CHAPTER 9

"Y ou look like you could use a cup of coffee," Carina noted as she took in Kieran's pale face. "Do you drink coffee?"

"I mostly drink Red Bull, but yes, I drink coffee. What are you doing here?"

"It's close to five. Maybe not a coffee. If you're a Red Bull fan, I'd suggest a J?gerbomb."

"What are you doing here?" Kieran repeated.

"I'm a prosecutor. I'm here a lot. I didn't know you' d be here. I thought you would've come by earlier, when she first arrived."

"I was waiting on Diego to be free."

"You need to be escorted out, Ma'am," the guard said to Kieran.

"It's fine. She's with me," Carina told him with a nod. "I'll walk her out. Where is Diego?"

"In the lobby? Is it a lobby if it's a jail? A waiting room?"

Carina laughed a little and motioned for Kieran to follow her out. The guard moved behind them, and they started walking toward the waiting room.

"I think we can call it whatever we want. What's he doing out there?"

"I didn't want him in there with me when I first met her. And he'll be in there with her alone, too."

"Ah," Carina said as they arrived at the door.

There was that all-familiar buzz-and-click combo, and while she was used to it, Kieran seemed visibly bothered by it based on the expression that the woman's face showed. Then, the door opened a little, and Carina pushed it the rest of the way.

"Well, if you're interested, I was going to head to a bar myself. I could use a glass of red wine. I just had to talk to a man whom I plan on convicting of sexual assault, so I need a drink."

"Miss Whitlock, what are you doing here? Were you talking to my client?" Diego asked her when he saw both of them emerge.

"Counselor, your client is still in the room," the guard behind them said.

"I was not. I was here on another case and ran into Kieran here on my way out."

"Kieran, is everything okay?" Diego asked and moved beside Kieran before he began rubbing her back. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Kieran shifted, moving out of his way, and said, "I'm okay. She's ready for you now."

"How did it go?" he asked and looked over at Carina as if he expected this to be a private moment that she was intruding upon.

"We talked. We didn't have a lot of time because I want her to meet you."

"And you're telling me you just happened to be here right when Kieran was leaving the room?" he asked Carina.

"You can check the visitation records if you want, Mr.Hart. I've been on the schedule for the past three days to talk to someone I'm about to take to trial. I haven't even spoken with your client yet and wasn't planning on doing so today."

"I need to go in," Diego told Kieran then. "I'll be out as soon as I can, and we'll go home."

" We don't have a home," Kieran corrected him, which Carina found funny but didn't laugh.

"I can take you," she offered.

"Sorry?" Diego asked.

"I can take her home. I'm sure you need to talk to your client for a while. If Kieran needs a ride home, I'm heading out now."

"You don't have to," Keiran replied politely. "I don't mind waiting. I knew I would if we drove together."

"It's no trouble, really."

Kieran glanced from Carina to Diego and said, "Yeah, okay. That would be great, actually. I have some work to do."

"Kieran, I won't be long. I can–"

"It's fine," Keiran interjected. "I'll just go with Carina, and you can take your time."

Diego took her by the elbow – gently, but still – and turned Kieran toward him. Carina glared at him then. She'd sensed that Kieran was at least a little uncomfortable with her ex-husband. And she didn't know why, but she didn't like that Diego touched her when Kieran clearly didn't want him to.

"You can't talk to her about the case, okay? Don't let her try to get anything out of you on the ride home," he told Kieran.

"I don't know anything, Diego," Kieran said slowly and rolled her eyes.

"I think Kieran's perfectly capable of seeing through anything I'd try to throw at her," Carina added. "And I have no intention of talking about the case. I am done working for the day."

"Lawyers are never done working," he argued.

"Well, this one is… for today," she replied. "Kieran, ready to go?"

"Sure. Diego, text me to tell me how it went. I know you can't tell me specifics, but just how she was or if she needs anything. There's a commissary here, right? I should put money in it for her. Can I do that?"

"You can," he said. "But let me talk to her first. I'll call you later."

"Text is fine," Kieran replied.

"You can add to her account online, if you want, but you can do it here, too. There's a desk. It's on the way out, if you want me to walk you by," Carina suggested.

"Yeah, that would be great."

