“Please be seated,” said the Prafekt.
“Hello, Renette.”
She didn’t say, “Jesso.” She nodded and they sat down.
“This need not take long,” said the Prafekt, and he swiveled his mustache around. “Baron Helmut von Lohe, you have given your formal statement?”
“I have.”
“Premeditated murder, you stated,” and the Prafekt shuffled papers. “Now then, the corroborating testimony. Frau Baronin?”
Renette was looking at Jesso and once she smiled at him. He needed no more. There would be more, but right now…
“Frau Baronin?”
She turned toward the old man behind the desk but she looked out the window. Jesso saw how the sun lit her face. She was looking through the bars, past the wall where the head of a green tree was showing. Jesso sat back, crossed his legs. He had forgotten his arm, so when it touched the back of his chair it made him wince. Renette looked back to him.
“Does it hurt?”
“Hell, no.”
But the cigarette had dropped out of his hand and Renette got up, gave it back to him. When she had straightened she put out her hand. Just a short gesture. She ran her hand quickly over his hair, where it looked like velvet.
“Frau Baronin,” said the Prafekt again. “Your testimony.”
“Yes,” she said, and Jesso saw she was not hesitating. She looked at Jesso, and her eyes were clear and almost far away. “He killed my brother,” she said.
The cell was black and the sky was black, so Jesso couldn’t see the bars any more. It was as if there weren’t any. As if it didn’t matter. His good hand felt the pocket and the fine chain with the pearl. He couldn’t see it in his hand and only remembered how it was. Then his fingers clamped and the delicate shell made a sound. The broken pearl cut his finger. He knew it had cut, but there was no pain. Because he felt he was dead already.