“I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know? That you’re good at your job? That you’re much better at the actual solving of crimes than Niall and most of the rest of them?”

Carrie shook her head, but she was listening despite herself.

Aifric took a breath. “You can’t let them put you in a box,” she said. “There’ll always be someone who thinks they know where we belong. And we can either take that, or we can fight back.”

“So what are you saying? That I should make some sort of complaint?”

Aifric gave a half-laugh. “Well, if you want your career to be over, then sure.” She paused. “You can’t go in all guns blazing. They’ll just batten down the hatches, and you’ll be the bitter hysteric. Even if you get a settlement, which is never guaranteed, you’ll be pretty much finished.”

“I don’t want a bloody settlement. I just want to do my job.”

Aifric stretched a hand across the table and took Carrie’s, squeezing it gently. “Then you have to be smart,” she said. “Play the game, play along, and keep doing a better job than all of them. Eventually, you’ll win. You just have to be patient.”

Carrie stared back at her sister. “What if I can’t do that?”

“You can, Carrie. Because you have no other choice.”

But in that moment, Carrie didn’t feel like she was capable of anything. The thought of going back to the station, facing them all, was enough for her. She didn’t have the energy to argue. She nodded and looked down at the remains of her toast.

Aifric stood up. “I have to go to work,” she said.

“What’s going to happen with the Collins case?” Carrie asked.

“I’m doing my best with it. And it’s still early days, you know? We have time.” She had that look about her. The one she wore when they were children and she was trying to pretend that everything was all right.

“What about an investigator?”

“There’s no money for one,” Aifric said. “We’ll just have to work with what we have.”

“But you said you think he’s innocent.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I’ll give him the best defense I can. Sometimes you just have to accept that not everything is in your control, Carrie. I’ll try, but . . .” Aifric shrugged. She was trying to act like she didn’t care, but for once Carrie could read her like a book. “It’s complicated.”

Chapter Fourteen

Aifric

“Tell me more about Laura,” Aifric said. She was back in the interview room in Mountjoy Prison, Robert Collins sitting opposite her.

“What do you want to know?”

“As much as you’re comfortable telling me. The big things, the little things. What you liked about her, anything you might have disliked.”

Robert sighed. “She was pretty, you know? She had blond hair, down past her shoulders. Blue eyes. She had a birthmark on her shoulder. She liked to say it was in the shape of a dolphin, but it was more of a splotch, really.” He smiled at some remembered conversation.