Cat knew she was screwd. She took deep breaths to steady herself.
The cop lady, probably detective Martinez because she was clearly of Latin ethnicity rolled her eyes, “Fine. Have it your way. Hey, Catherine, I’m Dr. Esther’s friend! I’m here to help you!”
“Don’t answer that. Don’t say anything, miss,” the lawyer said as he moved in between the cop and the door frame. “Detective, you shouldn’t eavesdrop either. My associate here will make sure you don’t loiter next to this room.”
“Fine, fine,” the cheerful detective said placatingly. “We’ll keep watching the door. Bye, Cathy!”
Cat forced her new body to remain impassible as he tried to control the sobbing. If lawyers and cops were involved, shit was about to go down for real. The nurse checked the instruments, replaced the saline IV bag, and adjusted the drip-feed before silently leaving the room. She and the lawyer exchanged a nod before closing the door.
Cat was still hiccupping when the lawyer shut the door and placed a smartphone next to it playing some gibberish sounds.
“It will better mask our conversation and mess with microphones. Can’t be too sure. Greetings, Miss Catherine. I’m Oliver McNamara, your lawyer.”
The guy was well into his forties but was well-groomed and well-cared for. The gold Rolex on his wrist and the Italian designer suit gave Cat a hint of how expensive he was. And how rich Catherine and her family really were.
Catherine hinted.
[We need to have a long conversation, you and I, my body-tenant.]
Cat decided to ignore Catherine’s paranoia as much as she could.
Oliver took a chair and sat by the bed. “Now, miss, I should inform you that everything you say here to me is confidential. I’ll work in your best interest to get you out of your current predicament.”
Cat pressed her head against the pillow and shut her eyes. Her breathing was still out of control, with sobs and hiccups coming now and then. She concentrated on her diaphragm and flexed it, a breathing exercise William learned in his days singing at a choir. The muscular spasms that led to hiccups ended as she released the air in short bursts. Mr. McNamara waited patiently.
“Who do you work for?” She asked after a long silence.
“You. While your mother hired me, it is from your bank account that my fees come from. I know where you are coming from but rest assured you are my client. On my professional ethics, I won’t report anything that happens here to your mother. You don’t have to worry about any information you don’t want to reach her ears even if she’ll pester me and my associates for every little detail. You have my word.”
“How long have I been here?”
“You were in an induced coma for four months, miss.”
Cat was desperately trying to avoid the conversation about Catherine’s suicide and his death. She suspected she was being charged with her own murder. She knew better than be childish at such a crucial moment but it was had. Humans are at the end of the day extremely complex biological machines. One has to work within the confines of one’s biochemistry. Even though Cat had William’s memories, the body was still of a teenage girl. All the hormones and neurotransmitters particular to Catherine’s body were messing with Cat’s reasoning. It was like (bad metaphor incoming) trying to run Android O.S. on an iPhone.
“What am I being charged with? How legally fucked I am?” She finally asked.
Cat was at the limit of her wits. Having a phantom grumbling and whining inside her head wasn’t going to help. She snapped and mumbled even though Oliver was right next to her.
[It’s my mouth now. My body. Don’t forget I’m doing this to save you from whatever punishment awaits you in hell. The least you can do is to be helpful. We gain nothing by antagonizing each other.]
[You killed me, Catherine. You didn’t intend to, but your stupidity killed three people. And now it is I who is going to pay for your folly. Maybe even go to jail. Is orange really the new black? Please take your time to think about that.]
She grumbled, annoyed.
Catherine seemed like a spoiled rich kid that had serious issues with her mother and was going through a rebellious phase. They really needed to have a long conversation about their new reality. But one point William wouldn’t concede was ownership of the body. And as the angel said, he could always eject Catherine and let her deal with her own fate. It was in her best interest to cooperate and be a good body-tenant.
Speaking of which, now that some time had passed and they got used to the dozens of minor inconveniences of being hospitalized of which the IV drip was the least of them, William tried to get used to the sensations of this new body. Most of it worked exactly like his former one but he could feel the weight of the blanket pressing down on their chest and the clear difference down there. It was impossible to not notice the lack of the male organs and the odd feeling of another entirely different structure down there. The catheter was poking her on a very sensitive spot, after all. Damn bloody tube.
However, any curiosity of that nature would have to wait. Cat was too high on the painkillers and other medication fed through her IV drip to explore her new body. And she probably should focus on talking to the lawyer now.
“Oliver, you specialize in criminal law, right?”
“Yes. However, I am well versed in other branches of my business too. And if I don’t think I am up to the task, I’ll delegate the job to one of my associates. We pride ourselves on covering all bases regarding legal advice.”
“Good. I need a full inventory of my assets. Withdraw any powers of attorney I granted before my accident. I need to know when each cent leaves my bank account or my estate.”
