The blonde woman was looking at the door.
Mrs. Wilkes looked slowly across the room.
She looked past Thomas.
She looked past his lawyer.
She looked at the front row.
She lifted one shaking hand and she pointed and she said: Your Honor. He was the one in the navy suit.
The silence had a specific quality.
The quality of something that has been held under pressure for a long time and that has finally been released.
Thomas’s mother made a sound.
Not a word.
The sound of someone who has been holding their breath and who has stopped being able to hold it.
Thomas turned to look at his mother.
His mother was looking at Mrs. Wilkes.
Thomas said: what.
He said it quietly.
Not for the room.
For himself.
His lawyer said: Your Honor, I need a moment.
The judge said: you may have a moment.
She said it with the specific tone of someone who has just understood the shape of what she is looking at.
