The police inspector has Elsa’s belongings searched, and they discover the letter that was stolen from Marta. The inspector notes that the letter’s handwriting does not resemble the elegant script of Rosa’s letters to Camilo. Based on its contents, he acquits Camilo of Marta’s murder and instead convicts the owner of the Half Moon Hotel.

The letter is then presented in its entirety. Marta writes to her aunt, Camilo’s former laundress, after being released from prison after five years. Upon her release, she discovered that her aunt had left the place where they lived together and moved somewhere else. With nowhere to go, Marta turned to an old friend, Iris, who offered her a place to live on the condition that Marta would begin working for her as a sex worker. Iris was affiliated with the hotel owner, and his associate, the Minister (the same person whom Réguel described as having a woman’s voice). The hotel owner and the Minister eventually held Marta hostage, with the Minister giving Marta “a beating of the kind, well, of the kind women don’t like” (189). Marta managed to escape—brutally beating Iris on her way out—but once again had nowhere to go.