"I'll call you later," Diego stated.

"Okay," Kieran said, sounding like she'd just given in.

While Kieran was turning in her visitor's badge, Carina waited for her by the door that led to another hallway. Then, Kieran joined her, and they walked down and turned left without saying a word.

"How much do I put in her account?" Kieran asked when they approached the desk.

"As much or as little as you want, but maybe start with fifty dollars. That'll get her through the week and set up in her cell, at least. You don't want her to have too much. People will find out, and if they want, they'll try to get it from her, so fifty to a hundred is pretty good."

Kieran nodded, handed her card to the woman behind the counter, told her Marin's name, and asked her to put one hundred dollars on her commissary account. Carina smiled because Kieran hadn't looked like their first meeting had gone well when she'd emerged from the visitor's room, but she was still giving Marin money. That said something about the woman. Once Kieran had her card back and in her wallet, they walked down another hall to the outer door and into the parking lot.

"So, I can take you home, if you want, but I was also serious about that drink, if you're interested."

"Shit. You were going to get a drink, and I'm getting in your way. Let me just order a shared-ride car so you can go. Will they pick me up from the jail, you think?" Kieran pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket.

"I'm sure they would, but I also don't mind dropping you off first. Or, you can join me. I promise that I won't ask about the case. And if you want to talk about what just happened in there, it'll be totally off-the-record."

"You're not a reporter."

"Okay. I'll rephrase, counselor," she teased. "Nothing you say tonight will be used against you or your sister in a court of law. Better?"

"You don't even know me. Why are you being so nice to me?"

"I don't know," Carina replied honestly and shrugged a shoulder in the process. "I suppose it's because I can't imagine what you're going through right now. I also saw your face when you left that room, so I'm guessing it didn't go how you'd hoped it would. I thought you might need someone to talk to. No offense to Diego, but I didn't think you wanted that person to be him."

Kieran shook her head then and said, "No, I don't. Where'd you park?"

"Am I taking you home?" Carina checked.

"No, I could really use a drink."

Carina nodded with a smile and pointed toward her car. They walked in silence again, and the drive wasn't long. In about only ten minutes, they arrived at Jessa's bar. When they walked inside, she didn't sit at her usual booth, which was part of her ritual with Jessa. Carina wasn't here for sex tonight, just a drink, and they served her favorite wine. She sat down, and Kieran moved into the booth across from her. Carina nodded at the bartender she recognized, and the bartender held up two fingers. Carina shook her head and held up one finger. Then, she pointed to Kieran to indicate that she didn't know what she wanted to order.

"What can I get for you?" the bartender asked as she approached.

"Oh, I don't know. A beer?" Kieran said.

"Any particular kind?" the bartender asked.

"You don't want something stronger?"

"I have a low tolerance for alcohol."

"I'm driving," Carina reminded.

"I don't want to be drunk when he calls with news," Kieran replied. "Just a beer. Whatever you'd recommend is fine."

"Okay. I'll be back with your beer and your wine."

"You didn't even order," Kieran said to Carina after the bartender was gone.

"This is my local. I'm here often enough that I have a usual." Carina looked up just in time to see Jessa standing behind the bar, looking over at her.

Jessa gave the nod. Carina gave a slight shake of her head. Jessa nodded again and went back to work. That was how they worked, and Carina loved that about them.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" she asked, paying her full attention now to Keiran.

"I don't know what there is to talk about. Mostly, we discussed the case, and you and I aren't supposed to talk about that."

"What was it like, seeing her for the first time?"

"Weird," Keiran replied. "She looks just like me, but also not at all."

"You've had very different lives… I imagine that changes people."

"She never had a family," Kieran told her, shaking her head. "I had a great family, and she never had one."

"You feel guilty," Carina nodded slightly.

"Of course, I do."

"Kieran, none of this is your fault. You were an infant. Someone found her, and someone else found you. It just as easily could've been the other way around."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better ?"

"No, I guess not."

"I don't know what I thought would happen, meeting her for the first time in jail. She had handcuffs and was chained to the table. They have her in an orange jumpsuit, looking like a criminal, and–"

"She is a criminal, though."

"She says she didn't do it."

