The Absent Voice (2024) s01e04 Episode Script

- (BELL RINGING)
- (INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
MANSILLA: Life puts a whole world
of possibilities before us.
What piece to move.
What will happen ten moves ahead.
The key is adapting
to whom I have in front of me.
The only thing that changes
is us and the person
who's on the other side of the board.
Their moves will be different
from any other person.
I can only adapt
if I'm willing to get to know them,
and finally, understand them.
(CHUCKLES)
(SNIFFLES)
(LAUGHS)
(ALL APPLAUDING)
Wonderful game, little lady.
(CHUCKLES) Congratulations.
I hope you're very happy
with your new family, Cami.
This will always be your home, you know?
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
THE ABSENT VOICE
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MAN AND WOMAN MOANING)
(UPBEAT SONG PLAYING)
LAURA: Good evening.
I need to know
if Hernán Hontou is staying here.
- Are you a cop?
- No, I'm his mother.
I don't think he's here.
- May I come in?
- RECEPTIONIST: No, I can't let you in.
But, if you want,
you can leave a message here.
I'll give it to him later.
I'll come back later.
Okay.
(CAR LOCK BEEPS)
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
LEMOS INSTITUTE
OUR MISSION IS FOR CHILDREN
CECILIA: Is this the stamp you use?
EVIDENCE
Yes, that's the one.
Can you tell us if any of these titles
are missing from the library?
LIBRARIAN: I can check.
- PABLO: Please.
- Let's see.
LIBRARIAN: Borrowed in 2019.
Yes, by the same person. A resident.
Evidently, he never returned them.
Do you have a name?
Yes. Santana. Dante Santana.
(BELL RINGING)
(MANSILLA SIGHS)
Here, we intend to be a provisional step
in the lives of the kids,
until they settle in with a family, hmm?
But, in the case of Dante,
that wasn't possible.
I guess I was the closest thing
to a father he ever had.
Do you recognize him?
No. I don't know.
Dante never wore glasses.
But I haven't seen him in years.
It's very ambiguous.
Very generic.
No, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure.
CECILIA: Can we see his files?
MANSILLA: The documents of each resident
are transferred to the ministry
every year. Nothing's left in here.
CECILIA: Any idea
of where we can find him?
MANSILLA: He graduated when he was 18.
Once they graduate, we lose track of them.
Any family members?
Yes. His father left him here.
Cipriano Santana.
He was a newborn baby.
Did you try to reunite them?
Of course. We always try.
It didn't work.
You know,
forgiveness isn't easy in these cases.
There's almost always
something broken in these kids,
and lots to heal.
That's him.
Yes. How did you know?
He was five years old there.
And who is this kid?
MANSILLA: Ernesto, Dante's only friend.
We used to call them "Siamese twins,"
because they were always together.
At 14, Ernesto
left the institution, and
Dante, poor kid, he struggled a lot.
You know? Friends, sometimes,
are our real family.
VESUVIUS HOTEL
(CAR HONKS)
(BABY CRYING)
(KEYS JANGLING)
- (LOCK CLICKS)
- LAURA: Hernán!
- (EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)
- (BABY CRYING)
POLICE
(INDISTINCT CHATTER ON POLICE RADIO)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS)
OFFICER 1: Kick the door in.
OFFICER 2: Clear.
OFFICER 3 : Clear!
OFFICER 4: Clear!
OFFICER 5: Go ahead.
OFFICER 2: To the left.
OFFICER 3: Area clear.
OFFICER 2: Clear.
Thanks.
(DOG BARKING DISTANTLY)
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
OFFICER: Fuck. We should put
this one in jail just for being a pig.
CECILIA: What do you have?
Dry blood. There's more in there.
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)
Rouviot.
He left this for us.
"Welcome to my house. Come freely.
"Go safely; and leave something
of the happiness you bring!"
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
The Minotaur.
We're in his labyrinth.
SOFÍA: He came to get a tattoo.
CECILIA: When?
I don't know. Three months ago?
- What did he get?
- A tree.
He brought the design,
but it was too detailed,
so it took me
like three sessions to finish it.
He's incredibly meticulous.
He paid and left? Never saw him again?
No, he owed me money.
That's why I told him to call me.
Meticulous in what way?
In that he knew exactly what he wanted.
He was on my back so I would do it
exactly the way he wanted it.
And he had studied.
He knew about inks, needles.
He was like an expert.
In all the time you shared,
what impression
do you think you made on him?
What?
PABLO: A meticulous, obsessive,
detail-oriented man,
what might he think
about someone like you?
Someone like me?
What the fuck is wrong with you?
What, you think he respects you?
Or did he use you?
SOFÍA: No.
You don't know how it is.
You don't know him.
We connected on a special level.
I told him things about my life
- that I never--
- CECILIA: In just three sessions?
SOFÍA: No.
We kept seeing each other for a while.
CECILIA: You were lovers.
No. It was different.
And Hernán?
Hernán and I weren't okay.
I needed to vent, and Dante was there.
I told him about our life.
I let him come into our house.
I introduced them myself.
(CRIES)
Sofía, we need you to tell us where he is.
I don't know where he is. I don't know.
I called him, but he won't answer.
He disappeared.
(RAT SQUEAKING)
(INTENSE MUSIC BUILDS)
More pieces from Dante's head.
They were in his room.
Check those when you can.
