Chapter 13 - The Woman Behind Glass
Ward led me to a small interview room where a security camera looked down from the ceiling. He left the door open and stayed in the hall. On the other side of a thick window, Rhea sat with a bruise along her jaw and one arm in a sling.
“They told me you had attacked an officer,” I said.
“They told me you took a deal to leave.”
Neither of us smiled. Someone wanted us to believe the other had surrendered.
“Ward says he's going to testify,” I told her.
Rhea studied the glass. “He'd better do it fast.”
She leaned forward. “Your father came back after he filmed me. He thought he could get Sofia out if he carried the documents himself. I told him not to trust the warden. He looked me in the eye and said, 'Then I'll make her say no in front of witnesses.'”
“That sounds like him.”
“It was brave. It was also dangerous.”
“Did you help them take him?”
Rhea's eyes filled. “I tried to stop Sofia from entering the van. Colson threatened to transfer Gloria if I interfered. I stepped aside. When your father came looking for her, I gave him the wrong hallway to keep him away.”
“And he followed you?”
“He followed the screaming.”
I looked at the sling and the tired eyes. She had made choices that hurt people. So had I. That didn't settle what we would choose next.
“I need you alive,” I said.
“Then get that recording outside these walls.”
“Leah has it.”
Rhea's face changed. “Not just his audio. There's a second recording. Sofia hid a phone behind the red door. It captured the clinic's manifest screen before they moved the equipment.”
“Who knows?”
“Gloria. And someone in maintenance.”
The speaker over our heads clicked. Lieutenant Colson's voice filled the room.
“Interview concluded. Officer Ward, bring both women to holding.”
May you like
Rhea looked straight into the camera.
“It's still recording,” she said. “Make him say why.”
