“How long have you been in this country?” Dino asked.

The man shrugged. “Few weeks, I think.”

“Did you enter the country legally?”

“Oh, yes,” the man said. “I am being very legal always.”

“Except when you are killing people.”

“Except at this time.” He smiled.

“You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?” Dino asked.

The man shrugged.

“Let me acquaint you with a point of the law in the state of New York,” Dino said. “We have the death penalty here. You understand the death penalty?”

The man shrugged and said nothing.

“They take a needle,” Dino said, pointing at his arm, “and put it here, in the vein. That’s all; lights out; kaput.”

“In Deutschland is being no death,” the man said. “Deutschland is being civilized.”

“Well, here, we’re still barbarians, I guess,” Dino replied.” Here we still put murderers to death, and you are a murderer. You have confessed to killing seven people.”

“Six only,” the man said. “Not this lady Bean.”

“Bad news,” Dino said. “Six is enough for the death penalty, the needle. Of course, before that happens, you’ll spend many years in a small cell, talking to nobody. We have prisons like that in this country. Dangerous people like you are put into special cells where they see nobody, talk to nobody for twenty-three hours a day. One hour a day, you get to exercise alone. Once a week, you get to shower. Then, after a few years, when you’re already crazy from being alone, they take you to a little room and they put the needle in your arm, you understand?”

The man said nothing, but his face had become grim.

“Now,” Dino said, “maybe there is a way for you to live. You see, we know that you did these murders because Mitteldorfer wanted you to. You had nothing against these people, right? Maybe Mitteldorfer made you kill them. If you tell us about that, if you testify to that in court, then maybe we can ask the district attorney not to go for the death penalty.”

“But I am being in the place alone?” the man said. “I am not speaking to any person? I am not seeing any person?”

“Maybe,” Dino said. “If you’re real helpful, maybe we can make that better, too.”

“I am not believing you,” the man said. “You will be putting me in this room all the time.”

“I’m offering you a deal,” Dino said. “You understand deal?”

“No.”

“You help me, I help you.”

“How am I helping you?”

“You tell me where to find Mitteldorfer. You tell me why Mitteldorfer wanted these people dead. You say this in a court of law.”

The man shook his head. “If you are not killing me, he is killing me.”

“No,” Dino said. “We will protect you from Mitteldorfer.”

To Stone’s astonishment, the man began to cry.

Dino gaped at him, startled.