Chapter 76

Harper lined the slender pieces of metal on the stone top of the vanity. The thinnest pieces had been painstakingly extracted from the blinds that covered the windows using a pair of nail clippers she had discovered in a drawer. The thickest had been a staple holding the backing onto the dresser by the door. Two other pieces had been clipped from the wire that had been used to hang a picture on the wall. There was enough wire behind that picture, she thought, to form a garrotte if she needed to, but Nadyr s greater body-strength meant that garrotting him was unlikely to be successful. Still, it was useful to know that it was there. Next to the wire, she set the pieces of card that she had extracted from the backing on the picture. She lifted onto the vanity, straddling the sink on her knees, and twisted the collar around her neck until the closure was on an angle under her chin. She took the thinnest piece of metal and slid it into the almost invisible seam. They had been ve