CHAPTER 8

K ieran hadn't ever been this nervous in her life. She'd been nervous on her wedding day, but that didn't compare. She'd also been late once and worried she'd gotten pregnant, but after taking three tests and getting her period later that night, the nervousness had gone away, and she'd moved on. This, though… This was meeting a twin sister that she never knew she had, and in county jail, of all places, because that twin sister had been arrested for murder. The arraignment would be the following morning, but because they'd transported Marin there that day, Kieran had been able to get in to see her. She signed in, with Diego doing the same, and sat in the room where they'd wait until they were permitted to go inside.

"Remember that while you're in the room, attorney-client privilege won't apply. So, you can spend some time with her, but we only get an hour, and I need to confer with my client. You'll have to step out then and wait for me out here."

"I know."

"And, Kieran, you know I won't be able to tell you anything we talk about, so don't ask, okay?"

"I was married to a lawyer for a very long time, Diego. I know how it works," she replied. "Can you wait out here? I want to meet her alone."

"Yes, but she's in jail, Kieran: anything you two talk about will be recorded."

"I know," she said as if she'd already known that, and she had, but she'd actually forgotten about that part.

"If she starts to say anything she shouldn't be saying, make sure to remind her of that, too."

"Won't that be recorded, though?"

"Yes, but at least she wouldn't say something she'd regret later."

"I highly doubt she's going to confess to a crime."

"You'd be surprised what happens when people don't realize or remember that they're being watched," Diego noted. "I had a case once where a guy embezzled millions from his company. He'd been arrested, and I was on my way. They hadn't found the money yet, just evidence that he'd taken it. His mother showed up for a visit, though, and he told her that he'd stowed it in the Caymans, and it was supposed to help her and him live out their days without having to worry about money. Nothing I could do after that. They found the account and, somehow, got the Caymans to get them access to the money. He's still in prison."

"I'll do my best to make sure she doesn't say anything stupid, but, Diego, it's the first time I'm meeting my twin sister – I don't even want to talk about the murder. I just want to talk to her."

"I understand," he replied.

"Miss Hart?" a guard called for her through the plastic window.

"Kieran," she corrected.

Diego cleared his throat. He had to know what she was doing and why by now, but to his credit, he hadn't said a word to her about it. Kieran was glad for that because she wasn't trying to hurt him any more than she already had by having to explain it to him directly. She gave him a small, somewhat forced smile and then stood and walked toward the guard.

"I thought you two were together," the guard said as he placed the visitor's badge that she'd have to wear into the tiny metal box before he pushed it through to her side.

"We came together, yes, but I'm her sister, and he's her lawyer. I'm going to meet with her first."

"Visiting time is only for an hour."

"I know. Thank you," Kieran replied and pinned the badge to her shirt.

"The door will open. Stand inside and wait for the guard. You'll be escorted to the visitor's room, where you'll be able to talk to the prisoner. No touching is allowed. And if you do, your next visit will be behind glass. Understood?"

"Understood," she replied.

There was a buzzing sound followed by a clicking sound. Both sounds should have been expected, but they still surprised her. Those two sounds had Kieran realizing that she was about to visit someone in jail for the first time. That person was her twin sister, but just the fact that she had someone to visit in prison had her heart thundering. When the door to her right opened, she turned her head toward it but made no move to walk through it.

"Go ahead," the guard told her when she didn't move.

Kieran pulled on the heavy door that had only opened partially and walked through it. There was a green circle on the dirty linoleum floor that said, ‘Wait here,' in white letters, so she stood there and waited, hearing the door close and click behind her. She was trapped now, and that had her swallowing hard.

"This way," a different guard said when he walked into the hall and motioned for her to follow.

Kieran caught up to him, and they walked, with her slightly behind him, until they reached the end of the hallway. He swiped his badge to unlock the next door with yet another click and motioned for her to go inside, looking like he'd rather be doing anything else. And, honestly, Kieran felt the same way.

"You'll be permitted to sit across from the prisoner at the table, but you may not touch them, and they may not touch you. They will be handcuffed to the table to prevent this, but you're not permitted to approach them on their side of the table at any time. When you're done with your visit, stand and walk toward the door. The guard watching the room will let you out. If, at any time, you fear that you are in danger, a guard will be stationed inside the room and will get you out safely. You are not permitted to hand or give the prisoner anything. This includes weapons of any kind, contraband of any kind, and, really, anything of any kind." The guard laughed a little at the joke he probably made ten times a day. "Do you understand the rules as I have given them to you?"

