“It was his big idea?” Len said.
“Yeah. He knew I carried a gun, and he said that it really turned him on. He said that he wanted me … to pretend to rape him. He said I should hold the gun on him and order him to tie himself to the bed and follow my directions, or I would kill him. Something like that.
“It was ridiculous, but I’d never played out a fantasy like that. He kept saying it would be fun, with this big grin on his face. And he said it would be good for our relationship—he wanted me to ‘gut-feel’ how much I wanted him. I think that’s how he put it.
“We went to his apartment. That’s where we always went,” Hill said. “I unloaded my gun, put the shells in my bag, then I followed his script and tried to get into the role. It was kind of fun, but also kind of weird, what I remember of it.
“After the sex was over, I fell asleep. We both did. Passed out is more like it. I woke up at about five and untied his hands. He was still sleeping, so I went home. I didn’t like how I felt and I didn’t like him, either. I knew that we’d crossed a line. There was no way back.
“I avoided him at work,” Hill continued, “but he called and left messages saying he wanted to get together. I told him no. ‘Sorry, Marc, but it’s over.’ He didn’t like that, but I thought he’d move on. Instead he came to my office after work a couple of days later and shut the door. That’s when he told me that he’d recorded our sex play—recorded it! And that he wanted a quarter of a million dollars or he was going to post the video online.”
Yuki asked, “You took this to be a serious threat?”
Hill’s expression crumpled. “Yes,” she said. “It was believable that he had a hidden camera. He’s a film producer. He knew that my grandma had died and that she had left me a big pile of money. I told him to go to hell, but I was scared.
“I was also in shock. I’m still in shock.”
Yuki found Briana utterly credible. Was she a world-class actress? Or was her version of the story true? One of them was lying.
Giftos put his hand on Briana’s shoulder and told her to take a minute.
After she’d collected herself, but still noticeably distressed, she said, “I remembered some of what we did in his bedroom but very little of what was said. Still, I’m positive that everything I did and said was entirely scripted by Marc. I never ever thought of rape as a turn-on. And I surely never knew that he was recording … this game.”
Hill went on, “I’ve always known the only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to him. Marc Christopher is a bully. He’s also insecure and vengeful, and that’s being kind. I did not rape him. It was all his idea. He set me up. And that’s the whole truth.”
CHAPTER 8
YUKI HAD QUESTIONS. Lots of them.
Sitting across the conference table from Briana Hill and her attorney, Len and Yuki fired away.
Yuki stuck to the workplace relationship between Hill and Christopher.
Did management at the Ad Shop prohibit relationships at the agency? Was Ms. Hill in a position to influence Mr. Christopher’s promotions and raises? Why was his performance review poor after the incident in Mr. Christopher’s apartment?
Hill told them that there was no explicit rule prohibiting relationships within the agency. Yes, she could influence his raises, but she explained that after the so-called rape incident, “Marc was defiant and threatening. He walked away from an assignment, leaving the team to scramble and endangering an account. Naturally, his crummy attitude and insubordination were reflected in the one performance review I conducted with him.”
Len’s questions were about the gun and the sex. Was her gun registered? Did she have a concealed carry permit? Where exactly did she keep the gun? Did she ever have it out during sex with Christopher—or anyone else—prior to the event they were discussing? Would she describe her sexual preferences as nontraditional or “kinky”?
Hill asserted that she lived alone, traveled often, had obtained a concealed carry permit, and had carried a gun for most of her adult life. Her gun was registered, and she kept it in her handbag at all times for protection.
She added, “I don’t know what you would call kinky, Mr. Parisi, but until this encounter with Marc Christopher, I’d never experimented with aggressive sexual role-playing.”
Len said, “And you claim you don’t know what you said or did during this sex act?”
“I remember enough,” she said. “I remember the pitch he threw me in the bar but not much of what I said or what he said during the act itself. It was role-playing. We were having sex. I’d had a lot to drink. I wasn’t trying to remember what we said. Wouldn’t that have been crazy? When I think about it, I see flash images, as if the bed was under a strobe light. As soon as it was over, I wanted to forget it had happened.
“I have some questions for you. Mr. Parisi. Why didn’t Marc grab my gun? Run for the hills? Call the cops? Did you ask him?”
Parisi said mildly, “If you know, had Marc been drinking, too?”
“Sure. I don’t remember what or how much.”
Parisi asked, “Before or during the sex, did Marc tell you to stop? Did he say no to you at any point?”
“He may have,” said Hill. “But that was the point of the script he laid out for me. He was supposed to be the victim and I was supposed to take him by force. That was his game.”
Yuki said, “Ms. Hill, can you prove that Mr. Christopher set up this game?”
“How? We had a conversation in a bar.”
“I have the recording Mr. Christopher made of your sexual encounter,” said Yuki. “We’ll have a copy sent to Mr. Giftos’s office this week. It’s video with sound, Ms. Hill. You can see and hear it all.”
After Briana Hill and James Giftos left, Yuki went to Len’s office. They sat at right angles to each other in his sitting area, surrounded by bookshelves, in view of the clock with a red bulldog face on the wall behind his desk.
“What did you think of the defense?” Yuki asked.
“Hill is credible,” said Len, “and a very accomplished presenter. But her defense of the rape, saying that Marc gave her the script and she performed to his direction, that’s her word against his. We don’t have the script discussion recorded. The video only shows and tells what happened in the bedroom, and even then, while the act was in progress.”
Yuki asked, “Does the fact that they’d slept together before the rape hurt his case?”
Parisi said, “Not legally, but it could make a juror wonder what the hell he was complaining about. Unless you can turn up more evidence, we’re pinning everything on the video. He said no and she kept the gun on him. He says it was loaded. She says it was not. He said, she said.
“But she asks good questions,” Parisi said. “Why didn’t he call the cops when he woke up? Why did he wait two weeks to do that? That’s going to come up. And I don’t like this story that he tried to blackmail her. Did that ring true to you?”
Yuki said, “This is the first I’ve heard of extortion. I’ll ask him.”
“Unless he puts that in writing, it’s more of his word against hers.”
Yuki nodded in agreement. “They have colleagues in common. I interviewed three people at the Ad Shop. I’ll review their notes again.”
Yuki went back to her office and made notes to file on the meeting with Briana Hill. Hill had sounded truthful, but Yuki had seen the video. Marc Christopher said no, and Briana Hill didn’t stop. And that was what mattered in the eyes of the law.
CHAPTER 9