Daniel Sempere spends the afternoon watching the army draft letter and waiting for Fermín Romero de Torres to contact him. With Fermín still missing after closing, Daniel calls Doña Encarna at Fermín’s pensión and learns Fermín has not returned since morning. Daniel then calls the Barceló home and unexpectedly speaks with Clara Barceló, who suggests rebuilding their friendship and invites Daniel for tea to discuss “things to tell,” before revealing she is engaged to a banker named Jacobo.

Over a tense, quiet dinner, Daniel and his father avoid talking, weighed down by Daniel’s imminent conscription. Daniel tries to reassure his father by explaining that Barceló will attempt to arrange a safer posting in Barcelona after training, but the worry remains palpable.

That night Inspector Fumero bursts into the apartment with two officers, demanding to know “where he is,” meaning Fermín. Fumero shoves Daniel’s father aside, threatens both of them, and jams a revolver into Daniel’s cheek, promising that when he finds Fermín there will be “no judges” and that Daniel will be next. After officer Lerma searches and finds no one, Fumero leaves, calling to another officer, Palacios, who lingers briefly as if conflicted.

Near midnight, Don Anacleto arrives in a panic with a still-warm newspaper: tomorrow’s edition. The paper reports that Nuria Monfort has been stabbed to death in San Gervasio and that police are hunting the alleged killer, identified as a “tramp” named Antonio José Gutiérrez Alcayete—published alongside an older photograph of Fermín—making it clear Fermín is being publicly framed and is now the target of a citywide manhunt.