Miss Zahra coughed lightly, an invitation for me to continue. She appeared distracted and confused, she who typically needed the rooms to be radiant, and who left them triumphant, as though she had declared war in her heart on all the residents of this wing. For she considered them prisoners of a certain standing, and while she showed them respect and decency in her interactions, that didn’t mean that she was in their service. And that is precisely what began exasperating Mr. N—(Fine: I’ll erase that and try again.) And that is precisely what began exasperating me, despite my attraction to her, an attraction of the kind that walks the line and might at any moment turn into hatred.

“Please, take a seat. You look tired. No doubt you’ve had a long and exhausting day.”

Miss Zahra suddenly melted, and another woman took her place. She softened like a candle when the fire gets close, and she took the form of a woman who was only waiting for a warm word to revive her after having been broken and lost, a white flag raised in surrender. I poured her a glass of cold water. She said thanks and accepted it. Then she sat on the edge of the bed nearby, and I said in a gentle voice, “What happened to Daoud? I mean, Majid?”

“They’ve brought him to prison to await trial.”

“On what charge?”

“The charge of murder, of course.”

“Whose?”

“Maryam’s, of course.”

“But he didn’t kill her.”

“Of course he did! It’s clear that he’s a criminal. That’s what the police concluded.”

“Maryam committed suicide. Just like his wife committed suicide before, and he blamed himself for her death.”

“No! No, the camera showed all the details of the nightmare that Maryam lived.”

“Camera?”

“Yes, the one attached above the entrance to the garden.”

“Didn’t the camera also reveal that Maryam didn’t resist, but that she embraced Daoud gratefully before going willingly to her death?”

Miss Zahra leapt from the bed as though pushed from behind. Her eyes widened, pupils dilating, and her ears stretched back. “And how do you know that, Mr. N?” she said, speaking in a strange tone and with a forced rhythm. “No one has seen the video besides the police and us.”

“Actually, I saw it too, watched it live.”

“Impossible!” cried the first Miss Zahra, driving away that other Miss Zahra. “Did you have a hand in this?” she asked, taking a step back. “Did you help him? How? My God!” Her voice was choked as she pressed her hands over her mouth. Tears ran down her cheeks. “Poor Maryam! Poor, unhappy Maryam! What did you two deranged men do to her?”