CHAPTER 10 — THE DEAD WOMAN’S SIGNATURE
Renata spent nine hours in an interview room.
Lucía prevented formal charges from being filed, but investigators refused to release Renata until the biometric evidence could be reviewed.
“The bank used facial verification,” the investigator explained. “The woman’s face matched your government identification.”
“Then the system was manipulated.”
“Or you opened the account.”
Lucía leaned across the table.
“My client was working from home on the day the account was created. We have internet records, client calls, and building security footage.”
“Her apartment building’s footage is missing for two hours.”
Renata looked at Lucía.
That was new.
Someone had removed the exact period needed to destroy her alibi.
Daniel worked outside the station with an independent biometric specialist. Shortly after sunset, he found the flaw.
The bank system had not scanned a live face.
It had scanned a three-dimensional projection created from hundreds of photographs and videos.
Someone had built a digital replica of Renata.
The bank employee who approved the verification was Camila Serrano’s brother.
By midnight, Renata was released.
A crowd of reporters waited outside.
Some called her a whistleblower.
Others called her the secret mastermind behind Grupo Ibarra’s fraud.
Renata refused to speak.
Inside Lucía’s car, Daniel handed her a file concerning Ariadna.
“She is not dead,” he said.
The death certificate had been issued in a small coastal municipality. There was no hospital record, no funeral-home record, and no verified body.
Ariadna had disappeared after transferring money through Account 407.
“Evangelina helped her vanish,” Renata said.
“Probably,” Lucía replied. “But we found an airline reservation under a false identity.”
Ariadna had returned to Mexico City two days before the anniversary dinner.
She was staying in a rented house outside San Ángel.
Police entered the property before dawn.
The house was empty.
Inside, they found wigs, copies of Renata’s clothes, makeup, forged identification, and dozens of recordings of Renata speaking during family dinners.
A sound engineer had used the recordings to create false authorizations in her voice.
In the bedroom closet, Renata found the black dress Alonso had bought for her the previous Christmas.
Ariadna had worn it to the bank.
On the dresser was a photograph of Ariadna and Alonso kissing.
The date printed in the corner was three years old.
Renata stared at it.
Lucía’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Renata turned the photograph over.
A handwritten message covered the back.
He promised we would leave together once Renata took the blame.
Below it was an address in Coyoacán.
The old accounting office where Elena and Octavio had founded the company.
Renata, Lucía, and Daniel arrived after sunrise.
The building had been abandoned for decades.
Behind a loose wall panel, they discovered a narrow metal box.
Inside was Elena Cruz’s original ledger.
There was also a recent photograph of Tomás sitting beside Ariadna.
Neither appeared restrained.
Both were smiling.
The picture had been taken after Tomás supposedly disappeared.
Beneath it lay a note.
Renata, your brother-in-law is not a victim. He is the one who brought Ariadna back.
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Tomás stood in the doorway.
He held a gun pointed toward the ground.
“I can explain,” he said.
May you like
Then Ariadna stepped from the shadows beside him.
She looked almost exactly like Renata.
