Page 41 of The System

“I have, yes.”

“And?” Kieran asked.

“Do you want to see it?”

“Can I? Is that allowed?”

“It’s just video footage. Technically, it’s available to the public should anyone request it. There’s a form online. I’m sure Diego will have it soon, if he hasn’t already. I took a chance that I’d find it and reviewed it myself.”

“Can you send me the link or a file?”

“I can do one better if you want to skip the movie.”

Kieran accepted her offer, so they left the theater and their popcorn behind. Still hungry, Carina wanted to stop for something on the way home, but with Kieran following her, she decided she’d grab something there after she left instead. She knew she was taking a chance that Tinley would be home. Even though Tinley had probably finished her dinner by then, she liked to hang out in the living room, watching TV on the big screen instead of going to her room – or, rather, Carina’s guest room. When Carina pulled into the driveway, though, Tinley’s car wasn’t in its usual spot, and when she opened the garage to pull in, it also wasn’t in there. Thanking whatever force had removed Tinley from her house for the rest of the night, she motioned for Kieran to park and follow her inside.

“So, I have the whole day and night, but I have it cued up to the window of the murder. You can run it on fast-forward, so it goes faster,” she said once Kieran was seated behind her desk and was staring at Carina’s laptop. “She’s not there.”

“What if she took a different bus and just got the numbers confused?” Kieran asked, pressing play.

“She was pretty certain that this was the bus and told Dylan in her statement that this was the bus stop for sure. She said she didn’t take the one closest to the house because she was afraid that he’d find her there, so she went to this one instead, which was a few more blocks away.”

Kieran’s eyes didn’t leave the screen as she said, “He beat her.”

“I know,” Carina replied.

“And caused her to lose a baby.”

“I know,” Carina repeated.

“And you still want to prosecute her?”

“People can’t go around killing other people, Kieran; regardless of what we think is right or fair.”

“What if it was in self-defense?”

“She hasn’t told us that. She’s insisting that she was on this bus. If she tells us the truth and can demonstrate mitigating circumstances, maybe there’s a deal I can make for her.”

“What if her story is the truth, though?”

“You’re watching the video footage right now. Do you see her on it?”

“Maybe she messed up the bus stop. I’ll talk to her and–”

“Kieran, I need to stop,” Carina said then.

“Stop what?” Kieran pressed the space bar to pause the video and turned to look at her.

“I keep talking to you about this when I really shouldn’t be.”

“You said this was available to the public.”

“It is. But I mean, in general – I need to stop talking to you about this case. I’m prosecuting your sister, but I keep telling you things that I probably shouldn’t.”

“I should go, you mean?”

“That’s not what I said,” she replied. “We just maybe shouldn’t be in here reviewing this together. I am starving, though. I think I have a frozen pizza downstairs. Are you interested in sharing that with me? No case talk. I mean it this time. Just maybe a meal, and we can start a movie since we didn’t get to see the one that we paid for tonight. You don’t have to stay all the way through it if you’re tired and want to go, though.”

“I am starving. I’d only just started eating my popcorn when you got there.”

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