“Yes.” She looks relieved by my understanding. “It would be best if we were to ask you questions and you were to confine yourself to the briefest possible responses. Then we will put it all into an affidavit for you to sign.”

“If we do a good enough job, this might not even go to trial,” Deshen says. “The state will see that they don’t have a winnable case here, and either offer a deal or drop charges altogether.”

“Then fire away.”

Everyone in the room is smiling now, pleased by my co-operative attitude. Before the rape, I prided myself on being easy to deal with. I was afraid of being labelled “difficult,” so I made sure I was the very opposite. Since the rape, I have tried to regain that easiness. It hasn’t always worked that well.

There are parts of me that are thornier than they were. And parts that are stickier.Where previously I was smooth, now I am abrasive. But I keep trying.

“Would you agree,” says Advocate Deshen. “That you saw no communication pass between your attackers and your father that made you think they were in league with each other?”

“Yes, I would agree with that. I had no idea at the time.”

“And do you stand by your earlier statement that you did not recognise these men at all? You had never seen them in your father’s company, for instance?”

“No, never. I didn’t recognise any of them.”

“Excellent. Good. And would you say that after the attack your father behaved in a solicitous manner towards you, leading you to think he was concerned for your welfare?”

“After the attack? Yes, I suppose he did. He brought me a blanket and offered to run me a bath. But then the fire started, and he helped me get out of the house.”

A frisson zips around the room at my use of the word “bath.” Glances pass from one lawyer to another like a rapid-fire game of pass-the-parcel.

“And finally, Miss Lurie, would you concede that the sexual assault you suffered was in no way necessary for the kind of insurance fraud that the prosecution is alleging?”

“Yes. Only the fire was necessary for that.”

Advocate Deshen puts down the pen he has been making notes with. “Thank you so much, Miss Lurie. I think that is all we need at the . . .”

“I have a question,” Gregory Marriot interrupts. “Miss Lurie, would you agree that your relationship with your father was not antagonistic before the incident, and has remained that way subsequently?”

“Not antagonistic? Yes, that is correct. It was not and is not antagonistic.”