She found the office with her surface mind, working at cross-purposes with the confusion and swiftly mounting dread which made her footsteps falter, her mouth go dry.
Steady, Sally! Here's the office, here's the door. Turn the knob and get it over with ...
Sally opened the door and stepped into a small, deserted reception room. Beyond the reception desk was a gate, and beyond the gate a large central office branched off into several smaller offices.
Sally paused only an instant. It seemed quite natural to her that a business office should be deserted so late in the afternoon.
She crossed the reception room to the gate, passed through it, utter desperation giving her courage.
Something within her whispered that she had only to walk across the central office, open the first door she came to to find her husband ...
The first door combined privacy with easy accessibility. The instant she opened the door she knew that she had been right to trust her instincts. This was his office ...
He was sitting at a desk by the window, a patch of sunset sky visible over his right shoulder. His elbows rested on the desk and his hands were tightly locked as if he had just stopped wringing them.
He was looking straight at her, his eyes wide and staring.
"Jim!" Sally breathed. "Jim, what's wrong?"