He broke off our gaze to thump at the door again.

“Maria!” he bellowed. “Abre la puerte!”

A loud but indecipherable female voice barked back. A chain lock jangled inside and the door swung open. A thin woman stood in the doorway, her hand on her hip. She was barefoot, wore a pink faux-leather miniskirt and green vest which she had rolled up above her small pot belly. A trail of thin black hair stretched from the waistband of her skirt to her exposed navel.