have any choice.

  “The guy who was blackmailing me?” Mary Ellen went on. “I met him on the beach when I snuck out night before last. I told him I couldn’t go through with it and begged him to delete the video. When that didn’t work, I said I’d tell the police he was blackmailing me. He just laughed.”

  “Who is he, Mary Ellen? What’s his name?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Why would he want Doshan charged with rape?”

  Mary Ellen ignored the question. “I messed up so bad!” she said. “I lied in court, and I’ll go to jail if I admit it. But bearing false witness is a sin against God. And if I don’t confess what I’ve done, it will wreck Doshan’s life.” Her head was on the table again, her sobs interrupted by hiccups.

  Finally, she looked up at Nicole. “I don’t know what to do,” she croaked.

  “You have to tell the truth,” Nicole said. “Or you’ll never be able to live with yourself.”

  “But if that video comes out, it will ruin me. I’ll never be able to go back to school and face people. My parents will disown me for having premarital sex. And think of how ashamed they’ll be if they see that video.” She took a ragged breath before going on. “Knowing their friends and neighbors can see it, too. My minister will never speak to me again.” She began to sob. “I hate my life! I wish I was dead!” With this, Mary Ellen broke down completely. Nicole got up from the table and went over to put her arms around the girl.

  “It’s going to be all right,” Nicole said. “We’ll call Sue. She’s really smart, and she’ll know just what to do. Everything is going to be okay.” Even as Nicole said this, she didn’t think it was going to be okay at all. Perjury was a felony. In a case like this—entirely based on perjured testimony—did that mean jail time? It was unthinkable, but Mary Ellen had done a terrible thing.

  By the time Nicole got out her phone, the girl had stopped crying and stood up. “I’m going to bed. Can I have the sleeping pills?”

  Nicole took the bottle out of her pocket and placed a pill in the girl’s hand.

  “Why don’t I take the bottle?” Mary Ellen said. “I might wake up in the night and not be able to go back to sleep.”

  Nicole studied the girl’s tear-streaked face. Sue had been right. Mary Ellen was too distraught to be trusted with a bottle of sleeping pills, espec
ially when she’d just said she wished she was dead.

  “This prescription is really strong,” Nicole said. “It’s going to knock you out. If it doesn’t last the night, wake me up. We’ll see what time it is and decide whether you should take another one. Okay?”

  After Mary Ellen went to her room, Nicole immediately dialed Sue’s home number. There was no answer. She tried the cell phone and, after four rings, Sue picked up.

  “Mary Ellen just told me she lied about everything,” Nicole said. “Doshan Williams didn’t rape her. It was consensual. I thought I should tell you right away.”

  “Mother of God!” Sue said. “Wait ‘til Geneva hears this. She’ll throw a fit. Tell me exactly what Mary Ellen said.”

  Nicole repeated the girl’s words as closely as she could remember.

  “Shit,” Sue said. “The best we can hope is that she made up the blackmail story so she wouldn’t have to face another day in court.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Nicole said. “She was very emotional. I’m certain she’s telling the truth. Now she’s terrified about what’s going to happen to her.”

  “I’ll be there in thirty-five or forty minutes. I want to hear it for myself and ask her some questions.”

  “Uh-oh,” Nicole said. “I just gave her a sleeping pill, and it will probably knock her out. I don’t know that you’re going to get much out of her.”

  “We’ll order a big pot of coffee. We’ll pour enough down her to get her talking.”

  “Do you want to call Geneva and have her come, too?”

  “Good heavens, no. She’ll scare Mary Ellen to death. We might as well waterboard her. You can’t begin to imagine how angry Geneva will be if this case goes south. It will reflect badly on her that she didn’t vet the girl thoroughly enough, and there may be repercussions. We’ll talk about that later. Okay, I’m ready. I just have to pack an outfit for court, and I’m on my way.”

  Nicole paced the living room. Neither she nor Mary Ellen had eaten, and the food looked cold and unappetizing. Nicole loaded the plates back onto the cart and pushed it into the hall. She made another attempt to call Josh. He didn’t pick up, and his failure to do so made her stomach knot. He’d never behaved like this before.

  Nicole grabbed her jacket and went out to the balcony, hoping the view of the bay would calm her. Slightly north of the hotel, the pier was closed for the day. The Ferris wheel was at rest, no longer displaying its hypnotic pattern of swirling colored lights. The pier was dimly lit, casting a hazy pink, green, and yellow halo against the black sky. Only the area immediately surrounding the pier was illuminated. The rest of the beach was shrouded in darkness.

  She thought about Mary Ellen’s predicament. Maybe a good lawyer could plea bargain the perjury charge into probation since Mary Ellen was a blackmail victim. But Mary Ellen’s legal troubles were only part of her problem. If the video went up on the web, the tabloids would make sure it went viral. Once that happened, it would be pretty hard for Mary Ellen to return to the university or resume small-town life in Georgia. Where would she go? What would she do?

  Nicole heard a sound and came in from the balcony in time to see Mary Ellen, now fully dressed, slip out the front door. Nicole ran after her. She couldn’t allow the girl to run off after what she’d said about the hopelessness of her predicament. By the time Nicole got to the elevator bank, it was empty. The girl was already on her way down.

  Nicole couldn’t take the stairs; she was on the tenth floor. But the elevator bank had four cars, and luck was with her. Moments later, the door to another elevator opened. When she reached the lobby, she caught sight of Mary Ellen through the window. She had just left the building and was jaywalking across Ocean Avenue toward the beach.

