Chapter 5 - THE BOX FEDERICO TOOK
Federico denied stealing anything.
“It was board property.”
“At three in the morning?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Sergio muttered, “Apparently insomnia needs cardboard.”
Mariana nearly smiled.
Federico did not.
The box was found in his car.
Several files were missing.
One remained.
A safety inspection signed the day before Gabriel Torres disappeared.
The inspector’s signature belonged to Federico’s older brother, Luis Zamora.
Luis had died five years earlier.
Federico sat down.
“My brother made mistakes.”
“Did he falsify inspections?”
Silence.
“Federico.”
“Yes.”
The word barely came out.
Luis had been addicted to painkillers after a back injury.
He accepted money to approve incomplete work.
Federico discovered it later.
He hid the evidence to protect his family.
“Did Efraín know?”
Federico shook his head.
“I never told him.”
“Did Héctor?”
“Yes.”
The story shifted again.
Héctor had known about the unsafe site before the collapse.
He had warned nobody.
Then helped hide the death.
Not because Efraín ordered him.
Because Héctor feared being blamed.
Mariana called him.
He admitted it.
“You said my father paid you.”
“He did.”
“For what?”
“To find Gabriel’s family.”
“Did you?”
Héctor began crying.
“No.”
He had taken the money.
Spent part of it.
Then lied that Gabriel had no family in Mexico.
Mariana closed her eyes.
A dead worker.
A corrupt inspector.
A cowardly accountant.
A board member hiding his brother’s crimes.
And somewhere inside all of it, Arturo.
“What did Arturo know?”
Héctor whispered:
“Everything.”
“How?”
“He found my old files three years ago.”
“And blackmailed you?”
“Yes.”
“For money?”
“At first.”
“What came after?”
Héctor’s answer made Octavio sit down.
“Votes.”
Arturo had used Héctor to influence corporate decisions.
Not at Alvarado Hotels.
At his own employer.
And one of those votes involved a company preparing to buy a controlling interest in six Alvarado properties.
Mariana stared at the phone.
“Which company?”
Héctor said the name.
She knew it.
Everyone in Mexico did.
May you like
And its chairman was arriving at her hotel that evening.
