Chapter 9 - THE NAME ROSA HID
The phrase inside the Castillo family could mean blood.
It could mean business.
It could mean someone treated like family without sharing the name.
Alejandro hated every interpretation.
Rosa had hidden the note before she disappeared.
That meant she knew the conspiracy reached beyond Vivian.
The prepaid phone might explain how.
Technicians replaced the battery without connecting the device to any network.
The phone contained nine photographs, four short videos, and one unsent text draft.
The first photograph showed Elena unconscious in the back seat of a vehicle.
The second showed Dr. Voss entering the old chapel.
The third showed Vivian talking to Sebastian outside the carriage house.
The fourth showed Mateo's security vehicle near the east wing.
Alejandro looked at Mateo.
Mateo stared at the image.
"I was there."
"I can see that."
"I didn't know Elena was inside."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
Detective Brooks interrupted.
"Let the evidence answer."
The next photograph showed Graham Vale.
He was carrying a folder from Vivian's guest residence.
The next showed Lila before surgery.
The next showed a black car with diplomatic plates.
Alejandro frowned.
"Whose car?"
Brooks zoomed in.
The plate had expired years earlier.
It belonged to the consulate of a small European country where Castillo Holdings once operated shipping terminals.
"Could have been sold after diplomatic use," Brooks said.
The eighth photograph showed a man entering the mansion through the service gate.
Only the back of his head was visible.
Gray hair.
Tall.
Expensive coat.
The ninth photograph showed the same man standing beside Vivian.
This time his face was partly visible in a window reflection.
Alejandro stared at it.
His stomach dropped.
"No."
Claire leaned closer.
"Do you know him?"
Alejandro did.
The man was Rafael Castillo.
His father's younger brother.
Alejandro's uncle.
Rafael had spent most of the previous decade living in Madrid.
He attended family weddings, funerals, and board dinners.
He sent Alejandro birthday gifts.
He called after Elena vanished and offered to help.
He had also resigned from active roles in Castillo Holdings twelve years earlier after a bitter disagreement with Alejandro's father.
"When was this taken?" Alejandro asked.
Metadata placed the photo two years and eight months earlier.
Rafael had been at the mansion during Elena's captivity.
Alejandro had never known.
"Check his travel records."
Claire began typing.
Public flight records showed Rafael arriving in the country several times during the past three years.
Each trip was short.
None had been disclosed to Alejandro.
"Inside the Castillo family," Claire said softly.
Alejandro's face hardened.
"Maybe."
Brooks glanced at him.
He gave her a humorless look.
"I'm learning."
The first video on Rosa's phone was only twenty seconds long.
Rosa filmed through a cracked door.
Vivian and Rafael stood in the old wine cellar.
Their voices were low.
Rafael said,
"She should have been moved months ago."
Vivian answered,
"Alejandro is too unpredictable."
"He's grieving."
"Exactly."
"Grief eventually becomes suspicion."
Vivian looked toward the door.
Rosa stopped recording.
The second video showed Mateo arguing with Vivian.
Alejandro watched carefully.
Mateo's words changed everything.
"I will not authorize another medical transport without Mr. Castillo's direct confirmation."
Vivian stepped closer.
"You already have his signature."
"I want his voice."
Vivian smiled.
"You have that too."
Mateo shook his head.
"Live."
The video ended.
Alejandro looked at Mateo.
"You suspected something."
Mateo nodded.
"Eventually."
"When?"
"About six months after Elena disappeared."
Alejandro felt rage rise again.
"And you said nothing to me."
"I tried."
"When?"
"Twice."
"I never heard it."
Mateo looked toward Vivian.
"I know."
The third video showed why.
Rosa recorded Vivian inside Alejandro's office while he was overseas.
Vivian opened his desk drawer, removed a private satellite phone, and replaced it with an identical device.
Alejandro stared.
He used that phone only for high-security calls when traveling.
"She cloned it," Claire said.
Mateo nodded.
"My messages may never have reached you."
Alejandro felt suddenly exhausted.
