Chapter 4 - THE RECORDING
Nobody moved.
Alejandro stared at his old friend.
“Explain that.”
Dr. Vega gave a quiet laugh.
“A traumatized four-year-old called me bad. Surely you’re not building a criminal case around that.”
Alejandro’s eyes hardened.
“No.”
He picked up the red button.
“But I’m starting to build questions.”
Vega straightened.
“You asked me to help your son.”
“And have you?”
“I’ve kept him alive.”
Valeria didn’t like the way he said it.
Alejandro heard it too.
“What does that mean?”
“Your son was severely unstable after Lucía’s death. He needed sedation at times.”
“You told me the medication was mild.”
“It was.”
Mateo began making the clicking motion.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Dr. Vega looked toward him.
“Stop that.”
Mateo flinched.
Valeria stood.
“Don’t talk to him like that.”
Vega stared at her.
“Excuse me?”
“You scared him.”
“I’m his doctor.”
“And I’m the person he’s hiding behind.”
Alejandro almost smiled.
Almost.
Then one of the guards entered.
“Señor Ríos, you need to see something.”
Alejandro followed him into the security room.
Valeria stayed with Mateo.
Five minutes later Alejandro called her in.
A bank of monitors covered one wall.
Calderón sat at the console.
“We checked archived footage,” he said.
“From the north wing?”
“There are no cameras inside the hall.”
“Then what are we looking at?”
Calderón played footage from a side entrance.
The timestamp showed 2:14 a.m.
Three months earlier.
A man entered using a key.
His face was hidden beneath a cap.
But his walk was familiar.
Valeria leaned closer.
“He limps.”
Alejandro turned toward Vega.
The doctor had followed them.
Vega’s expression didn’t change.
“I don’t limp.”
“No,” Valeria said.
“But someone else does.”
Alejandro knew exactly who.
His younger brother Rafael had carried a slight limp since a motorcycle accident at nineteen.
Alejandro stepped toward the screen.
“Why was Rafael entering this house at two in the morning?”
Calderón looked uncomfortable.
“He has permanent security clearance.”
“He lives forty minutes away.”
Nobody answered.
Alejandro turned to Vega.
“You and my brother were both involved in Mateo’s treatment.”
“We wanted to help him.”
“Then why was I never told Rafael came here at night?”
Vega’s eyes cooled.
“You were barely home that year, Alejandro.”
The words landed hard.
Because they were true.
After Lucía died, Alejandro had buried himself in business and revenge.
He had convinced himself that providing guards, doctors, and money made him a good father.
Maybe it had just made him absent.
Valeria saw the guilt cross his face.
Mateo pulled on her sleeve.
He held something in his fist.
A tiny plastic device.
Valeria recognized it immediately.
A digital recorder.
“Where did you get that?”
Mateo pointed toward the hallway.
Apparently he had taken it from upstairs while no one noticed.
Alejandro pressed play.
At first there was static.
Then a woman’s voice filled the room.
Lucía.
Alejandro grabbed the desk.
“Oh my God.”
The recording crackled.
“If anything happens to me, it wasn’t an accident.”
Alejandro stopped breathing.
Lucía continued.
“Rafael knows I found the accounts.”
Then came a loud noise.
A door opening.
And a man’s voice.
“You should have minded your own business, Lucía.”
May you like
Alejandro slowly turned toward the security monitors.
Because every person in that room recognized Rafael’s voice.
