"They removed the child to the ballroom, whose hangings and mirrors were covered with a luminous slime." "They leapt through the air with buzzings and twangings, to work themselves up to a ritual crime." "Edward Gorey The Insect God" "Thank you..." "Rosa." "We'll call you." "What do you want?" "Hello." "Do you feel like meeting up?" "Tonight." "I can pick you up." "No, Drazen." "I've just started work and I'm tired." "Not tonight." "Just for a while." "We can meet, and that's it." "I'll leave you back home." "Well?" "No, really." "All I want to do tonight is have supper and sleep." "Not even for a while?" "No, I don't feel like it!" " May I call later?" " Don't you get it?" "Anything else?" "What if we fix things?" "Fix things?" " Get back together?" " Yes." "Get back together properly and be..." "You're just too lazy to find someone else!" "I know you." "Forget it!" "We screwed after we broke up." "I don't want that anymore!" "I don't want to go for a drink and end up in bed!" "This is going nowhere." "I'll call you tomorrow." "Never call me again." " Never?" " Never." "And go to hell." "Nyela!" "Come on, we're 20 minutes behind." "I don't want Mauricio giving off to me." "Won't you even say "Hello"?" "You've got such a nerve." "Come on." "How's your insomnia?" "Awful." "I stopped taking the pills and I'm as bad as ever." "Weren't they working?" "Too well." "I'd take one after supper and be out cold all night." "Why did you stop?" "Because I was practising the choreography." "What's in those pills?" "God knows, but they'd put a rhino to sleep." "Have you noticed?" "Most of them are women." "I guess by that age their husbands have died." "Or gone off with someone younger." "It's good, women live longer." " And we're alone for the last years." " There are worse things." "Depends on how many years, right?" "I guess." "Aren't you running late, Rosa?" "I don't think so." "I'd say you're very late." "Very late?" "Is ten minutes very late?" "Those ten minutes belong to the company so you can make them up..." " Bastard!" "Now get to work!" "BLIND ALLEY" "Hello, this is a message for Rosa Neri." "You've got through to the final selection." "So, congratulations." "But we're in a hurry to choose someone so we're holding the final audition tomorrow." "Tomorrow?" "Come tomorrow at 4:00 and ask for Raquel." "I'm sorry about the rush." "Thank you." "Hi, it's me." "The washing machine is dead." "I tried to call the plumber but I went out without my phone and now I can't find it." "Do you have it?" "So, no washing machine." "Talk to you later." "Byel" "Hi, I'm here." "Well..." "Are you home?" "I got in a while ago." "As you didn't say you'd be back late" "I thought something might have happened..." "Don't worry, I'm fine." "I called you a few times and you didn't pick up." "You know my phone isn't working right." "Oh..." "Well, I was worried." "You get upset over anything." "Have you had supper?" "Of course." "Really?" "What did you eat?" "I had chicken and salad." "Yeah." "Don't you believe me?" " Laura, tell me the truth." " The truth?" "All right, forget it." "So, where are you?" "Well, it seems the audition went well..." "I'm so glad you turned up." "Everything's all right." "Hello, Rosa." "How do you know my..." "It says "Rosa" there." "Oh, yes." "Pleased to meet you." "Why are you here on your own at this time?" "Because it's an emergency." "Shit!" "What happened?" "I was talking to my sister when that man arrived." "I wasn't able to tell her I was here." "May I borrow your phone?" "No, I haven't got one." " You're joking." " No, I swear." "I haven't got one." "Now I have to go home just to tell Laura I'm fine." "We live down there." "There's a phone outside." "Call from there." "Don't worry, I can see you from here." "And I'll keep an eye on your washing." " No, I wasn't worried." " You weren't?" "No, you said your phone was giving you problems." "Where are you?" "At the laundrette." "Look out the kitchen window." "Is he good looking?" "Yes." "Very." "Don't get too distracted." "You have to concentrate on the audition tomorrow." "You should take a pill and get some sleep." "Yes, I'm really exhausted." " But meet him another day." " Look, I'm going now." "Ciao." "...and we decided to go on a long trip with my mom." " How long?" " Very long." "I think that from Colombia to here we passed through lots of countries." "How many?" "I don't know, maybe..." "A thousand?" "Yes, a thousand!" "Why so many?" "That's what I ask myself." "Maybe we don't fit in anywhere." "Let me see what music you listen to." "What is this?" "I don't know, I like it." "When is it from?" "You hadn't even been born." "Nor you." "Nor I." "That's right." "It's old people's music!" "What's wrong with old people?" "Nothing." "Don't look at me like that!" "It's not as if..." " And you..." " And..." " Go on." " No, you go first." "Do you like travelling?" "Who doesn't?" "But I still can't afford it." "I don't always travel for pleasure." "I'm moved house a lot too." "Since I came to this country I've only lived here." "And six months of the year it's half dead." "Aren't you Spanish?" "No." " No?" " No." "Where are you from?" "Guess." "I don't know." "I'm Cuban." "Cuban?" "What?" "You think that we all have curly hair and a big ass?" "Or that we're all black?" "I'm Cuban, and I like fried plantain, rice with chicken, "ropa vieja", avocado, "carnepuerco", and, more than anything, honeyberries." "Yes, you're Cuban." "Come on, dance." "What?" "Dance, Cubans dance." "Sure, because you say so!" " Go on." " No!" "How long have you lived here?" "Three years." "I've moved so often I don't know