Conflict of Interest

by Jae

  "Received."

  He turned back to Dawn. "Ms. Kinsley –"

  "Doctor," Dawn said. She wouldn't let him get away with his attempts to make her look less than she was.

  Victor D'Aquino nodded. "Dr. Kinsley, do you think someone who is not a weapons expert could tell the difference between a Smith & Wesson and a Glock?"

  "I can –"

  "Answer my question, please," D'Aquino interrupted.

  Dawn bit her lip. "Most probably couldn't," she admitted. She hoped Kade Matheson would pick up the question in her re-examination.

  D'Aquino stepped closer to Dawn, and she almost began to fear his next question. "Dr. Kinsley, you said you'd been out to a club on the night in question?"

  "Yes."

  "How much did you have to drink?" D'Aquino demanded to know.

  Now he's trying to show that I drank too much and that had lowered my inhibitions, Dawn noticed incredulously.

  Kade's objection saved her from having to answer. "Objection, relevance? Even if Dr. Kinsley had been drunk – which she wasn't – engaging in sexual intercourse with a person who is incapable of consent because of intoxication is still rape."

  "Don't lecture me on the law, Ms. Matheson!" the judge warned her. "Overruled. Please answer the question, Doctor Kinsley."

  "I had one low-alcohol cocktail, nothing more," Dawn answered.

  "Did you limit yourself because you're not used to alcohol?" D'Aquino asked.

  Anger and annoyance began to replace the fear Dawn felt. "I limited myself because I was the designated driver and still had to drive home."

  "Still, isn't it true that you don't drink a lot and are not used to alcohol?"

  Has that suddenly become a bad thing? Dawn wondered.

  "Objection!" Kade stood again. "Already asked and answered. He's badgering the witness."

  Linehan fixed the defense attorney with a glare. "Sustained. Move on, Counselor."

  "You said you are a rape counselor?"

  Dawn nodded, gladly answering the more neutral question. "Yes. I do one-on-one and group counseling of survivors of rape and sexual abuse... or rather, that was what I did before I was raped." It hurt to admit that perhaps she would never work with those patients again.

  "You only worked with rape victims?" D'Aquino asked.

  Dawn became increasingly irritated with him. "There's no 'only' about it, Mr. D'Aquino, but yes, I work... I worked exclusively with rape and sexual abuse victims."

  D'Aquino stepped closer. "Are you obsessed with rape, Doctor? Is every man automatically a rapist for you?"

  Kade was on her feet before he had uttered the last word. "Objection! Your Honor...!"

  "That is enough, Mr. D'Aquino," Ruth Linehan ordered sharply. "You have been warned repeatedly to cease that line of questioning. I am hereby imposing a fine of two hundred dollars for contempt of court. Make one more attempt and you will be enjoying the hospitality of the county tonight. The jury is instructed to disregard Mr. D'Aquino's question, and it shall be stricken from the records."

  Breathing heavily, Dawn watched as the defense attorney got an earful from the judge. Linehan had stricken D'Aquino's questions, but the jury had heard them and what they implied. The damage had been done.

  She looked at Kade and then across the courtroom at Aiden, Del, and her mother. All of them gave her reassuring nods, helping her to regain her composure.

  Finally, D'Aquino returned to his position in front of the witness stand. "Ms. Kinsley, when Mr. Ballard took you to the bedroom," he began, deliberately choosing words that could imply that she had willingly followed him as easily as they could imply the use of force, "did you do or say anything to him that he could have misunderstood as a sign of consent?"

  "No!" Dawn answered with force.

  "You didn't compliment him?" D'Aquino rested one hand on the witness-box, leaning toward her.

  Dawn wildly shook her head. "I didn't."

  "Then it is not true that you told my client that he's handsome?"

  Dawn opened her mouth for another vehement "no," but then closed it again. Oh, dear God! He's trying to use that against me? She hadn't been prepared for it.

  "Ms. Kinsley?" D'Aquino pressed.

  She bit her lip and laid a hand over her eyes. "I..."

  The defense attorney turned to the judge. "Your Honor, please instruct the witness to answer the question."

  "Doctor Kinsley," Linehan's voice was gentle but firm. "You have to answer."

  "I told him –"

  "A yes or no answer is enough," D'Aquino interrupted.

  Dawn clenched her teeth. "Yes," she admitted grimly.

  "And did you not also tell my client you were sure that there were a lot of women who found him attractive and would like to sleep with him?" the defense lawyer fired his next question at her.

  Dawn looked down at her hands in defeat. She knew that her words sounded like the compliments of a lover even if they had been a victim's desperate attempts to talk her way out of a rape. "Yes, but –"

  "And is it not also true that, while you were in bed with Mr. Ballard, you never sounded scared?"

  "I tried not –"

  Once again, D'Aquino didn't let her finish the sentence. "Yes or no?"

  Dawn sighed. "Yes."

  "Nothing further."

  Dawn heaved a sigh of relief when the defense attorney moved away from her and sat back down. Anxiously, she looked at Kade, who was still appearing calm and collected as she stood again.

