Chapter 62: The Hard Truth
"Why can they use the recording at all? The phone doesn't even belong to them," Meredith said, her voice petulant. She looked around the room. "I don't understand."
"Oh, hold on everyone, Meredith--doesn't--understand," Heath said, putting emphasis on the last three words. "Let's call a news crew, shall we? Maybe the BBC? I'm sure they'll want to cover it as well."
"Heath," MJ said, putting a hand on his arm as Ms. Mitchell bit her lips together and looked around the room, everywhere but at Meredith herself.
"What? What does that mean? I wasn't told there would be TV coverage," Meredith protested to her lawyer. "I haven't had hair or make-up, I won't allow it--"
"No, dear, don't worry," her lawyer soothed. She was sleek and predatory, and reminded MJ of a barracuda. Her name happened to be Ms. Barrash, so it was quite convenient, though MJ was worried she might accidentally call her Ms. Barracuda at some point during the proceedings. "There won't be any TV cameras in here."
Heath didn't bother to cover his laugh as he shook his head. "Classic," he muttered.
"It doesn't matter who owns the phone, Meredith," Heath said. "The police have it, and it's evidence, that's it, end of discussion."
"Okay, look, we can sit here and take potshots at each other all afternoon," Ms Mitchell cut in. "But I'm hungry, and I want my lunch, so I'm just going to lay it out. "We're getting a nolo contendere from Carter Holmes." She was silent to see the effect of her words.
"What? What's that?" Meredith asked.
"It's a plea of 'no contest," her attorney told her in a shocked voice. "it means he's not contesting any of the facts of the case as presented by the prosecution."
"So he's not saying he didn't do it?" Meredith asked. "He's not saying he's not guilty?"
"It means he's not saying he did or didn't do it, but he agrees to accept punishment for it," her lawyer explained.
"What?"Meredith's voice was loud in the small room. "Why? The phone slipped, there's no video of what happened, you can't see anything--" she glared at MJ. "He barely touched her, anyway, this rape crap is ridiculous." Next she turned to her lawyer. "He didn't even have wood, did you know that? How can you rape someone if you don't even have a boner? I mean, he undressed her, for fuck's sake, then he fingered her, for, like, two seconds--"
"Oh, dear lord," Heath said, gripping the edge of the table so hard his knuckles turned white. He stood up, jolting the table toward Meredith a good four inches. "I've been taught since toddlerhood not to hit women--"
"Well, I haven't, thankfully," said MJ, as she rose from her seat. She happened to be sitting at the end of the table, which put her close to Meredith. She leaned close and delivered a respectable roundhouse punch, pivoting neatly where she stood.
The blow knocked Meredith out of her chair and onto the floor.
"He hit me. He tied me to a bed. He tore my underwear off. He tore my clothes off. He kissed me against my will. He inserted something into my vagina against my will. He threatened to make me fellate him--" MJ took a deep breath. "Don't you dare say he barely touched me. Just don't."
As MJ turned away, shaking her fist in agony, her attorney rose from her seat and bent to see how seriously Meredith was hurt.
Heath released the table and dashed to MJ's side to check the damage on her hand.
"Oh, petal, these knuckles are going to swell if we don't get some ice on them right away," Heath said, kissing her poor hand.
He left to go find some.
Meredith was reseated in her chair, feeling her face, heaping abuse on MJ. "That punch just cost you a million dollars, you little bitch! I'm going to sue you for every penny you stole from me! Never hit my face! Ever!"
Her attorney was advising her to be quiet.
"Why? She hit me, you all saw her, you're all witnesses or whatever!" Meredith was protesting.
"You were verbally abusing her during a legal proceeding, we all saw that as well," Ms. Mitchell told her. "The stenographer recorded it," she said, pointing to the woman in the corner who was recording everything.
Just then Heath entered with a Cool Pak, which he was twisting to release the crystals.
Meredith reached for it, but of course he ignored her and lovingly wrapped MJ's knuckles in it.
"It would be so nice if we could just get through one meeting with you two without someone hitting someone," Ms. Mitchell quipped.
"You need to invite a better class of people to the meetings, then," MJ replied with a small smile.
"Touché, MJ," Ms. Michell answered with a nod.
So, if we could get back to the meeting? You okay, Ms Renner?" Ms. Mitchell asked.
Meredith, working her jaw, nodded.
"As I was saying, we're taking a nolo contendere plea from Mr. Holmes, in exchange for dropping the assault charges," Ms. Mitchell said.
"That' it?" Ms. Barrash interrupted.
"Yes, mmhm," Ms. Mitchell nodded. "So we really don't need anything from your client. However, we're all here, so we're willing to listen, just as a matter of courtesy, I suppose."