“It’s my fault for signing stuff off without making a fully informed decision,” Cat replied. Oliver made a puzzled face but she waved him off. “Nevermind, I’m talking to myself. Have someone do an audit of the trust fund too.”
If Catherine signed off her assets to her mother, the trustee of her fund shouldn’t be trusted (pun intended) either. William knew how easy was to make sub-optimal choices and gain an advantage to themselves doing transactions on someone else’s behalf. While he wasn’t big enough to call himself a true Wall Street shark, he was at least a piraña.
“I can do that. Meanwhile, your personal belongings were returned by the police. Your purse was stolen during the accident but it was recovered. I’ll need to check with you if anything is missing.”
That put Catherine on overdrive,
“Not now, Catherine… Oliver, I need you to hire a social media and PR specialist for me. People were snapping photos and filming the accident, we need to put our version of the story out in the open.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“How do you… you are correct, miss. Dozens of pictures and videos of your accident are circulating the web. You even had crowdfunding and blood drive captained by your obstetrician Dr. Hill to help with your extensive surgical procedures. I’m going to have someone here to help you manage it by tomorrow.”
“A female if possible, and have her sign an NDA. Be generous with her wages. Call the doctor. I had her give me a run-down of my most critical wounds, but I want a full report with you present.”
“A wise choice,” Oliver agreed empathetically. “I’ll be back soon.”
----------------------------------------
“Catherine, how are you today?” The doctor asked with a grandmotherly tone.
“Alive,” She replied laconically. “Did Oliver told you why I asked you to come?”
“He did, but please tell it to me yourself,” She replied with a smile.
“How badly damaged was I?” Cat asked. “What did I break, what did I lose, what procedures did I have to go through?”
The physician sighed. “How badly damaged you were when you were admitted here? Honestly, the only bones I’m sure didn’t have fractures were the ones inside your ears. It’s a miracle you are alive and functioning, my dear. You had multiple internal injuries and you used up half of our hospital’s blood bank. The nurses call you Miss Wolverine behind your back,” she chuckled as she jested. “Not only you demonstrated a marvelous ability to heal, but you also have a few pounds of titanium in you right now,” she explained. “But you recovered completely. Lungs, spleen, liver, heart, bones. The x-rays we took yesterday showed we might have to even remove some of the pins and plates soon enough. You’ll need extensive physical therapy.”
The doctor went on explaining everything while Oliver took notes. The only place on her body that wasn’t critically injured when she was admitted was the head. She even joked that people from the Guinness book wanted to record her case. She was officially the person with most bone fractures to survive. Cat joked to herself that she might even be nominated to a Darwin award hadn’t they miraculously survived.
“Then we have the lung lobe and kidney we had to remove. Suffice to say that all your other organs healed miraculously without the need for transplant except for your womb. I’m sorry, you won’t be able to have children naturally in the future. But we removed the cervix so you won’t have to worry about cancer either.”
Cat hurriedly shook her head. “No! You did great, thank you. I don’t mind it at all.”
The doctor mumbled something to herself as she checked the instruments next to Cat’s bed. She adjusted the IV drip and asked, “Did you feel any pain when you woke up?”
“No.”
“Good. Any nausea, itches, or anything abnormal?”
“Yes, a horrendous full-body burning itch. I do feel like going to the bathroom all the time, there’s something down there.”
She nodded. “That’s the urinary catheter. I can ask the nurse to remove it and you can try going to the bathroom to relieve yourself on your own. If it doesn’t work, I’m afraid we’ll have to put it back in but I don’t think it will be necessary.”
“Please take it off.”
The physician exchanged a glance and a nod with Oliver. “Sure. But I think you need some time alone to talk to your lawyer now. I’ll come back later after you had your interviews, young miss. But don’t worry. You’ll be with us at least for another month before we discharge you.”
With that, the doctor exchanged another silent glance with Oliver and left. The lawyer went to put the gibberish noise smartphone under the door. While he was out, William took the opportunity to ask Catherine one question.
[Catherine, please don’t be upset but were you raped?]
He heard her sigh and whimper before she spoke curtly and sorrowfully,
[I’m sorry. Really sorry.]
He chuckled, [I don’t see why not. Everyone calls called me Will.]
“Are you okay, miss?” Back on the chair, Oliver startled Cat.
“Yes, yes. I’m fine. Mumbling to myself helps me think,” she lied.
He smiled. “That’s fine. Mumble as much as you want. Now, what do you want to know.”
“What do the cops want?”
“What do cops always want, to put someone in jail, I think. But what they want with you is twofold. One, they want to talk to you about your… alleged sexual assault.”
“Not alleged. It happened,” Cat was adamant.
“Fair enough. Do you remember who assaulted you?”
