CHAPTER 26

"Y ou're going to get in trouble," Kieran noted.

"For accompanying the woman I'm dating to the county jail to visit her sister?" Carina replied. "I can't see how that would get me in trouble."

"Just the dating part could. And are we dating? We've had one date that got ruined this morning."

"How did it get ruined, exactly?"

"Well, this morning, you woke up to a phone call about how my sister is, apparently, the worst kind of person who lied to me and maybe killed two people. You took a sick day, which you've told me you never do, and on that sick day, I make you come here."

"You didn't make me do anything, Kieran. I want to be here for you. I'll wait out here or go in with you, if you want, but I should probably just stay out here because if they know I was in there when she said something she shouldn't, they might try to call me as a witness or something, now that it seems like she's going to trial." She took Kieran's hand. "And yes, we are dating; present tense. Not one date and done. Going on another one soon."

"Soon?"

"I know this is complicated because of your sister and how we met, but maybe what you need is something to look forward to at the end of every day so that you don't have to think about this all the time. I can be that for you, maybe."

"You already are," Kieran replied, turning toward her in the uncomfortable chairs. "But you've been doing that since we met. I can't explain it – and, trust me, I've tried to – but you've always felt like someone special to me, even when I didn't know that it could mean this." She squeezed Carina's hand.

"Kieran Hart," the guard behind the counter said.

"Kieran," Kieran said loudly. "Kieran is fine."

Carina smiled at her, leaned in, and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'll be right out here when you're done, okay? We can go to dinner after this, if you want."

"Yeah, okay," she said and stood. "Let's see how this goes first. I might be bad company after I'm done talking to her."

"I'm still not going anywhere," Carina replied.

Kieran leaned down then and kissed her on the lips, needing to feel hers pressed to Carina's. A cheek kiss was nice, but she was beginning to understand what having someone to kiss goodbye and hello really meant. Diego hadn't ever been a big kisser when he'd gotten home from work. He'd mostly asked about dinner and disappeared into his office. As she grabbed her badge from the guard, she realized that she'd gone days without kissing him while they were together and several times, too, over the years. She didn't want to go several days without kissing Carina.

"Hey, Picket Fence. What's up?" Marin said when Kieran was brought into the room. "My attorney with you this time?"

"No, it's just me," Kieran replied and sat down in her usual chair across from Marin.

"Okay. So, is this a sister visit, or are you still going to try to insist I get someone else? Frank seems decent to me. I mean, he's a little awkward, but he's fine. I'm the one who didn't want the deal, so don't blame him because they took it off the table."

"You know about that?"

"Yeah, they told me. I guess a guard was in court this morning, and someone else was talking about my case. He hates me, so he bragged that he heard they'd removed the deal as an option."

"Why does a guard hate you?"

"He hates everyone in here. In his mind, there's no innocent until proven guilty. We're just all guilty because we got arrested."

"Are you?" Kieran asked.

"Am I what?"

"Guilty?"

"What? No, I told you that. What's this about, Kieran?"

"Marin, were you married again after Nick May?"

"What?"

"Did you marry some guy named Cory?"

"Shit. Cory, yeah," she said. "I forgot all about Cory. Why?"

"You didn't tell me you were married twice."

"It wasn't a real marriage," Marin said. "We went to Atlantic City after three weeks of knowing each other, and we were both drunk. He was high, too. I guess I got a little contact-high from the weed, too. That stuff he smoked was strong as hell. Anyway, it wasn't legit. The guy who did it was dressed as Elvis."

"That doesn't make it illegitimate," Kieran replied. "Did you get a marriage license?"

"As part of the stupid package, probably. There were also pictures and a video we got on a CD included. I think Cory threw that thing out the window on the drive back to Florida. The shitty car he had broke down twice, and we fought a bunch. By the time we got home, I left him and moved."

"You just left him? The house you lived in?"

"We didn't live together. I was staying in someone else's apartment at the time. I was between leases and jobs for a few months, but I got one in Tampa right after we got back, so I left. Why? What's this about, Kieran? I really did forget all about that. You're saying I'm still technically married to that guy?"

