I staggered against the shockingly warm body of a woman. Forming those few words had exhausted her stock of speech, but she whimpered. I made to untie her, assuming she was held by a rope, but she was suspended by a hook through her ankles. She screamed when I lifted her to relieve the cruel pressure, but it was a very faint cry indeed. By the time I had extracted the hook and laid her body on the floor she was quite dead.
