The Baztán River at Rosario’s disappearance is both a possible route to her death and an inconclusive source of evidence. A month after Rosario vanished, no body had been recovered; the river’s shifting currents could have carried it far away or trapped it out of sight. For Amaia Salazar, however, the coat found in the water does not prove that Rosario drowned: it could have been left as a decoy.

The River and the Search

A lieutenant explains that coastal patrols have been alerted after consultations with the maritime command in San Sebastián and its counterpart in La Rochelle. The coast guards consider a month long enough for a body to have appeared somewhere along the shore. Sea currents might carry it along the Cantabrian coast, with currents moving upward making France a more likely destination.

The river presents other possibilities. A body could have caught on an object and remained anchored on the riverbed. Torrential rain might instead have swept it several miles out to sea and deposited it in one of the deep chasms common in the Bay of Biscay. The lieutenant warns that bodies are sometimes never recovered and urges the searchers to consider that possibility after so much time has passed.

Evidence and Disagreement

The river’s uncertainty becomes a point of conflict at home. James argues that more than a month has passed since the river carried Rosario away and treats a funeral as appropriate. Amaia objects that the family does not know Rosario is dead. The fact that her coat was found in the river proves nothing about what happened to her, she insists; it might have been thrown in as a decoy.

James counters that this theory attributes improbable abilities to an elderly woman who would have had to cross a swollen river at night during a storm. Engrasi listens nearby, her lips pressed together. The disagreement turns the river’s physical uncertainty into a family dispute over whether to accept loss or continue to regard Rosario’s fate as unknown.

A Place in the Wider Investigation

The river also figures in a separate investigation when Amaia crosses a bridge and sees fire vehicles at the end of a street. In Baztán, firefighters are responsible for transporting injured and ill people to hospital. As the car approaches a house with its door open, Amaia feels the air leave the vehicle’s enclosed space and has to open her mouth to breathe. She asks the others for the dead woman’s name; Inspector Iriarte recalls only that her surname is Ochoa.

The contrast is sharp: at Rosario’s river, the absence of a body sustains uncertainty; at the open house, the report is of a woman already found dead. The river’s significance lies not in a confirmed answer about Rosario, but in how its currents, missing evidence, and disputed clues keep that answer beyond reach.