Príamo Ferro's detention and declining health

Príamo Ferro's detention and declining health form the final, austere consequence of his confession to killing Honorato Bonafé. He asks to be handed over to the police, signs a statement admitting the killing, and is eventually found responsible for involuntary homicide; transferred from Seville's prison hospital to a supervised residence for elderly priests, he remains there in frail health and near-total isolation, watching the stars in the garden as his life ebbs.

Confession and surrender

Ferro's detention follows the moment when he rejects any offer of help or exculpation. He tells Lorenzo Quart that when he shut the sacristy door, Bonafé was already dead inside the confessional; when Quart asks how he can be sure, Ferro answers that he killed him. The admission closes off the possibility of a defense based on an alibi or supporting testimony. Ferro then tells Quart that the proper course is to deliver him to the police.

The confession is made in the presence of Macarena Bruner and Pencho Gavira. Macarena turns away, suppressing a groan, and grips the railing above the river; Gavira lights another cigarette. Ferro, meanwhile, rises and awkwardly buttons his cassock. The physical gestures frame the confession not as a triumphant resolution but as a decision to accept its consequences, even as the others react in sharply different ways.

Statement and reopened investigations

At the police station, Simeón Navajo tells Quart that Ferro has signed his statement and confirms that he maintains he killed Bonafé. When asked about the other two deaths, Ferro neither confirms nor denies responsibility. Navajo describes the questions as largely procedural: the cases had been considered closed, but Ferro's refusal to answer definitively requires them to be investigated again. His detention therefore rests on an admission concerning Bonafé, while the uncertainty around the other deaths remains unresolved.

Custody and legal prospects

Quart later asks what will happen to Ferro. According to the account relayed from the Nunciature in Madrid, the lawyer Quart found for him is handling the case competently. Those involved hope to secure his release by arguing that old age has impaired him and that the evidence is insufficient; failing that, they expect the Spanish courts might impose a lenient sentence. His age and condition are described as considerations that could weigh in his favor, though Quart doubts that release or a lighter sentence would matter much to him.

For the time being, Ferro is held in Seville's prison hospital in reasonably comfortable circumstances. The possibility of transferring him to a residence for elderly priests is raised while his case proceeds. The eventual outcome is not an acquittal: he is judged responsible for involuntary homicide, then confined in a supervised residence belonging to the Seville diocese.

Declining health and isolation

Quart receives occasional reports from the residence. By the end of the winter in which Vísperas dies, Ferro is in precarious health, and the center's director writes that he is unlikely to live until spring. The prediction gives the legal outcome a stark personal limit: whatever the sentence means in law, the old priest's deteriorating body may leave little time for its consequences to unfold.

Ferro spends his days alone in his room and does not associate with anyone. In good weather, a caretaker accompanies him into the garden, where he sits on a bench and silently watches the stars. The image is a quiet counterpoint to the public confession and police procedure that first define his custody. His final circumstances are neither freedom nor reconciliation, but supervised confinement, solitude, and a habit of looking outward at a sky he does not discuss.