“This is where it starts to get weird. Eric kept coming back, claiming to check on Lizzy. At the same time, Lizzy kept getting worse. She began coughing. Sometimes I was up all night with her coughing. She coughed as often as she practiced.
“Three weeks later I told Eric of my worry. He came over to listen to her. He didn’t like what he heard.
“I was in the middle of loading dishes, & he told me to run down to the drugstore on the corner while he tried to calm Lizzy down. I whipped on a jacket & scurried down the stairs.
“I came back up the stairs, then I heard a God-awful sound coming from our penthouse. It sounded like Lizzy retching. I scrambled up the stairs, but before I could open the door Eric was in the doorway, pale as a ghost.
“I rushed past him. I looked in the piano room. I found the keys speckled with blood, and there was a trail. I followed it. I…. I couldn’t believe it. There was Lizzy, a shattered vase near her head, a stained knife, all sitting in a pool by her head. She was dead.”