CHAPTER 32

"W hat are you talking about?" Marin asked.

"The girl who died when you were in foster care."

"Oh, shit. I forgot all about her. You mean the one who got stabbed?"

Kieran swallowed and said, "Yes, her. What was her name?"

"I don't know. I think I met her once , maybe. She was dating that prick who says I burned him with cigarettes or something. He brought her around the house one time, but our foster parents didn't want us bringing people around. He got in trouble for it. I never saw the girl again. Why?"

"You don't remember her name?"

"No. Why are you asking me this, Kieran?"

"Do you remember having bloody clothes and putting them into a dumpster by your school around that time?"

"Bloody clothes? What?" Marin shook her head. "I've never had bloody clothes, and I couldn't even tell you where the dumpsters were at that school. Do you know how many schools I went to before I finally graduated? Five high schools, believe it or not. One foster family was cool and actually put me in a private school. That was good. I liked it there. Religious, but not overly so, and I got good food and stuff. Then, they moved or something, I don't remember, and they decided not to take me with them. It was just like that. But I'd remember if I had bloody clothes, Kieran."

"Okay. Well, that guy is saying you had bloody clothes in a trash bag, and he saw you put them in the dumpster."

"What the fuck? I don't know what he's talking about. Who the fuck is this kid, even? I haven't seen him in almost twenty years, and he's making up shit about me?"

"You're sure he's making it up?"

"Kieran, I know you don't believe me about the other things they're saying I did, but I didn't stab some girl I hardly knew."

"No, I mean, are you sure he's making it up? You never dumped a trash bag of clothes in the dumpster at that school? Maybe they had red paint on them from art class or something and he mistook them for blood?"

"I didn't take an art class. I barely graduated. I took the required stuff and left early."

"You mean, you skipped classes?"

"Sometimes, yeah. But they gave me the diploma. And yes, I'm sure he's making it up. I can't think of a single time at any of my schools where I threw something in the dumpster."

"Okay. Well, that's something, then," Kieran said. "He mentioned you were acting strangely around the time she was killed."

"Probably. It was a while ago, so I don't remember the exact order of things, but it would've been around the time of the cigarette burn shit. I didn't like him, so yeah, I tried to stay away, and that meant a lot of time in my room by myself or with the two girls I shared that room with. I guess, by that definition, I was acting strangely, but I didn't kill anyone. Jesus Christ! What the fuck is going on?"

"I'm going to talk to Frank, okay?"

"Does he know this? Where is he?"

"In his office," Kieran said. "I came here first. But he knows. I called him after lunch when I found out."

"Kieran, I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. They're transferring me to the actual prison soon, and it'll be different there. Harder. I've never done time before. I'm… scared," Marin admitted. "And if this shit keeps happening, they'll try to find some way of keeping me around for all eternity just to serve all these life sentences that keep piling up."

"Just hang in there, okay? I'll put more money into your account and talk to Frank."

"I'm okay on the money, but I could use your detective skills. Please, help me. I don't know why this is happening, but I didn't kill this girl, and they'll want to charge me with that, too. I'll never get out of here."

It had hurt hearing her sister talk like that, but Kieran understood how serious the situation was right now. With three murders being tied to her, it was true: Marin wouldn't ever get out. And if more things like this kept coming up, she'd get charged with even more.

◆◆◆

"Frank, I'm serious," she said as she sat across from him in his tiny office.

"That he made it up? So what? How do I prove that some guy made something like this up a couple of decades later?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying." Kieran sighed. "I'm not saying you need to prove that he made it up. I'm saying that he did make it up."

Frank just stared at her, dumbfounded.

"You have to ask why," she instructed. "If he made it up, why?"

"Okay… But where does that get us in court?"

"Nowhere, probably. But if he did make it up, I want to know what made him do that. Why would he get involved with Marin's case all these years later?"

"The ADA found him, or some cop did."

"Okay. So, somebody tracked him down and got a statement; let's just assume that. He talks about cigarette burns, but Marin refutes those. No one tracked him down the next time; he just found Kevin himself and gave him another statement about this girl he was dating back then, saying he found Marin dropping bloody clothes into a dumpster. She says it's not true."

