Page 109 of The System

“Am I suspended?”

“No, I’m not going to suspend you.” Jason paused. “Yet. I need to understand this more, find out if you’ve crossed any lines that you might not even be aware of that you’ve crossed, and I’ll get back to you on the suspension thing. But, Carina, you’re the next up.” Jason looked around the office. “This is your desk. But if you do something to get yourself suspended – or worse, disbarred – that’s it. That’s your whole career. Is that what you want?”

“We’re not just sleeping together, Jason; we’re in a relationship. I’m falling in love with her. It’s not salacious, and it didn’t start until after I was officially removed from the case. If you want me to stay away from it even unofficially, I will, but you need to talk to Kevin or get a more senior ADA to help him because he’s focusing on this stabbing and thinking about Miami, when he’s got a room full of evidence on Nick May. We can get the conviction on Nick, and she’d be locked away for good before Florida even gets their hands on her, but if he gets this stabbing admitted–”

“Yeah, I get it. I’ll talk to him,” Jason interjected. “Work from home for the rest of the week and leave Kevin alone.”

“I will,” she said.

When she left his office, she took a deep breath. At least, she wasn’t suspended or fired. Yet. She’d never been in trouble at work before. This was a new thing that she had no intention of repeating. Carina also had no intention of letting this get in the way of her relationship with Kieran.

CHAPTER 32

“What are you talking about?” Marin asked.

“The girl who died when you were in foster care.”

“Oh, shit. I forgot all about her. You mean the one who got stabbed?”

Kieran swallowed and said, “Yes, her. What was her name?”

“I don’t know. I think I met her once, maybe. She was dating that prick who says I burned him with cigarettes or something. He brought her around the house one time, but our foster parents didn’t want us bringing people around. He got in trouble for it. I never saw the girl again. Why?”

“You don’t remember her name?”

“No. Why are you asking me this, Kieran?”

“Do you remember having bloody clothes and putting them into a dumpster by your school around that time?”

“Bloody clothes? What?” Marin shook her head. “I’ve never had bloody clothes, and I couldn’t even tell you where the dumpsters were at that school. Do you know how many schools I went to before I finally graduated? Five high schools, believe it or not. One foster family was cool and actually put me in a private school. That was good. I liked it there. Religious, but not overly so, and I got good food and stuff. Then, they moved or something, I don’t remember, and they decided not to take me with them. It was just like that. But I’d remember if I had bloody clothes, Kieran.”

“Okay. Well, that guy is saying you had bloody clothes in a trash bag, and he saw you put them in the dumpster.”

“What the fuck? I don’t know what he’s talking about. Who the fuck is this kid, even? I haven’t seen him in almost twenty years, and he’s making up shit about me?”

“You’re sure he’s making it up?”

“Kieran, I know you don’t believe me about the other things they’re saying I did, but I didn’t stab some girl I hardly knew.”

“No, I mean, are you sure he’s making it up? You never dumped a trash bag of clothes in the dumpster at that school? Maybe they had red paint on them from art class or something and he mistook them for blood?”

“I didn’t take an art class. I barely graduated. I took the required stuff and left early.”

“You mean, you skipped classes?”

“Sometimes, yeah. But they gave me the diploma. And yes, I’m sure he’s making it up. I can’t think of a single time at any of my schools where I threw something in the dumpster.”

“Okay. Well, that’s something, then,” Kieran said. “He mentioned you were acting strangely around the time she was killed.”

“Probably. It was a while ago, so I don’t remember the exact order of things, but it would’ve been around the time of the cigarette burn shit. I didn’t like him, so yeah, I tried to stay away, and that meant a lot of time in my room by myself or with the two girls I shared that room with. I guess, by that definition, I was acting strangely, but I didn’t kill anyone. Jesus Christ! What the fuck is going on?”

“I’m going to talk to Frank, okay?”

“Does he know this? Where is he?”

“In his office,” Kieran said. “I came here first. But he knows. I called him after lunch when I found out.”

“Kieran, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. They’re transferring me to the actual prison soon, and it’ll be different there. Harder. I’ve never done time before. I’m… scared,” Marin admitted. “And if this shit keeps happening, they’ll try to find some way of keeping me around for all eternity just to serve all these life sentences that keep piling up.”

---