"Yes. The other guard told me the same thing," Kieran replied.

They stopped in front of a door with a small window, and the guard added, "This is county jail. We have two different types of visitor rooms. This is the table room where you don't have the plexiglass between you, but if, for any reason, we deem it necessary, we will move you to the plexiglass room, or we will rescind the prisoner's visitation privileges outside of visits with her attorney or a member of the clergy."

"I understand," she said, wishing she'd actually been able to process everything he'd just told her, but her ears were still replaying those buzzing and clicking sounds over and over again.

The guard scanned his badge at this door as well, and she heard the buzz and the click once more. He pushed open the door, and Kieran got inside a room that reminded her of the interview room she'd been in at the police station. It was gray all over, with a two-way mirror, she assumed, and had a rectangular metal table and four metal chairs. On one side of the table, there was a short bar about a foot long welded to the table where, she guessed, the handcuffs would be attached. Kieran swallowed and sat down in the chair closest to the door. Her hands were in her lap, and she nervously twisted her thumbs around and around as she waited, thinking about what she would say first and what questions she'd ask Marin.

A few minutes later, the buzz and the click came, and the door on the opposite side of her opened right after. A guard entered. Then, a woman in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit walked in, and she was placed in the chair across from Kieran. When her handcuffs were locked around the bar, the guard moved to the side of the table and stood against the wall. Kieran stared at the woman in front of her because seeing a picture was one thing, but seeing this person who looked just like her staring back at Kieran in confusion was quite another.

"I didn't believe them," Marin spoke as she examined Kieran's features the same way Kieran was examining hers. "But, shit… They weren't lying, were they? We're identical?"

"Yes," Kieran replied. "Twins."

"Well, yeah; that's what I meant," Marin said. "You don't have my scar, I guess, so we're not totally identical anymore."

Kieran looked at Marin's chin as she tilted it in her direction and noticed the thin line of a scar that looked old, but not so old that it was starting to fade.

"Where'd you get that?"

"The lamp," Marin told her and turned back to Kieran. "Of course, someone was holding that lamp and swinging it at me; the lamp didn't do it on its own."

Kieran didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing at all.

"So, what? You wanted to meet or something?" Marin asked.

"Yes. I just found out you existed."

"No one told you that you had a twin?"

"No. No one knew. Did anyone tell you what happened?"

"Not exactly," Marin replied. "I was picked up on a drug charge, but the drugs weren't mine. I don't do the hard stuff. I was just in a car with a friend of mine, and he had meth on him. They arrested me, too, and I owe the state of Florida some community service, but after that, they told me they were arresting me for Nick's murder and bringing me back here. I asked what evidence they had on me, and they told me about you and the DNA, but that's about it."

Kieran leaned forward and said, "A homeless woman found you. She had some problems, I guess, and wanted to raise you. I don't know the exact order of everything, just that you ended up with her in another town, and I ended up being discovered by someone who worked at the church."

"And I ended up in the system, and you got a family, I take it?"

"How did you–"

"You have a way about you," Marin said. "I'm good with reading people, and you seem like you were raised well." She leaned back as much as she could with the handcuffs attached to that bar. "White picket fence?"

"Not exactly," Kieran replied with those same words this time. "But my mother worked as a social worker then, and she and my father wanted kids, so they adopted me. I didn't even know I was adopted until a few years ago, but neither of them knew about you."

"Good for you, I guess," Marin said and sniffled.

"What happened with you? I know you were in foster care, but babies usually get adopted. So, I don't–"

"Oh, I have a heart condition. That's why no one wanted me," Marin interrupted. "It required three surgeries before I was one and then another two after that. I'm fine now. I mean, maybe I'm not. I don't know. I haven't seen a doc in a while. People want healthy babies, not babies that are going to cost them even more money and that they still might lose. I got all fixed up, but by then, I was already six, and the older I got, the less likely it was that someone would want me. I bounced around a lot, and it is what it is, you know?"

"I wish we would've known about you. I–"

"Where does wishing get us? I wished back then, too. I wished my mom would come and take me back home. I wished I'd get adopted and would live with a good family who loved me. But that didn't get me anywhere. All that wishing, and I still ended up here." Marin held up her hands then, making the chain from the handcuffs smack against the metal bar. "In jail, for something I didn't do."