"No, because Cory is dead," she answered.

"What?" Marin asked.

"Cory is dead, and he died the same way Nick did."

"Cory was shot?"

"Not just shot, but his house was burned, too."

Marin's expression changed as she figured it out.

"You think I did that?"

"Kind of hard to overlook all these coincidences , isn't it?" Kieran sighed. "And before you say anything else, you just need to remember that everything we talk about is being recorded."

"Shit, Kieran. I don't care about that. Let them record me. I didn't kill Cory. We got back to Miami, and I guess I would've moved in with him or something, but we didn't exactly plan to get married. He'd won eight hundred dollars on some scratchers and took that money to a friend's poker game, where he got another two grand from winning. He said we should go to Atlantic City to spend it all and maybe win some more because he was on a streak. I hopped in the car. Look, he was a good lay, okay? That was all I really knew about the guy. He drank and smoked, but he never hit me, and he treated me right. Maybe not as right as how your fancy attorney ex-husband treated you, but right enough for me to think I might have found a decent guy for once. I remember we gambled for two days up there, and he lost most of the money he'd won. He wanted to stay, but we didn't have enough money to pay for the cheap motel and get back home, so after we got wasted and, apparently, legally married – which I honestly didn't even realize and all but forgot about – we headed home. On the way, the car broke down, and he fixed the oil leak himself, but the second time, he had to take it to a mechanic, and we were stuck in another cheap motel. That's where he changed. He wasn't as bad as Nick, but he yelled at me for buying food from a vending machine when I was hungry because he'd paid for everything and I'd been holding out my money on him. I'd had a hundred bucks with me the whole time. That was it. And I bought him food from the stupid machine, too. That fight was fine. I mean, whatever. He was pissed about losing and about his car. We made up after that. Then, we're driving the rest of the way back, and he's still pissed about losing all his money, and I said that he shouldn't have gambled it away. He raised his hand, but he didn't hit me. He put it back in his lap, and we didn't talk the whole rest of the way. When we got back, I went to my place. I got a call the next day from a grocery store in Tampa that they'd seen that I'd applied for a job there, which I had before I met Cory. They wanted to meet with me about it, so I just packed my one bag and left. I didn't even say goodbye to him, okay? And I never saw him after that. That's the whole story."

"Well, I don't know about any of that," Kieran said. "But I do know that they have the date of your wedding from the certificate they tracked down, and Cory was killed less than a week later."

"A week later?" Marin said. "Jesus, he's been dead this whole time?"

"Yes, Marin."

"But I would've been in Tampa by then."

"Who can tell the cops they saw you there because if you're saying you didn't do this, either, you'll need a better alibi than the mythical number twelve bus."

"Fuck you, Kieran. I was on that damn bus. Or, at least, a bus. You're the one who pointed out that I had a concussion after getting smacked in the head by a board. I got the call for Tampa the day after we got back, but I had to arrange a place to stay before I left, so I didn't leave until the day after that. I took the bus, so I'm sure there's footage of me on there, if they still have it. Not that you or anyone else would look at that to prove that I'm telling the truth, but I got into Tampa that night, checked into a motel – paid cash before you ask about credit cards I've never had – and stayed there for a few days before I got the job. I moved to a different motel then that was closer to the store until I could afford a deposit and rent on a terrible apartment. That's the whole story. I didn't know Cory was dead until you just told me."

"When did you start your job?"

"I had to interview first. I don't know if they keep records of that, but…" Marin took a deep breath and appeared to be trying to remember. "I guess that was four or five days after we got back. Maybe six or something; I don't know. I got the job, but they had to do the drug and background check first. I'm surprised I even passed the drug one because he smoked weed the whole time we were in Atlantic City."

"You didn't?"

"No, I don't like the stuff. I can be around it, but when I tried smoking it a couple of times, it, I don't know, it felt like it was hurting my heart. I have that arrest for possession, but that's all it was, possession. I had it on me for someone else. I was holding. That's all. That probably doesn't make sense, but I didn't do drugs. I told you that. Anyway, I don't know when I actually started the job; maybe two weeks later."

