Chapter 7 - SOMEONE WAS STILL WATCHING
Police security was placed outside Emiliano’s hospital room before sunrise.
Mateo refused to leave.
Laura slept in a chair with Jimena curled against her.
Salgado sat in the hallway studying the recovered phone.
It was prepaid.
Most messages had been deleted.
But technicians recovered fragments.
Payments.
Addresses.
Photographs.
One photograph showed Rebeca’s house while it was still under renovation.
Another showed workers lowering a prefabricated concrete structure beneath the living room.
The underground chamber had not been an accident.
It had been planned.
Mateo stared at the image.
“She built a prison.”
Salgado nodded.
“There’s more.”
The next photograph showed Sebastián Varela.
He looked around forty.
Dark hair.
Expensive shirt.
No expression.
Beside him stood Rebeca.
They were kissing.
Mateo looked away.
“She was involved with him?”
“For at least two years.”
“Before Emiliano disappeared?”
“Yes.”
Mateo felt sick.
Rebeca had not been manipulated by a stranger.
She had welcomed Sebastián into the family’s orbit.
Salgado placed another recovered message on the screen.
R: HE WON’T TELL ME WHERE HE PUT IT.
S: THEN KEEP HIM UNTIL HE DOES.
The date was ten days after Emiliano disappeared.
Mateo clenched his fist.
Another message appeared.
R: HE CRIES FOR HIS SISTER EVERY NIGHT.
S: STOP GETTING ATTACHED.
Then another.
R: WE SHOULD LET HIM GO.
S: AND HAVE HIM IDENTIFY US?
Mateo could no longer read.
He walked into the restroom and gripped the sink until his knuckles turned white.
For months, Rebeca had attended vigils.
She had printed flyers.
She had cried beside Laura.
She had watched Jimena place candles beneath her brother’s photograph.
All while Emiliano was underneath her house.
When Mateo returned, Salgado was waiting.
“She wants to talk to you.”
“Who?”
“Rebeca.”
“No.”
“She says she knows Sebastián’s next move.”
“She can tell you.”
“She refuses.”
Mateo laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
He walked toward Emiliano’s room.
Then the hospital lights went out.
Every monitor switched instantly to emergency power.
Nurses shouted in the corridor.
Salgado drew his weapon.
“Lock the room.”
Mateo rushed inside.
Laura woke.
“What happened?”
“Stay away from the door.”
A fire alarm began screaming.
People poured into the hallway.
Then someone wearing hospital scrubs approached Emiliano’s room pushing a medication cart.
Mateo noticed one thing.
The man wore construction boots.
Not hospital shoes.
Their eyes met.
The stranger abandoned the cart and ran.
Mateo chased him into the stairwell.
Two floors down, the man jumped over the railing and disappeared through an emergency exit.
Salgado found the medication cart.
Inside one drawer was a syringe.
The label had been removed.
Beside it sat a folded piece of paper.
Mateo opened it.
May you like
There was only one sentence.
YOUR FATHER SHOULD HAVE KEPT QUIET.