even where I'm from." "You can be confused without ever moving from the same place." "But getting lost isn't so bad." "How do you mean?" "Getting lost, so no one knows where you are." "Don't you like doing things without people knowing where you are?" "Think about it." "I tell my sister everything." "And if I don't want to be found I turn off my phone." "But as you haven't got one..." "Is there a washroom?" "There's a door on the right, up the stairs." "Okay, thanks." "You should take a pill and get some sleep." "Did you?" "What were you doing?" "Checking if it was working." "It stopped all of a sudden and I went to see if..." "I'm going to look for a washroom and then we can swap phone numbers." "Okay?" "I won't be long." "Your clothes?" "Aren't you taking them out?" "Of course." "I'll be back now." "Gabriel, what phone number will you give me?" "My mother's." "She's got a cell." "Don't go away." "Where are you going?" "Help!" "I'm not moving from here." "Neither am I. I'll wait until somebody comes." "I wasn't going to hurt you." "I wasn't going to hurt you!" "I came here to wash my clothes." "What are you looking at?" "Stay away from there, you bastard!" "Laura!" "It must be scary." "You don't know if I'm here," "waiting for you to come out, or if I'm going after your sister" "to play with her for a while." "You're going to die tonight, of course," "but your sister has got many years of life left." "I don't know if you'd call it life but she's got lots of years left." "Well?" "It's hard to decide, isn't it?" "Aren't you going to warn your sister, coward?" "What if she pays for your cowardice?" "It's your decision." "It won't reach this far, moron." "That's why you're staying away." "Bitch!" "I'm going to kill you!" "Drazen!" "Yes..." " You have to call..." " Who do you think you are?" "What?" "Who do you think you are?" "No, listen to me, please, it's important!" "Is it?" "Who says so?" " Please, you have to..." " You decide what's important?" "Calm down, please!" "You were always ashamed of me." "I wasn't good enough for you." " You wanted something better." " Why did you call?" "To tell you to go to hell." "I'm fucking fed up with you always telling me to go to helll" "Who do you think you are?" "Go to hell and stay therel" "Work, work..." " National Police." " Yes!" "Listen, I need help!" "I'm trapped in a..." "No, no, no!" " Drazen!" " What the..." "Listen to me, please!" " You hung up..." " You must call the police!" "You think you're great but you're just a slutl" "Don't you ever hang up on me againi" "I'm never calling you againi" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "It must be scary." "You don't know if I'm here, or if I'm going after your sister." "Your sister..." "He hasn't gone after her." "He just said it to make me come out." "He's still wandering around out there." "Out there." "Yes, out there." "He's thinking of something to make me come out." "I'm staying here till the sun rises." "Talk to me." "Talk to me!" "That lot have no shame." "No, he can be really attentive but then he switches off." " What's his name?" " Drazen, I told you 100 times." "I can't remember those foreigners' names." "Foreigners?" "From where?" "I have to finish with him, I mean, really finish it." "But say something." "I'd like to know what you think." "I'd rather work without listening to your shitty conversation." "I'm not surprised no man can stand you." "Are we having a chat now?" "I've finished." "What are you looking at?" "No!" "No!" "He's still wandering around out there." "I'm staying here till the sun rises." "It says "Rosa" there." "Please, lend me your phone, I have to make a call." "I have to call the police, a lunatic attacked me." "Lend me your phone." "What?" "I'm in here so that he can't hurt me." "If you don't believe me, you make the call." "Tell them whatever you want, I don't care." "I just want them to come now!" " Please!" " Calm down." "Don't go away." "Don't worry." "I'm in an alley and there's a girl who needs help." "Don't go away." " Please, come here!" " Don't worry, it's all right." "I didn't call the police, I called an ambulance." "It's on its way." "Don't you believe me?" "That doesn't mean I'm not worried about you." "I won't leave you on your own, I'll wait until the medics come." "Come in, quickly!" "I'm a psychiatrist, I'm used to helping people like you." "Calm down a little." "Thank you." "Most people would have just walked past." "That's it." "These clothes belong to the murderer's victim." "They were covered in blood." "But blood stains don't necessarily mean a murder." "Yes, but this..." "Don't you think your story is a bit weak?" "No." "Why?" "If those clothes belonged to the person that man killed, why didn't he burn them?" "Or throw them in a garbage can?" "Isn't it absurd to wash them here?" "I don't know." "Maybe he likes to keep his victims' clothes." "There are people like that!" "A real fetishist killer would want the bloodstained clothes." "These clothes..." "They could be the killer's." "No, they couldn't be, they're a woman's clothes." "And?" "Well, the killer is a man." "Why are you so sure?" "Why did you come here?" "I'm thinking that perhaps" "I didn't come to wash clothes but to pick them up." "Hello?" "Oh, yes, police?" "Help, please, I'm alone in an alley and a very bad man is chasing me." "Stay away from there, you bastard!" "This is the kind of thing a fetishist killer keeps." "A souvenir that any killer would like to keep after a crime." "You see, silly?" "Please, let me live." "I swear I won't tell the police." "My little boy..." "Your sister has got many years of life left."