Chapter 9 - The Price of Evidence
The firefight ended almost as quickly as it began.
Sirens echoed faintly in the distance.
Cruz had deployed a tactical rescue team.
Méndez’s men began pulling back.
Marcos watched the trees.
“They’re leaving.”
Lucía didn’t care.
She was holding the radio.
“Cruz. Talk to me.”
“We have officers at your building.”
“And Sofia?”
“We haven’t made contact.”
Lucía shut her eyes.
Marcos touched her shoulder.
“We’ll get there.”
“How?”
Álex pointed toward the valley road.
“If Cruz sent a team, they sent transport.”
Within twenty minutes, two armored vehicles reached them.
Iván was taken by medics.
As they lifted him onto a stretcher, Lucía stopped beside him.
“You knew my sister was in danger.”
“I found out this morning.”
“You could’ve told me.”
“I know.”
“That’s your answer for everything, isn’t it?”
Iván looked at her.
“No.”
His voice was weak.
“My answer is that I kept choosing fear and calling it strategy.”
Lucía said nothing.
He added, “Don’t become me.”
The ambulance doors closed.
Marcos and Lucía entered the second vehicle.
The drive back felt endless.
Cruz’s updates came every few minutes.
Two suspects arrested.
One wounded.
Apartment cleared.
No Sofia.
Lucía’s hands tightened.
“Where is she?”
Then Cruz called again.
“We found a phone.”
Lucía stared forward.
“Sofia’s?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the parking garage.”
Marcos’s face darkened.
“Kidnapped.”
Cruz continued.
“There’s video.”
“Send it.”
A clip appeared on the vehicle screen.
Sofia was being forced into a black SUV.
One man held her arm.
Another opened the door.
Then Lucía leaned closer.
“Pause.”
Marcos did.
Lucía pointed.
“That man.”
“What?”
“I know him.”
The face was partly turned away.
Gray hair.
Military posture.
Marcos looked confused.
“Who is he?”
Lucía swallowed.
“Colonel Vidal.”
“Who’s Vidal?”
“My father’s former deputy.”
Marcos stared.
“The man who identified his body?”
“Yes.”
Lucía’s breathing changed.
Cruz heard them through the radio.
“Navarro?”
Lucía answered slowly.
“My father didn’t die in a training accident.”
Silence.
Then Cruz said, “I know.”
Lucía looked up sharply.
“What?”
“I found his sealed case file after you sent the code.”
Cruz’s next sentence hit harder than the fall from the helicopter.
May you like
“Lucía, your father was murdered.”
And according to the file, General Serrano had been at the scene.
