“You seem to be contradicting yourself. Earlier you testified that you saw the two men being introduced after their first argument. They obviously did not know one another if they had to be introduced. How can you now testify that you knew nothing of their relationship?”

Cornered and confused, Santa did not answer. Instead, she looked the attorney up and down, as if waiting for him to provide the answer that he wanted. Then she bowed her head to formulate a new statement, and finally she said clearly, with a shrug of her shoulders:

“I just don't know. It's true that I saw them introduced, but I don't … I really don't know … what you're asking about their relationship.”

Connoisseurs of forensic technique were no doubt preparing to applaud the questioner's shrewdness and agility, which seemed to have fatally compromised this witness. They were disappointed, however, when the defense attorney, inexplicably satisfied, gave Santa a slight, ominous nod and indicated to the judge that there would be no further questions.

As Santa left the witness stand, she had another chill, this one less harsh but more persistent than the first, and she was obliged to spend another long quarter hour in the witness room as the court decided whether, in view of her sudden indisposition and flagrantly contradictory testimony, she should be given permission to go home.

She did not utter a word in the dilapidated rental coach between Cordobanes Street and the door of Elvira's house. Pepa, who rode with her, thought that Santa had a fever, and she let the girl lie in her lap, comforting her and cursing the authorities who gave them such a hard time:

“As soon as you have a good sweat, the fever will break and you'll feel better, my dear …” And had the other two women in the coach seen the airs that old So-and-So put on tonight? A grand official of the court, the idiot! “He's in big trouble the next time that shows up at the house!”

Straight to their wide, empty beds, untouched in the cool dawn owing to the total absence of clientele, went the witnesses. Meanwhile, Elivra cursed like a cart driver. How dare those cretins at the Palace of Justice! For no good reason at all, in order to supposedly clarify events that required no clarification, they keep her girls all night? And she has good, paying customers, including el Jarameño, waiting patiently for nothing? Well, the customers finally went to satisfy their need for a woman in one of the rival houses of the neighborhood! Standing in front of her submissive livestock, the irate madam examined them one by one, slapping their flaccid thighs and inquiring of no one in particular:

“And who is going to indemnify me … huh? Who? They've cost me two hundred pesos at the very least … the very least! Nobody better kill anybody here from now on! If somebody has got to kill, let them do it in the street, where they kill dogs, and let us earn a living! … Tomorrow night, I'm taking a double cut at parlor time, hear? You've got to help make this up, too! Get more from your clients. You know how … as if you didn't! … And you, Hipo … no music, no money, hear? … Pepa, get this one upstairs, give her a drink, and pile blankets on her to make her sweat.”