Chapter 57: Flashback

Shana's good mood vanished when she walked into the courtroom on Wednesday morning.

Cam had been increasingly silent for most of the weekend; her only smile had been when the jeweler had sent her an email saying the raw uncut stones were of exceedingly good quality and though they'd only been able to evaluate maybe half of them yet, she was already looking at almost another quarter of a million dollars. Her only laugh had been when Clayton related the story of Auggie's first word, in tones that spoke of a mixture of irritation (that said first word hadn't been what Clayton wanted him to say) and pride in his son's growing independence.

The rest of base simply thought it hilarious.

But Shana had barely seen Cam that weekend, or even Charlie, and when she'd seen Alex leaving base on Sunday night she'd asked Alex what was going on. Alex had said simply, "Cam's really tense about the trial this week."

There had been so many developments in the ongoing trials that Shana had been having trouble keeping track, and her growing belly was taking increasingly more of her time and attention. Out of the sixteen trials that they'd started with, there were actually only three left, but when she did some rapid thinking, she realized that these were probably going to be the most stressful for Cam. One was Antonin Jelescu, the man who'd paid the Parks thousands of dollars for the privilege of making videos in which Cam was 'killed'; Ritchie Curry, and David Biehl.

Anita's group had been too sick to continue; everyone, including Anita and Andrew, had accepted plea deals (and gave up generous chunks of their money for the privilege.) Each one of them was now going to spend ten years behind bars; while that might have seemed like a lot, Anita and Andrew had each pled guilty and been sentenced to thirty years. Not that they were actually going to serve any of those thirty years; both were now in a secured ward in a Manhattan hospital virtually unresponsive and barely clinging to life. Shana wasn't inclined to feel pity for either of them, and neither, she suspected, did anyone else.

And when she walked into the courtroom that Wednesday, and saw the tall, slender man in an immaculate Armani suit sitting behind the defense table—alone—she felt a ripple of anger and unease. And when the judge (not Liz Donnelly this time, but it was another woman—the nameplate on the desk said Lena Petrovsky) called the court to order and the man behind the defense table stood up, she felt herself shudder. Ritchie Curry was a lawyer, and he was going to defend himself.

She couldn't figure out why he would want to do that, and even the judge seemed surprised. "Mr. Curry," she said, leaning forward and fixing him with a steely gaze that would have done Hawk proud, "Are you absolutely sure you want to defend yourself against charges of this magnitude?"

"Yes, Your Honor, I'm sure," Curry said, his voice silky smooth. "I don't feel that anyone else would represent me and my interests in this matter as well as I could myself."

He actually does mean that, Shana thought with surprise. Surely he can't think he has even a hope of getting a not guilty verdict—he has to have been following the news, he's got to know that every person Alex has prosecuted in connection with Cam's exploitation and abuse has been convicted so far, and even those who didn't go to trial all pled guilty. What's his game here? She'd gone through law school, taken bar exams; she knew that Alex had an all-but airtight case against him. Not only the ledger and copies of the 'souvenir video' that each client got after their week at the New York cabin, but also copies of videos of other clients who had come and paid to use Cam. The NYPD cyberforensics team that had hacked Yu's computer and dissected it had traced many of the purchases through the money paid to the holder of the bank account, and while Alex wouldn't discuss all the details, she'd assured Shana that she had enough testimony from them (in exchange for guilty pleas) to be able to demonstrate a clear chain of custody from Yu's website to the end user.

So Shana couldn't see why Curry would have chosen to represent himself in this.

Alex stood to make her opening statement. "Ladies and gentlemen of the court, you are here today to hear the facts behind the charges of child molestation, child rape, assault and battery, and creation, possession, and distribution of child porn.

"The prosecution's witness, Corporal Cameron Arlington, was fifteen when two people who called themselves her Aunt and Uncle took her to Western New York, locked her in the basement of a vacation lodge owned by a relative, and accepted staggering sums of money from a very large number of pedophiles who wanted a chance to rape an underage girl. She was held captive for three years, during which time she was rented out to pedophiles.

"By the time she was seventeen, however, her aunt and Uncle were losing revenue due to the fact that she was no longer young enough to be pleasing to their usual clients. Now, instead of selling her to pedophiles, they were peddling her to sadists, like Mr. Curry.

"Yes, Mr. Curry is what we would consider a sadist—he enjoyed seeing a woman scream in reaction to the pain he caused her. But there were limits to what he could do even with the most consenting, masochistic woman or drug-addicted, jaded prostitute; and besides, what he really wanted was something else—he wanted youth.

