Kelly took his wrist and—slightly loosening the duct tape—rubbed the skin over the razor-sharp screw. Pressing down hard, the flesh caught and tore. Deeper layers of tissue became visible around the silver spike. He resisted but the effort was feeble. Blood spurted out, first in a dribble, then in a strong rhythmic pulse. A hole in the heart. A hole in the vein. Either way a person died. Sitting back, she watched as the puddle grew beneath his wheelchair. The stain was not far from the stain her blood had made on the floor.

Ten minutes went by. So much blood.

He stopped struggling and fell silent.

“You’re bleeding badly,” she said finally. “Soon you’ll lose consciousness. If you promise not to call out, I’ll remove your gag. Agreed?”

He nodded. She tore the duct tape off his mouth.

“I underestimated you,” he gasped.

“I learned from you.”

“How to lie?”

“How to kill. There’s a part of you inside me.”

“That you hope dies when I die.”

She nodded. “You said it yourself. I can’t live with you in the world.”

He glanced down at his ruined wrist and his lip trembled. “This is hard.”

“It was hard for the women you killed. Did you care?”

He stared at her. “I care about you.”

“Why me?”

“How can I explain? You are the opposite of Julie but you stir similar feelings in me.”

“You don’t feel for your wife. You gave her to your brother.”

“You’re mistaken. You think I spent my whole life killing. After my troubled youth, I tried to live a normal life. True, I had difficulty with relationships with women. They never lasted long. But I never gave up the hope of falling in love, and when I met Julie my prayers were answered. The day we got married was the happiest day of my life.”

“Then you told your brother to fuck her.”

“I asked my brother to test her. I did not expect her to fail the test. I told the truth when you first came here. When I saw her sucking on Scott’s penis, a part of me died.”

“It was already dead. Who tests their own wife?”

“I had to know. You can understand that.”

Kelly shook her head. “Julie is a blank. Why were you attracted to her?”

“What do you get when you pour one empty glass into another? There was an alchemy to our relationship. When we were alone together we were complete.” He studied his blood loss. “Oh my.”

“You didn’t need to kill those women.”

He raised his head slowly. “I feel dizzy.”

“Tough.”

“I could not kill Julie. I had to do something.”

“You ordered Scott to shoot her tonight.”

He sighed. “True. But you know how special tonight is.”

“You put vinegar in your father’s needle.”

“She was no good.”