Chapter 2 - The House With No Family Pictures.
Mateo's home did not look like a place where anyone actually lived.
It looked like the expensive photograph at the beginning of a real-estate brochure.
White stone walls rose behind iron gates on a hill above the river.
Tall windows reflected the gray sky.
Aurelio counted four security cameras before the SUV reached the front entrance.
He had eventually agreed to ride only after Mateo told Daniel to sit in the front and leave the rear door unlocked.
Aurelio kept one hand on the handle the entire trip.
"You can stop checking it," Daniel said from the passenger seat.
"It's still unlocked."
Aurelio looked at him.
"Then you can stop checking whether I'm checking it."
Mateo turned toward the window to hide a smile.
Daniel sighed.
"He really is Esperanza's grandson."
Aurelio caught the words.
"You knew her too?"
Daniel stared straight ahead.
"A long time ago."
That answer followed Aurelio through the front doors.
A woman in navy scrubs met Mateo in the entry hall.
She introduced herself as Dr. Nina Cole and immediately ordered everyone except Aurelio out of the sitting room.
Mateo objected.
She ignored him.
"You swallowed river water, you have a cut above your temple, and your blood pressure is terrible."
"I've had worse afternoons."
"I am sure your calendar is impressive."
She pointed at the sofa.
"Sit."
Mateo sat.
Aurelio stayed near the doorway.
He noticed the room had sculptures, books, expensive lamps, and absolutely no family photographs.
Not one.
That bothered him more than the security cameras.
Homes were supposed to have faces in them.
His grandmother's apartment had been small enough to cross in six steps, but every shelf held a picture.
Aurelio at five with missing front teeth.
Aurelio at seven holding a crooked birthday cake.
Esperanza dancing in the kitchen with a wooden spoon.
There had even been a photograph of Aurelio sleeping under the table because he had refused to leave during a thunderstorm.
Mateo's house had none of that.
It looked prepared for visitors but not memories.
Dr. Cole cleaned the cut on Mateo's forehead.
"How did you end up in the river?"
Mateo glanced at Aurelio.
"I don't know."
"You don't know whether you slipped?"
"I remember driving to the old pier."
His voice slowed.
"I remember getting out of the car."
Daniel appeared in the doorway again.
Mateo looked at him.
"Then nothing."
Dr. Cole's expression sharpened.
"Nothing at all?"
"Until I heard a kid telling me to stop fighting him."
Aurelio folded his arms.
"You were making my job harder."
Mateo looked at him.
"Apparently I owe you an apology for being an inconvenient rescue."
"You do."
Dr. Cole almost laughed.
Daniel did not.
He held up a phone.
"We found your car near Pier Nine."
Mateo's humor disappeared.
"And?"
"Driver's door open."
"My phone?"
"Gone."
"Wallet?"
"Still in the console."
Mateo looked toward the tall windows.
"So whoever was there did not want money."
Aurelio felt uneasiness rise again.
He should have left.
Every sensible part of him said that.
But Helena Price had been across the street.
His grandmother's symbol was engraved on Mateo's watch.
And Daniel had known Esperanza.
Those facts held him in place.
Mateo seemed to read the decision in his face.
"You can stay here tonight."
"I didn't ask to."
"No."
"And I don't need charity."
"Also no."
Aurelio frowned.
"Then why?"
Mateo sat forward despite Dr. Cole's warning look.
"Because whoever pretended to be Helena Price already knows where you've been sleeping."
Aurelio's heart skipped.
"You don't know that."
"She found you beneath a bridge less than an hour after finding me."
"Maybe she followed you."
"Maybe."
Mateo's eyes stayed on him.
"Do you want to bet your safety on maybe?"
Aurelio hated the logic because it made sense.
"One night."
"Fine."
"And the door doesn't lock from the outside."
"It doesn't."
"And nobody takes my things."
"Agreed."
Daniel muttered something about ten-year-old contract negotiations.
Aurelio heard him.
"My grandmother said people who dislike clear rules usually benefit from unclear ones."
Mateo looked at Daniel.
"Write that down."
Daniel did not smile.
The room given to Aurelio was larger than his grandmother's entire apartment.
There was a bed with white sheets, a desk, a television, and a private bathroom with more towels than Aurelio had owned in his life.
