“It’s so weird it’s never happened to you with him, right? Try it. I’m sure that if you make an effort, you can.”

Vicky opened her mouth to explain again, but Gaspar interrupted.

“No,” he said. “Don’t try to get inside my head or anything like that. My dad used to do that. It’s repugnant.”

She looked at her hands, her eyes full of tears.

“You already tried.”

“You didn’t even realize.”

“What was there?”

“A pit,” said Vicky, and she looked up. “A black pit. I wouldn’t do it again.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You can’t lie to me!”

“Don’t fight,” said Pablo. “It’s worse if we fight, because there’s no one else who cares about this. We’ve already been over it a thousand times. Vicky, don’t you realize, for example, that hardly any articles were published in the papers after Adela disappeared? Gaspar has all of them. There are six. That’s it. Any kind of bullshit will get quadruple that coverage. A girl gets lost in a house and they never find her again. A girl who’s missing an arm. And then her mother disappears. They were just alone, like two air plants hanging there. And now, I start fucking this guy just to kill time, because he’s old so he fucks well, or better. There aren’t many, I’ll tell you. Or out of convenience, because he’s powerful, because he’s got a gallery and he belongs to the scene I’m interested in. Whatever. And it turns out the guy takes me under his wing, and when he does a photo show, there’s a portrait of Gaspar and his dad. A giant, impressive photo, impossible to miss. Vicky, ten years have passed and we’re in the same shitty place. Don’t argue over whether you could diagnose him or not. It’s the least of our worries.”

“You can’t hide something like that from me, Vicky. They’re getting closer,” said Gaspar. “They want to get my attention.”

“Who?” asked Vicky, resigned. “You’re sounding paranoid. What do you want to do, Pablo? Let’s hear it, what do you want to do? What can we do?”

“I don’t decide what to do. You’ve got the captain right here. He’s always been in charge.”

Gaspar, who was sitting with his arms crossed, shook his head. Then he said: “I don’t know what to do or what all this means. Not yet. But for now, we wait. And we tell each other everything. In detail. I think we can hold out a little longer.”