“Since you’re the FBI I suppose I shouldn’t bother to ask if it occurred to you that she, or again her attorneys, did a bit of research via those same public records?”
“Of course it did,” she replied, shaking her head. “In fact, it’s our working theory.”
“You keep saying ‘supposed Miranda personality’,” Felicity interrupted. “What do you mean by that?”
“We aren’t exactly sure what to call it,” she answered. “To put it simply, it all comes back to what I mentioned before. In cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder, the psyche splits as a defense mechanism. It compartmentalizes the effects of severe psychological trauma but will then act out when subjected to triggering stressors. Since the origin of the disorder can usually be traced back to a recurring trauma such as extreme abuse or sexual molestation, generally the fracture focuses on a childlike personality where the individual can create what they perceive as a safe space. There may be other identities, yes, but the childlike aspect is a dominant and driving force. As I told you before, Annalise has no such fracture. She simply has Annalise and Miranda. Both of who are wholly aware of one another and appear to have some type of symbiotic relationship, although that seems to be disintegrating rapidly. I’ll admit that initially I believed her to be faking the disorder, however, if that is the case she is very adept. If she is for real, then she is a very unique case indeed.”
Felicity and I looked at one another briefly but remained tight-lipped. Puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place, and the picture they made was less than pretty. However, it wasn’t the image I’d been conjuring in my mind’s eye over the past half hour. Instead, it was an updated version of the one I’d feared all along.
I don’t suppose any of this should have come as a surprise to me. After all, I had always been of the belief that Miranda would continue to use Annalise until she could find a way to reconnect with Felicity, and she was obviously doing just that. She knew full well my wife wouldn’t come to her willingly, so she needed a way to make it happen, and establishing complicity seemed to be her plan.
“So why am I really here then?” Felicity asked with a quick shake of her head. “What is it you want from me?”
“For exactly the reason we told you in the beginning,” Hanley said. “So we can gather information.”
“But it’s not just for your database, is it?” I asked.
“Admittedly, there is another need for the information, yes,” Jante answered. “Everything we gather will be provided to the prosecution. But, at this point, we don’t know what her attorney might try, and we have to be absolutely certain of our facts where this case is concerned. Given what we have learned so far, it is a near certainty that you’ll be brought into court to testify, Miz O’Brien.”
“About what?”
“The connection between the two of you.”
“That’s exactly what Miranda wants,” I replied.
“Why is that?”
“Long story.”
Felicity jumped in. “Do you think her attorney might try to shift blame to me?”
“We don’t know for sure what his plan of attack will be. Right now we’re just speculating,” Agent Hanley answered. “Insanity defenses are a long shot at best, and he most certainly knows that, but that is the most likely starting point given her current state. Still, he would be a fool not to use you in some way. If the insanity ploy fails, then he will be pulling out all the stops, if for no other reason than to lessen the severity of her sentence.”
“You sound like a prosecuting attorney yourself instead of a profiler,” I observed.
“Case investigator is what we prefer,” he replied. “At the BAU we create profiles, but the title Profiler is actually a term coined by the media and hyped by Hollywood. However, you’re somewhat correct. I worked as a prosecutor before joining the bureau.”
“Hmmph,” I grunted. “Well, that’s what I get for assuming. I figured you’d need to have a background in psychology not law.”
“I have both, actually. A Masters in Law and a BS in psych.”
“I guess it’s good to keep your options open,” I replied, for lack of anything better to say. “What about you, Doctor Jante? You actually sound like a psychologist.”
“I am,” she replied.
“Well, at least there are no surprises there.”
“Let’s get back to your original question,” Hanley said. “Our data will be a part of the prosecution’s case, as is customary whenever a serial offender goes to trial. But it’s usually just a profile for comparison. In Devereaux’s case, she’ll no doubt be facing a court-ordered psych evaluation given the nature of her crimes-also not unusual. But by having unfettered access to her now, we may well end up with invaluable data at our disposal that wouldn’t come out in a standard psych eval. However, whatever we come up with needs to be accurate. We can’t afford a misstep with this.”
“Okay, but what about the evidence?” I asked. “The way I understood it, there was more than enough to convict her.”
“In theory there is, but did you ever hear of a little media circus called the O. J. Simpson trial?” he asked.
“Point taken,” I said with a nod. “But still…”
“Believe me, we’re right there with you. But, we also have a job to do, and believe me, her ‘dream team’ isn’t made up of underpaid public defenders. She has some serious hired guns.”
“So why didn’t you just tell us what this was really about in the first place?” Felicity asked.
Doctor Jante shook her head. “To be honest, it’s easier to tell if a subject is lying if you catch them off guard. And we had to be sure.”
“Great,” I muttered. “So this was all one big lie detector test.”
“In part, yes,” she replied.
“But did I pass then?” Felicity asked.
Jante shook her head. “Not really.”
CHAPTER 17:
“And that means what?” Felicity pressed. “You’re going to arrest me again?”
“No,” the doctor replied. “But you’re still holding something back and that concerns us.”
“Trust me, I’m not keeping anything secret that would help you.”
“So then you admit that you are withholding information?” Hanley asked.
“This is turning into an interrogation again,” I objected.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Mister Gant, but it’s the two of you who are turning it into an interrogation by not cooperating,” he replied, voice stern and even.
“We’d be a lot more cooperative if you were being honest with us.”
“We are.”
“Only when it’s convenient for you,” I replied. “Or did you forget the big reveal just a minute ago?”
“Mister Gant, believe it or not we are trying to help you.”
“You’ve got a hell of a way of showing it.”
“Mister Gant,” Doctor Jante interrupted. “We need you to calm down. Devereaux and her attorneys are trying to drag your wife into this, and so far they are doing a damn good job. Essentially, Devereaux is placing herself at the scene of your wife’s extramarital tryst with Lewis…”
“That’s not what it was,” Felicity objected.
“Be that as it may, that is exactly how it will be portrayed in court,” Hanley replied with a dismissive gesture.
Jante continued. “Either way, she appears to be trying to make a mutual connection between the two of you that goes beyond her simply having an obsession.”
“So why doesn’t she just come out and accuse Felicity of being her accomplice then?” I asked. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”
“She’s far too intelligent for that,” Jante replied. “It might sound easier, but it would be less effective. She knows making an accusation like that would be far too obvious under the circumstances. Instead, she’s painting Miz O’Brien into the picture. Remember, all it takes is reasonable doubt.”
“She’s not after reasonable doubt,” I blurted, forgetting to hold my tongue. “She’s after complicity.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Have either of you wondered why she wanted to talk to you pre-trial?” I asked.