It is then that I find myself drowning in a sea of suspicion. Would Tariq have taken the trouble to come out this way to tell tales about Abbas that were groundless? The man is vicious, but he’s not stupid. When my doubts finally get the better of me, I glance at the woman, only to find her staring back at me.

We live together in this old house like two strangers. If it weren’t that Abbas would suffer, I’d divorce her. Abbas. The only thing that gives savor to this bitter life. He’s the only hope I have left.

“He’s lying,” the woman mutters.

I feel much more concern than she does, almost to the point of being sympathetic with Tariq. “Why should he lie?”

“He still hates Abbas.”

“But there’s the play, too,” I venture.

“We don’t know anything about it. Go and see Abbas.”

“Yes, I’ll certainly go and have a talk with him.”

“But you aren’t making any move!” Stupidity and stubbornness can make Halima quite intimidating.

“There’s no great rush.”

“He has to know what’s going on behind his back.”

“And if he confesses?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if he admits that his play really does say what that swindler claims it does?”

“You’ll get an explanation for everything.”

“I wonder!”

“A real murderer doesn’t expose himself.”

“I don’t know.”

“Go see him, that’s the main thing!”

“Of course I’ll go.”

“Do you want me to go?”

“You haven’t got anything fit to wear,” I point out, reminding her how they’d seized all our money and how that son of a bitch of a detective beat me. “But that’s all in the past. It’s finished. We’ve got to concentrate on what happens to us now.”

“That cheap swindler. He’s lying.”

“Abbas just couldn’t accept our way of life, could he? So virtuous! You’d think he was a bastard, not my son! But he’s always been loyal to us. And why would he kill Tahiya?”

“You’re asking me?”

“I’m thinking aloud.”

“You believe what the wretch said!”

“And you believe him, too.”

“We’ve got to hear what Abbas has to say.”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t believe him.”

“You’re raving.”

“Damn you!”

“I was damned the day I got tied to you.”

“The same applies to me.”

“I used to be pretty.”

“Did anyone else want you but me?”

“Everyone always wanted me! Just my bad luck, that’s all.”

“Your father was a postman, but mine was employed on the Shamashirgi family estate.”

“Which means that he was a servant.”

“I come from a family.”

“What about your mother?”

“Just like you.”

“You’re a windbag. You don’t want to go, do you?”

“I’ll go when it suits me.”