  "Doctor Kinsley, is there a reason why you told Mr. Ballard things that sounded complimentary?"

  "Yes!" Now that Dawn could finally say it, the words were practically shooting out of her. "I was trying to talk him out of raping me. I told him he didn't have to resort to violence to get a woman to sleep with him."

  "Did you have the impression that he took that to mean you would sleep with him out of your own free will?" Kade asked.

  Dawn didn't get to answer. "Objection!" D'Aquino called. "Prosecution is calling for an opinion."

  "Your Honor, Doctor Kinsley is not only a victim, she's an experienced psychologist specializing in rape cases," Kade countered. "Her opinion is more than the mere speculation of a lay witness."

  "Objection overruled," Linehan decided. "Doctor Kinsley, please summarize your impression for the jury."

  "Mr. Ballard knew that I wasn't consenting," Dawn emphasized. "He didn't listen to a word I said. He told me to 'shut up' and hit me. He threatened me with his gun the whole time. I submitted to him because I feared for my life, but that doesn't equal consent."

  Kade pointed back toward the defense table. "Mr. D'Aquino mentioned that you didn't sound particularly scared that night. Is there a reason for that?"

  "Yes. In my professional experience, begging and crying sends a weak psychological message," Dawn answered as matter-of-factly as she could. "Studies have shown that people who sound like victims have a higher probability of becoming victims, so I tried to reason with him instead."

  Kade nodded in understanding. "One last question. Why is it that you're so sure regarding the weapon Mr. Ballard used during the attack?"

  "My father, my older brother, my ex-husband, and at least a dozen of my friends were or are police officers. I've seen their duty weapons a thousand times, so I could identify a Glock anytime. And," Dawn swallowed, "you never forget a weapon you had to stare at for half an hour while you lay there and feared for your life."

  Kade returned to her table. "Nothing further, thank you."

  "Recross, Your Honor." D'Aquino approached her again. "Ms. Kinsley, is there any possibility that a man, blinded by attraction, could misread signals and misinterpret words as compliments even if the woman didn't mean it like that?"

  "Yes, but –"

  "Thank you," D'Aquino interrupted, "no further questions."

  Long after Kade had announced "The People rest" and Linehan had decided to adjourn until the next day, Dawn sat in the witness-box, numbly staring straight ahea
d.

  CHAPTER 21

  AIDEN LOOKED UP as Dawn slipped into the courtroom a few minutes before the trial was set to continue. She hadn't been sure if Dawn would be there to watch her rapist's testimony. Aiden stood and moved down the row, vacating her seat for Dawn so she could sit between her and Del, where she seemed to feel safest.

  "Thanks." Dawn's half smile was genuine but tense.

  "How are you?" Aiden asked, studying her.

  Dawn's gaze flitted from the still empty witness stand to Aiden's face. "I hate being here and having to listen to all the lies Ballard's undoubtedly going to tell, but I hated the thought of sitting at home and imagining what might go on in here even more."

  Aiden nodded sympathetically. "Just two or three more days and it'll all be over," she tried to comfort Dawn.

  "Not everything will be over," Dawn corrected grimly, but then squeezed Aiden's forearm with a somewhat milder expression. "But I know what you mean, and that'll probably help me with getting my life back to some level of normality."

  Aiden gazed down at the clammy hand on her arm. She hesitantly lifted her own hand to cover the smaller fingers, but before she could, the defense attorney called his first witness, and Dawn grabbed the edge of her seat with both hands as Garett Ballard strode toward the witness stand.

  Ballard didn't blink an eye when he swore to tell the truth even though Aiden was sure that every word coming from his lips would be a lie.

  "Garett," Victor D'Aquino used his client's first name to make him appear more likeable to the jury, "can you tell us where you were on the evenings of June 4th, 2005, April 21st and October 6th, 2007?"

  "At work," Ballard answered, looking very much like the honest, hardworking man he had never been. "I work as a security specialist for a club on Gansevoort Street."

  "What kind of club is it exactly?"

  Ballard shrugged. "All kinds of people frequent the club, but mostly it's lesbians and bisexual women."

  D'Aquino smiled. "So, there's not a lot of workplace romance going on, huh?"

  "Oh, I wouldn't say that." Ballard showed pearly white teeth as he grinned. "I've had women come up to me and ask me straight out to come home and have a one-night stand with them."

  "Objection, Your Honor!" Kade took off her glasses to look at Ballard and his attorney with unveiled disgust. "Is there any relevance to this line of questioning or does counsel just want to give his client an opportunity to brag about his alleged conquests?"

  Aiden suppressed a grin. Go get him, Kade!

  A few people in the audience somewhere in the row behind Aiden were giggling, and Linehan sustained the objection, ordering D'Aquino to move on. "Under what circumstances did you get to know Melanie Riggs, Jayne Matthews, and Dawn Kinsley?" the defense lawyer asked his client.

  "I never knew their names, but I knew them in the biblical sense." Ballard's answer garnered a few laughs.

