Ethan bumps into Ruthanna, who is wearing a disguise. She informs him that AnnieLee’s jump from a hotel balcony is all over the news. Meanwhile, at the hospital, AnnieLee tries to convince a police officer that she fell off the balcony, while he questions her about what she was doing up there. They’re trying to rule out death by suicide. The nurse asks Ethan if he knows about any next-of-kin.

When Ethan goes to inspect AnnieLee’s room at the Aquitaine Hotel, he figures out that a man was there with her and that he was uninvited. Ethan feels breathless, as the room reminds him of the one where his wife, Jeanie, was strangled by a stranger. Although Ethan still misses Jeanie, he tells himself, “It was time to worry about a living woman” (333). He continues to inspect the room, which is in disarray, and notices a scrape of skin on the edge of AnnieLee’s stiletto, indicating that it was used as a weapon. Shocked, he realizes that the intruder was someone AnnieLee feared so much that she threw herself off a balcony rather than face him—and he must have been someone from her past.

Ethan knows he should call the police but also knows that this might backfire, as AnnieLee would refuse to cooperate.