Page 111 of The System

She’d have to accept that offer because her own request for the footage was taking too long. Kieran scooted her chair in closer, and he pressed play on the first file, which was during the murder window.

“I’m going to go at four times the speed to make it go a little faster.”

“If she’s here, though, it would be toward the beginning. Maybe around eight, right?”

“Yes. But we’re just looking for her to be there at any time right now to prove that she’s not lying,” he replied.

The grainy black-and-white image of the bus pulling up to the bus stop took over his screen. The bus stop was empty, but two people got off there. Then, the bus pulled away, and since the camera was on the bus itself, they fast-forwarded a little more as it made its route through the city. A few minutes later, Frank slowed it down to two times the speed, and it went that way for two more rounds of the bus. On the fourth time around on its thirty-minute journey, it pulled up to the bus stop where Marin said she stood waiting.

“Holy shit!”

Frank’s reaction had Kieran’s eyes squinting because just a little out of the frame, there were two female legs at a bus stop that hadn’t seen anyone waiting yet so far. Kieran looked closer, but she could only see the damn legs and a bag. It was a duffle bag. The woman picked it up and stepped forward after someone got off the bus. Then, she got on the bus, and paid in change.

“Oh, my God,” Kieran finally said and clasped her hands over her mouth as Frank paused the image. “It’s her. She’s telling the truth.”

“I’m just as surprised as you are,” he said. “I didn’t expect us to find anything.”

“She didn’t do it.”

“We can’t go that far,” Frank said.

“What are you talking about? She’s right there during the murder window! If she stays on the bus, which we can see, she’s in the clear. Can we get the footage from the bus at the main depot?”

“No, it’s in a different city. They don’t keep it for this long like we do here. But, Kieran, this only proves she’s on the bus for about thirty minutes. They can still suggest she went home after or did it a little earlier. They can suggest that she paid someone. This doesn’t get her off the hook, but it might get me another shot at a deal, or, at least, an alibi to present in court.”

“She didn’t do this. Look.” Kieran pointed. “Press play.”

“What am I looking for?” Frank asked and did as he was told.

“She doesn’t look at the camera once.”

“So?”

“So, I’ve seen where those cameras are located. They’re huge. They’re hard not to look at. Of the few people we’ve watched get on this bus, a lot of them look at them accidentally.”

“So?” he repeated.

“So, Marin is focused on putting the coins in and sitting down and doesn’t even look.”

“Prosecution will say she was avoiding the camera.”

“But why?” Kieran reasoned. “She should want to be seen if she’d just killed someone and needed an alibi. She should’ve asked the driver for a receipt, even if they don’t do that. She should have talked to people or gone to a gas station to buy cigarettes and asked for a receipt there just to prove she was anywhere by the house when Nick got shot. That’s what people would do when they pay someone to kill someone, right?”

“Sometimes, yes.”

“So, you can use that to at least argue that angle.”

“We’ll see, Kieran. But this is good news either way. It’s something I can use to show that she’s been telling the truth all along.”

“And look.” Kieran pressed pause this time. “You can see the bruise on her head and a little blood when she takes off her hat here for a second. You can use that, too.”

“Yes, I can. But now, I have to watch all this footage alone and take notes so I can talk to my client. You should go and let me get back to work.”

“But what about the guy who–”

“I’ll look into him, okay? See if he’s got a record or something; anything I can use.”

“That’s it?”

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