Page 47 of The System

“Not that I’ve found. Mostly, she just bounced around like a lot of foster kids do, unfortunately. Of course, there could be another expunged record out there that I don’t know about, but I thought you should have it. Want me to track down the foster parents or the brother to see what happened? I’m sure there’s more to the story than this.”

“It won’t matter if I can’t get it admitted, and I’m not sure it helps my case at all.” Carina closed the folder and set it down next to the other one Dylan had brought her. “She killed Nick because Nick was abusing her, and she couldn’t get away because he’d found her the previous times she’d tried to leave. That’s the story I need to be able to tell.”

“Getting the jury to see that she’s reacted with violence before doesn’t help demonstrate that?”

“If she’d shot this foster brother or smacked him in the head with a board after he’d done something to her – maybe,” she said. “I’ll hang on to this and see if I can get it admitted anyway, though. If so, I might have you do a little more leg work.”

“You know she has a heart condition?” Dylan asked.

“She has–” Carina leaned forward. “No, I didn’t know that. What is it?”

“It’s in the file, the medical term for it. She had a bunch of surgeries when she was a little kid. She takes pills now, but other than that, she’s okay, I guess.”

“She has a heart condition, and she smokes?” Carina asked herself more than Dylan.

“Risk-taker all around, I guess,” Dylan replied and ran her hand through her short hair that was starting to go gray a little at the temples.

Somehow, it made her look even sexier, and not for the first time, Carina thought that Ada was a very lucky woman.

“Anyway,” Dylan added. “She seems fine now, but it’s one of the reasons she wasn’t ever adopted.”

“Do you think… I mean… Is it genetic?”

“Genetic? I don’t know. You’d have to ask a doctor. I can barely pronounce it.” Dylan laughed a little. “Why?”

“Does Kieran have it?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t spent that much time with her, but it hasn’t come up.”

“I have,” Carina admitted.

“You’ve spent that much time with her?” Dylan asked, confused.

“We’ve had drinks and talked at the jail a couple of times. I also ran into her at the arraignment. Well, at the diner across the street, anyway. We technically bumped into each other at the movies as well, and I took her home.”

“You what?!” Dylan said loudly. “You slept with Kieran Hart?”

“What?! No. That didn’t come out right. I meant that I brought her back to my place.”

“And that’s you saying it the right way?”

“I showed her a video, and we ate pizza and watched half a movie. That’s all.”

“Hold on. Video? Movie?”

“Video of the bus footage. Then, an actual movie since we both missed the one at the theater.”

“Okay. I’m very confused,” Dylan said. “You showed her the bus footage?”

“It’s public record. Diego would have shown it to her anyway. She was insistent that Marin was there, and I think Marin is lying to her. Kieran found out that she has a twin, and I think she thought she’d find a sister when they met, but Marin is angry and locked up, and it’s not been going well for Kieran. I just want her to know the truth.”

“So, you invited her to your house instead of just emailing her the file?”

“Yes. And I know it’s a bad idea.”

“It’s a weird idea,” Dylan replied. “You’re watching a movie with the sister of the woman you’re trying to lock up for life.”

“Hey, I offered her ten years. I’m not heartless,” she defended. “And nothing’s happened with Kieran. We might be becoming strange friends.”

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