Chapter 3 - THE NAME THE POLICE KNEW
The ambulance rushed toward Hospital Ángeles with Mateo sitting beside his son.
Jimena rode with a police officer behind them.
Rebeca was taken in another vehicle.
Mateo barely noticed any of it.
He watched the monitors attached to Emiliano.
Every beep felt like permission to breathe.
The doctors met them at the emergency entrance.
Emiliano was immediately taken behind double doors.
Mateo tried to follow.
A nurse stopped him.
“We need room to work.”
“That’s my son.”
“And we’re going to help him.”
Mateo stood there helplessly as the doors closed.
He had spent eleven months searching.
Now that Emiliano was finally within reach, even a wall between them felt unbearable.
Detective Salgado arrived twenty minutes later.
He carried an old case file.
Mateo saw Emiliano’s school photograph clipped to the front.
“I need to ask you something.”
Mateo looked at him.
“Who is Sebastián?”
Salgado hesitated.
“That depends on which Sebastián your son meant.”
“You looked like you knew.”
“I knew a possibility.”
Mateo stepped closer.
“Then say it.”
Salgado lowered his voice.
“Sebastián Varela.”
The name meant nothing to Mateo.
“Who is he?”
“A former contractor.”
“For Rebeca?”
“For several people.”
Salgado opened the file.
Inside were photographs of Emiliano’s grandmother’s old house in Coyoacán.
Mateo frowned.
“Why is his name connected to this?”
“Because Varela’s company renovated your mother’s property six months before Emiliano disappeared.”
Mateo stared at him.
Nobody had mentioned that.
Not once.
Salgado continued.
“We checked the workers.”
“Varela had an alibi.”
“What alibi?”
“He was supposedly in San Miguel de Allende that weekend.”
“Supposedly?”
“The hotel records were real.”
“Then why do you look like you don’t believe them?”
Salgado closed the file.
“Because Sebastián Varela disappeared four months after your son did.”
Mateo felt the corridor tilt.
“Disappeared?”
“His business closed.”
“His accounts were emptied.”
“His apartment was abandoned.”
“And nobody thought that mattered?”
“We did.”
“Apparently not enough.”
Salgado accepted the accusation.
Before he could answer, Laura rushed through the hospital doors.
Her face was white.
Jimena ran toward her.
“Mommy.”
Laura dropped to her knees and pulled her daughter into her arms.
Then she saw Mateo.
“Where is he?”
Mateo crossed the hallway.
He could not find words.
So he simply nodded.
Laura’s legs gave way.
Mateo caught her.
“He’s alive.”
Laura buried her face against his chest.
For nearly a minute, neither of them spoke.
Then she pushed back.
“Where did they find him?”
Mateo looked toward Salgado.
Laura followed his eyes.
Her expression changed.
“Mateo.”
He answered quietly.
“Under Rebeca’s living room.”
Laura stared at him.
“No.”
“I saw him.”
“No.”
“She knew.”
Laura shook her head harder.
“No.”
“Laura.”
“She was with me.”
Mateo frowned.
“What?”
“The afternoon Emiliano disappeared.”
Mateo felt his blood run cold.
Laura gripped his shirt.
“Rebeca was with me almost the entire time.”
Salgado stepped forward.
“Almost?”
Laura turned toward him.
May you like
For the first time in eleven months, she began reconstructing the hour they had all misunderstood.
And hidden inside seventeen missing minutes was the first crack in Rebeca’s alibi.
