Chapter Three
Cleaning Lady
Allison could barely focus on the sounds of the struggle and torment going on in the room behind her. Her whole world was consumed by the effort of keeping herself up to stop the pressure on her aching throat. Each time her legs faltered, each time her knees buckled, the wood of the stocks would bite painfully into her neck, cutting off her air supply. She yanked again with her hands, but the mittens that confined them could not pass through the openings, leaving them trapped there.
As she struggled to remain standing, she replayed the scene from earlier in her mind. She hadn’t been able to see the policewoman, but she had heard the struggle. She cursed herself for the part she’d played in the woman’s failure; her involuntary reaction to the sound of the man’
