Chapter 13 - THE FALSE LEDGER
Mateo stared at Salgado.
“You switched them?”
“Before you left.”
“What did Sebastián take?”
“A copy.”
Mateo almost laughed.
For the first time in two days, a plan had gone in their favor.
But Salgado was not smiling.
“He’ll discover it quickly.”
“What about the photographs he mentioned?”
“We need to find them before he does.”
Jimena, still wrapped around Mateo, suddenly spoke.
“Grandpa’s pictures?”
Both men looked down.
Mateo crouched.
“What pictures?”
“The tiny ones.”
“Where did you see them?”
“In the little house.”
Mateo’s heart jumped.
“The model house?”
Jimena nodded.
“Emi showed me.”
“But the model house disappeared.”
Jimena thought.
“Aunt Rebeca took it.”
Salgado immediately called the detention center.
Rebeca agreed to another interview.
This time, there were no games.
“The model house is in Sebastián’s warehouse.”
“Where?”
Rebeca gave them an address in an industrial district outside Celaya.
Salgado organized a raid.
Inside the warehouse, police discovered stolen documents, surveillance equipment, fake identification cards, and records connected to multiple construction firms.
They also found the model house.
Mateo removed the tiny roof.
Nothing.
He turned it over.
A thin wooden panel had been glued beneath the miniature staircase.
Salgado pried it loose.
Inside was a packet of microfilm and old photographic negatives.
Ignacio had hidden proof within a child’s toy.
Perhaps he believed nobody involved in multimillion-dollar corruption would bother searching something built for his daughter.
He was almost right.
Salgado held one negative toward the light.
“These could prove everything.”
“Including Dad’s murder?”
“Maybe.”
A detective entered the warehouse.
“Sir.”
Salgado turned.
“We found another room.”
The room contained photographs of Mateo’s family.
Hundreds of them.
Laura leaving work.
Jimena entering preschool.
Elena buying groceries.
Mateo driving.
Emiliano at school before his disappearance.
Then Mateo found recent photographs.
Taken after Emiliano had been rescued.
The hospital.
The police station.
Even the factory where Ernesto was arrested.
Sebastián had people everywhere.
Mateo turned one photograph over.
A date and time had been written on the back.
Tomorrow.
9:00 p.m.
Beneath it was an address.
Mateo recognized the place.
His mother’s apartment.
Then his phone rang.
May you like
Elena was screaming.
Someone had just broken into her building.