"How long is the drive between Tampa and Miami?"

"Hell, if I know. I didn't have a car. I took the bus," Marin said that last part in a way that slowed her speech as if to tell Kieran yet again that she was on a bus somewhere. "The bus stopped a few times, so it took a while."

Kieran pulled out her phone and looked it up.

"About four hours, give or take, with the stops and traffic."

"Okay. So?"

"So, unless you were sitting across from someone doing your interview or checking into a motel at the exact time they think he was killed, they're going to say you could have driven back to Miami and killed him."

"I didn't have a car, Kieran."

"I'm sure they'll suggest you stole or borrowed one," she replied.

"I didn't," Marin insisted. "Look, after Nick, I waited around before I dated again. I didn't trust myself for the longest time because I'd always dated guys like him, or guys like Nick were into me. Then, I met Cory, who I thought was all right for a minute, but he raised a hand like he was going to hit me, and I knew it. I knew that he would eventually. He stopped himself that day, but one day, he wouldn't. Instead of sticking around to get hit again, I left the situation. I'd never really done that before, but I left. And now, you're here telling me that he got killed, and they think I did that, too? I didn't, Kieran. I'm an asshole, yes. I might have changed my name and didn't go about it the legit way, but I had no choice in that. I didn't kill Cory. I didn't kill Nick. I'm tired of having to say that over and over again. But you're not perfect, either."

"We're not talking about me, Marin," she said.

"Maybe we should be. You're the reason I lost my deal."

"What?"

"Frank told me about you and the prosecutor sleeping together. I didn't know you were into women. You had that ex-husband of yours. I guess we both have secrets, huh?"

"First of all, Carina and I were friends. We weren't sleeping together. Frank made assumptions and got Carina removed from the case when he should have said nothing at all and could've just asked me what was going on before getting her in trouble, jeopardizing her damn job. Second, I'm not in jail. I'm not the–"

"What? The evil twin? The one that got tossed into the system as a baby and has been in and out of one system or another ever since?"

"I didn't say that. But I'm not the one in jail, Marin. Third, Carina didn't cost you the deal. Neither did I. They found out about Cory, so the new ADA took the deal away. It had nothing to do with Carina or me. Maybe if you'd taken it when it was offered, you wouldn't be here without an option."

" You told me not to take it."

"At first, yes. Then, I said that you should consider it because there's clearly enough evidence to put you away here and have Miami try you, too. You'll be in one prison or another for the rest of your life now, Marin."

"I didn't do this!" Marin yelled. "I didn't do any of it! So, fuck you, and fuck Frank, and fuck Carina and everyone else."

"You're mad at everyone else, but you should be mad at yourself."

"For what?!" Marin yelled again. "For what, Kieran?! You got a chance. You got a family. I got home after home after home where foster sisters all hated me, and foster brothers tried to feel me up. I got nights without food because I had some terrible foster parents at times, and I got kicked out at eighteen. On my own. With nothing. You got college and a career, while I got loser boyfriend after loser boyfriend because you don't meet any fancy attorney husbands where I lived. You got everything! I got nothing! And you're sitting here, judging me? I'd like to see your soft ass on the streets, in cheap motels, terrible apartments, and dead-end jobs. How would you do? Better than me? Shit, you probably think so, don't you? You probably think you'd be some system success story, huh? With a scholarship to college and a great job out of that. Well, that's just you lying to yourself." Marin tried to stand, but her hands were still chained to the table. "Get me out of here," she added louder than the tiny room called for.

The guard moved over to the table and unlocked the handcuffs before locking them back once Marin was standing up.

"This is fucking bullshit, Picket Fence. You're my sister. You're supposed to believe me."

"How? When everything tells me you did it…"

"Because you know I'm telling the truth," Marin argued as she was walked out of the room. "But go home and fuck your new prosecutor girlfriend. Pretend I don't exist. I'm not your problem, anyway."