“Yes. I know who. And I want to see that fucker become some prison gang’s bitch for what he did,” Cat spewed acridly between clenched teeth. “All of them.”
“We will try to do that. Do you want me to pay the prison guys to be ‘extra careful’ with handling your assailant when he goes down? I know most criminal lawyers in Manhattan.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Cat chuckled ruefully. “Let’s stay on the clear for now. Regarding the cops, what’s the other thing they want from me? Am I being charged with something?”
“They have you in custody because you are charged with involuntary manslaughter but detective Martinez wants to talk about the sexual assault. I recommend being thorough in your report even it ashames you. It will help with your charges but there’s no chance you’d get convicted and even bringing you to trial would be just a waste of everyone’s money, including the taxpayers. You were under serious mental distress and it is an election year.”
Oliver continued, “Both the mayor and the DA are in full gear for re-elections. They don’t want justice, they want a PR case advantageous to them. We can work with that by giving them a tragic victim instead of a perpetrator of dubious motives. You have a lot of sympathy on social media, most of that the hard work of Dr. Hill. Be sure to thank her for that.”
Catherine shouted. She was getting the blue bird jitters.
“Did my phone survive the crash?” Cat asked to placate the specter in her head. “What model did I use?”
“I think it was an Apple device. It’s with the police but I don’t think it still works. I can buy you a replacement.”
“Please do. Let’s change the subject. Oliver, do you have any news of the… deceased? The man I killed, who was he?”
“William Theodore Cooper, a financial advisor that worked for a bank in Wall Street.”
A tear rolled down Cat’s eye. “Did he have any family?”
“Parents, siblings, and a fiancée. No children.”
She sobbed and summoned the courage to ask, “How are they?”
“In one word, bereaved. Let me call the detective now,” Oliver said as he stood up and dashed for the door. Cat didn’t notice but the lawyer wanted to capitalize on her distressed state to garner sympathy with the police. He returned with the detective and another police officer with a big case containing a computer and a printer. Before the detective could talk, he gave Cat some advice. “Don’t answer any questions unless I tell you to, Catherine. You may start, detective.”
The detective was friendly enough and asked about Catherine’s rape and her suicide attempt. Cat danced to Oliver’s tune, answering only what he allowed and shutting her mouth when he signaled her to. The detective mentioned the DNA samples from her and the baby. William had to rely on Catherine to relay the information but it only caused a bit of a delay in the vocalization of the answers. Like Christian and Cyrano, they played their parroting perfectly.
Catherine went to a party on Staten Island. She usually didn’t drink alcohol (because of her abusive alcoholic mother) but she was peer-pressured into doing so. Long story short, the drunk girl was led to a bedroom by a “friendly schoolmate” of the worst kind of male persuasion and lost her virginity despite struggling to fight back. The skinny girl was no match for the athletic guy’s physical prowess. The ghost inside Cat’s head was incomprehensible as she sobbed and cried. The girl mimicked her spectral companion and let the tears flow freely.
Cat forced the phantom to give the most detailed report possible, cooing and goading the dead girl to talk about the trauma that led her to the suicide “attempt”. Detective Martinez was empathetic and helpful, while Oliver seemed to approve of the interaction. The girl had ground a new layer of teeth enamel by the time she finished giving the full report.
They replayed the recording of their conversation and at the end asked Cat to confirm everything she said was the truth which she did. The other police officer then typed the transcript on the laptop, printed it, and read it aloud. After confirming the contents, everyone signed each page with Oliver keeping a copy for himself.
Satisfied, the police officers left the room leaving Cat and Oliver alone. She was exhausted. Cat sighed, barely able to keep her eyes open. “How did I do, Oliver?”
“Perfectly,” he cheered. “Don’t worry about them pressing charges. We might need to talk to the DA but they will probably be more interested in pursuing your sexual assault than the other case. I’ll have a psychiatrist visit you and testify if you are brought to court. I’m sorry you’ll have to repeat the same story over and over. Ah, I might hire a PI to gather evidence on that scum’s wrongdoings. I am afraid you’re far from being the only girl he hurt. If we can get another victim to testify, he’ll surely go down even worse.”
“Damages, Oliver. Squeeze every penny you can from him. The guy is even richer than me.”
“You aren’t rich, Miss Wallenstein. The trust fund is.”
Cat chuckled. “Fair enough.”
“I promise the guy will regret ever touching you.”
“Good, good, you do that,” Cat wickedly croaked. “Get me his balls on a golden plate, Oliver. And his dick sliced up and fried in an Italian skillet. With enough pepper to make an Indian beg for water.”
“I’m not eating it,” Cat added out loud.
As any decent man should, Oliver was at the same time stern and angry. “You bet I will, Catherine. I promise you.”
“Thank you, Oliver. I think I’m going to sleep.”
She was snoozing before she heard the door close.