Day 2

At dawn, a second letter is slid under Luca’s door, berating him for speaking to the night receptionist and declaring a single rule: to save Telma—alive for now—Luca must kill someone. Inside the envelope is a blue cloth scrap with yellow suns, which Luca recognizes as a piece of Telma’s dress from the day she vanished. Shaken, he hides the letter and cloth.

Noise erupts in the hostel: the receptionist Javier has been murdered. Police seize Luca, noting the register’s final entry about an angry French guest discussing a letter. At the station, an inspector in a blue suit interrogates Luca about his visit, his temper, and his boxing, suggesting the killer delivered a single precise blow. Luca withholds any mention of the letters and the dress scrap, gives fingerprints and saliva, and is eventually released but forbidden to leave London.

Memories surface: a past sentencing officer, Robert Marguery, redirected Luca’s youthful violence into library community service, nudging him toward books and bookshops. Other flashbacks recall Telma’s childhood and Luca’s first day at secondary school, when Joe Kernohan pledged to help find her—reminding Luca of lost support he now refuses to endanger.

Outside, alone and fearful yet newly resolute, Luca calls his mother. Her evasions and sudden anger convince him she knows something about Telma. As night falls near Hyde Park, a stranger delivers a third red envelope, paid by a woman who also gave him a Polaroid of Luca leaving the police station—proof he’s being closely watched. Stunned, Luca dials home again and asks his mother if she is in London.