CHAPTER 14 — What Leo Witnessed
Daniel returned to the hospital with the photograph.
Leo studied it carefully.
“I saw them before the lady took me,” he said.
Ten months earlier, on the day he disappeared, Leo had wandered away from the family picnic after hearing voices inside an unused storage building.
Through a broken window, he saw Esteban and Officer Reyes arguing with an elderly man.
The elderly man was Daniel’s former company accountant, José Navarro.
Navarro had helped Daniel’s father copy the ledger.
Esteban demanded to know where the drive was hidden.
When Navarro refused, Reyes struck him.
Leo dropped his toy car outside the window.
The men heard it.
Camila found Leo before he could reach his parents.
She told him Mariana had sent her.
By the time Patricia became involved, Esteban had already decided Leo could never return home unless the ledger was recovered.
Patricia’s jealousy gave them the perfect hiding place and the perfect person to blame.
“What happened to Mr. Navarro?” Daniel asked Valdés.
Navarro had been listed as missing for ten months.
The ledger revealed payments connected to a rural property owned by Reyes’s cousin.
Police searched it.
They found Navarro alive inside a sealed basement room.
He was weak but able to testify.
Navarro confirmed that Daniel’s father had not died naturally.
Esteban had replaced his heart medication after learning he had copied the financial records.
Patricia had known their father suspected Esteban, but she claimed she never knew he had been murdered.
Daniel visited her in jail.
“You used the people who killed our father to punish me.”
Patricia stared through the glass.
“I wanted what you had.”
“You had a family.”
“I had money. Property. Empty rooms.”
“And now you have a cell.”
Patricia lowered her head.
“I know.”
Daniel stood to leave.
“Wait.”
He looked back.
“There’s one more thing you deserve to know.”
Patricia’s voice trembled.
“The night Leo disappeared, I could have stopped it.”
Daniel slowly sat down again.
Patricia pressed her palm against the glass.
“I saw Camila lead him toward the car.”
“And you did nothing?”
“I followed them.”
Daniel felt the room tilt.
Patricia began to cry.
“I opened the car door.”
May you like
She looked directly at him.
“And I was the one who told Leo to get inside.”