"Well, he says it is . It's a he said, she said. It might not even get admitted in, anyway. I doubt they'll charge her for that murder, too. There's only his statement. No evidence."

"Exactly. You're telling me that this guy was dating a girl he liked so much that he turned down this sex he keeps saying Marin was offering; the girl gets killed, but he sees someone drop bloody clothes into a dumpster after acting strangely; and he cares so little for the girl he's dating that he says nothing to anyone? He supposedly hated Marin because she was coming onto him and burning him with cigarettes while he wanted nothing to do with her. Why wouldn't he just turn her in back then? He said they were living together, so he was scared, but if he had this evidence against her, along with the cigarette burning thing, which he did report, she would've been arrested. Then, he says they slept together. He had a girlfriend who just got killed by Marin, apparently, and now, it's a few days later, and she's asking for sex, so he just gives in to her? He resisted her for so long, but now he has sex with her? This just doesn't make sense to me."

"There's not much else I can do, Kieran. They'll try to get it admitted in or they'll just charge her. I'll argue against both."

"Okay… But if he gets put on the stand, you need to find a way to get to him. I think it's in the sex part."

"The sex part?" Frank asked.

Kieran thought back to what Carina had said earlier at the diner.

"Yeah, if he's got an ego, you attack it. If he's got a temper, you make him angry. That kind of thing. You need to find a way to catch him in a lie."

"Kieran, I know how to do my job. You may think I'm some young, idiot public defender, but–"

"I don't think that," she interrupted. "I was worried, yes, but if I still thought that, I'd be arguing for Marin to let me pay for a lawyer right now instead of sitting here with you."

He glanced at his open laptop as if checking the time, but his eyes widened.

"Shit. It's in," he said.

"What's in?"

"The video of the bus. The number twelve."

"You have it?"

"Yeah. Finally," Frank replied and turned his laptop around after clicking on a file. "This is the first file. There are several. Looks like this one is from seven to ten that night." He looked at the screen. "I've got one from ten to midnight, one from midnight to three in the morning, and one from five to seven, so that should cover us."

"Can you send them to me?" Kieran requested.

"No, this is evidence," he said. "But you can watch it with me."

She'd have to accept that offer because her own request for the footage was taking too long. Kieran scooted her chair in closer, and he pressed play on the first file, which was during the murder window.

"I'm going to go at four times the speed to make it go a little faster."

"If she's here, though, it would be toward the beginning. Maybe around eight, right?"

"Yes. But we're just looking for her to be there at any time right now to prove that she's not lying," he replied.

The grainy black-and-white image of the bus pulling up to the bus stop took over his screen. The bus stop was empty, but two people got off there. Then, the bus pulled away, and since the camera was on the bus itself, they fast-forwarded a little more as it made its route through the city. A few minutes later, Frank slowed it down to two times the speed, and it went that way for two more rounds of the bus. On the fourth time around on its thirty-minute journey, it pulled up to the bus stop where Marin said she stood waiting.

"Holy shit!"

Frank's reaction had Kieran's eyes squinting because just a little out of the frame, there were two female legs at a bus stop that hadn't seen anyone waiting yet so far. Kieran looked closer, but she could only see the damn legs and a bag. It was a duffle bag. The woman picked it up and stepped forward after someone got off the bus. Then, she got on the bus, and paid in change.

"Oh, my God," Kieran finally said and clasped her hands over her mouth as Frank paused the image. "It's her. She's telling the truth."

"I'm just as surprised as you are," he said. "I didn't expect us to find anything."

"She didn't do it."

"We can't go that far," Frank said.

"What are you talking about? She's right there during the murder window! If she stays on the bus, which we can see, she's in the clear. Can we get the footage from the bus at the main depot?"

"No, it's in a different city. They don't keep it for this long like we do here. But, Kieran, this only proves she's on the bus for about thirty minutes. They can still suggest she went home after or did it a little earlier. They can suggest that she paid someone. This doesn't get her off the hook, but it might get me another shot at a deal, or, at least, an alibi to present in court."

"She didn't do this. Look." Kieran pointed. "Press play."

