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”This way, Miss Ericks.” The police officer showed her the way into a private room. Lina, Tina and Stephan followed behind them. The officer looked at them. “Would you mind waiting outside for a moment? We need to talk to Joanna alone.”

Stephan looked angry and started saying something, but Tina interrupted him. “Sure. Call us if you need us.”

They went back to the couch where they’d all been waiting.


“Sit down, please, Joanna.” The officer pulled out a chair for her, and she sat down. “We will be joined by... Oh, here she comes.” A blonde woman dressed in police uniform came into the room and shook Jo’s hand.

“I’m Louisa Richards.” She sat down next to the other police, Jo had already forgotten his name.

“We really don’t need that much information from you. Your testimony from yesterday is very detailed, and that’s good. We would need to hear your story again, there can be something that you’d forgot yesterday, or something like that. We will be filming your testimony, so that we can go back and rewatch it. You ok with that?”

Jo nodded and told her story again.

“Very well, Joanna. We’ve interrogated Andreas Nilsson, and we have his testimony on tape. He has admitted to having sexual relations with you yesterday, but he claims it was consensual sex, and that he didn’t rape you. We are going to show you the tape, as well as some pictures that were taken in the apartment. If you feel that this is too much for you to handle, just say so.”

“I want to see it.”


Officer Richards put a tape in a VCR, and pressed play. Andy’s face appeared on the screen, and Jo had to fight the instinct to kick the TV to pieces. His voice sounded through the room, telling a revised story of her night of horror.

“I met her outside the Globe. We talked about old memories, I invited her over and she came along. We were talking, laughing. We sat on the couch, she hugged me, we kissed. Then she started talking about how her boyfriend must never find out, but she kept on kissing me. We had sex, on the floor. It was intense and rough, yes, but she was in on it the whole time. In fact, she took the initiative. When I woke up, she was gone. Next thing I know I’ve got a heard of cops in my apartment, and I’m under arrest for alleged rape.”

Another voice came from the TV, but Andy was still being filmed. “Well, the victim tells another story. We’ve got some pictures of her here, pictures of her bruised and bleeding. Would you mind taking a look at them and describe how you think she got these injuries? Her parents left you with her, and then she was fine. No injuries.” A hand came into picture, showing photos of Jo’s body to the camera, then to Andy.

“I don’t know how she’s got these. But I hear her boyfriend is a drug addict and an alcoholic. Who knows what he could have done if he found out what she’d been up to? My god. I can’t watch this. I love her, and he’s hurting her. I’m not your man. He is.”

“He? Her boyfriend?”

“Yes. AJ McLean is his name. She calls him Alex.”

“Weird that Mr. McLean has alibi for the entire night, then. He was in and by his tour bus with his body guard, Joe Herman, and the driver of this bus, Logan John. He was also seen by his band mates, Brian Littrell and Howard Dorough, and upon that some ten-twelve girls, who have got pictures to prove it.”

“You’re lying. She loves me. She loves me. I love her. I told her that I love her. I hit her. Oh my god. But I didn’t rape her.”

Officer Richards turned the tape off, and her colleague asked Jo: “What do you have to say about what you just saw?”

“He’s sick. I don’t love him. I pity him. He’s lost touch with reality. Why would I press charges against him if he hadn’t raped me?”

“We find the evidence good enough to take this to court and get him convicted. You want that?”

“More than anything else in the world.”

“Good. We’ll send a letter to your address here in Sweden, where we tell you when and where the trial will be held. You will have to attend.”

“Of course. I’ll fix that.”

“Good. Well then, we’re done here. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Thank you.” Jo shook their hands, and they showed the way back to her family.


Six hours later Jo and Lina were on a night train to Norway. They were alone in their compartment, where they’d snuggled up in their bunks.

“From tour bus to tour train.” Lina joked. “Feels like home.”

Jo laughed, but was soon serious again. “Lina?”

“Yeah?”

“How am I going to make this work?”

“This what?”

“Alex. I feel disgusting. I don’t want him to touch me.”

“Why?”

“I feel like I have AIDS. Only I have ANDY. It kills people, and this is killing me. He succeeded. He tore us apart. I don’t want Alex to get infected.”

“You are... I understand that this is killing you, I really do. But you are being stupid. Really stupid. You have to share this with him. He loves you.”

“How could I? He doesn’t want to listen. He turned away when I told the cops what’d happened to me. He walked away.” Jo started crying again.

“He did, but you know why? He loves you so much that it’s killing him to see you in pain. He wants you to be happy. Turn the situation around. What if it was me? And if I turned away from Nick? What would you tell me then?”

“To stop being silly and accept the love that he’s giving you.” Jo mumbled.

“See? That’s what you gotta do.” Lina’s phone rang, and she answered it.

“Hey, Alex. Yeah, she’s here. Hang on.” She covered the microphone with her hand. “It’s Alex. He wants to talk to you, and he wants to know why you even bother to have a phone if you don’t use it.”

Jo didn’t answer. She just turned around to face the wall.

“You don’t wanna talk to him?”

Still no answer.

“Hey, Alex. She’s sleeping like a baby, don’t wanna wake her. She’ll call you when she wakes up. Yeah. Bye!” She put the phone back in her bag. “Now what the fuck was that about?”

But Jo didn’t answer. She lay in her bunk pretending to be asleep for the rest of the ride, tears falling all along.