Chapter 3 - The Key in The Watch.
Mateo's hand closed around Aurelio's shoulder before the boy could move.
"Don't answer."
The woman's voice came again from somewhere beyond the kitchen.
"Aurelio, I know you're in there."
Daniel stepped toward the hallway.
Mateo caught his sleeve.
"No heroics."
"She's inside your house."
"Which means she expected you to do exactly that."
Aurelio crouched beside the kitchen island.
His eyes adjusted slowly to the thin gray light coming through the windows.
He could see Mateo as a shadow beside him.
Daniel pulled open a drawer and removed a heavy flashlight.
He did not turn it on.
The voice moved closer.
"Your grandmother sent me."
Aurelio felt every muscle in his body tighten.
Mateo leaned close.
"Whatever she says, stay here."
Aurelio whispered back.
"You don't get to order me around."
"Fine."
Mateo's jaw tightened.
"I am strongly requesting that you stay here."
The voice stopped outside the kitchen.
Silence filled the house.
Then something slid across the floor.
A white envelope appeared beneath the doorway.
Daniel stared at it.
"Nobody touch it."
The hallway remained empty.
A side door slammed somewhere in the distance.
Three seconds later, the power returned.
Lights flickered on.
The refrigerator started humming.
The security panel near the pantry began beeping rapidly.
Daniel moved first.
He checked the hallway, then the side entrance.
Nobody was there.
Mateo looked at the envelope.
Aurelio's name was written across the front in blue ink.
Not printed.
Written.
He knew the handwriting.
His knees went weak.
"That's hers."
Mateo looked at him.
"Esperanza's?"
Aurelio nodded.
Daniel returned.
"Side gate was open."
"Cameras?" Mateo asked.
"Offline for eleven minutes."
Aurelio stared at the envelope.
"I need to open it."
Daniel shook his head.
"Not until we check it."
"It's from my grandmother."
"That is what someone wants you to believe."
Aurelio looked at Mateo.
"You said she was alive when you last saw her."
"Three years ago."
"And now somebody brings me her handwriting."
Mateo nodded toward Daniel.
"Let him check it."
Aurelio hated waiting, but he agreed.
Daniel put on gloves, examined the envelope, and finally opened it with a letter opener.
Inside was a single sheet of lined paper.
No powder.
No device.
Just twelve words.
Daniel read them silently.
His expression changed.
Aurelio snatched the paper from him.
IF MATEO FOUND YOU, THE CLOCK HAS STARTED.
TRUST THE BROKEN WATCH.
Aurelio read it twice.
Then a third time.
Mateo slowly lifted his left wrist.
The watch was gone.
He had removed it beneath the bridge.
Daniel had placed it in a clear evidence bag after they reached the house.
It now sat on the kitchen counter.
Aurelio picked up the bag.
"Trust the broken watch."
Mateo's face tightened.
"She knew this would happen."
Daniel looked skeptical.
"Or someone wants us to think she did."
Aurelio turned the watch over through the plastic.
The engraved sun and three waves caught the light.
"My grandmother drew this symbol."
Mateo nodded.
"It belonged to my mother."
Aurelio looked up.
"You said my grandmother gave you the watch."
"She did."
"But it belonged to your mother?"
Mateo was quiet for a moment.
"My mother gave it to Esperanza first."
Aurelio waited.
"They were friends before Esperanza ever worked for my father."
Daniel leaned against the counter.
"Very few people knew that."
Mateo took the evidence bag and studied the watch.
"My mother died when I was fourteen."
His voice was flatter now.
"Esperanza stayed with us for years afterward."
"So she raised you?"
Mateo looked almost offended by how accurate the question was.
"She would have said she supervised my poor decisions."
Aurelio pictured his grandmother saying exactly that.
Something in his chest hurt.
"Why didn't she ever tell me about you?"
Mateo looked at him.
"Probably because she was trying to keep you away from all of this."
Aurelio tapped the bag.
"Then what does the watch mean?"
Mateo studied the cracked face.
"I don't know."
