Page 45 of The System

“What do you mean? I don’t have the whole story yet?”

“He hit her with that board.”

“The board they’re saying is evidence because someone hit him with it?”

“That’s what she just told me. He hit her with it, and she passed out. I think she got a concussion. You need to hear it all from her.”

“Did she bleed?”

“She said so.”

“They only found his blood on it, though.”

“Maybe she didn’t bleed on the board, but on the floor or somewhere else, and the place burned down, so they didn’t find it.”

“Shit. If she didn’t do this, whoever did is smart to get rid of the evidence like that.”

“I know. It’s a bad situation all around. But she says she might not have been on the ninety-two bus now, and maybe it was the twelve. Can you request that footage?”

“Yeah, I can. I still can’t believe you went over to the prosecutor’s house and saw the other video before I did. What were you thinking, Kieran? She’s prosecuting your sister.”

“We’re… sort of… maybe becoming friends, I think. It’s complicated, but she said it wasn’t unethical.”

“It’s on the border, though, isn’t it? Like, right up to that line, with her toe hanging over it. She needs to be careful. So do you.”

“If you don’t bring up my DNA or me being a possible suspect in the trial, I won’t need to be called as a witness, and there’s not really a big conflict.”

“Well, there’s our problem because I can’t find any other possible suspect. Yes, Nick dealt drugs and had some bad friends, but my investigators can’t find a motive as to why any of them would want him dead. The opposite, actually, because he made them all money or had connections.”

“Would you really accuse me of a murder you know I didn’t commit?”

“First of all, I wouldn’t want to, but you could provide reasonable doubt. Carina wouldn’t charge you. Friends or not, she knows she wouldn’t win that case.”

“Are you that sure about that? If she does charge me, Diego, I’d be arrested. They’d put me in jail.” Kieran motioned with her open hand. “They’d put me here. You’d represent me, I hope, but, God, I’d be here, and they might not give me bail, just like they didn’t with Marin, and I’d be here for months or years only to have to sit through a trial to defend myself on some crazy charge.”

“There might not even be a trial, Kieran. So, just calm down for a second.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m here to tell Marin about a plea deal.”

“A what?”

“The DA’s office is willing to offer her voluntary manslaughter and drop all the other charges. She’d do ten years.”

“Other charges?”

“Kieran, she’s also charged with fraud for the papers and–” He stopped. “It doesn’t matter. I need to talk to her about this.”

“Ten years?”

“Yes, ten years. She could be out in five with good behavior. Then, she’d get paroled and do five years of probation where she couldn’t leave the state, but after that, she’d be free. If she doesn’t take this, though, and we go to trial, she’s looking at life without the possibility of parole, and the fraud charges would remain. They’d come with an additional sentence, meaning, even if, somehow, we got the murder charge overturned on appeal, which is next to impossible, she’d still have to serve time on those charges. That time would be served consecutively, not concurrently for each charge, so she’d be looking easily at another fifteen to twenty years, depending on the sentence. This is not only the best deal I can get her; this is the best deal anyone could get her.”

“But she didn’t do it…”

“She says she didn’t do it, Kieran. Right now, I have nothing to show for that. If there had been bus footage, we’d be having a very different conversation. I would have already been in front of a judge, telling them to release her and drop all charges.”

“What if you can find her on the video for the other bus?”

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