She leaned back in her chair, retrieved a burning cigarette from an ashtray and glared at the aging face staring back at her from the dresser mirror. These past few years had been hard, and despite being only thirty-five, what she saw in the mirror reminded her of her mother – dead at fifty and looking like she was eighty. That wasn’t going to happen to her; she needed to find a way out of this mess – a way to be something more than the wife of a cop. A cop who would never be anything more than a cop - a nobody.

Drinking the last swallow of whiskey, she looked down at the glass and the remains of her lipstick smeared on the rim.

“Damn,” she said, before throwing the glass against the wall and watching it break into hundreds of pieces. “Damn Martin Greene, damn those bastards he works for and damn you world for taking away the best years of my life!”

She stood, clutched the robe covering her ill-fitting dress and took a step toward the door.  It was time to confront Martin, tell him her feelings and get these problems out in the open. Time for him to live up to all the promises he’d made, but forgotten to deliver. It was time for things to change.

Then she heard the sound – a loud sound.  It echoed through her bedroom and she froze for a moment as a cold chill ran up her spine. It was a sound she’d heard before, but never so close and never in her house. It was a gunshot!