She smiled benignly at Meredith and her lawyer.
Meredith whirled in her chair to look at her attorney.
"You said they'd want to make a deal. You said they'd want my testimony against Carter! You said I wouldn't have to do any time!"
She turned to face Heath. "Heath! Come on! It's me! You can't possibly want me to go to prison?" She reached manicured hands across the table. "My god, you loved me once, remember?"
Next she turned to MJ. "You heard me say I didn't want to have any part of a rape, MJ, you heard me, right?"
"All I heard you say was that you'd never discussed it," MJ said, her voice low.
Meredith shook her head. "No, that's not true, I said I wouldn't do it, I said I wouldn't help, I said--"
"Be careful what you say, Mer, it's all on tape," Heath reminded her, gently clasping MJ's damaged hand.
"So what are you offering?" Ms. Barrassh offered, effectively shutting down the other conversation.
"Hold on!" Meredith said. "What about negotiating? What about back and forth? I've sat at plenty of these tables, I know how it's done."
"Listen, sweetheart," her lawyer told her. "They have all the cards. We have nothing to negotiate with, do you understand? You did it, it's that simple. They have a recording. There are no mitigating circumstances, there's no way to explain away your disgusting behavior. It's done. We're here to listen to their terms, and hope they're not too terrible, plain and simple. We're here to hope you have a career left when this is all over."
Meredith gave her a look of disbelief, but kept her mouth shut.
Ms Mitchell looked at MJ and nodded.
"We want for Meredith to plead nolo contendere and allocute in open court to what she did that day, to everything. All of it." She shrugged. "That's all."
Ms. Barrash sat up. "What about the other charges? What about jail time?"
Ms. Mitchell shook her head. "In exchange for that, we'll recommend no jail time."
MJ sat back, and Heath put his arm around her.
Meredith looked at her lawyer. "What does it mean?"
"It means it's a gift, you should take it."
"No prison? No jail time?"
Ms. Barrash shook her head. "And no trial, either."
"You mean I don't have to testify?" Meredith's voice was cautiously jubilant. "Where's the catch?"
"No catch, you allocute, and it's over."
"What's that? Allocute?"
"You tell the judge what you did, and in exchange for that, the DA's office will recommend you don't go to jail."
"Tell the judge?" Meredith repeated. "Like in a letter?"
Her lawyer shook her head. "In open court. You stand up and tell what you did."
"Wait," Meredith stuttered. "You mean, like, for people to hear? So everyone knows?"
Ms. Barrash nodded. "Nolo contendere is like accepting the facts of the crime. Normally, you wouldn't have to allocute with a nolo plea, but in this case, if the DA insists, the judge will probably agree."
"But that defeats the whole purpose of not testifying," Meredith protested. "I need for what happened to not get out, that's the whole fucking point, don't you get that?" She sat back, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "No. No deal." she waved her finger around. "You need to fix this," she said to her lawyer. "We need a different deal, where what I said and did don't get out. Image is everything in my business, and this can't happen."
She looked at Heath. "I can't believe you thought I'd go for this. Maybe that idiot Carter would, but he's got nothing to lose except a mansion or whatever. Not me, though, Heath, you know that!" she smiled at him as she shook her head.
Heath leaned forward. "You're so fucking stupid," he said with a sigh. "Carter's going to lose everything, his family's going to lose everything, don't you know that?" He shook his head. "His peerage, their properties in Europe, his family estates, all of it, he's being stripped of all of it, and it's going to go to his cousin instead! And he's going to allocute, same as you, because if he doesn't, if he chooses to go to trial, all of that will happen, plus his family name will be dragged through the mud, and he'll go to prison, and the tape will be played for all the world to hear. If you don't go along with this, and decide to go to trial, that's what's going to happen to you, don't get that? The tape will get played, which will be ten times worse than you telling what happened, and you'll be convicted, and go to prison.
"Your career is already over, Meredith. What you're fighting for now is your life, you silly girl. How many people wanted refunds on their tickets when you canceled? I heard that it was fewer than two hundred. Out of fifty thousand tickets we still have out there." He gestured to himself and MJ. "They want to see us, not you, you vile piece of filth.
"Take the deal. Then crawl into a cave and reevaluate your pathetic life and try to figure out what you want to live for, what you want to stand for, what you want your pitiful existence to amount to."
He looked at Ms. Mitchell. "Can we go? We have a plane to catch."
She looked at Heath and MJ and nodded. "I'll get in touch about the paperwork."
MJ reached out to shake her hand and hug her. "Thank you, so much, for everything, Ms. Mitchell."
"Please call me Bronwyn," the woman responded with a smile.
The couple left her office arm in arm.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro