Chapter 4 — The Dead Man’s Account
Lucía arranged for Mauricio to meet them in a secure office near Paseo de la Reforma.
He arrived after midnight wearing the same dinner suit, his collar open and his hands trembling.
Renata sat across from him at a conference table.
Investigator Reyes remained in the room.
“What happened to Rafael?” he asked.
Mauricio placed his phone on the table.
Rafael Ibarra had been Octavio’s younger brother and the original chief financial officer of Grupo Ibarra. He had died two years earlier after his car left a mountain road outside Valle de Bravo.
The official report called it an accident.
The family called it a tragedy.
Evangelina rarely allowed his name to be spoken.
Mauricio unlocked the phone.
“I found this on an old tablet in my mother’s study,” he said. “It was synced to her messages.”
He played a video.
The image showed a study lined with books. The camera angle came from a laptop that had apparently been left open.
Evangelina stood near the desk.
Rafael faced her.
The recording began in the middle of an argument.
“You are using false vendors,” Rafael said. “If Octavio sees these transfers, Alonso goes to prison.”
Evangelina folded her arms.
“Then Octavio will not see them.”
“I will show him tomorrow.”
“No.”
“You cannot order me around.”
Evangelina stepped closer.
“You have two daughters studying abroad. A mortgage. A private life your wife knows nothing about.”
Rafael went silent.
Evangelina smiled.
“Sit down.”
The video ended.
Mauricio quickly opened a second file.
This one was audio only.
Rafael’s voice sounded strained.
“If anything happens to me, look at Santa Amalia.”
Then another voice entered.
Alonso’s.
“You should have stayed loyal.”
A door slammed.
The recording stopped.
Renata felt cold.
“When was this?” Reyes asked.
“Three days before his crash,” Mauricio said.
“And you kept it?”
“I was afraid.”
“Why bring it now?”
Mauricio looked at Renata.
“Because tonight my mother told me to destroy the tablet.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“In a locker at a hotel.”
Reyes stood and made a call.
Renata watched Mauricio.
At dinner, he had briefly raised his phone to record her humiliation.
He had been part of their laughter.
Yet now he sat with tears in his eyes, preparing to betray his mother and brother.
“Why did you record me tonight?” she asked.
Shame crossed his face.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
He lowered his eyes.
“Because that is what we do.”
“What?”
“We turn everything into entertainment before it can become real.”
Renata said nothing.
Mauricio rubbed his forehead.
“My mother taught us that whoever controls the story controls the family. If someone cries, call them dramatic. If someone objects, call them ungrateful. If someone knows too much, call them unstable.”
He looked toward the frozen video image of Evangelina.
“Uncle Rafael knew too much.”
Investigator Reyes leaned forward.
“Do you believe your mother caused his death?”
Mauricio hesitated.
“I believe Alonso met Rafael the night before the crash.”
Renata’s heart pounded.
“How do you know?”
“I followed him.”
The room became silent.
Mauricio described a warehouse outside the city. He had been twenty-six, deeply in debt, and convinced Alonso was hiding money from him.
He followed his brother expecting to discover an affair or secret business deal.
Instead, he saw Rafael’s car outside the warehouse.
He waited nearly an hour.
Then Alonso emerged with a man named Víctor Salgado, a security contractor employed by Grupo Ibarra.
Rafael did not come out.
The next morning, Rafael’s car was found at the bottom of a ravine.
“Did you tell the police?” Reyes asked.
Mauricio shook his head.
“My mother said I had seen nothing.”
“And you obeyed.”
“She showed me photographs of my debts. She said I would be charged with stealing from the company if I spoke.”
Renata looked at him.
“Did you steal?”
“Yes.”
The answer came quietly.
“I took money from an expense account. Not much compared to Alonso, but enough to make me afraid.”
The investigator wrote something down.
Mauricio looked at Renata.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you not to let them bury this.”
Renata looked at the red mark reflected faintly in the conference-room window.
“No more burying.”
At 1:42 in the morning, officers recovered the tablet.
At 2:10, an emergency request was filed to seize records from Grupo Ibarra.
At 2:26, Alonso called Renata seventeen times.
She did not answer.
At 3:03, he left a message.
“You don’t know what my mother is capable of.”
Renata listened twice.
May you like
Not because she feared Evangelina.
Because for the first time, Alonso sounded as if he did.
