Chapter 14 - THE FIRE AT ELENA’S APARTMENT
Mateo reached the apartment before the firefighters finished arriving.
Smoke poured from a second-floor window.
“Mom.”
He tried to run inside.
A firefighter blocked him.
“You cannot enter.”
“My mother is in there.”
“We’re searching.”
Mateo looked up.
Flames crawled behind the curtains.
Then a firefighter appeared at the front entrance carrying Elena.
Mateo pushed through the crowd.
She was coughing but conscious.
“Mom.”
“I’m okay.”
Her hands were shaking.
“They wanted something.”
“Who?”
“A man in a mask.”
“What did he ask for?”
“The pictures.”
Mateo looked at Salgado.
Sebastián knew the negatives had been found.
Elena gripped Mateo’s sleeve.
“He said if I didn’t tell him where you took them, he would burn the apartment.”
Mateo’s jaw tightened.
“And then?”
“I told him something your father taught me.”
“What?”
Elena managed a weak smile.
“I told him to go to hell.”
Despite everything, Mateo laughed once.
Then his mother’s expression became serious.
“There’s another thing you should know.”
She looked toward the burning apartment.
“Ignacio mailed copies.”
Salgado moved closer.
“To whom?”
“A journalist.”
“Name?”
“Daniel Ortega.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
“He disappeared after Ignacio died.”
Mateo stared.
“Another disappearance?”
Elena nodded.
“Your father told me if anything happened, Daniel would publish everything.”
“But he never did.”
“Because someone stopped him.”
Salgado began searching old records.
Daniel Ortega had indeed been an investigative journalist in the early 1990s.
Six days after Ignacio’s death, Ortega left Mexico City.
His official records showed no clear destination.
He never worked under his real name again.
Then a database search found a possible match.
A Daniel O. Reyes living in Tucson, Arizona.
Age seventy-one.
Former newspaper editor.
Salgado looked at Mateo.
“If he has copies, Sebastián may know too.”
Mateo looked toward his mother.
“Then we find him first.”
But before anyone could move, Salgado received another call.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
Mateo watched him listen.
Then Salgado lowered the phone.
“Sebastián just called the station.”
“What does he want?”
“You.”
Mateo laughed without humor.
“He keeps making that mistake.”
May you like
Salgado’s expression remained grave.
“He says he has Laura.”
