Chapter 10: The Last Ride
Chapter 10: The Last Ride
The scream echoed through the mansion.
"Socorro!"
Alejandro and Valeria sprinted out of the office, followed by two guards.
The sound had come from the family chapel.
As they rushed down the hallway, frightened employees stepped aside, their faces filled with panic.
Alejandro reached the chapel first and pushed the heavy wooden doors open.
Inside, Doña Socorro was kneeling beside a man lying unconscious on the marble floor.
It wasn't her who had been attacked.
It was Father Ignacio, the elderly priest who had served the Ríos family for more than twenty-five years.
A candle stand had been knocked over.
Prayer books were scattered across the floor.
The priest's forehead was bleeding.
"Call an ambulance!" Alejandro shouted.
One of the guards immediately grabbed his radio.
Valeria knelt beside Father Ignacio.
His pulse was weak, but steady.
"He was hit from behind."
Doña Socorro looked up, her hands trembling.
"I came to light a candle for Elena."
"What happened?" Alejandro asked.
"I heard someone arguing with Father Ignacio."
"Who?"
"I couldn't see."
"I only heard footsteps running toward the east hallway."
Valeria noticed something clutched tightly in the priest's hand.
She carefully opened his fingers.
Inside was a small wooden rosary.
Attached to it was a folded piece of paper.
Alejandro unfolded it.
Only five words had been written.
Ask about the last ride.
Father Ignacio regained consciousness two hours later.
The family doctor insisted he remain in bed, but the old priest refused.
"I've kept silent for too long."
Alejandro, Valeria, and Doña Socorro gathered around him in the mansion's private infirmary.
The priest looked directly at Alejandro.
"I owe you the truth."
Alejandro sat quietly.
"I'm listening."
Father Ignacio closed his eyes for a moment before speaking.
"The morning Elena died..."
"...she came to the chapel."
Alejandro frowned.
"She never told me that."
"She didn't want you to know."
"Why?"
"Because she was afraid."
Valeria leaned forward.
"Afraid of whom?"
The priest shook his head.
"She didn't say."
"She only asked me one question."
"What was it?"
"'If something happens to me... will God forgive me for keeping secrets from the people I love?'"
No one spoke.
The priest continued.
"She was crying."
"I had never seen her like that."
Alejandro lowered his head.
"I should have noticed."
Father Ignacio gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
"She was trying to protect you."
"The last time I saw Elena alive," the priest continued, "she left here with someone."
Alejandro looked up sharply.
"Someone drove her?"
"Yes."
"I thought Carlos was driving that day."
"So did everyone else."
Valeria frowned.
"Are you saying Carlos wasn't driving?"
The priest nodded slowly.
"He became ill that morning."
"He told me another driver had been sent to replace him."
Alejandro's face tightened.
"I never approved another driver."
Father Ignacio looked at him.
"Exactly."
The room fell silent.
If Alejandro hadn't sent the replacement...
Who had?
Alejandro immediately ordered every employment record from the day of Elena's death.
Within an hour, boxes of archived files filled the conference room.
Together, he and Valeria searched through payroll records.
Driver schedules.
Security logs.
Finally, Valeria found it.
A transportation assignment sheet.
Carlos's name had been crossed out.
Below it, another name had been written in blue ink.
Luis Herrera.
Alejandro frowned.
"I've never heard of him."
He called Human Resources.
"Do we have an employee named Luis Herrera?"
The manager searched the database.
Several minutes later, she looked confused.
"No, sir."
"What do you mean?"
"There has never been an employee by that name."
Alejandro slowly lowered the phone.
The replacement driver had never existed.
Someone had created a fake identity.
That evening, Valeria sat with Mateo in the sunroom.
He quietly played with wooden blocks while she thought about everything they had learned.
Then Mateo did something unexpected.
He arranged the blocks into the shape of a road.
Next, he placed a small toy car on it.
Finally, he moved another toy truck in front of the car until they collided.
His breathing became rapid.
"No..."
Valeria whispered.
"Mateo..."
The little boy grabbed a red crayon.
On a sheet of paper, he drew a winding mountain road.
Then he pointed to one sharp curve.
Again.
And again.
Valeria stared at the drawing.
She had seen that curve before.
Not in person.
In one of the maps inside Elena's hidden archive.
She quickly compared the two.
It was the exact same location where the ambush had occurred.
Mateo wasn't just remembering.
He was showing her something.
"What happened there?"
His tiny hand shook.
He drew one more thing.
A bridge.
Underneath it...
A black SUV.
Valeria's pulse quickened.
She hurried to Alejandro's office.
"You need to see this."
Alejandro carefully studied Mateo's drawing.
His eyes narrowed.
"This bridge..."
He walked to a cabinet and removed an official police file from two years earlier.
Inside was the accident scene report.
A photograph showed the destroyed vehicle.
The bridge.
The curve.
Everything matched.
But something didn't.
Alejandro looked closer.
Then handed the photograph to Valeria.
"What do you notice?"
She examined it carefully.
At first, nothing seemed unusual.
Then she saw it.
In the lower-right corner of the photograph...
Partially hidden beneath the bridge...
Was a black SUV.
Almost completely concealed by shadows.
It had never been mentioned in the police report.
Never photographed from another angle.
Never investigated.
Someone had been there.
Watching the ambush.
Alejandro immediately picked up the phone.
"I want every original crime scene photograph."
"The uncropped versions."
"No edits."
"No summaries."
"Everything."
After ending the call, he looked at Valeria.
"If someone erased evidence from that investigation..."
"They had help."
Before either of them could say another word, Javier burst into the office carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
"Sir."
"What is it?"
"The hospital finally released the personal belongings recovered from Elena's car."
Alejandro frowned.
"They said everything had already been returned."
"So did I."
Javier placed the envelope on the desk.
"But this was found this morning in an old evidence locker that was never logged into the system."
Alejandro slowly opened it.
Inside was a small cassette tape labeled in Elena's handwriting.
For Alejandro. Play only if I don't come home.
A stunned silence filled the room.
Valeria looked at the old cassette.
Alejandro's hands trembled as he picked it up.
There was only one problem.
The tape had been snapped cleanly in half.
Someone had deliberately destroyed it.
But tucked beneath the broken cassette was a tiny memory card.
May you like
On it, written in permanent marker, were two simple words:
Full recording.