  Aiden didn't find it funny in the least. Gritting her teeth, she looked at Dawn out of the corner of her eye and saw her getting even paler than she had been before.

  Judge Linehan fixed the defendant with a disapproving stare, and D'Aquino quickly asked the next question before she could reprimand his client. "How did you meet them?"

  "They came to the club and struck up a conversation with me. They sent me drinks, and when the club finally closed, they asked me to come home with them," Ballard claimed.

  "Why did you accept these invitations if you knew they were lesbians?" D'Aquino wanted to know.

  Ballard looked directly at Dawn. "They were attractive, and I knew it would be sex without emotional entanglements. They wanted this one night and nothing else from me, and that was just what I wanted."

  He almost made it sound believable; Aiden had to give him that.

  "What happened when you reached the apartments you had been invited to?" D'Aquino continued his questions.

  "They didn't invite me in to drink coffee, so we usually stumbled straight to the bedroom. The last one," Ballard pointed to Dawn, "even ripped the phone line out to make sure that we wouldn't be interrupted."

  Aiden clenched her hands into fists and saw Del and Grace on Dawn's other side do the same. Dawn was trembling, but Aiden couldn't tell if it was with fear or anger or maybe a mix of both.

  D'Aquino nodded. "And how do you explain the bruises and bite marks the ER doctor described?"

  "Some of them were into pretty wild stuff," Ballard said with a grin. "Bondage, domination, sadomasochism, sex games. They told me they liked it rough and demanded that I do it 'harder' and 'make it hurt.' I just went along with what they wanted."

  Aiden stared at him, disbelief, anger, and disgust warring within her.

  "No," Dawn whispered next to her, "that's not true! I didn't... that bastard!"

  "I know." Aiden wanted to reach over and take Dawn's hand in her own to ease Dawn's fear that Ballard would be believed over her, but she knew it was not a good idea. She didn't want the defense attorney to think she was anything but the detective investigating her case to Dawn. "I know he's lying and everyone here is going to know it by the end of the day; just wait for Kade's cross," Aiden said.

  "Can you tell us why you didn't use protection with any of these women?" D'Aquino asked.

  Ballard held up his hands. "I had some with me, but they didn't want me to use 'em."

  D'Aquino pretended to be puzzled. "Did they tell you why?"

  "Oldest story in the book: they're lesbians wanting to get pregnant by having a one-night stand with a good-looking stranger," Ballard said, carefully holding back any hateful or derogatory words against lesbians.

  His lawyer must have drilled him to appear as a tolerant, lesbian-friendly man who was kind enough to donate his sperm, Aiden thought grimly.

  "Did any of them indicate that they wanted to stop at any time?"

  "No, never," Ballard answered with conviction.

  D'Aquino looked at the jury, making sure everyone had heard it. "Why would they file a police report and falsely accuse you of rape, then?"

  "I don't know, but I guess their girlfriends must have found out that they had slept with a man and reacted none too pleased," Ballard said with a shrug. "Trying to make it look like an assault was the only way to save them from the embarrassment."

  "Did you clear up that misunderstanding when the police came to the club?" D'Aquino asked.

  Finally, Kade found a reason to object. "Defense is leading his own witness, Your Honor."

  "Sustained. Rephrase that question, Mr. D'Aquino," Linehan demanded.

  "What happened when the police came to the club?"

  "I would have tried to clear up the misunderstanding," Ballard used his lawyer's words, "had I known that they were police officers, but I didn't know that. The female cop stood in line like every other customer, and when she suddenly stepped close to me, I expected an attack and had to fight back."

  D'Aquino nodded at him. "Thank you, Garett. Nothing further for now."

  Kade strode toward the witness-box, closing in on Ballard like a tigress going after its prey. "Mr. Ballard, you just mentioned that you had to 'fight back,' implying that Detective Carlisle attacked you. How do you explain the fact that a dozen witnesses saw you attack her, not the other way around?"

  Ballard shrugged. "I guess it was a misunderstanding. I felt threatened."

  Kade raised her brows, silently looking at the big, muscular man. "You also claim you didn't know that Detectives Bennet and Carlisle were police officers even though they testified that they had shown you their badges?"

  Ballard smiled coolly. "People say and do all kinds of crazy things to get into the club... claiming they're celebrities, showing fake ID."

  "Did anyone ever start to read you your Fifth Amendment rights to get into the club?" Kade asked sarcastically.

  "No," Ballard had to admit.

  Kade wandered over to the jury box, forcing Ballard to half-turn to keep her in his sight. "How do you usually react when someone tries a tr
ick to get into the club?"

  "I tell 'em that their trick was already old when Methuselah was a boy and send them on their way," Ballard said with a grin.

  "What does 'send them on their way' include?" Kade wanted to know. "Do you resort to violence?"

  Ballard shook his head. "That's usually not necessary."

  "So, you don't hit them, spit at them, or call them a bitch like you did with Detective Carlisle?" Now Kade was in her shark-attack mode.