A Trace of Smoke Excerpt 21

The trial was wrapping up, so the curious were here to find out the verdict.  Luckily it was less full than the Kürten trial I’d recently covered in Düsseldorf.  For that one, people overflowed into the halls outside.

I put the box on my lap and automatically got my sketchbook ready, paging through sketches of the suspected rapist I’d drawn at the beginning of the trial.  Round and fat like a ball, he seemed more pathetic than sinister, but I’d tried to find a menacing angle for him.  He looked l