Aurelio reached for it.
Daniel stopped him.
"Gloves."
Aurelio rolled his eyes but put them on.
The broken clasp came free when he twisted it.
Something tiny clicked inside the leather strap.
All three of them froze.
Aurelio turned the strap over.
A narrow seam ran along the underside.
"Was that always there?"
Mateo leaned closer.
"No."
Aurelio pressed his thumbnail against the seam.
The leather lifted.
Hidden beneath it was a thin brass strip no longer than his little finger.
At one end was a pattern of three tiny teeth.
Aurelio stared at it.
"It's a key."
Daniel took it carefully.
"Not for a normal lock."
Aurelio's thoughts raced.
"My grandmother had another key."
Mateo looked at him immediately.
Aurelio regretted speaking.
Daniel straightened.
"Where?"
Aurelio folded his arms.
"I'm not telling you."
"Aurelio."
"No."
Mateo raised one hand toward Daniel.
"Leave it."
Daniel stared at him.
"If Rourke is looking for the same thing—"
"Then Aurelio is right not to announce where it is in a house someone just entered."
Daniel stopped.
Aurelio looked at Mateo with new respect.
Mateo continued.
"We move to another location tonight."
"No," Aurelio said.
Mateo's patience thinned.
"You enjoy that word."
"I need my pouch."
"The one with the other key?"
Aurelio said nothing.
Mateo understood.
"Where is it?"
"You said I didn't have to tell you."
"Correct."
Mateo looked at Daniel.
"But if he wants to retrieve it, we go with him."
Aurelio immediately objected.
"You'll attract attention."
Daniel looked down at his tailored clothes.
"I can dress worse."
Aurelio glanced at Mateo.
"Can he?"
Mateo almost smiled.
"I've seen his vacation shirts."
Daniel ignored them both.
Thirty minutes later, Aurelio sat in a plain gray sedan between Mateo and the door.
Daniel drove.
Two other vehicles followed at a distance rather than forming an obvious convoy.
Aurelio directed them toward the abandoned East Rail platform near the industrial district.
He did not give the exact location until they were three blocks away.
Mateo noticed.
"Your grandmother taught you to be careful."
"She taught me that people reveal themselves when you make them wait."
"What have I revealed?"
Aurelio looked at him.
"You don't like waiting."
Mateo nodded.
"Accurate."
The rail platform had been closed for years.
Weeds pushed through cracked pavement.
Old steel beams cut black lines against the cloudy sky.
Aurelio led them behind a boarded ticket office.
He knelt beside the third brick from the ground.
Then he stopped.
The brick was already loose.
His stomach dropped.
"No."
He pulled it free.
The hollow space behind it was empty.
His canvas pouch was gone.
Daniel scanned the area.
"Back to the car."
Aurelio ignored him.
He reached deeper into the opening.
His fingers touched paper.
He pulled out a small photograph folded in half.
It had not been there before.
Aurelio opened it.
The picture showed his grandmother standing beside a younger Mateo Vargas.
Between them stood another man.
Tall.
Clean-cut.
Smiling directly at the camera.
Aurelio knew the face from billboards.
Rafael Rourke.
Someone had drawn a black circle around Rourke's head.
On the back, one sentence had been written in Esperanza's handwriting.
THE MAN WHO SMILES FOR EVERY CAMERA IS THE ONE YOU NEVER FACE ALONE.
Mateo read it over Aurelio's shoulder.
Daniel said nothing.
Aurelio looked at him.
Daniel's face had gone pale.
"What?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Nothing."
Aurelio stepped closer.
"You know something."
Daniel kept his eyes on the photograph.
Mateo's voice became hard.
"Daniel."
The older man finally looked up.
"That picture was taken the night your father died."
Mateo went completely still.
Aurelio stared at the photograph again.
Suddenly the missing pouch was not the worst thing waiting behind the brick.
May you like
The photograph had connected Esperanza, Mateo, Rafael Rourke, and a death nobody had mentioned.
And whoever had taken Aurelio's key wanted him to see exactly that.
