i imagined his body there , strangled , contorted into an unrecognizable form , imagined it being overlooked by investigators , at first , because it would seem the long dead corpse of some stray animal , looked at his hunched over back and imagined myself beating him with an empty gun , glad it was empty , glad he would feel his life dribble out a blow at a time , a sound at a time , that his death would be long and boringly percussive .