“It all went to hell. That woman who lived in this apartment went into cardiac arrest with one shot from the taser. I hadn’t expected that. It was such a disappointment, after all my planning. It should have been satisfying, ridding the world of that bitch, but she died before I could even tell her who I was. I put her in the bath anyway, but it wasn’t the same.”

She dragged me to the threshold of the bathroom. “Why?” I panted. “Why did you pretend you saw Claudia on New Year’s Eve?”

“How else was I going to be involved in the investigation?” Sarah answered. “I thought she was alive, and I was desperate for you to find her. When you found her, that meant I did, too. Someone had to pay for what happened.” She let go of me and stepped over my body. “You know, it’s nice to finally have some closure,” she said. “Do you like bubble baths? I think something with a nice scent would be appropriate.” Then she turned and smiled that frozen smile again. I didn’t see her hand, but I heard the sizzle of the taser a nanosecond before my body involuntarily flipped and convulsed. Now, I was lying on my back, nauseous, caught in a twister. The room was spinning around me so swiftly that I wasn’t sure whether I was floating or on the ground. I panted for air, my heart rattling against my ribcage. There was the sound of running water, then Sarah’s cool voice again, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. She appeared suddenly, her face inches from mine, then vanished from my field of vision. I could hear her voice in the distance, but her words were indistinguishable from the running water.

For a moment I swooned, then came to when cold water slapped down on my face. Sarah was pouring it out of a plastic bottle she must have taken from the fridge. “I want you to be awake for this,” she said. She disappeared again and the sound of the water filling the tub stopped dead. I pushed my feet down on the floor, moving my quivering body back a few inches to the doorway of the bedroom. That was as far as I could go.

“Really, where do you think you’re going?” Sarah came back, holding the taser, and caught sight of my purse on the bed. “You don’t think I’m going to let you call anyone on your cell phone, do you?”

All I could think about was Jesse’s gun. If I could just get to it…