He stood in the doorway and refused to touch anything for several minutes.
A housekeeper named Marisol brought him clean clothes.
Dark jeans.
A gray T-shirt.
A navy sweatshirt.
New socks.
Aurelio looked at the folded stack.
"I can wash mine."
Marisol's eyes softened.
"Then wash yours tomorrow."
She placed the clothes on the bed.
"Tonight, let them be dry."
Aurelio did not know how to argue with that.
He showered for too long because hot water still felt like a luxury.
When he came out, his muddy clothes were exactly where he had left them.
Nothing had been touched.
That earned Mateo one point.
Aurelio did not plan to tell him.
Dinner was served in a kitchen instead of the enormous formal dining room.
Mateo wore a plain white shirt with a bandage near his temple.
Daniel stood by the counter, reading messages on his phone.
Dr. Cole had left after ordering Mateo to rest.
Marisol placed chicken soup, bread, and rice in front of Aurelio.
He ate slowly at first.
Then hunger won.
Mateo pretended not to notice when the second piece of bread disappeared almost whole.
Aurelio appreciated that.
"Tell me about my grandmother," he said.
Mateo put down his spoon.
Daniel looked up from his phone.
"We should wait."
Aurelio turned on him.
"I've waited six months."
Daniel's face tightened.
Mateo made the decision.
"Esperanza worked for my father."
Aurelio stared at him.
"Doing what?"
"At first, bookkeeping."
Mateo folded his hands.
"Later, she became the only person in the company my father trusted to review private accounts."
"Why her?"
"Because she could look at twenty pages of numbers and find the one line everyone else hoped she would miss."
Aurelio could imagine that.
His grandmother had once found a four-dollar mistake on a grocery receipt before they reached the parking lot.
"And Rafael Rourke?"
Mateo's expression cooled.
"He was my father's business partner."
"Was?"
"Until my father died twelve years ago."
Daniel spoke for the first time.
"After that, Rourke built his own company."
Mateo nodded.
"And Esperanza discovered that some of the property records from our old partnership did not match the original ledgers."
Aurelio stopped eating.
"What does that mean?"
"It means land changed hands on paper that should never have changed hands in real life."
"Stolen?"
Mateo paused.
"Taken through fraud."
Aurelio thought of the brass key in his hidden pouch.
"Did she prove it?"
Mateo and Daniel exchanged another look.
Aurelio saw it.
"Stop doing that."
"Doing what?" Mateo asked.
"Looking at each other before you answer me."
Mateo leaned back.
"She found a ledger."
Aurelio waited.
"A blue ledger."
His pulse jumped.
His grandmother had owned a blue notebook she never allowed him to touch.
It disappeared the same morning she did.
"What was in it?"
"Names, dates, property transfers, payments, and signatures."
Daniel lowered his phone.
"Enough to expose a lot of people."
Aurelio looked between them.
"Where is it?"
Mateo's voice became quiet.
"Your grandmother never told me."
"Then why would Rourke care about me?"
"Because she told me one thing before she disappeared."
Aurelio's fingers tightened around his spoon.
"What?"
Mateo answered carefully.
"If I ever needed the truth, Aurelio would know where to look."
Aurelio pushed back from the table.
"No."
Mateo frowned.
"No what?"
"She never told me anything about a ledger."
"Maybe not directly."
Aurelio thought of the brass key again.
He hated that his face was probably giving him away.
Mateo did not press him.
That earned another point.
Then every light in the kitchen went out.
The refrigerator stopped humming.
The room dropped into absolute darkness.
Daniel moved instantly.
"Stay down."
Emergency lights should have come on.
They did not.
Aurelio heard Mateo rise from his chair.
"The backup generator?"
"Should be automatic."
A faint metallic click came from the hall.
Aurelio recognized it before either man spoke.
It was not the sound of a door opening.
It was the sound of a door being unlocked.
From the outside.
Daniel whispered into his phone.
No signal.
Aurelio's skin prickled.
Someone had not simply cut the power.
Someone had prepared the house for darkness.
Then, from the far end of the hallway, a woman's voice called softly through the blackness.
"Aurelio?"
He stopped breathing.
May you like
He knew that voice.
Helena Price had found him again.
