WHAT HE HEARD THROUGH THE FLOOR

He heard it while he was standing in the kitchen with the sweater still over his arm.

A scrape. Metal on stone. One short drag, somewhere underneath him and slightly to the left of where he was standing.

He assumed it was the boiler. There is a boiler down there and it has always made noises and he grew up with them.

Then, eight or nine seconds later, a cough.