Page 32 of The System

“It would have, but we had two judges on vacation and then a holiday, so the court’s a little behind.”

“Can I go?”

“To her arraignment? Of course,” Dylan replied. “It’s open court. It could be a long morning, though. The judge sees every case in order. Some take thirty seconds, while others might take a few minutes, and they are behind as is, so maybe bring lunch. Isn’t your ex-husband representing her? He can’t tell you this?”

“He told me a few things that he was able to this morning about the evidence you all have, but it’s just the stuff I’d be able to hear about on the news when it breaks, according to him,” she replied. “Then, he asked if he could stay with me during the days and nights that he’s here for the case so that he doesn’t have to commute back and forth, and I said no. He wanted me to put a guest bed in my office for him.” Kieran shook her head. “After I said no to that, he said he could sleep on the couch, but his back isn’t great. He plays golf nearly every Sunday without a problem.”

Dylan laughed and said, “He’s one of those, huh?”

“He just hasn’t given up yet, but we’ve grown apart, and I don’t love him like that anymore. Still, he’s doing this amazing thing for Marin, and I need to make sure he keeps on doing that. He really is a good attorney. When there are cases that they think they’ll lose at his firm, they put Diego on them, and he somehow wins or gets a great deal for his client.”

“Carina is good, too.” Dylan gave a stiff nod. “She’s going to be the DA soon. No chance that the other guy wins.” She shook her head a few times. “She has the highest win rate of any ADA, and I’m pretty sure she’s never lost a murder-one case.”

“Never?” Kieran asked, swallowing.

“Not that I know of. This isn’t exactly a big city with a ton of murder cases, but there have been at least ten or so that I can think of since she’s been around, and she’s won all of those.”

“I can tell she likes to argue,” Kieran said with a smile. “She argued with me about my drink last night.”

“Drink?” Dylan asked curiously.

“We went to a bar after I met Marin for the first time, and she was kind enough to buy me a drink. I ordered whatever beer they gave me first, but when I went to order something else and chose a margarita, she said I sounded like a tourist and proceeded to try to convince me to get a martini instead.”

Dylan laughed and said, “Sounds like Carina. What bar did you go to?”

“Some place on Fifth Street. I didn’t catch the name.”

“Jessa’s bar. It’s Carina’s… favorite,” Dylan said.

“She mentioned that.”

“I hope you ordered yourself a car if you had a beer and a martini.”

“Carina took me home. And how do you know I went with the martini instead?”

“I told you that Carina was good,” Dylan replied with a wink.

CHAPTER 11

Carina walked into the diner across from the courthouse, noting ten police officers and at least four detectives all sipping coffee and enjoying their lunch. Among them were a couple of public defenders whom she recognized and nodded at on her way to the counter. Sitting down, she put her bag on the empty seat next to her and exhaled deeply. She’d finally gotten out of the courthouse at the lunch break and was starving. She was in one trial, had two hearings for another, and after all that, she’d gone to handle the arraignment of Marin May, but the judge had broken for lunch without having gotten to Marin yet. Carina understood that even judges needed a vacation, and the holiday hadn’t helped, but now, she needed to eat something fast and get back in there. Her afternoon meetings would all have to be pushed back, which meant she’d be in her office until six or seven, at least.

Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Tinley, who still hadn’t applied at a gym and also hadn’t given Carina three hundred dollars to barely cover the very expensive groceries she bought because Tinley was a healthy eater and healthy food was more expensive than the terrible stuff because the world just wasn’t fair.

“Hi.”

Carina looked up from the menu she’d just reviewed, despite not needing to because she had it memorized, and saw Kieran standing there.

“Oh, hey. What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been waiting around for her to be arraigned all morning. I saw you walk into the courtroom. I waved, but you didn’t see me. You left before I could say anything. I didn’t know you were here, though. I just came over for lunch.”

“Where’s Diego?”

“At the courthouse. He borrowed a conference room to take a client call. I told him I’d bring him something back.”

“Well, if you want to eat with me, you can. I was just about to order.”

“That would be great,” Kieran replied and sat on the stool on the other side of Carina. “What’s good here?”

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