“Your bottle of potassium chloride? You’re inexperienced when it comes to this business. The coroner will spot that immediately.”

“I’m not going to use potassium chloride. That was another lie.”

He looked worried. “What then?”

Kelly slipped on a pair of gloves.

She smiled as she came closer with the tape. “A new and improved screw.”

He squeezed the trigger but the gun just clicked. Then he dropped the weapon and, using his left hand, tried to turn the wheelchair away from her. She did not mind—there was nowhere to go. Coming over his head, she stretched the tape across his mouth and pulled it tight. Always important to consider the neighbors. He tried to tear off the gag but she grabbed his hand and pressed it down onto the arm of the wheelchair. She had watched his videos closely. Tearing off more tape, she began to wrap his arm in place. The muscle strength in his arms was poor. He must still have partial paralysis. It took her only a minute to finish. His eyes bulged—she had seen the sight before.

“You look like one of your victims,” she said.

His voice came out muffled. Did he beg for mercy?

She quoted. “The instinct to survive is not as strong as people think. Pain is more daunting than life. The sick and depressed crave extinction. Even content souls wonder about death.’” Pausing, she withdrew a small screwdriver and file from her pocket. “What a crock of shit, huh?”

He fought to explain. She was not listening.

Kelly knelt and began to undo the screw at the base of the tiny bulb that controlled his chair. Because the FBI and the doctors knew he had slight use of his right hand, she worked on that side. When the screw was halfway out, she picked up the file and began to sharpen the edges. He talked gibberish the entire time but it didn’t bother her. She had planned this for a long time. She knew what had to be done. When she was ready, she sat back and looked at his face.

“You bribed your help to leave you alone for the night. That is a verifiable fact. But my presence here will never be known. Before I leave, I’ll clean up. I’ll not leave so much as a hair. I’ll return to Julie’s house and wake her. I’ll act like I was just attacked by Scott. She won’t know any better. No one will know that you didn’t spend this last night alone slowly opening the veins in your wrist.”

There was blood in his face now. Soon it would be on the floor.