"And when he was contacted by Leo Yu, he saw his chance. Here was his ideal situation; a girl held captive, unable to complain, unable to protest, unable to stop him or call the police or claim her rights; a girl who no one would miss, whose relatives had been so effective at cutting her off from society, isolating her from school, from friends, from anyone who might ask about her, a girl who had nothing and no one. A girl to whom he could do anything if he just paid her Aunt and Uncle enough money."

Shana could see the sick looks on the jurors' faces, and even on a few of the faces in the gallery as Alex went on. "Here was everything he wanted; young, female, no one to complain to, unable to assert rights to anything at all, not the right to complain, the right to call the police if he went overboard. And he took full advantage of the situation; he not only raped her, he offered his services in designing and engineering various devices with which she could be tortured—and in exchange for leaving these devices at the cabin for others to use, her Aunt and Uncle gave him a discount on her rental price. He visited the cabin eight times over three years, staying a week each time and paying nearly four thousand dollars for each visit. Her Aunt and Uncle complained that he was damaging her too much since each visit left her almost unresponsive and it was days before she could even get out of bed after he left, but he simply threw more money at them and they took it…and kept accepting his reservations."

Cam opened her mouth, and Alex looked at her sensing she wanted to speak. "I was hysterical every time they told me he was coming," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I hated it, hated him, hated every minute. I would have attacked him if I could, I would have killed him with my bare hands if I'd ever had the chance. I would have killed myself to keep him from ever touching me if it had been possible. I tried to electrocute myself, tried to reach the light fixture right above my bed so I could hang myself, even tried wrapping my own hands around my neck to kill myself—but I couldn't do it. I hated myself for being so weak I couldn't make it end. Oh, Goddess, I couldn't make it end…" her voice trailed off as she visibly tried to get hold of herself…and just ended up breaking down further.

"Your Honor, a recess please?" Alex said quietly, and the judge nodded, tapping her gavel. Cam got to her feet slightly unsteadily, and left the witness box. Her legs were shaking, and she was plainly in distress, and Alex started to walk around the table to help her.

A sudden move from Curry caught her eye, and she turned. He'd made a quick, sudden move toward Cam, almost a lunge, but abortive, quick, furtive. What the hell? But then a sound from Cam made her turn quickly.

Cam had backed up against the table, eyes wide, tears streaming down her face. "Please…please," she whispered, and she didn't sound like her usual self, she sounded lost and alone and her voice was higher-pitched, like a child; like the child she'd become in what Alex had suddenly realized was a PTSD flashback. "Please please please don't hurt me, I'll be a good girl, I promise, please!" She had backed away from him with each word until her back was to the wooden divider that separated the court floor from the benches in the gallery, and now she put her back to the corner and curled into herself, tucking her knees up to her chest as she threw her hands up in a purely defensive gesture. "I'll do whatever you want, just please don't hurt me!"

Her pleas and sobs were heartrending, and in the gallery Alex saw Shana get to her feet and start threading her way to the court floor. Good, she can get Cam snapped out of this—

And then Curry stepped forward, moving quickly toward Cam, and Cam screamed, a sound of pure terror. And Alex looked at Curry's face as he heard the sound, and understood in that moment why he'd chosen to represent himself. He knew she was going to win, and he'd set it up so he could have this one last victory, this one last vision of her cowering terrified in front of him, to take with him to prison. He'd wanted to know if the adult Cam was still terrified of him as the younger Cam had been.

And she wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Even as Shana's footsteps sped up, as she hurried to Cam's side, Lena Petrovsky's voice cut through the thick, heavy appalled silence of the courtroom. "Bailiff. Remove Mr. Curry from the courtroom. Mr. Curry, I am fining you one thousand dollars for your flagrant contempt of the sanctity of this court. You have deliberately set out to disrupt these proceedings by triggering a flashback in the witness, and I will not tolerate this in my courtroom. Get him out of here. Court will recess for the day." Her voice was cold.

Shana was next to Cam, on the floor—with difficulty, since the bump before her hips was now making movement more difficult. "Cam. Cam, look at me. Cam, it's Shana. You're not in the basement anymore, you're in a courtroom, and Ritchie Curry is gone, Cam. He's gone and he can't hurt you anymore. I'm your friend, Cam, I'm your friend and I won't let him—or anyone else—hurt you ever again. Okay? Come on, Cam, focus on the sound of my voice, on what I'm saying, and come back, okay? Come back, Cam."

Her voice was soft, persuasive, and slowly under the barrage of comforting reassurances, gradually Cam started to uncurl from the tight ball she'd collapsed in, started relaxing more and more, and finally her eyes opened. "Shana?" she said softly. "Shana, I'm so sorry…"

"Nothing to be sorry for, Cam, nothing. There is nothing that you need to feel sorry for. None of this is your fault." Shana wrapped her arms around her friend in a hug. "Come on, let's get you off this floor and let's go home. It's been a long day."

