Flora—Anne Arbizu

Flora and Anne Arbizu are linked by a discreet meeting, a conspicuous effort to conceal their association, and an interrogation that leaves the nature of their bond unresolved. Freddy’s account gives Amaia Salazar reason to suspect that Anne influenced Flora, but neither his observations nor Flora’s emotional response establish that they were lovers or that Flora avenged Anne’s death. The relationship matters precisely because its intimacies remain partly hidden: an embrace and a denial open a line of inquiry, while grief makes Amaia reconsider what she thinks she sees.

The Meeting and Its Witness

Freddy places Flora and Anne together at the bakery, where he says he saw Anne leave through the back door of the storeroom after meeting Flora. The encounter was brief, but the women parted with what he describes as an especially affectionate embrace. His account makes the meeting more than a casual sighting: he understands it as evidence of a connection that Flora did not want others to notice.

A later encounter sharpened his suspicion. On a Sunday, Freddy was having vermouth with Ros at the gorapes when Flora stopped to greet them and said she had come from Mass. Anne then passed along the street. Freddy says he pretended not to notice her; Flora, he recalls, concealed her reaction even more carefully. Ros appeared not to notice anything. The contrast between Flora’s composure and Freddy’s own deliberate pretense is what, in retrospect, made him dwell on the moment.

Freddy says he subsequently asked Anne about her connection to Flora. Anne denied that he had seen what he thought he had seen, told him he was mistaken, and became angry; he let the matter drop because, at the time, he considered it irrelevant to him. His testimony therefore combines a concrete observation with an interpretation and a secondhand denial. It supports the existence of a private encounter and concealment, but does not disclose what the women discussed or what their relationship meant to either of them.

Freddy’s Interpretation and Its Limits

Freddy frames his suspicions within his own account of Anne’s influence over him. He admits that he hurt Ros through both thoughtlessness and conscious choices, and says Anne clouded his judgment and made him feel unable to resist her. He presents her as someone who chose him and manipulated him, and is certain that she also had an understanding with Flora. This is Freddy’s retrospective explanation of his conduct and of the people around Anne; it is not independent confirmation that she controlled Flora in the same way.

The distinction matters because Freddy’s evidence about Flora is narrower than his certainty. He says he saw the two women meet and embrace, noticed Flora conceal her reaction when Anne passed, and heard Anne deny the connection. He does not describe the content of their meeting, and the scene at the gorapes is filtered through his memory of what later seemed significant. His testimony gives Amaia a reason to ask questions, but leaves open whether Flora and Anne were close friends, confidantes, or connected in some other way. The story supplies suspicion, not a definitive label for their intimacy.

Amaia’s Confrontation with Flora

When Amaia raises Anne’s name during her investigation, Flora’s expression changes slightly. Asked to speak about Anne, she restrains herself, though a faint tremor in her jaw betrays tension. She does not immediately deny knowing her; instead, she asks what Amaia wants to know. This hesitation does not prove a hidden relationship, but it marks the subject as one Flora finds difficult to address.

Amaia then presents Freddy’s account more specifically: Anne had been seen leaving the bakery through the storeroom entrance after an affectionate farewell with Flora. Flora suggests that Anne might have come to see an employee, and, when Amaia insists that she came to see Flora, walks to the window so that Amaia cannot see her face. She replies that she does not understand why such a meeting would matter to the case, if it happened. Her response neither confirms the encounter nor provides a clear denial; instead, it challenges its relevance while removing her expression from Amaia’s view.

The exchange turns openly adversarial when Flora insists that Amaia has no proof. Amaia agrees that she lacks proof of the meeting, then shifts to what she believes she knows about Anne: that the apparently angelic woman was darker and more complicated than she seemed, and that she exercised a powerful influence over people who knew her. Amaia asks what Flora’s relationship with Anne was, how Anne influenced her, and whether Flora loved her enough to avenge her death. These are questions and accusations posed during an investigation, not findings the narrative confirms.

Grief and the Unresolved Bond

After Amaia’s accusation, Flora presses her head and hands against the glass and remains still for several seconds. She then makes a guttural sound, turns away, and collapses onto the sofa in tears. Amaia has never seen Flora cry before, not even when they were children. The intensity of this response reveals pain, but does not by itself identify its cause: Flora neither explains her feelings about Anne nor answers Amaia’s question about revenge.

Amaia’s interpretation consequently shifts. She considers whether she has misread Flora’s distress, and whether the pain comes instead from having had to shoot Víctor, a man Flora may have loved in her own way. That possibility complicates the accusation that Flora acted for Anne: the visible grief cannot be treated as proof of a single attachment or motive. The scene leaves Flora’s bond with Anne emotionally charged but unconfirmed, and places the investigator’s certainty under pressure. A private embrace, a concealed recognition, and a breakdown have brought the connection into view without resolving what it was.