The fourth video was the shortest.
Rosa's face filled the screen.
She was crying.
"If anybody finds this, Elena is alive."
She looked over her shoulder.
"They keep her in the east wing and sometimes under the chapel."
She whispered faster.
"Dr. Voss is changing her medicine."
"Vivian is controlling the staff."
"Mr. Mateo does not understand everything, but he has done things for them."
Mateo lowered his head.
Rosa continued.
"Mr. Rafael comes at night."
"I heard them say Elena found the old accounts."
"They are afraid of the blue book."
Alejandro looked at Elena.
The ledger.
Rosa's voice trembled.
"They keep saying V-seven."
Claire sat forward.
The beneficiary code.
Rosa looked directly into the camera.
"I don't know what V-seven means."
"But I heard Mr. Rafael say it started before Alejandro became chairman."
The video ended.
Alejandro stared at the dark screen.
Before he became chairman.
He had taken over Castillo Holdings nine years earlier after his father's death.
The V-7 payments started eight years ago according to Claire.
Rosa's statement suggested the underlying arrangement began earlier.
Maybe the payments changed form after Alejandro took control.
"Get every archive from my father's tenure," he said.
Claire nodded.
"How far back?"
"Twenty years."
"That's thousands of boxes."
"Then start opening them."
Elena spoke quietly.
"Your father knew Rafael was stealing."
Alejandro turned.
"Why do you say that?"
"I remember an argument."
"When?"
"Before your father died."
"Where?"
"Here."
She pointed toward the library doors.
"I heard them from the hallway."
Alejandro searched his memory.
His father, Ignacio Castillo, had suffered a fatal heart attack after dinner nine years earlier.
Rafael left for Spain soon afterward.
The family explanation was simple.
The brothers had fought over business strategy.
Nothing more.
Elena shook her head.
"Your father said, 'If you touch that account again, I'll send everything to the authorities.'"
Alejandro's pulse slowed.
"What did Rafael say?"
"I don't remember exactly."
She closed her eyes.
"Something about blood protecting blood."
Alejandro looked at Claire.
"Find my father's private files."
Claire hesitated.
"Where are they?"
Alejandro knew the answer.
A secure archive beneath the headquarters tower.
Only the chairman and general counsel had access.
General counsel was Sebastian Kline.
"Seal the archive."
Claire called immediately.
The security director at headquarters answered.
His voice sounded confused.
"Mr. Castillo, Mr. Kline accessed the archive yesterday."
Alejandro stood.
"Sebastian?"
"Yes."
"He's missing."
"He used his biometric credential at 3:12 in the morning."
"Was anyone with him?"
"Camera footage is being reviewed."
Alejandro looked at Brooks.
"Send people there now."
Federal agents reached the archive twenty minutes later.
Several boxes were gone.
So was one encrypted server.
The security video showed Sebastian entering alone.
He left forty minutes later pushing a cart of files.
Outside footage showed him loading them into a van.
The van's plate belonged to Caldera Logistics.
Again.
But another detail mattered more.
Sebastian was not moving like a man fleeing voluntarily.
A red laser dot appeared against his coat twice.
Someone off camera had a weapon trained on him.
He was being forced.
Alejandro watched the clip three times.
"Whoever is cleaning this up needs him alive long enough to find the files."
Brooks nodded.
"For now."
A trace on the prepaid phone's deleted draft finally recovered the unsent text Rosa had written.
It was addressed to Alejandro.
The message contained no explanation.
Only an address and seven words.
ASK YOUR FATHER WHY VIVIAN WAS CHOSEN.
Alejandro read it twice.
His father had been dead for nine years.
Vivian had entered his life long before Elena disappeared.
The question implied she had not simply decided to exploit grief when opportunity appeared.
She had been chosen for something.
By someone connected to his father.
Alejandro looked at the old family portrait above the fireplace.
Ignacio Castillo stood in the center.
Rafael beside him.
May you like
A teenage Alejandro near the edge.
And behind them, smiling beside her own father, was seventeen-year-old Vivian Moretti.
