Chapter 10 - Carmen’s Bargain
Alexander reached the roof first.
Rain swept across the concrete.
Javier stood near the eastern wall with his hands raised. Rafael Robles had disappeared behind the maintenance structure.
Elena was crouched beside an air-conditioning unit.
The shot had struck the microphone in her ring, knocking it from her hand.
She was unharmed.
Alexander pulled her behind cover.
“Where is Rafael?”
“He used the northern stairwell.”
Mercer’s agents entered from both exits.
Javier dropped to his knees.
“I did not fire,” he shouted.
Alexander seized the front of his jacket.
“You stood outside a room while your wife begged you for help.”
Javier looked toward Sofia, who had followed with Adriana despite Mercer’s order to remain inside.
“Sofia, I never wanted them to hurt you.”
“You told them not to leave evidence.”
“My father was listening. I had to say what he expected.”
“You married me for the condo.”
“At first.”
The words were nearly lost beneath the rain.
Sofia approached him.
“At first?”
Javier’s face broke into a desperate expression.
“I was supposed to get close to you, convince you to transfer the property and open the room. But I fell in love with you.”
“No.”
“I did.”
“You watched.”
“I thought my mother would frighten you. I did not know she brought those women.”
Sofia removed the wedding ring from her pocket.
She placed it on the wet concrete in front of him.
“You knew enough.”
Mercer’s agents handcuffed Javier.
A radio call reported that Rafael had escaped through a construction elevator connected to the neighboring tower.
General Vale was no longer in the lobby.
The black notebook had vanished from the hidden room.
Only four people had been near it.
Sofia.
Alexander.
Elena.
Adriana.
And none of them had taken it.
Mercer reviewed the interior camera.
The glass case opened by itself six minutes earlier.
A hidden compartment beneath the floor carried the notebook into the building’s service shaft.
The condo had been designed not only to protect evidence.
It had been designed to move it.
Adriana examined the empty case.
“Luciana must have activated the transfer before she died.”
“Transfer to where?” Sofia asked.
A small screen inside the case illuminated.
One sentence appeared.
THE WITNESS HAS RETURNED TO ITS FIRST OWNER.
Before anyone could interpret it, Mercer received another call.
Carmen Robles wanted to surrender.
She would speak only with Sofia.
The meeting took place at a closed church two hours later.
Federal agents surrounded the building. Alexander and Mercer watched from a side room while Sofia entered the chapel with a recording device beneath her blouse.
Carmen sat alone in the front pew.
She no longer wore her silver wedding dress. A dark coat covered her shoulders, and exhaustion had erased the confidence from her face.
“You look like your mother,” Carmen said.
“You said my mother stole from you.”
“She stole my escape.”
Sofia remained standing.
“Explain.”
Carmen looked toward the stained-glass windows.
“I married Rafael when I was nineteen. By twenty, I understood that I had married a criminal. Luciana discovered Meridian Seven and offered to help me disappear.”
“But you stayed.”
“I was pregnant with Javier. Rafael threatened to take him.”
“So you helped Rafael.”
“I survived Rafael.”
“You entered my wedding suite.”
Carmen looked down.
“I was told the condo contained evidence that would send Javier to prison.”
“He committed crimes.”
“Because Rafael raised him to obey.”
“He still chose.”
Carmen’s eyes filled with tears.
“So did I.”
Sofia felt no sympathy.
“Who gave the order in the suite?”
“Javier received instructions through an encrypted earpiece. He repeated them to me.”
“From Rafael?”
“I believed so.”
“Believed?”
Carmen reached inside her coat.
Agents moved behind the chapel walls, but Sofia did not step back.
Carmen removed a small photograph.
It showed Luciana standing beside General Vale several months after the date of her supposed death.
Sofia stared at it.
The background was a train station.
A newspaper visible beneath Luciana’s hand confirmed the year.
Her mother had survived the crash.
Carmen whispered, “Rafael did not kill Luciana.”
Sofia struggled to breathe.
“Where is she?”
“I do not know.”
“Then who took this picture?”
Carmen turned it over.
A message had been written on the back.
May you like
Deliver Sofia to the hotel and your son lives.
The handwriting belonged to Luciana Serrano.
