Chapter 107 - What the fuck?! - Fars
Simón
While driving, I remembered the incident at the airport, the burn on my chest from that hot coffee. I laughed. "Poor woman, she was a bundle of nerves." Her black hair was beautiful, though, too shiny. It was the kind of hair that makes you want to touch it... Anyway.
I entered the property, finally home. I missed the first flight, which is why I didn't make it to the church. I took off my jacket as I entered. When Inés saw me, she put her hands on her hips. It wouldn't be an easy stain to remove, although she wasn't the one who handled it, but she supervised. She shouldn't be doing anything, Roland and I were tired of telling her, but she was stubborn. No one could get her out of the kitchen.
"Is that coffee?" she asked. I nodded.
"In my defense, it didn't spill on me." She approached, extending her hand for the clothes. I handed her the jacket and shirt. "Onion, the boys, the Lady, Diana, and the kid?"
"Scratching his butt in bed, one of his stitches broke, and he's grounded. Cherry is at home, we saw him at the mass. Churrusco is running errands, just like the wayward Mojón. I'm just waiting for him to come back so I can give him an earful.
"Poor Onion hasn't slept. We got back from the church not long ago. Now he's in the basement doing whatever you guys do down there. Mrs. Veronica hasn't stopped crying since she arrived. The priest gave her the papers for the charitable organizations my boy Roland set up.
"She was surprised there were so many. She'll be herself again. At least now she's crying, which heals the soul. Young Diana and my baby are in their room. My little prince must be sleeping. His mother fed him not long ago."
"You're good at summarizing," I said, making a gesture with my hand.
"Go put on some clothes."
"As you command."
After changing, I went to the basement. Onion was staring into space. He didn't notice me until I spoke.
"Anything new?"
"Apart from Jaime Jaramillo's death by your avenging hands and the coincidences with those two women, nothing else."
"Good."
"Rat... If the boss leaves you as his successor to the cartel, will you accept?"
"Let's wait and see what happens. The famous meeting is at the end of next week."
"Rat!"
Inés called. She had never come down here. I climbed the stairs, and she had a cell phone in her hands.
"It was in your jacket." I frowned. That phone wasn't mine...
"Shit!" I grabbed the phone and ran back to where Onion was sitting. "Download the information from this phone."
He didn't ask questions. He started downloading the information while I infiltrated the airport security camera recordings. To speed up the search, I asked them to look for my face today. I needed to find that pretty brunette. When I saw the images, the clever woman positioned herself at an angle where her face couldn't be seen. "Damn it," I muttered. I followed her as she entered the bathroom and didn't come out.
"You've got to be kidding me! You're good, pretty brunette, but I'm going to catch you," I said, catching Onion's attention.
"What's up?"
A strange adrenaline rush settled in my chest. I remembered the image of the woman who bumped into me. It was just a ploy to slip the phone into my pocket. I'd bet my balls it was the boss's fourth phone, the same one Mrs. Veronica mentioned.
She hid her face with large sunglasses and her black hair almost covering her features. Her voice and her scent, that subtle vanilla perfume and the nervousness, because one thing was sure, she was nervous.
"I have a new challenge."
I showed him the captured image of the woman who approached me. I hoped the downloaded information would match what we already had.
"That brunette had contact with me. I'm sure she's the one who slipped Roland's phone into my pocket. Let's analyze the video carefully."
"You can't see her face very well."
"She's good. The clever one went into the bathroom and didn't come out."
"That means she has connections to infiltrate. She left through the workers' service area."
"Exactly, or she transformed and could be any other woman." I sighed. "Try to find her best angle to get a clear shot. Show it to Inés to see if she recognizes her. Though I swear, it's the same woman, and this connects to Roland's death." One of the computers made a sound.
"Alright, let's see what this tells us."
We stood there staring, I approached and transferred that image to the giant screen in front of us. In cross-referencing the information, we requested the report of the phones that number called and if they matched any known contacts. The photos we saw left us with a strange aftertaste... Before us was the face of Mrs. Veronica, for obvious reasons, we already knew that since she was the one who provided us the information, and also Dr. Mendoza.
I can justify that image; he was the lady's doctor after her kidnapping and might have called him for something related to the medication to be administered. We had the images of one of Roland's killers, and there was an unknown number, there were no more calls, just four numbers.
"Rat..."
"I’m open to suggestions, my thoughts aren’t clear right now," I said.
"There are a hundred calls to the unknown number, two to the rat who killed the Boss, forty to Dr. Mendoza, and ten to Mrs. Veronica. There are no more records, no other numbers. What do you think about that?"
"That Roland planned his murder, but something went wrong. I saw he wasn’t breathing, nobody can hold their breath that long, he was in front of my eyes for many minutes." I rubbed my face. "We have three scenarios with a woman and I dare to say, it’s the same one with a great ability to transform, she has continued with the Boss's plan. Who is this woman? If Roland is already dead, why is she still in the picture?" I sighed again. "Trace that unknown number, Onion, I need to pay a visit to Dr. Mendoza."
"If the Boss planned to fake his death, why did he exclude us from his plans?"
"For the simple reason that he needed us to be confused and hurt so the cartel would believe it. If I had helped him, I wouldn’t have been able to cry like I did, nor would you. The problem is, if they killed him, the question is, why is that dark-haired woman still in the game?" I looked at Onion who was staring at the screen. "I need to know who she is. We have a place where Roland traveled twice."
"Speaking of which."
Yesterday I received a call from an engineer informing me that the house is finished.
"Are you referring to Roland's other businesses?"
"I thought so, but when I asked for the address to go see it, he said it was in Blanco, Texas."
"This is no coincidence, get two tickets to travel there after the reading of the will. Tuesday or Wednesday after Isaac’s baptism."
"Are we going together or which one of us is traveling?"
"I’ll go with Stain, you know we can’t leave the lady alone, you stay with Scratch. Cherry and Crunch should survey the businesses."
"Alright."
"Rat and Onion!" we heard Inés shout.
"Believe me, she’s worse than a mother." We laughed.
"That old lady, even if she drives us crazy, she’s our mother." We sighed and left the basement.
"We’ll continue investigating later, let’s go have lunch, they should call us for that and I’ll also greet the lady and hold Isaac." I saw the smile on Onion’s face. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
"Don’t mess with me, it’s just that the baby has made me consider having kids."
"With his mother?"
"Diana is not my type, she’s a child for God’s sake! Besides, for now, I just want to be sure to leave the resentment behind and not make bad decisions. When that happens, it makes me feel despicable and bad about myself, believe me, I regret a lot of what I’ve done."
"Miguel." He stopped walking, I’ve rarely called him by his name. "You know I’m your friend if you ever want to talk and... being bisexual..."
"Rat, I’ll just say, I have too many demons in my head, I appreciate everything you’ve done for over seventeen years, for accepting me as one of you, but don’t get involved in my private life, not until I allow you. Can you respect that?" I nodded. "Thanks, and I’ve only been with men out of anger when my head gets unstable, I never... damn, this is more complicated."
"Onion..."
"I’m already a monster; I don’t want to become another nightmare for Diana, she’s an incredible girl, but she’s very young, I’m, what, thirteen years older than her."
"Calm down, I get it."
"Yeah, thanks."
"Don’t thank me, Mrs. Veronica’s arrival has wreaked havoc on all of us."
"And Inés’s prayers, believe me, those kneelings while praying for each one of us are getting answers."