Kieran looked over at the guard and said, "We're being recorded, too, so maybe–"

"Nah, it's fine. I'll just tell you what I told the cop that interviewed me already. I didn't murder Nick. He was a son of a bitch and a bad husband, but I didn't kill him. I was on a bus when it happened."

"A bus?"

"Look, not that you need my whole sob story, but that asshole beat me regularly. There wasn't a week that went by that he didn't smack me around for something. I tried to leave once. He found me. I…" Marin looked at the guard first and then down at the table. "I got pregnant and… well, I lost the baby because of him. So, I found a cheap divorce attorney, and Nick found out. I got tired of getting hit all the time and decided to leave. I got someone to get me some fake papers, and I left that night. I left before he got shot. I didn't even know he'd been murdered until I got where I was going a few days later and saw the news. Then, I knew I had to stay gone because they'd think I did it, and I wasn't going to jail for something I didn't do. Still ended up here anyway…"

"You were on a bus? Do you still have the ticket? That could help you–"

"No, I don't have a ticket. Come on… That was years ago. And besides, I didn't know he was going to get shot. Had I known I'd need an alibi, I would've kept the evidence. I took the ninety-two bus, though, to the main depot. Then, I caught the first express bus out of town. I didn't even care what direction it went. I just needed to get gone. I ended up in Atlanta, of all places, and took another bus south. I stayed in Florida for a few years before I left there and went to Missouri, but I hated it there, so I went back to Florida, and that's where they caught me."

"Did you pay with a credit card or–"

"What about me makes you think someone would give me a credit card? I mean, come on. No, I paid in cash, Picket Fence."

"Did you just call me Picket Fence ?"

"Yeah, it's a new nickname for you. Look, I've never even had a debit card. Nick and I lived in a one-bedroom rental house on the outskirts of the projects that he got a deal on from the guy who sold him his drugs. We barely made rent even then. I waited tables. Nick did nothing but take my money and spend it on drugs. Everything's cash in my world. I didn't even have a bus pass back then. Had to pay in coins to get away from him, okay?"

"I'm just trying to help…" Kieran offered back.

"How are you going to help me, Picket Fence?"

"Can you not call me that, please? I'm here to–"

"Ease your guilt over having a perfect life when I was the one picked up by some woman with problems, apparently, who wanted a kid of her own?"

"What? No, I…" Kieran shook her head. "You're my sister."

"Well, I can't deny that, but I've had a lot of sisters, Kieran. Probably forty or so, at least. So-called foster sisters. And there were brothers, too. I'm not sure what good they ever did for me."

"None of them were your actual sister. I'm your twin, Marin."

"You got the nice name, huh? Kieran . Did they name you after someone in the family? I got named after a county."

"Kieran was my dad's choice. He saw it in a baby book. It's not a family name or anything."

"At least, someone chose it for you. I was a Jane Doe for a while before someone named me after the county and called me Marin Smith to have something for the paperwork."

"I know this is a shock to you, but I am here to help. I brought my ex-husband, who is a defense attorney. He's waiting outside. He's agreed to take your case pro bono."

"I have a public defender."

"Trust me, Diego is better. He works for a major firm and is head of litigation there. He's good at what he does. Just, please, let me introduce you."

"Did you say ex -husband?"

"Yes."

"And he's still doing a favor for you?"

"Yes."

"Interesting," Marin said with a shoulder shrug. "But still an ex, so maybe your life hasn't been so perfect, after all."

"I'll just go get him for you so you two can talk alone, okay?"

"Sure. Whatever. I've got nothing else to do in here, anyway."

Kieran stood, and the guard opened the door for her, clearly sensing that she needed to get out of there. This wasn't at all how she'd hoped the first meeting would go. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but every time she'd rolled it over in her mind, they'd gotten along, shared bits of themselves, and she'd reassured her sister that she'd help her. This wasn't that at all.

When she hit the hallway, she let out a deep breath, trying to get herself together because she needed to tell Diego to go in and talk to Marin, and she didn't want to appear like she needed him to console or be there for her instead. When Kieran turned to walk down the hall, though, she saw Carina, the woman prosecuting her sister, standing right there.