Eclipse {Ravi Singh}

39

disclaimers: I don't own ggbb, also I've been pronouncing noah kahans last name wrong.

amaris settles into the seat in between ravi and pip as the podcast's intro plays, absentmindedly amaris grabbed ravis hand and began to play with it.
"hello, pip fitz-amobi here and welcome back to a good girl’s guide to murder: the trial of max mastings. this is the third update, so if you haven’t yet heard the first two mini-episodes, please go back and listen to those before you return. we are going to cover what happened today, the third day of max hastings’ trial, and joining me is mari fitz-amobi.."
"hi." amaris leans forward to say into the mic that she and ravi shared
"and ravi singh.."
"hello." ravi says
". . . who has been watching the trial unfold from the public gallery. so today started with the testimony from another of the victims, natalie da silva. you may well recognize the name; nat was involved in my investigation into the andie bell case. i learned that andie had bullied nat at school, and had even sought and distributed indecent images of her on social media. i believed this could be a possible motive and, for a time, i considered nat a person of interest. i was entirely wrong, of course. today, nat appeared in crown court to give evidence about how, on the 24 of february 2012 at a calamity party, she was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by max hastings, the charges listing one count of sexual assault and one count of assault by penetration." pip explains
"so, ravi, can you take us through how her testimony went?" amaris asks, smiling at her boyfriend
ravi gulps, trying to get over the speechlessness that amaris had caused, "yeah. so, the prosecutor asked nat to establish a timeline of that evening: when she arrived at the party, the last instance she looked at the time before she began to feel incapacitated, what time she woke up in the morning and left the house. nat said that she only has a few hazy snatches of memory: someone leading her into the back room away from the party and laying her on a sofa, feeling paralyzed, unable to move and someone lying beside her. other than that, she described herself as being blacked out. and then, when she woke up the next morning, she felt dreadful and dizzy, like it was the worst hangover she’d ever had. her clothes were in disarray and her underwear had been removed."
pip nods although the listeners wouldn't be able to see her, "and, to revisit what the prosecution’s expert witness said on tuesday about the effects of benzodiazepines like rohypnol, nat’s testimony is very much in line with what you’d expect. the drug acts like a sedative and can have a depressant effect on the body’s central nervous system, which  explains nat’s feeling of being paralyzed. it feels almost like being separated from your own body, like it just won’t listen to you, your limbs aren’t connected any more." amaris frown as pip described what it felt like, she hated thinking about when becca drugged pip. amaris could remember every emotion and thought the flew through her mind when she found her sister, scared wasn't a word that could describe the petrifying feeling that had overtaken amaris in that moment.
"right," ravi soothingly draws circles into amaris' hand, sensing her discomfort, "and the prosecutor also made sure the expert witness repeated, several times, that a side effect of rohypnol was ‘blacking out’, as nat said, or having anterograde amnesia, which means an inability to create new memories. and i think the prosecutor wants to keep reminding the jury of this point, because it will play a significant part in the testimonies of all the victims; the fact that they don’t remember exactly what happened because the drug impacted their ability to make memories."
"and the prosecutor was keen to repeat that fact regarding becca bell." pip says.
"as a reminder, becca recently changed her plea to guilty, accepting a three-year sentence, despite a defence team who were confident they could get her no jail time due to her being a minor at the time of andie’s death, and the circumstances surrounding it. so yesterday, becca gave her evidence by video link from prison, where she will be for the next eighteen months." amaris adds
"exactly." ravi sends his girlfriend a smile, "and, like with becca, today the prosecution was keen to establish that they both only had one or two alcoholic drinks the night of the alleged attacks, which couldn’t possibly account for the level of intoxication. specifically, nat said she only drank one 330-millilitre bottle of beer all night. and she stated, explicitly, who gave her that drink on her arrival: max."
"and how did max react, while Nat was giving her evidence?" pip asks.
"from the public gallery, i can only really see him from the side, or the back of his head. but he seems to be acting the same way he has since tuesday. this sort of calm, very still demeanour, eyes turned to whoever’s in the witness box as though he’s really interested in what they’re saying. he’s still wearing those thick-rimmed glasses, and i’m one hundred per cent certain they aren’t prescription lenses – i mean, my mum’s an optometrist."
"and is his hair still long and sort of unkempt, like it was on tuesday?" amaris questions ravi who nods.
"yeah, that seems to be the image he and his lawyer have settled on. expensive suit, fake glasses. maybe they think his blonde, messy hair will be disarming to the jury or something."
"well, it’s worked for certain recent world leaders." pip shrugs
"the courtroom sketch artist let me take a photo of her sketch today, and said we could post it after the press published it. you can see her impression of max sitting there while his solicitor, christopher ppps, cross-examines nat on the stand."
"yes, and if you’d like to look at the sketch, you can find it on the appendix materials on the website  agoodgirlsguidetomurderpodcast.comso, let’s talk about the cross-examination."
"yes, it was . . . pretty rough. epps asked a lot of invasive questions. what were you wearing that night? did you dress promiscuously on purpose? –showing photos of day that night from social media." as ravi talked amaris' face scrunches, she knew first hand that the way a girl dressed wouldnt stop someone from assulting them sexually. "did you have a crush on your classmate, max hastings? how much alcohol would you drink on an average night? he also brought up her past criminal conviction for assault 
occasioning bodily harm, implying that it made her untrustworthy. it was, essentially, a character assassination. you could see nat getting upset, but she stayed calm, took a few seconds to breathe and have a sip of water before answering each question. her voice was shaking, though. it was really hard to watch."
"it makes me so angry that this kind of cross-examination of victims is allowed. it almost shifts the burden of proof on to them, and it isn’t fair." pip says, the anger clear in her voice.
"not fair at all." ravi agrees, "epps then grilled her about not going to the police the next day, if she was sure she was assaulted and who the perpetrator was. that if she’d gone within seventy-two hours, a urinalysis could have confirmed whether she even had rohypnol in her system which, he claimed, was up for debate. nat could only reply that she hadn’t been sure afterwards, because she had no memory. and then epps said, ‘if you have no memory, how do you know you didn’t consent to any sexual activity? or that you even interacted with the defendant that night?’ nat replied that max had made a loaded comment to her the following monday, asking if she’d had a ‘good time’ at the party because he had. epps never let up."
"it must have been exhausting for nat." amaris frowns, genuinely feeling sorry for the girl no matter how rude nat had been when they interviewed her.
"it seems this is his tactic for max’s defence. to somehow undermine and discredit each of us as witnesses. with me, it was his claim about how  convenient it was that i had max to use as a male patsy, to try make becca bell and her alleged manslaughter sympathetic. that it was all part of the ‘aggressive feminist narrative’ i’ve been pushing with my podcast."
"ew. i hate him." amaris whispers
"yeah, that does seem to be the route
epps is going down." ravi responds to pip.
"i guess that’s the kind of aggressive strategy you get when your lawyer costs three hundred pounds an hour. but money is no issue for the hastings family, of course."
"it doesn’t matter whatever strategy he uses; the jury will see the truth."
"God I pray they do."

a/n
okay I know this is just the podcast dialogue but its something at least.