Chapter 8 - The Key Changes Hands
Raines found Lucie in the laundry room after dinner. He pushed a cart between them and the camera, then placed a bundle of clean socks on top.
"Your key," he said. "I didn't take it home."
Inside the socks was the brass P17 key.
"Why help me?" Lucie asked.
"My sister did time here. She came out afraid of empty parking lots. Whenever I asked what happened, she changed the subject. Then she killed herself." He gripped the cart. "She left a note with one name. Mercer."
Lucie wanted to offer something useful. Nothing came. Finally she said, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Get the records."
Raines had night duty near the chapel. At eight forty, he left the supply door unlatched while an inmate work crew stacked chairs. Lucie entered with June and found a locked cabinet beneath the choir robes.
P17 turned with a stiff metallic snap.
Inside were blank prayer cards, dust-covered candles, and a worn blue binder titled FACILITY TRANSPORT INVENTORY. Lucie opened it, expecting names. Instead she found a list of numbers beside dates and a handwritten notation: Originals held off-site. Carbon copies to Room B.
"Room B?" June whispered.
"This isn't what Thomas promised."
June turned the last page. Tucked under the cardboard backing was a narrow strip of photograph. It showed Thomas beside Valérie at a warehouse loading dock. Between them stood Deputy Warden Mercer, younger and smiling.
On the back, written in Thomas's unmistakable slant, were seven words: The woman beside me isn't the traitor.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
June slammed the binder shut. "Somebody's coming."
Lucie shoved the photograph into her waistband just as the cabinet door swung closed behind them.
May you like
"Interesting choice of hiding place," a voice said.
Valérie was standing in the doorway, holding the brass key's duplicate.
