Chapter 6 - THE EVIDENCE IN THE OLD BOX
The police assigned an investigator to the threats against Valeria. Her apartment building's cameras were reviewed, and a patrol car began passing through the street at night.
Alejandro was informed, but he did not call her. He sent Daniel to ask whether she needed temporary security. Valeria accepted a contact number but refused to move into the mansion.
“I don't want to owe him another thing,” she told Daniel.
“You wouldn't owe him anything.”
“I know. But I need to make this decision for myself.”
Daniel respected her answer.
At the mansion, investigators examined the black document box that Claudia had been trying to retrieve. It contained old medical correspondence, copies of trust documents, and a handwritten ledger kept by Victor Salas.
The ledger revealed payments to Dr. Rivas, the medical transport contractor, and a private investigator. Some entries were labeled as consulting expenses. Others were marked with initials.
One entry stood out.
“V.M. — access to recovery notes — 18,000.”
Alejandro looked at the page.
“Who is V.M.?”
Daniel checked the company records.
“Valeria Mendez?”
“No. She has never had access to my medical records.”
“Then perhaps Victor Mendez, the contractor who managed the clinic.”
They traced the name to a medical records consultant who had worked with Dr. Rivas. He had been paid to obtain copies of Alejandro's rehabilitation reports and to identify any signs that his condition was improving.
The evidence suggested that Victor Salas had not simply tried to exploit Alejandro's disability. He had actively monitored his recovery and used the information to keep the board convinced that Alejandro was permanently incapacitated.
But the question remained: why?
The trust documents provided the answer.
If Alejandro was declared permanently unable to manage his affairs, control of his voting shares would pass temporarily to a designated trustee. The trustee was supposed to be independent. But an amendment filed two weeks before the accident had named a company controlled by Victor Salas as the successor administrator.
The amendment carried Alejandro's signature.
He stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
Daniel nodded. “The forensic examiner agrees. The signature appears to have been copied from another document.”
The amendment would have given Victor influence over the company's voting rights and access to a substantial portion of its assets. Renata's forged transfer documents were part of the same plan, but she was not the architect.
Victor had been.
Renata had been promised wealth and control in exchange for helping him secure the transfer.
Alejandro looked at the papers.
“Why did she agree?”
“Money. Influence. Perhaps she believed you would never recover.”
He shook his head.
“Whatever her reason, she made her choice.”
The police requested a formal interview with Renata. She refused at first, then agreed after learning that the recordings had been recovered.
Meanwhile, Valeria received another message from an unknown number. This time it contained a photograph of her aunt leaving the apartment building.
The message read:
The next one won't be a warning.
Valeria immediately called the investigator.
Within an hour, officers arrived at her home. Teresa was frightened but safe. The police advised them to stay elsewhere until the sender was identified.
Valeria finally called Daniel.
“I need to speak to Alejandro.”
Daniel arranged a secure meeting at the foundation's temporary office, not at the mansion.
When Valeria arrived, Alejandro was waiting in the lobby with a cane. He stood when he saw her, but he did not approach.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
She looked at the cane.
“Are you supposed to be standing?”
“Only for short periods.”
“Then sit down.”
A small smile appeared on his face.
“Yes, ma'am.”
They sat across from each other.
Alejandro explained the recovered recordings, the forged trust amendment, and the threats against her. He did not ask her to forgive him. He did not ask her to return to work.
Valeria listened carefully.
When he finished, she asked, “Did you ever suspect that I was involved?”
“No.”
“Then why did you test me?”
He looked down.
“Because I had become afraid of everyone. I thought if I controlled what people knew, I could control what they wanted from me.”
“And you decided my kindness was something to measure.”
“Yes.”
Valeria's eyes filled.
“You made me feel useful, Mr. Alejandro. You made me believe I was helping someone who trusted me. I don't know what to do with that now.”
“I don't expect you to do anything.”
She stood.
“I will help the police with the threat investigation. But I am not coming back to your house.”
Alejandro nodded.
“I understand.”
As she reached the door, she turned.
“Please don't confuse being alone with being safe.”
Then she left.
Valeria agreed to provide a statement about the threatening package. She described the delivery, the photograph, and the note. She also told the investigator about a conversation she had overheard in the mansion several months earlier.
At the time, she had been carrying clean towels down the west corridor. The study door had been partly open, and she heard Victor's voice.
“He must not see the revised report,” he had said.
A second voice, which she believed belonged to Renata, answered, “Then make sure it stays where it is.”
Valeria had not understood what they meant. She had continued down the corridor and said nothing because she did not want to repeat a conversation she had only partly heard.
The investigator asked her to identify the date.
She remembered it because the mansion had been preparing for a charity luncheon. She had written the date on a supply order.
The detail helped investigators locate an email exchange between Victor and the hospital records consultant. The email referred to a “revised report” and instructed the recipient to make sure the updated version reached the board before the next review.
Valeria's recollection did not prove who had spoken, but it gave investigators a date and a place to examine.
When Daniel told Alejandro, he was careful not to suggest that Valeria had solved the case alone.
“She gave them a useful lead,” he said.
Alejandro nodded.
“She should never have been put in that position.”
The next afternoon, he sent her a note through the foundation's legal liaison. It thanked her for cooperating and confirmed that her statement would be handled confidentially.
Valeria replied with one line:
I told the truth because it was the right thing to do, not because I wanted to be involved in your life again.
Alejandro accepted that.
He had no right to turn her courage into a promise.
At the same time, the medical records consultant agreed to meet investigators. He admitted that Victor had paid him to obtain records from the clinic. He claimed he had not altered anything himself, but he had forwarded the information to Dr. Rivas and Victor.
The hospital's audit showed that the amended prognosis had been entered using Dr. Rivas's credentials. The doctor denied making the change, saying his account had been accessed by an assistant.
Investigators began examining the clinic's computer logs.
The case was becoming clearer, but the final question remained: who had arranged the damage to Alejandro's car?
The old box contained a handwritten note with a vehicle registration number. Police traced it to a repair shop that had closed shortly after the accident.
The shop's former owner agreed to speak.
He remembered receiving a cash payment to replace a brake line on a black luxury sedan. He had not known who owned the vehicle. The work order listed a false customer name, but the handwriting matched an invoice signed by Victor's assistant.
May you like
The evidence was no longer just a collection of suspicious coincidences.
It was becoming a chain.
