"I'm not going to fail him."
"I know this case is a big deal for you and you're risking something by being here with me."
"It's nothing if I don't screw up. If I find all the evidence, and it's sufficient and rock solid. If a witness doesn't disappear. If no one else on our side screws up. If the jury convicts. Should I go on? If I do all that, then Moran will have his showy trial and be a United States Senator."
"And if he screws up you'll be blamed." She waved off a refill on the coffee. "So, you stayed here in Park Beach. You made a life for yourself."
"It's nice here. Florida's east coast is all about the same. Most of these little towns could all use the same postcard, just change the name. A bit prettier and quieter here, lots of trees, water and bridges."
"How's your social life? You're easy-going with females. Where did you pick that up?"
"None of your business. What about you?"
"Yes, Chip, I have a social life." A lousy one but he didn't need to know that.
"No, I meant what about your family?"
"Don't have any. Mom and Dad are gone, died in an accident on the Schuylkill Expressway. So, no family."
"But you've a brother here."
"We live on different planets."
"Doesn't he count? Isn't that why you're here?"
"I was never really his sister."
"I don't get you."
"When we were young. We talked some and I could ask him things and get homework help. And he taught me silly songs. However, when I got to the age where I might help him, he was already off to college."
"Help him, how?"
"I don't know, maybe with clothes or how girls think, stuff like that."
She was silent for a moment, staring at her coffee. Then she leaned closer. "Want to hear something weird? There's a drop of bad blood between us and we grew apart. We've never been close as adults. Even so, I'm down here risking my job to help him. I'm not even certain I like him. I get the confusing thought that I'm enjoying him being punished, even though I know he didn't do it."
"Schadenfreude."
"Yeah, I'm guilty of sibling gloating."
"You don't know for a fact your brother is innocent."
"He doesn't fit the profile, Raymond's much too soft. He's carried a clean handkerchief in his pocket for twenty years just in case some woman across the room should cry. What evidence do you have against him?"
"Forget it."
She expected him to clam up to her direct questions. However, they were talking back and forth, and she liked that. Exchanging some personal thoughts also was encouraging. They seemed to have connected instantly. She had opened up with candid feelings, and he had opened up in return. She could build on that. She was aware the connection might not be genuine. It would pay off only if he was playing fair.