Olivia sat beside her. The women had different professions and experiences, but both knew what it meant to be offered a choice carefully structured to feel like no choice at all. Olivia explained what she could about Tasha's right to consult independent counsel, careful not to act formally as her lawyer while facing charges herself. She also promised that if she reached the outside, she would remember Tasha's name and ask that her case receive the same scrutiny.
Tasha looked skeptical. "People make promises in here all the time."
"I know," Olivia said. "Then don't trust the promise. Remember whether I do the work."
Later that night, after another count, Olivia lay awake thinking about the day Thomas had given her his watch. She had just passed the bar examination and was standing in their kitchen with the letter still folded in her hand. Thomas had pressed the watch into her palm, joking that good lawyers needed one instrument they could trust even when every courtroom clock disagreed. On the back, he had engraved two words: Keep time.
Years after his death, Olivia took the watch to a specialist for repair. During that work she arranged to preserve a small duplicate of her investigative notes within a protected part of its band, an extraordinary precaution inspired by the experience of watching documents vanish from public records. The memory copy was not her only backup, and she never imagined it would replace a legitimate chain of custody. Its purpose was simple: if her home or office were searched, someone she trusted might still learn where the original files could be obtained.
She had told Maya to request the watch and had left instructions among their father's possessions explaining the records associated with it. Now she wondered whether the property clerk had noticed anything unusual, whether Reed would remember the watch once he realized the rest of her devices were decoys, and whether Olivia had underestimated how quickly he could identify her safeguards. The thoughts came in circles until she recognized the familiar trap of trying to solve problems she could not reach from her bunk.
On Saturday morning, Price visited with an inventory sheet and a small packet of case documents. He confirmed that the watch was still recorded in property storage and that its custody record showed no transfer to the police evidence unit. Olivia exhaled so gently he almost missed it. He also told her that Maya had found old records connected to Thomas's investigation, and that outside counsel was taking steps to preserve them.
"She says you should check Dad's fishing spot," Price added, repeating the words as though he were uncertain whether they were supposed to mean something. "I told her the message came from you. She said she understood."
Olivia smiled for the first time since Tuesday. "Good."
He lowered his voice. "There's also something I need to ask you. The department has suggested reviewing your client files as part of its narcotics investigation. I'm fighting that. They haven't identified a lawful reason to expose privileged material from unrelated cases, and I'm asking the court for a protective order."