Gable asked.

“I took it off the dining room sideboard when I carried my daughter out of the house,” I said.

“I held on to it because I knew my mother would say I made the whole thing up.”

Brenda lifted the brass key and held it between two fingers.

“They locked her in the dark so I would start a fight,” I said.

“They needed a public scene to back up the report they’d already typed at two o’clock.”