Chapter 13 - THE AMBUSH
Alejandro hit the floor the moment the first window broke.
Investigators rushed toward the chapel.
Valeria dropped behind a stone pew.
Marcela screamed.
Glass rained across the floor.
The shooting stopped almost as quickly as it began.
A black sedan sped away.
Alejandro ran inside.
"Valeria."
She raised her head.
"I'm okay."
He reached her and checked her face, shoulders, stomach.
No blood.
No injury.
Then they heard Marcela gasping.
She had been cut by broken glass along the arm.
Nothing life-threatening.
But the message was clear.
Someone wanted the recording back.
Investigators traced the sedan within hours.
It belonged to a security subcontractor used by an Aranda company.
The contractor reported directly to one man.
Dr. Serrano's brother-in-law.
Doña Esther continued denying involvement.
But her circle was shrinking.
Serrano disappeared that same afternoon.
His clinic closed.
His home was empty.
His accounts had been partially drained.
Alejandro looked at Tomás.
"Where would he go?"
Tomás thought for a moment.
"Somewhere Esther can reach him."
"Or somewhere he thinks she can't."
They searched financial records.
One payment appeared repeatedly.
A private ranch outside Valle de Bravo.
Registered under a shell company.
Alejandro wanted to go personally.
Investigators refused.
Valeria agreed with them.
"You have spent your whole life solving problems by walking into the room yourself."
She told him.
"This time, let the law do its job."
He looked at her.
"I almost lost you."
"And charging into a ranch won't change that."
Alejandro exhaled.
She was right.
Hours later, police raided the property.
Serrano wasn't there.
But they found medical supplies.
Old prescription records.
Cash.
And dozens of documents from the Aranda Foundation.
Then one investigator called Alejandro.
"We found photographs."
"What photographs?"
"Your father."
Alejandro's stomach tightened.
"Taken the week he died."
There were pictures of Rafael entering Serrano's clinic.
Pictures of Tomás following him.
Pictures of Marcela entering the mansion pharmacy.
And one photograph of Doña Esther meeting Serrano in the garden late at night.
The photographs had been taken by someone else.
Someone watching all of them.
On the back of every picture was the same handwritten initial.
J.
Tomás stared at it.
May you like
"Javier."
Valeria's father had been investigating them before he died.
