CHAPTER 6 — The Video That Lied
Detective Valdés reopened several missing-child cases connected to Esteban’s construction company.
In every case, his workers had renovated a house, clinic, warehouse, or rural property near the time a child disappeared.
Most of the children had eventually returned.
Their families had paid large private ransoms and remained silent.
Leo was different.
Daniel refused every anonymous demand because none included proof that his son was alive.
So Esteban changed tactics.
He used Patricia.
While Valdés investigated the other properties, her team recovered footage from a camera hidden inside Leo’s underground room.
One clip created a new problem.
It showed Mariana entering Patricia’s living room three months earlier.
She carried a red backpack.
After looking around, she placed the backpack beside the wall directly above Leo’s compartment.
Then she left.
At the police station, investigators showed Daniel the footage.
“What was inside the bag?” Valdés asked Mariana.
“I don’t remember being there.”
“The timestamp says you stayed for almost two hours.”
“I never stayed two hours.”
Mariana looked at Daniel.
“You believe me, don’t you?”
Daniel wanted to answer immediately.
But ten months of manipulation had destroyed his certainty.
Patricia had been his sister.
Camila had been their trusted therapist.
Everyone close to them had been lying.
“I believe we need the truth,” he said.
Mariana looked devastated.
That night, Leo woke in the hospital and asked for his mother.
Mariana rushed to him.
“Mommy,” he whispered. “You came to the house once.”
The room went silent.
Mariana shook her head.
“No, sweetheart. I didn’t know you were there.”
“I heard your voice.”
Mariana began trembling.
“What did I say?”
“You said you felt tired.”
Leo closed his eyes, struggling to remember.
“The white lady told you to lie down.”
Mariana remembered visiting Patricia months earlier.
Camila had been there.
She had given Mariana tea.
After drinking it, Mariana became dizzy. Patricia claimed she had suffered a panic attack and slept on the couch for twenty minutes.
But according to the footage, she had been inside the house for nearly two hours.
Detective Valdés examined the video again.
The clock on the wall jumped forward eleven minutes between frames.
Parts of the recording had been removed.
Then a technician enhanced the reflection in a glass cabinet.
Camila was visible behind Mariana.
And she was carrying a syringe.
Valdés received another call.
A storage unit had been rented using Mariana’s stolen identity.
Inside, officers found Leo’s missing school backpack, fake passports and a typed confession letter supposedly written by Mariana.
Beneath those items was a photograph of Inés.
A red circle had been drawn around her face.
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And written beneath it were the words:
NEXT TIME, TAKE BOTH.
