A Key in Her Lap

Sarah Lahey brought Gladys Cramer, still handcuffed, into an interview room at Hobart Police Station and introduced Sergeant Charlie Claiborne as the officer who would conduct the interview with her. Sarah had argued against his attendance and lost. Claiborne took the chair directly opposite Gladys and studied her.

Gladys read the sergeant's presence quickly. A detective who had been at the scene and handled the body would not have brought a senior officer into the room by choice, and the stiffness in Sarah's posture confirmed it had not been her decision. The leverage Gladys had counted on in the car now rested with someone neither woman controlled.

As Sarah sat down beside Claiborne, she pulled her notebook from her pocket and brought out with it the device she had taken from Cody Jennings' body the night before. Sarah believed it to be a USB storage device. It was Cody's Portal Key. It struck the metal table, Sarah's grab at it only sent it further, and it landed in Gladys's lap.

Gladys recognised it at once and gasped before she could stop herself. She kept her face as blank as she could manage, gathered the Key between her cuffed hands and held it out. Sarah apologised too quickly, took it back with unsteady fingers and pushed it into her pocket, her face reddening. Claiborne watched all of it.

Moments later he stood, thanked Sarah and opened the door, telling her he would take the rest of the interview himself. Sarah rose slowly and mouthed a silent apology to Gladys. Gladys answered by slamming her cuffed hands on the table and shouting that Sarah had promised her. The easy interview and quick release offered on the roadside had not survived the first minutes in the room.

Sarah went out through the door Claiborne was holding open.