Page 56 of The System

“Aren’t you?” Kieran tossed back.

“Touché,” she replied. “But I’m an overworked ADA. What’s your excuse?”

“I’m an overworked engineer,” Kieran said.

“Do you want to maybe work for another hour and meet your new sort-of-weird friend for a drink?” Carina asked, knowing that she shouldn’t.

“I would, but I can’t.”

“Too much work?”

“That, and we always end up talking about the case. I feel like that’s my whole life right now, Marin’s case, and I have to meet her new public defender tomorrow.”

“You’re not getting her a new attorney?”

“I want to. I’m going to ask her tomorrow if I can pay for someone for her. I don’t have an endless stream of money, but I might be able to afford someone and just put off buying that house I wanted to buy within the next year or two in order to pay for it.”

“You shouldn’t have to do that.”

“She’s my sister. I don’t know what else to do. Getting her out of jail for something she didn’t do is more important than me buying a house, isn’t it?”

“But what if she did do it, Kieran? What if you’re doing all of this for her, and it turns out that she’s guilty?”

“She insists that it wasn’t her. She’s still going to do the interview for Kenna. I know it’s stupid, but it feels like doing that… I don’t know. It just feels like maybe she’s doing that because she is innocent, and she wants to prove that to people.”

“Kieran, even if she is innocent, it’s still a bad idea.”

“I’m aware. I’ve told her as much. I met Kenna for lunch, and she–”

“You met Kenna Crawford for lunch? Please tell me she didn’t convince you to do her show, too.”

“No, she didn’t convince me. But if Marin is doing it no matter what I say, I could help her case if I do it, too. If I get interviewed, and people see me sticking by her side, that matters for something.”

“Kieran, how many of those shows have you watched where someone in an orange jumpsuit behind a plexiglass, holding a phone to their ear, professes their innocence to you in the audience? How many of them did you actually believe when they said they didn’t do it? Now, pretend she’s not your sister, and you’re watching this show at home. You see this woman who looks like crap because she’s in jail, and she’s telling you that her husband beat her regularly, that she tried to divorce him but he kept her from leaving, that he caused her to lose her baby, and one day, he just ends up dead. The evidence all points to her. Then, she runs. She’s gone for eight years before the cops find her. What would your honest impression of her be? With all of this evidence against her, would you even think she could be remotely innocent?”

“I need to get her out of this interview,” Kieran replied softly.

“Yes, you need to. And I know you believe her, but, Kieran, the deal I’m offering her is a good one. It would save everyone a trial and endless appeals. It would put an end to it. She’d be out in five years, if she behaves, and I told the public defender just now that I’ll lower the probation, too. Well, I can recommend – the judge accepts or declines – but I’ll recommend two years of probation instead of five. She won’t get any better anywhere else, and I already barely got that approved by my boss after he heard about the juvie record. All she has to do is keep her head down in prison, and she’ll get out.”

“But if she really didn’t do it, Carina, whether or not it can be proven, you’d be locking up an innocent woman, and the person who did kill Nick May would still be out there.”

“That’s the reality I deal with every day in my job, unfortunately. I can only go where the evidence tells me.”

“Maybe it’ll tell you that Marin was on the number twelve bus.”

“Maybe. But in the meantime, she still has a deal to consider with her new attorney.”

“Do you see what I mean, though? We keep talking about this,” Kieran noted.

“Drinks on me, and I won’t bring it up,” she replied. “I promise.”

“I wouldn’t make good company tonight, anyway. Besides, I’d hate to run into Tanley again.”

Carina laughed and said, “You won’t. I’ll take you to a bar, not my place, but also, Tinley is moving out.”

“I feel like you’ve said that before…”

“I have. But this time, she actually is,” Carina revealed.

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