But she just shook her head, turned her laptop toward me, so I could see the screen.

THOMAS NEWBURN, MILLIONAIRE CO-FOUNDER OF LOGISTICS START-UP, KILLS PREGNANT WIFE AND SELF

And then everything in me shattered.

Huda sent me home in an Uber, told me to take the rest of the day off. In those first few moments, the hours when all of it seemed like a garish cartoon, the veracity of it refusing to sink in, I almost laughed. I texted Quinn something along the lines of He’s dead. And he killed his (ex?!!!) wife?! What the hell is happening?

I howled into my pillow, giddy with the nonsense of it all.

When did the horror sink in? When the paparazzi showed up the next day, their noise like an insect’s hum? I asked Quinn what was happening outside and he checked for me and they got him, too. They knew who he was somehow, from their collective claw, intent on snatching any morsel of info they deemed themselves worthy of. Quinn shoved his way back up the stairs, his face vacant and chalky like the outline of a body’s head at a crime scene, and told me they were there for me.

I got information in spurts. At first, I glued myself to my phone, refreshing Google every few seconds for new information. Then, when it started rolling in more, it paralyzed me, my brain barely able to communicate with the rest of me, shock waves coursing through my body like squiggling worms.

The housekeeper, Anna, the person who took care of those gleaming white walls, was the one who alerted the police. The moment she stepped inside, she smelled sulfur. And immediately, she ran to Penelope’s room, on the third floor, letting out a wail of relief when she spotted the small girl in bed, sound asleep, her chest rising and falling, heartbeat steady. Her head already feeling dizzy, muzzy and muted, Anna picked the toddler up and ran out the front door, dialed 911 as she breathed in the outside air.

They’re in his office. I know it. Mr. Newburn’s office. There’s an old gas fireplace in there. No windows! The lock on the door is broken. It does not open from the inside. It broke when she was away and he said he would get it fixed before she came home but I don’t think he did! Anna screamed and panted to the 911 operator, frantic nonsense, her words punctuated by sobs, according to the reports in the papers.

She was right. Tom had coaxed Odilie into the room with the broken door, certain that Odilie would guilelessly walk in with no knowledge that they would be trapped inside.