4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
Thirty Minutes
Sarah Lahey needs her partner immediately—two people are missing, a witness demands him specifically, and Sergeant Claiborne is watching every move. But Karl Jenkins is home, hungover, having passed out in the shower after his promotion celebration. Through a tense phone call and Claiborne's cryptic warnings, Sarah secures Karl's promise: thirty minutes. The clock starts ticking. This could be his big case—if he can pull himself together in time.
Louise Jeffries sits in Interview Room Three demanding Detective Karl Jenkins. Sarah Lahey has been dispatched to find him. There's only one problem: Karl is definitely not at the station.
He's at home. Naked. Hungover. Having just regained consciousness in an ice-cold shower after passing out during what was supposed to be a triumphant celebration of his promotion to Senior Detective. When Sarah's call shatters his miserable morning, Karl's first instinct is to delay, to buy time, to wait until later when he's human again.
But Sarah knows how to motivate him: "This could be your big case."
Through chattering teeth and waves of nausea, Karl promises thirty minutes. Meanwhile, Sarah faces Sergeant Claiborne's unexpected appearance in the corridor—his cryptic warning to "be careful," his insistence on pre-reading her notes, his revelation that he's known the Jeffries family for years. The subtext is suffocating: this case matters personally to Claiborne, and Sarah has just promised notes within an hour without consulting her partner.
The clock ticks. Karl scrambles for clothes. Sarah weighs Claiborne's warnings. And somewhere in Interview Room Three, Louise Jeffries waits for the one detective she trusts to understand what's happened to her son and brother.
