Chapter 3 - THE MAN MATEO FEARED
Alejandro drew his pistol.
Valeria immediately covered Mateo’s eyes.
“Take him downstairs.”
This time she agreed.
She carried Mateo away while Alejandro and two guards approached the locked room.
Behind them came the sound of metal breaking.
Then silence.
Downstairs, Valeria sat with Mateo in the kitchen.
Doña Socorro brought him warm milk.
He pushed it away.
“Has he always refused food?” Valeria asked.
“Not always.”
“When did it start?”
Doña Socorro looked toward the door.
“After Señora Lucía died.”
Valeria lowered her voice.
“Does Dr. Vega give him medicine?”
The housekeeper’s hands stopped.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because I smelled medicine upstairs.”
“You are here to clean.”
“I know.”
“Then clean.”
Mateo suddenly knocked over the cup.
Doña Socorro flinched.
Valeria noticed.
Mateo noticed too.
The boy began breathing faster.
“It’s okay,” Valeria said.
She grabbed a towel.
“No one is angry.”
He watched her wipe up the milk.
Ten minutes later Alejandro returned.
His face was colder than before.
“What was inside?” Valeria asked.
“Nothing.”
“That door moved.”
“One of the windows was open.”
Valeria didn’t believe him.
Neither did Mateo.
The little boy stared at his father.
Then slowly shook his head.
Alejandro noticed.
“What?”
Mateo pointed at Alejandro’s jacket pocket.
Alejandro reached inside.
He pulled out a small object.
A red plastic button.
Valeria frowned.
“What is that?”
“I found it under a cabinet.”
Mateo screamed.
He backed away so quickly that his chair fell over.
“No! No!”
Alejandro dropped the button.
Valeria crouched beside Mateo.
“What is it?”
He pointed toward the button.
Then toward his arm.
He pinched his skin.
Again.
Again.
Valeria understood.
“Needle?”
Mateo nodded.
Alejandro’s face drained of color.
“What needle?”
The front door opened.
A calm male voice entered the house.
“Alejandro?”
Mateo went rigid.
Dr. Esteban Vega walked into the kitchen.
He was in his early fifties, silver-haired, neat, expensive without being flashy.
His eyes moved from Alejandro to Valeria.
Then to Mateo.
“Interesting,” he said.
Mateo hid behind Valeria.
Dr. Vega smiled.
“Who is your new friend?”
Valeria felt the boy clutch the back of her uniform.
Alejandro held up the red button.
“I found this upstairs.”
For the first time, the doctor’s expression changed.
Only for a second.
Then the smile returned.
“It looks like part of a medical kit.”
“Why would it be in my wife’s locked room?”
Vega shrugged.
“I treated Mateo there after the funeral.”
“You told me you treated him in his bedroom.”
“I may have used other rooms.”
Mateo began shaking.
Valeria lowered herself.
“Mateo, look at me.”
Dr. Vega stepped closer.
The boy recoiled.
“Interesting attachment,” Vega said.
“He barely knows you.”
Valeria looked up.
“Maybe that’s why he trusts me.”
Vega smiled thinly.
“Children with severe trauma sometimes attach themselves to strangers. It means very little.”
Mateo suddenly reached down.
He picked up Valeria’s cleaning cloth.
With one finger, he drew something in the spilled milk still remaining on the tile.
Three lines.
A circle.
Then a shape like a flame.
Alejandro crouched.
“What is that?”
Mateo pointed at Dr. Vega.
Then he pointed at the drawing.
Valeria looked at the doctor’s pocket.
The silver lighter was visible.
Dr. Vega slowly covered it with his hand.
May you like
And Mateo whispered one word.
“Bad.”