"You can blast my other passions,
but revenge remains."
- Melodramatic.
- Frankenstein.
Who does Dante want to take revenge on?
People who fucked up his life?
And who fucked up Frankenstein's life?
The real monster, his creator.
Serial killers are
profoundly self-centered.
Everything has to do with their belief,
their fetishes, their biography.
He's a monster taking revenge
on another monster.
And who are these monsters?
Everyone has a sinister side.
Some hide it better than others.
Is that why you specialized
in detecting them?
So you wouldn't overlook them again?
You're right.
Víctor Cardozo hid it well.
He didn't have any records.
It was a confusing episode.
In fact, the victim herself denied it.
The one who reported him
was her father, Andrés Urioste.
The judge requested
a psychological profile
to confirm his sentence.
That's when I came in,
fresh out of college.
In two sessions, the guy convinced me.
He made me believe
he wasn't a danger to society.
The sentence was lenient.
He left prison,
went to find Lucía,
and shot her five times.
He disappeared after that.
That doesn't make you a monster.
No.
No, my monstruous side is psychoanalysis.
(CHUCKLES)
- That's why you went to Spain?
- I didn't have anything left here.
Look who's being melodramatic now.
What? Did someone
break your heart, Rouviot?
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
You could be a psychoanalyst.
Let's pretend I am. Tell me.
No.
- No, you can't be my therapist. No.
- CECILIA: Why not?
Do you know what erotic transference is?
(SCOFFS)
I'm sorry. I was too straightforward.
(SIGHS)
CECILIA: A few years ago,
when I first joined the force,
I was assigned a patrol partner.
We were together all day,
responding to calls.
Until one day, we fell in love.
We fell. Hard.
But a romance between partners
is not recommended,
so we kept it a secret.
My father wouldn't accept it.
One day, we had a 10-13, an episode
of domestic violence in a building,
a lovers' quarrel.
When we arrested the guy
and were getting him in the car,
the woman came out of nowhere
and started shooting.
Mauro threw himself to cover me.
He took one of those shots,
a shot that was meant for me.
Did he die instantly?
(SIGHS)
If you ask him on a bad day,
he will say yes, but no.
It shattered one of his vertebrae
and he was paralyzed from the chest down.
- (EXHALES)
- He's adjusting.
PABLO: Mmm-hmm.
We're adjusting.
(CHUCKLES DRYLY)
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
What's up, Little Rooster?
I was looking for you.
Tell me.
I need a gun.
A gun?
What do you want a gun for?
There's a guy threatening me.
How is he threatening you?
He broke into my house.
He's leaving messages.
Doesn't matter, Lucas.
He's threatening me.
- (INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
- Will you help me or not?
COACH: Come. Let's go, we're leaving.
Let's play.
OLMOS: I get her on Saturdays, and she
stays the whole weekend with me.
- I make her schnitzels, we watch movies.
- CECILIA: Mmm.
OLMOS: She combs my hair,
puts makeup on me.
I let her do whatever she wants.
(CECILIA CLAPS)
- How old is she now?
- Five years old.
- I look forward to Saturdays.
- (DOG BARKS DISTANTLY)
Look, my time with my granddaughter
is the difference between being alive
and a living death.
It's the counterweight to all this shit.
Without a counterweight,
we in this workforce
would be floating in shit.
And it's good advice for you,
as you're starting.
Get a counterweight.
If not, you'll age before aging.
Remember my words.
What do you want?
- Cipriano Santana?
- CIPRIANO: Yes.
No, I didn't even raise him.
With everything that happened
His mother died when he was born.
I was a gardener.
I worked in some orchards in the area.
- Your wife too?
- CIPRIANO: She was a cleaner.
The day everything happened,
she requested the day off
because she was feeling unwell.
I went to work.
How could I have imagined
When I came back, I found her.
(BABY CRYING)
You decided to give him up that same day?
What was I supposed to do with a kid?
I couldn't handle anything.
I handle her, couldn't handle myself.
You never saw him again?
No, never.
MARIO: Next time, come in working hours.
You put me in a tight spot.
- Yes, I know. Sorry.
- It's there.
- Thanks, Mario.
- Okay.
(DOOR CLOSES)
(DOOR SLAMS)
EVIDENCE
Welcome to my house.
Come freely.
Here you are.
LAST NAME: SANTANA - NAME: DANTE
LEMOS INSTITUTE
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMEN
EVIDENCE
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS)
Welcome to my house. Come freely.
III. CONCLUSIONS
PRESENTS SIGNS OF IRASCIBILITY
AND SELF-HARM
SELF-HARM
Vampirism
The Vampire's Metamorphosis
obsession with youth
corrupting the innocent
DR. JOSE ROUVIO
CLINICAL PHYSICIAN - PSYCHIATRIS
(LINE RINGING)
MAN: Lemos Institute, good evening.
(COPY MACHINE WHIRS)
(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
CECILIA: Please leave a message
after the tone.
Bermúdez, call me when you can.
It's about Dante.
I think I know
who his next victim will be.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(LINE RINGS)
- GUARD: Good evening.
- Hello.
I'm here to see the principal.
- GUARD: Is he expecting you?
- Yes, I spoke to him. He's expecting me.
- GUARD: Hold on.
- Thanks.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(CELL PHONE CHIMES)
(THUD)
(MANSILLA COUGHS)
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)