Because they would be coming any minute now, any second, actually, and the only warning he would get would be the sound of the opening of the outside door and then two pairs of footsteps in the hall, the one sharp and stabby and the other flat, flat as the palm of your hand […]

a cider mill; a cane mill

There is the small effortless chupse of indifference; the thin hard chupse of mere disdain; the long, liquid, vibrating chupse which shakes the rafters and expresses every kind of defiance."

The killer retracted his confession, but later reconfessed.