He stood and said, All right. You take the rape victims. I’ll take the expert witnesses. Maybe give me one or two of the older women, so we do not show any weakness to the defence. We are going to win this together. Yes?

There was no turning back and the women were counting on us.

His first job was to write the opening statement and he asked me for advice, not to flatter me but because time was short. He wanted to know, as he put it, how to capture the human element.

Karla said to me, Always women must protect what is already theirs in bureaucracies. I have had to do this all my life. It is infuriating. I had been thinking about the opening statement for years. But I had to give it away for the larger good of the work. I told him I had planned to quote a woman who had said to me, I had no control. I was like a machine in their hands.

—

Merima was withdrawn. Esma was tired. Fidgety. We sat in the Beach Club café at their hotel with Edina, drinking coffee and trying to relax. Their witness assistants sat nearby. The women had returned from visiting the courtroom and from witness-proofing, the painful, meticulous review of their statements with their lawyers. Merima had asked her witness assistant to look after her grandmother. She needed to concentrate. She needed quiet. I watched Merima half-turned away from our table, staring over the ocean, her intelligent grey-blue eyes drawn into the distant depths. She had her mother’s eyes. But more vulnerable.

Esma said to me, I brought wild orchid root and sugar and cinnamon for us to drink with warm milk at night. It is good to calm the nerves.

The old woman’s large work-worn hands were restless and her fingers unconsciously searched for a missing wedding ring around her third finger. She said that she had never stayed in such a luxurious place where she could look out her window at the sea. Her witness assistant, Beatrijs, had offered to take her to visit the miniature village or perhaps to walk along the beach to see the big sculpture of the Fisherman’s Wife, but the old woman wanted to stay with her family.

Merima turned back to our table and said to me, My identification in court will be Protected Witness 81. That is the number from my first statement eight years ago. But the name of the trial is for him. We women remain nameless and his name is written. Do you not find this ironic? I do.

She laughed without mirth. Her laughter was a wall to keep people out. She touched her grandmother’s arm and asked, Baka, are you frightened of speaking in the court?

I am frightened of what I have to say.

Do not worry, you are strong.

Edina smoked. She nodded toward the assistants’ table and said to me, You are making people nervous.