Chapter Three Summary

The radio station sets up an office for Pedro Camacho in a tiny, rundown room previously used as the concierge's cubby room. Marito finds Pedro in the office hard at work very early one morning and invites him to have coffee. At the café, Pedro orders lemon verbena-and-mint herb tea rather than coffee, and they converse about Pedro's work. When they return to the office building, Pedro asks Marito to join him again in the future to help him become more familiar with his new surroundings.

Back at his rooftop office, Marito edits Pascual's grim morning news bulletin about a Panamanian freighter that sank, killing all its crew. As with all of his spare time that week, Marito spends the time between bulletins to work on a story he is writing. When the five page piece, based partially on a story...