John reeled back, his mind empty of everything but shock until he felt his heel go over the edge and he nearly fell down the steep staircase. He quickly reached out and grabbed the doorframe to steady himself. Then he bent over and tried to slow his pounding heart before he stepped back into the room with the body.
When he looked at Andrew Card a second time, he saw the ropes that held his legs to the chair and the way his arms had been tied at the elbows and were pulled behind his back. John realized that whoever had done this had not wanted Card to die quickly, and the gruesome sight took him back to the night in the underground chamber when he’d found the two young people savagely eviscerated, their entrails spilling down across their legs.
John shuddered again, telling himself that
