“Danny!” called Ranjit. “I can’t lean over to reach her, or the Jeep will go over the edge! You’ve got to pull her back inside!”

“I can’t!”

“Danny, pull her inside! We need her weight in the car or we’ll all die! Pull her back!”

I cracked open one eye, found it caked with blood, and wiped it on my shoulder. The lights of the city—sparkling so far below—forced me to close my eye again.

“Danny, pull! We’re going to roll over if you don’t!”

Holding my breath, I tightened my good hand on her wrist. Then I yanked. The Jeep lurched.

“Pull her inside now!”

My hand, slick with rain, lost its grip, and she flopped back toward the door and the nothingness below. I flailed and grabbed out for anything, caught her by the hair, and pulled her back into her seat. The open door was now offering itself to me more than to Birgit.

I gasped for air, staring into the hole, unable to close my eyes or look away. This was it. My spectacular and horrifying death was next.

“I’ve got her!” called Ranjit, and he pulled Birgit over the gear shift and out the driver’s-side door. They landed one on top of the other in the mud and gravel.

Now I was alone in the Jeep, whose nose and half the left-hand side of the chassis were already over the edge of the cliff. A tearing noise made me think the vehicle was moving again and this was the end. Then a gust of rain and wind blew over me from behind. I reeled to see what it was. And Ranjit grabbed my shirt by the shoulders with both hands and delivered me like a baby through the hole he’d cut in the canvas roof. Thank God there was no hardtop on that fucking Jeep.

We scrambled away from the edge as the Jeep teetered and, encouraged by the shove my exit had provided, tipped over the precipice and disappeared, tumbling down the mountain.

EPILOGUE

The police ordered me to stay in the country until the investigation was completed. And, since my passport had been confiscated, I was stuck there despite my desire to go home.

So I wrote my story for Frank Muller, leaving out the details of my affair with Sushmita. That was going into the novel I was writing. Of course, I planned to change the names and details for that. But I included everything else. The seductive power of rich friends, the allure of an enchanting beauty, the terrifying chase, and the naïveté of a young man who should have known better.