Bruce was finding it hard to hide his excitement as he listened to the detective interviewing Sam. The detective had the two handbags with him and showed the licence that had 'Sam Colson' clearly a 32 year old male. He had advised Sam to tell the detective that she really was Sam Colson and coincidently shared a name with the missing man, rather than retell the story of the medallion. Sam also answered the detectives questions as Bruce had advised herrepeated what the lawyer had advised her to say. i.e. That her sister Emma had legitimately borrowed Jordan's car and had made the silly mistake of pretending to be Jordan when pulled over because she didn't have a licence.
This didn't help Sam avoid being taken to the watch-house after the interview was concluded. Like 'Emma' she was to be kept there overnight to be taken before a magistrate first thing in the morning. Bruce watched as the very distraught 'girl'? was handcuffed and escorted out by a policewoman.
Once the women had left, Bruce who had worked closely with the police for many years and knew the detective well, was able to ask the detective "If this Jordan and the other Sam Colson turn up and confirm the car was lent to the twins. Will you release them?"
"Yes. They would be released, but Emma would no doubt still be charged with unlicensed driving"
"I believe the twins are telling the truth. I would like to engage a private detective to track the missing pair down. Would I be able to look at the evidence you have? It might help me refine a search better"
The detective thought about the request for a moment before replying. "I shouldn't but...Because they were last seen interstate, going through official channels will delay the search starting. I'm a bit like you. They seemed nice girls, not criminals. They don't belong in jail but I have no choice but to charge them. I tell you what... I'll give you 10 minutes in the room" With that the detective left. The handbags remained on the desk.
Bruce couldn't believe his luck. He quickly inspected the handbags. In the second he found a plastic bag with something metal inside. He opened the bag to see a bronze medallion on a metal chain. Was this the famed medallion? He had to assume so. He didn't know whether the police had done a complete audit of the bags contents. He doubted they would have paid much attention to what looked like a piece of costume jewellery but he needed to replace it with something. He looked around the room. Nothing. He looked in his own briefcase. The best thing he could find was a key ring.
Thanks to his internet reading Bruce was familiar with the rules of the medallion. If he accidently touched the medallion to his own clothes there was no great consequence. He would only change into himself but he would then be unable to change again for another 12 hours. He just had to make sure not to touch clothes that were last worn by someone else. Apprehensively, he opened the bag and dipped his hand into it. He picked it up. So good so far. He then dropped it into his coat pocket briefcase and heaved a sigh of relief when he felt no jolt of electricity. It was then a simple matter of putting the key ring into the plastic bag and replacing the plastic bag into the handbag.
Now all Bruce needed to do was get his hands on some of the clothes from the suitcases found in the car.
That was much simpler than Bruce suspected. When he went to the detectives office. He found Dave inspecting the contents of three suitcases. "Dave, I think you left the girls handbags in the interview room" he informed the detective.
"Oh! Thanks for telling me" the detective replied with a wink. The detective left the room.
Bruce found himself alone with the three opened suitcases. It was easy to pilfer a small piece of underwear from each suitcase. However he heard the detective returning and quickly stuffed them into his coat pocket. Unfortunately it was same coat pocket he had placed the medallion in. This time he did feel a jolt of what felt like static electricity.