"What am I looking for?" Frank asked and did as he was told.

"She doesn't look at the camera once."

"So?"

"So, I've seen where those cameras are located. They're huge. They're hard not to look at. Of the few people we've watched get on this bus, a lot of them look at them accidentally."

"So?" he repeated.

"So, Marin is focused on putting the coins in and sitting down and doesn't even look."

"Prosecution will say she was avoiding the camera."

"But why?" Kieran reasoned. "She should want to be seen if she'd just killed someone and needed an alibi. She should've asked the driver for a receipt, even if they don't do that. She should have talked to people or gone to a gas station to buy cigarettes and asked for a receipt there just to prove she was anywhere by the house when Nick got shot. That's what people would do when they pay someone to kill someone, right?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"So, you can use that to at least argue that angle."

"We'll see, Kieran. But this is good news either way. It's something I can use to show that she's been telling the truth all along."

"And look." Kieran pressed pause this time. "You can see the bruise on her head and a little blood when she takes off her hat here for a second. You can use that, too."

"Yes, I can. But now, I have to watch all this footage alone and take notes so I can talk to my client. You should go and let me get back to work."

"But what about the guy who–"

"I'll look into him, okay? See if he's got a record or something; anything I can use."

"That's it?"

"Kieran, I don't want to waste time focusing on something that might not even hurt us. I'd rather focus on this; something that can help us."

Kieran stood up, grabbed her jacket off the back of his guest chair, and said, "Okay. Well, Marin asked me to put my detective hat on, so I'm going to see what I can dig up."

"You're not a detective."

"No, but I am good with logic, and this isn't logical, Frank."

"Do not get yourself into any trouble. Do not hurt my case, Kieran. It'll only end up hurting Marin, and she doesn't deserve that."

"I won't do anything that could hurt her. She's my sister."

She left the room before he could say anything else and headed home. When she got there, she checked the time. She'd already finished work for the day before she'd visited with Marin, and Frank had been at his office late, but now, Kieran was supposed to go to Carina's place tonight and would first need to shower, change, pack for another night away, and, somehow, still find the time to look up this guy who claimed that Marin murdered his girlfriend.

When the doorbell rang, she was surprised because she wasn't expecting anything. She got up, checked the peephole before answering, and then opened the door.

"What are you doing here? I thought we were going to your place tonight," she said to Carina, who walked in.

"I'm working from home tomorrow, so I thought we could just stay here, if that's okay. Look, I packed a bag and everything. You'll probably want to verify, but I promise you that there are no pillows inside here."

Kieran laughed and took the bag from her, setting it on the floor. She closed the door behind Carina and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm glad you're here. I have good news."

"You do? Good. I could use some of that." Carina pulled her in tighter. "And some of this, too."

"Are you okay?" Kieran asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Carina forced a smile when they pulled apart.

"Well, now, you're just lying to me. What's wrong?"

"Just… good news first, okay?" Carina rubbed up and down Kieran's arms.

"Can you keep a secret from your buddy Kevin? Or are you going to get in trouble if I tell you something and you don't tell him?"

"That's a complicated question right now. So, maybe just tell me, and I'll keep it to myself."

"I found Marin," she shared.

"Found her where? Not at the county jail?"

"She's on the bus footage," Kieran replied with a smile. "She's on the number twelve bus during the murder."

"The whole window?"

"No, but some of it, and she has a big bump and cut on her head."

"That is good news," Carina said. "You've believed her every minute, even when no one else did, didn't you?" She smiled a real smile and shook her head.

"She's my twin sister. I just feel it."

"Even though it doesn't make sense and isn't practical or logical like my pillows?" Carina teased.

"I'm not sure feelings are meant to make sense. I mean, look at what I feel for you. I was straight up until I met you – or, at least, I always thought I was – and you were the attorney trying to lock up my sister, but I'm here, excited to see you at the end of the day, anyway."

"And I'm here with you, even though I shouldn't be because my career might be in ruins," Carina said.

"What?" Kieran sobered. "What are you talking about?"

"Can we sit down?" Carina requested.

Kieran's mind went blank, though, and she froze in place.