"I'm not talking about the murder," Carina replied. "She's been arrested before. Always misdemeanors, yes, but she's technically got a record, which makes her a criminal."

"She's still my sister," Kieran argued.

"And you can do everything you want to help her, but you might still have to face the fact that she'll always be in prison from now on. If I win my case, she'll never get out."

"Can we talk about something else?" Kieran requested.

"Sure. You mentioned you're a software engineer. How does that work?"

"I code things," Kieran said simply.

Carina chuckled and replied, "Yes, but I don't know what that means."

"It means that when you use an app or software for anything, someone like me built it. I'm only a few weeks in, but I work for DNAdiscovery now, so I got a free test kit, which is how you all got my DNA."

"You got it because you're adopted and wanted to know if you had any relatives out there," Carina realized.

"Yes. And it turns out, I have a sister."

"Anyone else?"

"Lots of distant cousins. That's about it. I haven't tried to contact them, and I probably won't. At least, definitely not for a while. I just thought I might find my birth mother or father, and, I guess, technically, I could now. If I have second and third cousins out there, I can meet them, ask questions, and trace it back to my birth parents, but the idea of doing that now, with everything else that's going on and with my mom feeling not so great about all of this, is just too much."

"This won't go on forever, Kieran. It will be resolved soon, and then, you can search for them, if you want."

"I don't even know if I want to meet them now. For the past six or so years, I've thought about it but never truly decided what I wanted to do. Getting my DNA tested was the first step, but I never expected that to lead to this." She looked at Carina. "Why did you want to be a prosecutor? You said something before about billable hours, but that can't be the only reason."

"It's not," she said, shaking her head. "I had offers and could've gone anywhere, but I chose the DA's office. I wanted to represent the people and put bad guys behind bars."

"Back to black and white, huh? Good guys always go free, and bad guys–"

"I'm not as na?ve as when I first started out. I'm forty years old now. I've learned that justice isn't always served equally. But I try to be the good part of the system every day and do what I can to make sure the bad guys can't do any more bad whenever I can."

"You said you needed a drink earlier," Kieran recalled.

"Yes. I had to listen to a rapist try to convince me that it was consensual sex when it was anything but consensual, and I have the evidence to prove it. This morning, I talked to the victim. She had to give her statement to me and his defense attorney. I hate making women go through this over and over again. I was meeting with him and his attorney to try to get him to plead so that she wouldn't have to take the stand, but he's insistent and wants to go to trial."

The bartender approached with their drinks, set them down, and walked off without a word.

"That's got to be tough," Kieran said.

"It's probably the hardest part of the job, but it's a job worth doing. So, I do it, and then I come to a place like this, have a glass of my favorite red, and try to decompress before I do it all again tomorrow. So, let's talk about something else over our drinks, if you don't mind."

"I understand," Kieran said.

"Diego is a big fan of yours," Carina noted, smiling at her before she picked up her wineglass.

Kieran laughed and said, "It's that obvious?"

"The hand on the back, how he looks when you correct me and tell me to call you Kieran instead of using his last name, or saying ex -husband instead of husband? Yeah, it's obvious."

"I guess he's not moving on as quickly as I would've hoped."

"But you are, and it's bothering him?"

"I haven't moved on romantically or anything; I just moved on. And I think it's really hitting him now that I'm not coming back."

"Ending a marriage is hard."

"You're divorced, too?" Kieran asked.

"No. I've had a long-term relationship, though. Three years was the longest one so far, so not exactly married for a long time, but ending anything long-term is tough. I have an ex-girlfriend still staying with me in my guest room, so I know how it is when someone doesn't move on, and you're ready to."

"Girlfriend?" Kieran asked. "Sorry, that's none of my business."

"No, it's okay. I'm a lesbian. We were together for a little over a year before we broke up, and now I can't get her to leave." Carina sipped her wine. "I gave her one more month, so we'll see if she listens this time."

"Can't you just kick her out if it's your house? Or do you own or rent it together?"

"No, it's mine, but I'm trying to exercise patience."

"You're a better person than me, then." Kieran laughed.

"Oh, I doubt that. I just watched you give a sister you just met a hundred bucks, after what was probably not the best first meeting, just so she'd be okay in jail. I'd say you're doing something right."