Home ended up being Liv's apartment; Cam looked so exhausted as she, Shana and Alex left the courthouse that Alex and Shana both decided by unspoken agreement to take her to Liv's apartment. Once there Cam headed straight for the second bedroom. Olivia handed her a set of soft cotton pajamas and Cam slipped into them and went straight to sleep.

Olivia was shaking her head as she joined Alex and Shana in the kitchen. "What happened? I haven't seen her get this upset about anything in a long time."

Shana didn't answer Olivia; instead she focused on Alex. "Stop the trial."

Alex shook her head. "Shana, we're only in the first day, and she was up late last night at the scar clinic. She was just tired and stressed; she'll be fine tomorrow."

Shana ignored her. "It's too much for her, Alex, this is going on the fifth month of trials almost nonstop. She can't keep going like this, Alex. Stop the trial. Plead him out. Whatever you have to do."

"Shana, I understand you're upset on her behalf but to stop it now will mean there will be no justice for—"

"I don't give a damn about justice anymore, Alex! You want justice? Justice is not forcing someone who has already gone through more than any two people should have to go through in any lifetime to go through this. Justice is letting her finally live her own life free from the shadows of her past. Justice is not forcing her to relive things she'd rather not remember, justice is not forcing her to have to recount every gruesome, disgusting, lewd, indecent act she's ever had done to her or that she's ever done in order to survive to a room full of uncaring strangers. Justice is not forcing her to keep a promise she made to you in desperation because she wanted to get the only friend she'd ever had out of a damn mess that friend should never have gotten herself into in the first place!"

"Stop it, both of you. You're going to wake Cam—and Auggie—up with your shouting." Olivia's voice cut through the angry tones of the two women. "Shana, don't get angry, it's not good for the babies. Trust me, I know, Auggie always got more active when I was upset." She turned to Alex. "But I have to agree with Shana—I've been keeping an eye on Cam since all of these trials started, and while she's held up pretty well given everything that's happened, she's been dropping weight, not sleeping well, and just getting more tired and more stressed. Her nightmares have been getting worse too, and if she has to keep testifying and testifying, she's going to break under the strain, Alex. I understand we want to get justice for her, and justice for anyone else that the pedophiles who abused her might have also harmed, but there's a fine line between wanting justice and being overzealous, and that line is where Cam's health starts suffering for it." Over the kitchen table Olivia's brown eyes locked with Alex's blue, and it was the blue eyes that dropped first. Without a word, Alex left the kitchen, and moments later they heard the apartment door close behind her.

Olivia blew out her breath. "Whew. I'm glad that's over. Now what exactly happened?"

Shana deflated, sitting abruptly down at the table with a huge sigh; she was carrying enough weight now that her feet hurt after standing for periods; while her concern for Cam had prevented her from noticing it at the time, the adrenaline was wearing off and she was now suddenly tired. "Cam had a CPTSD flashback in court today. She was having a hard time keeping it together on the witness stand, and the judge granted us a recess, and then as she was leaving the witness box Curry made a sudden move toward her, and it freaked her out. She lost it, regressed back to the abuse, and just ended up curling up on the floor and begging him not to hurt her. Fortunately I was able to talk her out of it fairly quickly, much quicker than usual, and we brought her right here. These trials are putting a lot of stress on her, that and the scar reduction surgery she's going through right now, and none of this is good for her health. I meant what I said, about justice—we've prosecuted and put in jail so many of the people who hurt her, now letting her live her life would be justice for her." Shana lowered her voice. "Back at the cabin on our honeymoon, she did some kind of ritual prayer—she said she was asking the Goddess to grant her justice, even if it wasn't by trial."

Olivia's eyes showed sudden comprehension. "And then all the people who molested her suddenly started coming down with this same mysterious strain of syphilis that kills, and the only commonality is that they all used the Parks' twisted playground. Amaro and I have been keeping an eye out for more people who might have hurt her—there were actually ten or fifteen people we suspected had paid to molest Cam because their names were in the ledger, but we couldn't find physical proof of what they did—they didn't keep the souvenir video, or it's been lost in the intervening years. And although we still can't prove it, lately all the people we suspected but couldn't prove a case has suddenly come down with that same strain of syphilis. Four of them have died. We were wondering about that, and the only thing I can think of is that Someone out there is getting justice for Cam, just not in a courtroom."

Shana nodded. "I agree with that too. And that was why I was willing to tell Alex to drop the rest of the trials knowing that Cam's still going to get justice."