Then she took off her shoes, because she was going to need to feel the ledge, and she set them on the balcony floor, and she left them there, and they were still there four months later when the police photographed the apartment.

Getting over the railing was the worst thing.

She had to lift her right leg over a rail at hip height, and the movement engaged every muscle they had cut through, and the pain went through her in a white sheet, and she made a sound — a small one, into her own shoulder — and inside the apartment the woman laughed at something and the sound was covered.

She got the other leg over.