Proven Guilty (Treadmill III)

V

I love making plans.

Always have. Ever since I was a little kid. I would make plans on how Jeremy and I could sneak the most snacks up to our rooms in the least number of trips. Without our parents noticing a thing.

'Plans.' Sounds like I'm talking about going out with friends. But that wasn't usually at the forefront of my mind.

When I came up with my initial plan to scare Hank Wilcox into leaving me alone—RIP to that plan—it had reignited the spark that plotting and scheming lit inside of me. I wasn't bored anymore. My mind was never devoid of a challenge. Even when I was all alone, with only my thoughts, every ounce of my energy was put into perfecting the plan, thinking everything through for the forty-seventh time, and eliminating different ways it could go awry.

That plan had failed in an almost-epic way. It would have been much better if I hadn't been caught.

Same goes for my next plan. My plan to get Rebecca, Lydia, and myself removed from any suspicions regarding Jaxson Karl's death, my plan of cleaning up the mess my stepmother had made for herself, my plan of ensuring no one would ever be the wiser to what she had done.

If we're speaking strictly in terms of succeeding in that last point, my plan worked. But if we're speaking in broad terms, of having all three of us get away without a scratch, then that plan had failed as well.

But what's that saying?

Third time's the charm?

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"They let you in alone?"

Kennedy didn't think it was regular prison guard etiquette to allow a co-defendant to visit a prisoner by themselves, but she could be wrong. She had been wrong before. Or perhaps the guards didn't really care. It was Christmas, after all.

Rebecca shook her head, her eyes flickering down to Kennedy's cuffed wrists. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen them before.

"Brianne's just talking to one of the custodians. I think they know each other from law school or something. They were really friendly."

"That was my wife, actually." Brianne sat down next to Rebecca, "She just started volunteering here." She turned to face Kennedy, "Do not speak to her unless you don't want me as a lawyer anymore."

Kennedy nodded, keeping her mouth shut.

"She's pretty." Rebecca offered a weak response to fill the tension in the air.

"I know." Brianne replied. She put both elbows on the table and leaned in closer to Kennedy, "Are you ready to talk logistics?"

Kennedy nodded again. She remained silent.

"I'm doing my best to get the trial date moved up, but this isn't going to be like the first time around. You had the quickest turnaround between being arrested and the trial starting that I think I've ever seen, but after everything that happened with ADA Karl's conflict of interest and the other issues that cropped up, the state is going to take their time. They're not in a rush."

"What does 'not in a rush' mean, exactly?" Kennedy asked, "Are we looking at a few weeks? A month? Two months?"

"Six at the least." Brianne stated matter-of-factly, as if the less emotion she showed in her tone, the less angry Kennedy would be with her answer.