Characters in In the Deathroom

… A month later, a man walked up to Carlo Arcuzzi’s newsstand kiosk on Forty-third Street. Carlo had a nasty moment when he was almost sure the man meant to stick a gun in his face and rob him. It was only eight o’clock and still light, lots of people about, …

It was Escobar. He spoke to the guard in Spanish. To Escobar’s left sat the other man. To Escobar’s right sat a woman of about sixty. The woman and the other man were thin. Escobar was fat and as greasy as a cheap candle. He looked like a movie Mexican.

Fletcher knew it for what it was as soon as the door opened. The floor was gray industrial tile. The walls were discolored white stone, marked here and there with darker patches that might have been blood—certainly blood had been spilled in this room.

Finally we ask Heinz here to try and make him tell. Heinz, show Mr. Fletcher how you try to make Tomás tell, when Tomás was sitting right where Mr. Fletcher was sitting now.” “I can do that,” said Heinz. He spoke English in a nasal New York accent.

… funneled it to a certain Communist insurgent named Pedro Núñez?” “No,” Fletcher said. “I don’t deny it.” To adequately keep up his side of this charade—the charade summarized by the difference between the words conversation and interrogation—he should now justify, attempt to explain. As if anyone in the history of …

Escobar nodded, smiling. “Of course, Ramón, if our guest should try anything foolish or make any aggressive moves, you would have to shoot him a little.” He roared laughter—roly-poly TV laughter—and then repeated what he had said in Spanish, so that Ramón would understand as well as Fletcher.

… have given certain information to a man named Tomás Herrera, who has in turn funneled it to a certain Communist insurgent named Pedro Núñez?” “No,” Fletcher said. “I don’t deny it.” To adequately keep up his side of this charade—the charade summarized by the difference between the words conversation and …