A Trace of Smoke, Excerpt 24
March 23, 2009
NEWS: ”A Trace of Smoke” receives starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.
EXCERPT:
“You seem intent on hurling yourself down the stairs.” He caught me easily and pushed his beautiful lips into a slow smile. “Surely things cannot be so bad, young lady.”
No one had called me a young lady since before the war. “Easy to say from inside such an expensive suit.” I smiled back.
He retrieved my tattered sketchbook, open to the picture I’d drawn of him glaring at the rapist. “A masterful likeness,” he said. “Yet I am at a loss as to why you would sketch me.”
“I do courtroom sketches,” I said to allay his suspicions. “For the newspaper.”
“Do I look so…” He paused, staring at the sketch. “So hateful?”
“I draw what I see,” I said. “But it’s understandable…”
He raised his eyebrows, and my voice trailed off.
“Why would it be understandable?” His voice was cool and controlled.
“Most people hate a man who commits those crimes.”
“Not all?” He closed the sketchbook. “There are those who would not hate someone who takes a child and defiles her, hurts her, damages her on a whim?”
His daughter climbed down the steps to us. “Is everything in order, Vati?”
He smiled and gently touched her arm. “Of course.”
He turned to me. “Fraulein…” He paused expectantly.