Police detective Decker returns home late to a quiet house. Sensing something is wrong, he begins to move from room to room to investigate. He slips and falls in a pool of blood that belongs to his dead brother-in-law whose throat has been cut. Decker runs upstairs where he discovers that his wife, Cassie, has been shot through the forehead; her body is on the floor next to their bed.

Panic-stricken, Decker runs down the hall to search for his 10-year-old daughter, Molly. He finds that Molly’s strangled body has been posed on the toilet with a robe sash tied around her torso and secured to the water tank.

In shock, Decker sits down on the bathroom floor while staring numbly at his dead child: “This is it. Nothing left. I’m not staying by myself. Can’t do it” (4).

Decker takes a gun from his belt holster and places it in his mouth, willing himself to pull the trigger. Reconsidering, he places the muzzle next to his temple and thinks of what he would say to his family after they are reunited. No amount of apology seems adequate; Decker blames himself for not being there to protect them.

Eventually, he gives up the thought of suicide and dials 911.