Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

have a couple of questions about Amy, then I promise I’ll leave you in peace.”
    “All right, Alex, shoot.”
    “Well, after Amy was found, some of the newspaper reports seemed to contradict one another. A few say there was no evidence of sexual assault but others allude to recent sexual activity. That’s only via unnamed sources though, never official statements. More or less all of them say there were signs that she’d fought off her attacker. I just wondered if—medically—you know which story is correct?”
    The doctor held her gaze for a few moments and then walked to a dull gray filing cabinet next to the brilliantly sparkling window.
    Muttering, he opened and closed each of the four drawers in quick succession before returning to the desk empty-handed.
    “I’d rather not do this on the computer,” he said, hovering his fingers above the keyboard, “but I can’t put my hands on the hard copies right now.
    “Okay,” the doctor continued, “so let’s think this through. You need to know about the examinations that were undertaken when Amy was first found, yes?”
    Alex felt her pulse quicken. “Yes, I suppose so, if that’s okay?”
    “Well,” Peter Haynes began, “it’s rather a gray area. Amy has no known next-of-kin so she’s under the care of the health authority,” he paused, catching up with his thoughts, “and that means we can make decisions but we can’t be seen to abuse that control.”
    He looked up and fixed his eyes on Alex’s lips. “I would never abuse any position of trust,” he said.
    Alex sat in silence, unsure what she was supposed to say, meanwhile the doctor tapped cautiously at the keyboard, like he was cracking a safe.
    He cleared his throat. “I shouldn’t give this information out liberally, so anything I say needs to be handled with absolute discretion.” He paused, and Alex held her breath. The doctor was frozen, fingers over the keys. His eyes were locked on Alex in a way that made her wiggle awkwardly in her seat.
    “Okay,” he lowered his gaze, half smiling, “I’m doing this for you because I think the more people know about these patients’ stories, the better. But that relies on you doing a sensitive job, so I’m taking a leap of faith.”
    “I promise I’m not out to sensationalize, that’s not the kind of writing I do.”
    Peter Haynes’s neck was newly flushed and he seemed unsure where to start.
    “Okay.” Alex scanned her notes. “Was Amy a virgin?”
    “No.”
    “Oh, really? Had she recently had sex before she was found?”
    “Yes, she had, sometime within the previous seventy-two hours, according to this report.”
    The secret information thrilled Alex. It was at once revolting and exhilarating.
    “Okay, so, were there signs of sexual assault?”
    “There were no signs of trauma to the genitals.”
    “So she’d willingly had sex?”
    “It would appear so.”
    “Were there signs she had fought off her attacker?”
    “Oh God yes,” Peter Haynes looked Alex in the eye, furrowing his brow slightly. “I don’t need to look at the records to tell you that. She was still black and blue when she reached me, and I can remember what a state her fingers were in. Most of her nails were broken off and she had a missing tooth where she had tried to bite something. Or someone.”
    Alex felt the exhilaration subside; now she just felt sick. Amy had managed to fight just enough to condemn herself to purgatory.
    “And there were signs of strangulation?”
    “Yes, strangulation, deep bruising, some internal injuries to the abdomen, splintered bones, several cracked ribs…”
    “Was she beaten with something or did the examiner think he’d done it with his bare hands?”
    “It doesn’t go into that here, but from what I saw, I’d say she’d taken everything he had. Kicks, punches, whacks with objects, who knows.”
    “Christ. So Amy was as close to death as the papers made out when she was found?”
    “Probably worse, there’s a lot