Chapter 3 - The Man Who Kept the Keys
For the first three days, Efrain believed Julian was Lorena’s guest.
He had seen expensive cars arriving after midnight before. He had seen private meetings, secret lovers, frightened accountants, and politicians who used the rear entrance to avoid cameras.
The Valdés mansion had always contained secrets.
Efrain had learned not to ask about them.
But on the fourth morning, he carried laundry through the service corridor and heard a scream beneath the floor.
He stopped.
The sound came again.
A man’s voice.
Then Lorena shouted, “Hold him still.”
Efrain set down the basket and pressed his ear against the basement door.
Another voice answered.
Victor’s.
“He’s going into shock.”
“Then wake him up.”
Efrain had known Victor since he was a reckless teenager who stole liquor from his father’s study. He had known Lorena since she was born. He had held her at her baptism and driven her to school after her mother abandoned the family.
He wanted to believe there was an explanation.
That evening, Lorena ordered him to replace the padlock on the basement’s exterior entrance.
“Why?” he asked.
“Moisture damaged the old one.”
“The old lock is new.”
Lorena looked at him for several seconds.
Then she smiled.
“Replace it anyway.”
Efrain obeyed, but he kept a copy of the key.
At two in the morning, he returned alone.
The basement staircase descended into darkness.
He carried no flashlight. The walls contained low emergency lights, though Lorena believed they had been disconnected years earlier.
At the bottom, he saw Julian chained to the pillar.
For a moment, Efrain could not move.
Julian was thinner than the man shown on business magazines. His shirt had been removed. Purple bruises covered his ribs. One eye was swollen closed.
A metal bowl sat beyond his reach.
“Mr. Serrano?”
Julian lifted his head.
“Who are you?”
“Efrain.”
“Do you work for Lorena?”
“Yes.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“Then you already know what to do.”
“I don’t.”
“Take a photograph. Send it to her friends. Maybe she’ll use it as a party invitation.”
Efrain stepped closer.
“I came to help.”
Julian studied him.
“Why?”
Efrain had no good answer.
Because there were lines even loyalty should not cross.
Because Lorena’s father had once saved Efrain’s son from prison, and Efrain had spent seventeen years repaying a debt that had gradually become servitude.
Because he remembered a frightened little girl asking why her mother had left, and he had mistaken pity for responsibility.
“I need to know what happened,” Efrain said.
Julian told him.
Not everything. He did not yet trust the older man enough for that. But he explained the forged medical documents, the attempted transfer of Serrano Meridian, and the drugs Victor had forced into him.
Efrain touched the chain.
“Where is the key?”
“Victor keeps it around his neck.”
“I’ll find another way.”
Julian caught his wrist.
“You need to leave this house.”
“I can contact the police.”
“Not the local police.”
Efrain frowned.
“Why?”
“Lorena knew exactly when I ordered the forensic audit. She knew which investigators I contacted. Someone inside law enforcement has been giving her information.”
“Then who can we trust?”
Julian closed his eyes.
“My sister.”
“Your sister died.”
The eye that remained open fixed on Efrain.
“That is what everyone believes.”
Before Efrain could respond, footsteps sounded above.
He moved away from Julian and slipped behind the boiler.
Victor entered carrying a medical case.
He locked the basement door and descended.
Julian’s face hardened.
Victor placed the case on the table.
“You should have eaten.”
“You should have developed a conscience.”
“I had one once.”
“What happened to it?”
Victor opened the case.
Inside were syringes, bottles, and a small portable monitor.
“It became expensive.”
Julian watched him prepare an injection.
“You said this wasn’t about money.”
“It isn’t anymore.”
Victor cleaned the skin inside Julian’s elbow.
“What are you giving me?”
“A sedative.”
“You gave me one six hours ago.”
“You remember that?”
“I remember everything.”
Victor paused.
For the first time, fear passed across his face.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
“What have you been trying to make me forget?”
Victor injected him.
Heat spread through Julian’s arm.
The basement blurred.
Victor leaned close.
“When you wake up, you may remember a room with blue walls. You may remember your father standing beside a woman in a white mask.”
Julian struggled to focus.
“What woman?”
“Do not trust the memory.”
“Why?”
“Because it belongs to someone else.”
Victor packed away the syringe.
As he turned, a small brass key slipped from his pocket and struck the floor.
Victor did not notice.
He left the basement.
Efrain waited until the lock clicked above.
Then he emerged.
Julian’s head hung forward.
“Mr. Serrano?”
Julian whispered something.
Efrain leaned closer.
“What did you say?”
May you like
Julian’s eyes opened.
“The key is not for the chains.”
