Chapter 14 - THE BETRAYAL AT THE MARINA
Police told me to stay back.
I didn’t.
I stayed out of the way.
That was different.
Warehouse 17 sat behind a row of private yacht storage buildings.
The yellow door from the photograph faced the water.
Officers moved quietly into position.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face drained.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“The police operation was leaked.”
My stomach dropped.
“How?”
“Someone called Beatriz twelve minutes ago.”
“Who?”
He turned the screen.
The number belonged to a senior investigator assigned to the financial case.
Inspector Valdés.
A man I had met twice.
A man who had promised me Isabella would come home.
Police detained him immediately.
But it was too late.
Inside Warehouse 17, we found rope.
A chair.
A child’s shoe.
No Isabella.
No Beatriz.
They had moved minutes earlier.
I picked up the shoe.
Pink.
Mud-stained.
Isabella’s.
For the first time since this began, I lost control.
I slammed my fist into a metal shelf.
Adrian grabbed my shoulder.
“Mateo.”
“I was right there.”
“I know.”
“I was right there.”
“We find the next step.”
I turned on him.
“What next step?”
Then I saw something beneath the chair.
A small folded piece of paper.
Isabella’s handwriting.
DAD.
I opened it.
She had drawn three things.
A boat.
A church.
A bird.
Adrian frowned.
“What does it mean?”
I knew.
Isabella and I used to play a memory game.
Whenever we traveled, she drew three things she saw.
No words.
Just images.
Boat.
Church.
Bird.
There was one place near Marbella where those three landmarks aligned clearly from the road.
A marina overlook near Estepona.
The bird wasn’t a real bird.
It was the giant metal seabird sculpture outside an abandoned resort.
Police moved.
This time, the operation was compartmentalized.
No broad radio traffic.
No unnecessary personnel.
At the abandoned resort, we found Carmen.
Alone.
She was sitting in the lobby.
Bleeding from a cut above her eyebrow.
Alive.
She raised her hands when police entered.
“Beatriz is gone.”
“Where is Isabella?”
Carmen looked at me.
“I tried to stop her.”
I nearly crossed the room.
Officers blocked me.
“Where is my daughter?”
Carmen swallowed.
“She was never supposed to take the child.”
“What was supposed to happen?”
“Money.”
Her voice cracked.
“Documents.”
“Your company.”
“Not this.”
“You discussed what would happen to Isabella.”
Carmen looked ashamed.
“I was angry.”
“I said things.”
“But Beatriz.”
She shook her head.
“You still think she wants thirty million.”
“Doesn’t she?”
“No.”
Carmen looked directly at me.
“She wants you to suffer the way she believes her father suffered.”
“Her father stole from yours.”
“She knows.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She always knew.”
Carmen laughed bitterly.
“She used me too.”
Then she told me where Beatriz was going.
The one place connected to all of them.
The abandoned Reyes estate outside Seville.
The house where Beatriz’s father had died.
May you like
And according to Carmen, Beatriz had one last plan.
She wanted me there before midnight.
