Page 118 of The System

It had gone on like that, with Kieran asking a question every so often, until Carina had mentioned wanting to get some sleep. Sleep hadn’t come right away, though, because when Carina had started to change into her sleep clothes, Kieran had been caught staring. That, it seemed, was all it took for them. Kieran’s eyes on Carina’s body. Carina reaching for her. Kieran coming undone in only a few minutes because Carina’s touch just did things to her.

When they finally went to bed after midnight, Kieran had fallen asleep, too, but she’d woken up not long after, unable to shake something she couldn’t explain to herself, let alone Carina, so she’d gotten out of bed and put on some clothes quietly before disappearing into her office. She pulled up the first video file and sat there with music playing in her headphones over the soundless footage. She watched it all at two times the speed, which was still pretty slow given how boring the video was, but she wanted to make sure she wouldn’t miss anything leading up to or after she got to the part where she’d see her sister for the first time.

As expected, Marin arrived with her bag and got on the bus. The timing checked out that she got off at the main depot, but Kieran could also see parts of a major bus station outside the bus, where it stopped and Marin got off. That was the last she saw of her sister. She hadn’t gone through the rest of the files frame by frame, so she decided to do that but move the video along a little faster. Finding that to be even more boring than she thought, she pulled up her email on her other monitor and saw something there from Frank that she’d missed. It had come in around dinnertime, and she’d been a little preoccupied after that. Kieran clicked on the email and found a file attached. Opening it, she returned to the message. Frank had sent her what he’d found on the guy who said Marin killed his girlfriend.

His name was Theodore Samuel, but he went by Theo, according to the statement he’d signed with his nickname. Theo was her age. He had short blonde hair that she could see because his driver’s license picture was attached to the email. On it, he looked like he was trying to appear like he didn’t care, but he clearly did, judging by the ridiculous amount of product he’d put in his hair for a photo that most people just expected to be bad. Aside from the photo that had opened automatically in the email, Frank had attached a summary of Theo’s record that he’d obviously typed up himself, probably not wanting to send Kieran someone’s actual record since she had no right to it, and it could get him in trouble. According to that, though, the guy had a few speeding tickets, several parking tickets, and a loitering charge that came with a fine but nothing else.

At the bottom of the email, Frank also mentioned that Marin had signed off on him sending this to Kieran to use her detective skills and help. It made Kieran smile, but she had to drop that smile and get back to work on the footage. She continued to review it, but there was something about Theo’s photo that had her eyes drifting back to it over and over again.

“Shit,” she said and returned to the first video file, the one that covered the murder window.

She fast-forwarded through the first hour until she saw Marin. Then, she watched her sister get dropped off at the depot. For the first time, though, Kieran paid real attention to the same bus stop where Marin had been picked up. She’d watched it before, but too fast, and now, she paid attention to the number twelve bus arriving back at that stop. In the corner of the screen, Kieran saw a man approaching the bus stop. He walked through the frame along the sidewalk as the bus door opened, and she hit pause.

“Shit,” she said again.

She’d been right. It was him. While the footage was black-and-white and a little grainy, it was clear as day that Theodore Samuel was at the bus stop that night, and he looked disheveled. His T-shirt looked wrinkled. His pants appeared to have a tear in them at the knee, and there was something on them, too. She zoomed in on her computer, but that only made the image grainier, preventing her from seeing anything in real detail. From what Kieran could see, though, there were dark spots on his jeans around his knees and below. His shoes were dark, so she couldn’t see if there was anything on them.

Kieran zoomed back out, her heart racing now, and pressed play. When Theo disappeared from the screen, she fast-forwarded again. The number twelve bus came back around to the stop, but he was long gone. Kieran found the old footage she had of the ninety-two bus, thinking that Marin mentioned that bus first and said the stop was closer to Nick’s house. Pulling it up, she bit her lower lip and held on to it. She pressed play and watched. Leaving it at two times the speed meant Kieran had to watch a lot of people get on and off a bus for it being after eight o’clock. She’d taken buses before, although not all that often, and she supposed she expected them to be more for people going to and from work during the week, but she checked herself immediately because not everyone worked a standard nine-to-five Monday through Friday.

It took about thirty minutes before she had to press her space bar to pause the video. She watched, rubbed her eyes, and then replayed the section again.

“Asshole,” she said to herself and shook her head.

She pulled off her headphones because she couldn’t believe it. She’d been right, and for some reason, knowing that required her to stop the music she’d been playing.

“Are you in here watching porn?”

Startled, Kieran jumped and yelled, “Motherfucker!”

Carina laughed and said, “So, black-and-white porn? Interesting kink.”

Kieran’s heart had already been racing, but now, it was beating wildly, so she leaned back in her chair, placing her hand over her chest as if that would help calm it down.

“Sorry, I scared you,” Carina said as she walked over, leaned down, and kissed Kieran on the cheek. “Are you watching the footage again?” She moved behind Kieran and wrapped her arms around her, leaning down to place her chin on the top of Kieran’s head.

“Did I wake you?”

“I rolled over, and you weren’t there. I came looking for you.” She kissed Kieran’s head before putting her chin back down. “You couldn’t watch this in the daytime, after hours of sleep?”

“I found something,” Kieran shared.

“Yeah? What?”

“Theo Samuel.”

“You found Theo Samuel’s statement? I didn’t send that to you. Did Frank?”

“No, I mean, I found him.” She pointed to the screen and Theo, frozen in time. “Frank sent me his DMV photo, so I know what he looks like now. I’ve got a summary of his record, too, but I haven’t spent much effort on that because he’s in the bus footage, Carina.”

“He is?” Carina stood up and moved to Kieran’s side. “What the hell?”

“It gets better,” Kieran told her. “This is the ninety-two bus footage.” She pointed to the monitor. “He’s there first. I think he went there looking for Marin, and when he didn’t find her there, he moved to the twelve bus stop.”

“You have him there, too?”

“Yes,” she said, pulling up that footage. “Look.” She zoomed in again. “Not clear here, and I doubt they can do much with the footage because it’s so old, but look.” Kieran pointed. “It might be supposition to you, but those are dark spots on his jeans.”

“You think they’re blood?” Carina looked at her.

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