Mrs. Carlos

Mrs. Carlos is a small woman, with thin wrists and arms and a neck lined with pale green veins; they web delicately from her jawline down to her protruding collarbones.

She is seated on a discolored, threadbare sofa, wearing a lavender cotton housedress with purple flowers. The dress has been washed so many times that the flowers are only a shade or two darker than their background, mended so many times that the fabric is fraying beneath the stitches.

When Mikael introduced himself at the door, the first thing he noticed about Mrs. Carlos was how guarded she was. But as he speaks to her, he's struck by how talking about her

son seems to be a strain on her; she halts every once in a while, as though afraid somebody else is listening.

"He didn't tell me very much about his childhood," Mikael says. "Was he ever in trouble when he was a child? Any disciplinary problems in school?"

"No. He was a good boy, very smart." She cranes her neck