  Nicole rushed after her. The wind was picking up, blowing through her jacket. She was halfway across the street, when a car heading south skidded to a stop a few feet away. The driver leaned on his horn and opened his window to scream at her. She ignored him, trying to keep Mary Ellen in sight. The girl seemed to be headed toward the shoreline. When Nicole reached the sand, she started running. She was in good shape, but running on the beach was completely different from a morning jog around the neighborhood. Her shoes sank into the soft surface, making it impossible to gain momentum. Meanwhile, sand leaked into her shoes, chafing her sockless feet.

  The beach near the waterline was dark, and Mary Ellen was no longer in sight. Nicole looked desperately around, trying to figure out which way the girl had gone. All at once she stumbled over something lying in her path. As she hit the sand, the figure she’d tripped over slowly sat up, like a zombie in a horror film.

  Nicole lay there a moment, heart beating in her throat. Even though the sand was relatively soft, her hands and elbows stung from skidding to a stop. A flashlight clicked on. The beam was trained on her face, blinding her. She thought of the pepper spray in her purse. Now, when she really needed it, she’d left it in her room.

  “Oh, my god,” a voice said. “You’re a woman. I thought it was one of those drunks sniffing around for a quick fuck.” The figure turned off the flashlight and stood up. Despite the hulking shape, it was clearly a woman. She appeared to be swaddled in an assortment of sweaters and coats. “Lucky I didn’t hit you with this.” She waved her oversized flashlight in the air. “I use it to keep them off me. Are you hurt?”

  “I don’t think so,” Nicole said.

  Nicole, still hurting from the fall, forced herself to get up. She ran over to where the waves were lapping at the sand and stared out at the water. It was dark, and there was nothing to be seen. Then she turned her head and looked in both directions for any sign of Mary Ellen. Finally, she gave up and headed back.

  The homeless woman had gathered her things up but was waiting in the same place. “Can you spare some change?” she said in a loud whisper. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

  Nicole reached into the pocket of her jeans and found her hotel key card and a dollar bill, or maybe it was a five. It was too dark to see. “Here,” she said, handing it to the woman.

  “God bless you.” The woman was interrupted by a sound from farther down the beach, a peal of slightly manic male laughter. “This place is a jungle,” she said. “I can protect myself, but you’re on your own. Go home before something bad happens to you.”

  Nicole paused once again to see if there was any trace of Mary Ellen. The palm trees, backlit from the street, cast eerie shadows on the sand, and the place appeared deserted. Nicole began trudging across the sand toward the relative safety of the street.

  When she got back to the suite, the first thing she did was go into Mary Ellen’s room. Even though she knew it was impossible, she hoped the girl had somehow returned and was tucked up in bed. Her heart gave a little leap when she saw the shape of a body huddled under the covers.

  Nicole went to the bed and put her hand on Mary Ellen’s shoulder. It felt wrong, too light and insubstantial. She pulled. The form under the comforter turned out to be three pillows. Before leaving, the girl had put them there in case Nicole checked on her during the night.

  She went into the living room for her purse and pulled out her phone. Her hands were shaking as she called Mary Ellen’s number. She’d gotten it from her office before she met the girl at the airport. Instead of ringing, the phone went immediately to voicemail. She tried again with the same result. She tried Sue’s cell. This, too, went to voicemail. Sue probably wasn’t picking up because she was driving, on her way to the hotel.

  Nicole looked at the clock. It was 11:00 p.m. The trial would resume at 9:00 tomorrow morning—if Mary Ellen came back. Somehow Nicole doubted it. The girl was probably too panicked at the prospect of going back to court, admitting she’d lied, and paying the penalty, whatever that might be.

  Nicole tried Sue again. This time Sue picked up. “I’m ten minutes away,” she said. “I ran into an accident in the Sepulveda Pass.”

  “Mary Ellen is gone. She left the hotel. I tried to follow,
but she had a good head start and disappeared. She was out of her head, and I’m afraid she might try to kill herself.”

  “My god!” Sue said. “Now we’ll have to get the police involved.”

  “Do you think she’ll come to her senses and turn up before court?” Nicole said.

  “Considering her state of mind, we can’t afford to wait,” Sue said. “Call the police. Explain Mary Ellen’s role in the trial and that she’s gone missing.”

  “But she left of her own volition. Do I say that? I mean, do they bother looking for people who choose to leave?”

  “Tell them about her mental state and that she ran onto the beach in the dark. Say you think she’s a danger to herself. You don’t have to go into detail unless they ask.”

  “God, I wish I’d—I mean, if only I’d—” Nicole paused, trying to imagine how she might have prevented the girl from escaping.

  “Don’t blame yourself, Nicole,” Sue said. “You did everything you could. Call the police right now. I’ll be there shortly.”

  After they hung up, Nicole dialed 911. A woman’s voice answered. “What is your emergency?”

  She explained to the operator, who asked a few questions and then said she was sending out a patrol car. She suggested Nicole meet the car in front of the hotel.

  The response was almost immediate. Nicole was still in the suite, emptying the sand out of her shoes, when she heard the wail of a siren. She slipped her shoes on and dashed for the elevator, reaching the ground floor as two policemen walked in the front entrance. Young and fresh faced, they looked as if they’d just stepped out of a recruitment poster.

  Nicole introduced herself and, feeling panicky, suggested they talk outside so the officers could start searching for Mary Ellen immediately.

  The taller of the two, who introduced himself as Officer Brad Garlich, said, “First we need some basic information. Let’s take a seat in here.” He gestured toward the empty lobby, with its clusters of couches and easy chairs. Nicole followed the two men in, and they all sat down. Only now did Nicole realize that she was actually shaking.