Daniel and Fermín arrive at the Hospice of Santa Lucía through a decaying courtyard and bluff their way inside by posing as undertaker’s assistants responding to a nun’s call about a corpse. Sister Hortensia, weary and unsuspicious, leads them through foul corridors lined with bed wards and a shadowy hall of patients who appear almost like wax figures in the candlelight.

Sister Hortensia shows them a small, unventilated cell where a swollen, purple corpse lies in a wooden crate on a marble table, surrounded by damp stone, hanging chains, and a sewage grate. She asks them to remove the body discreetly so the other patients will not see it. Once she leaves, Fermín insists they must find Jacinta Coronado quickly before their disguise collapses.

Daniel and Fermín return to the main hall and begin asking the patients about Jacinta. The inquiries yield only incoherent noises and hostile stares, and Fermín’s own attempts fail as well, convincing him that the room is full of people too broken or unwilling to help.

Daniel tries again with a livelier-looking group, but the apparent leader, Juanito, tricks him by luring him close and then loudly farting, setting the others into delighted laughter. As Daniel recoils, an articulate, sharp-eyed old man intervenes, mocking the hospice’s “social structure” and challenging Daniel’s lies about being Jacinta’s grandson.

Pressed to be truthful, Daniel admits he urgently needs to speak with Jacinta. The old man offers help only in exchange for Daniel’s promise to find him a prostitute—young by his standards, lively, and talkative—before he dies. With time running out and no better lead, Daniel gives his word and again asks where to find Jacinta Coronado.