Page 126 of Over Her Dead Body

The sound coming out of me does not.

He pulls the bamboo free.

My whole hand throbs in his grip.

“I don’t know.”

The man behind the desk nods.

The guard takes my middle finger.

Knowing what comes next is worse.

The second time, I scream before the bamboo is all the way in.

He pulls it out again.

When the room comes back, my hand is still trapped in his.

I have bitten the inside of my cheek. I can taste blood. Tears fall onto my dress, and I cannot spare a hand to wipe them away.

“Last chance.”

I look at the window.

Then the door.

Then the painting beside it.

A small landscape. Dark trees. Pale water.

The lower corner of its frame sits slightly higher on one side.

Half an inch, perhaps.

I look away before either man can follow my attention.

Reid’s finger against the frame in Lake Austin.

Our wedding photograph, crooked on the wall after he left for work.

The assistant showed him this room.

I don’t know what Reid did while he was alone in it. I don’t know whether there is anything to find.

But I have spent the last several minutes looking for an option that isn’t a third-floor window or a gun.

There you are.

The guard shifts his grip.

“Wait.”

He looks toward the desk.

I keep my eyes on the landscape.

“Is that yours?”