Chapter 71. A Melancholy Game of Chess

“I heard that was the last thing Jasmine said before she died,” the Man in Black said calmly after a long stretch of seconds where Carlos said nothing at all.

Smooth, Carlos thought. You couldn’t fault a reply like that. It didn’t imply that he knew what Carlos was talking about, nor did it imply that he didn’t.

“Yeah,” Carlos said, reminding himself not to react with emotion or to avoid the truth—that had not brought him very far. “I spent many months trying to find out what she could possibly have meant by it. Who would’ve thought that it was the name of my own mother?” Carlos snorted mirthlessly.

The Man in Black shut his eyes for about a second, and the composure returned to his shaken expression and body language. “Carlos,” he exhaled.

Carlos spoke on over him. “I have to be the person who knows the least about her out of all the people she was close to. And now I’m stuck wondering what other things Jasmine would’ve had to say to me. Something els