She brought herself up on her elbows and groped for the cigarettes on the night table. The harbor light through the window slats stretched across her bare breasts. She threw her arm carelessly back; her hand found the headboard and held it. She exhaled toward the open window and her smoke met the night coming in.

She felt a chill and thought of a doctor’s visit when she was about four. Her mother was concerned about her posture, about the curve of her back. They made her stand still on a chair wearing only her panties. The doctor stood behind her and thumped her back with his fingers which were thick and cold and over years of remembering had grown greasy and calloused. He put both hands on her shoulders and pushed into her with his thumbs. He lifted her thin arm carefully and considered her from the side. “It’s perfect, isn’t it,” he said without looking at her mother who smiled without looking at her daughter.

She crushed the cigarette in the tray and sat on the edge of the bed. She glanced at the man sprawled behind her and thought for a second about the gun beneath the mattress.

The man was a light sleeper and the sound of the running water splashed through the hotel room where they had found a man, mid-thirties, bullet wound in his head. In the bathroom, they found a naked woman on the floor of the tub. The edge of the shower curtain was bunched in her fist; the rod and curtain had come down around her. Water ran off the curtain onto bathroom floor and pooled at the lip of the carpet.

A uniform was watching the door. Someone was taking photos. Someone splashed from behind and shut off the water.

“Hey, asshole. This is a crime scene,” the man said, waking…

…waking, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. The shower had just stopped. The bathroom door was ajar.

He got up and put on his pants. He lifted the mattress and removed the gun he stashed there and found a cartridge in his shoe. He finished dressing and left two hundred behind where she’d be sure to find it.

The woman stepped out of the bathroom and saw that he had gone. She dried herself, dressed herself, and left.

Hours later, the maid let herself in with her master key and did up the room. She left with an excellent tip.