Page 58 of The System

Kieran was beginning to hate these near-daily treks to the county jail, but she had no choice. She couldn’t exactly just call Marin, and Marin had yet to use her phone time to call her. Maybe Kieran should read something into that, but she was determined to help her twin sister, even though said sister didn’t seem to want to help herself.

Today, Marin was supposed to be meeting with her new public defender, and she’d, apparently, said that it was okay for Kieran to be in the meeting with her. Since her attorney would be there, it wasn’t going to be recorded by the county, but Kieran had still double-checked with the public defender to verify that this wouldn’t cause problems with privilege later. He’d told her that as long as she didn’t say anything that could hurt her, it should be fine, and if he saw it going that way, he’d tell Kieran to leave.

She’d also wanted to check with Diego on this, but he had asked her for one thing, and that was the space to move on and to leave this case as a result of that ask, so she’d leave him alone. What was strange to her, though, was that Diego wasn’t the first attorney she’d thought of texting. Carina Whitlock, the woman prosecuting her sister and who should have no vested interest in supplying Kieran with sound legal advice, was the first attorney on her mind, and that had been the case for at least the past several days and maybe even longer than that.

Trusting this woman was probably a mistake in the long run. That would be especially true if they went to trial since now, Carina would only be squaring off with some kid from the PD’s office and not her more-than-talented ex-husband, who had a great win record and the support of a major law firm. Still, Kieran just couldn’t stop herself from giving Carina that trust, and while that should concern her, it really didn’t.

Carina was just… Carina. She was so smart and kept up with Kieran in a way that even Diego hadn’t been able to. Being an engineer to non-engineers sometimes meant people just thought you typed a lot of zeros and ones into a computer, but really, it was a lot of logic, process, and understanding how things connected together. Working with a brand-new product manager was always challenging because they often didn’t come out of college or from another non-product role with that understanding. They built mock-ups of how they wanted the product to look and behave, but the engineers were really the ones behind the scenes, telling them if it could work a certain way or not, if it would take forever to build, or if the product wasn’t even meant to work like that. Logic was the core of most arguments – or, at least, Kieran thought it should be – so bantering back and forth with Carina was actually fun.

Bantering with Diego hadn’t been as much fun for her. That was mainly because they hadn’t done it all that often. Diego had hardly been home during their marriage, and on the few vacations they’d taken, he’d still worked through most of them. He’d be on the plane reviewing briefs or case notes, telling Kieran that he was doing it now so that when they arrived, he wouldn’t have to work, but then, he’d work during their trip as well and would only be available for one to maybe two meals with her a day, and, of course, sex.

Carina wasn’t just someone Kieran liked to argue or banter with, though. Had they met under different circumstances, Kieran was sure she would’ve accepted that ask for drinks. Carina was kind and funny and seemed to genuinely care about her. Why else would she help Kieran when it could clearly hurt her in the future? Kieran wanted to hang out with her more. God help her, she wanted to invite Carina over to her new, very nice apartment and watch a movie with her as the two of them ate popcorn with extra butter like they’d sort of done at Carina’s place while they’d laughed a little and talked about the movie, the actors, and everything that was inconsequential. It had been a reprieve from the reality of her life right now, where her recently discovered twin sister was sitting behind bars for a crime she may or may not have committed, and when Kieran had left that night, she’d thought about asking Carina to do that again. She hadn’t, though, because Carina would be sitting on the other side of the aisle whenever Marin’s trial started, and if they were going to be friends after that, they might need to wait until it was over to try.

“So, I’m Frank Richard.”

“Two first names?” she asked the public defender as she shook his hand.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said, being taken aback.

Carina wouldn’t have been taken aback. She would’ve said something equally meant to throw Kieran off her feet upon their first meeting. This wasn’t going to be that, and Kieran could tell just from his appearance. Frank Richard was a lanky guy. He looked to be about 6’6” and weighed less than she did at her 5’6”. His short brown hair had too much product in it, as if it would fly away if he didn’t hold it down, and his brown eyes looked way too kind to be in this type of work. He might be the idealistic young attorney who got burned out in a few years on this job as a result. His suit was probably from one of those buy-one-get-one-free stores, which was really just a good deal the way Kieran saw it, but it clearly didn’t fit him well because of his slender frame. If this guy was going for a ‘poor attorney who could use all the help he could get’ look, he would’ve achieved level seven and would’ve received coins, gold, and a new suit as a result had this been one of her video games.

“She’s ready for us,” Frank added. “You two really do look alike.”

“We’re identical twins, so…”

“Right. I’ve only seen pictures, so it’s just, in person, you have the same… like, everything.”

“Sort of, yeah. Her hair is different than mine.”

“Right. She’s also much thinner.”

Kieran lifted an eyebrow at him.

“Because she’s been on the run and eating jail food; that’s all I mean. No offense or anything, obviously.”

“No offense taken,” she said.

Frank handed her a visitor’s badge, which she pinned to her shirt in a now-practiced ritual, and then, the door buzzed and clicked to let them in. Kieran wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing that those sounds no longer fazed her. They followed the guard down the hall until he let them into the visitor’s room, where Marin was waiting, and closed the door behind them.

“This him?” Marin asked.

“Yes. This is Frank Richard. He’s your new public defender. But, Marin, I can get you an attorney. I can pay.” Kieran turned to Frank. “No offense.”

“I am an attorney, but none taken, I guess,” he replied as he sat down across from Marin and pulled out files.

“I don’t want you spending any more money on this,” Marin said. “I know you’re probably loaded, Picket Fence, but save your money for all those rug rats you probably want to have.”

“I don’t want kids,” Kieran replied. “And I’m not loaded, but I can help.”

“We should get to it. I only have an hour before I have to go for a meeting,” Frank said.

“He wants to keep his job,” Marin said to Kieran. “Do you get bonuses for winning?” she asked him.

“What? No, Ma’am. We’re not like corporate attorneys who take a percentage of their wins. We’re here to provide you with representation. Now, I’d like to review the entire case, but we don’t have much time today because I need to be in court this afternoon, and there’s a ticking clock on this deal.”

“The deal I already turned down,” Marin told him.

“Marin, you should at least hear him out.”

---