Chapter 14 - THE FRIEND AT MY TABLE
Sofia would not tell me where the list was.
At first I thought she was afraid.
Then I realized she was testing me.
"Elena made me promise," she said.
"Elena is dead."
"Promises don't automatically die with people."
"Someone beat Renata nearly to death looking for it."
"And you becoming dangerous won't unbreak her face."
I stared at my sister-in-law.
She stared back.
Sofia was five-foot-three and had once thrown a casserole dish at me because I arrived forty minutes late to Elena's birthday dinner.
I had forgotten how little she cared about being intimidated.
"What was on it?"
"Names Elena believed were giving information to federal investigators."
"About me?"
"About the corruption network. Some about you."
"Why protect it now?"
"Because if those people are alive, exposure could ruin them."
"Or save Renata."
"Maybe."
I hated the word.
She folded her arms.
"Bring Detective Park tomorrow. No Mateo."
"Why?"
"Because Elena wrote his name in the margin."
That evening, I found Mateo sitting at my kitchen table.
He had let himself in with an old key.
"Give me that."
He placed the key on the table.
"You should've changed the lock in 2008."
"I did."
"Cheap locksmith."
"Why are you here?"
He looked exhausted.
"Luis is in protective custody. Owen is alive. Nora is dead. Marcus is walking around smiling. I thought maybe we should stop pretending I am the only person in this story who lied."
I sat across from him.
"Elena kept a list."
His face changed.
"Sofia told you."
"You knew?"
"Not where it was."
"What was it?"
"Names. Informants. Cops. Accountants. People who gave Elena pieces."
"Were you on it?"
He laughed once.
"Depends what column."
"What does that mean?"
"I gave her information."
I stared.
"You just told me you refused to give her the ledger."
"I did."
"But you gave her information."
"Some."
"Why?"
Mateo looked at the old family photograph on my refrigerator.
Renata at twelve holding a science-fair ribbon.
"Because she was right."
I waited.
"The fund was becoming something I couldn't control," he said.
"Marcus had found routes into it. Arturo wanted construction money washed through accounts. Celia Beltran knew how to make donations legal after they weren't."
"And you let them?"
"At first I thought I could watch them."
"That's not an answer."
"Fine. I took fees."
There it was.
Not loyalty.
Not protecting old families.
Greed.
Mateo looked ashamed.
"I told myself it was harmless because the money wasn't drugs or guns. Just rich people making dirty money cleaner."
"You trained under me and somehow became an idiot."
"I trained under you. That's redundant."
I wanted to be angry.
Instead, I felt tired.
"How much?"
"For me? Maybe six hundred thousand over five years."
"Maybe?"
"Seven."
"You remember exactly."
"Seven hundred forty-two."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Neither of us smiled.
"Elena found out."
"Yes."
"And threatened to expose you."
"Yes."
"So you followed her."
"Yes."
"You understand how that looks."
"I've understood for nineteen years."
He reached into his jacket.
I tensed.
He pulled out a small hard drive.
"Dashcam archive. Original file."
"Why now?"
"Because I'm done choosing which truth you can handle."
I did not touch it.
"Give it to Park."
Mateo looked surprised.
"You don't want to watch it first?"
"No."
"Who are you?"
"A man who has already contaminated enough evidence this week."
He nodded slowly.
"Good."
My phone rang.
Renata.
Video call.
I answered.
Her face appeared carefully framed from the uninjured side.
The tablet's speech app sat beside her.
"Hey."
She typed.
Aunt Sofia told me about Mom's letters.
"She shouldn't have."
Renata's eye narrowed.
"Bad sentence. Sorry."
The tablet spoke.
She asked if she could.
"Okay."
Another message.
She told me about you.
"Which part?"
That Mom was afraid you'd kill someone.
Mateo looked away.
I breathed in.
"She was probably right then."
Renata typed.
Are you going to now?
"No."
The answer came easily.
That scared me for a different reason.
It meant I had finally understood what the question cost her.
She typed again.
Promise?
I stared at the screen.
I had promised Elena I would never become The Ghost again.
I had broken pieces of that promise in an alley with an innocent driver.
So I did not give Renata a grand answer.
"I promise I won't choose violence because it's easier."
She considered that.
Then nodded.
After the call, Mateo said, "That was a lawyer's promise."
"It was an honest one."
"Those are rarer."
The next morning, Park took the dashcam drive to the forensic lab.
Sofia led us to a safety deposit facility in Astoria.
She opened a box registered under Elena's maiden name.
Inside was no list.
Only an envelope.
Sofia's face fell.
"It was here."
Park photographed the empty box.
I picked up the envelope.
One sentence was typed across the front.
DANIEL HAS ALREADY SEEN THE LIST.
I looked at Park.
"I haven't."
Then I noticed the paper inside.
A photocopy of my old organization chart.
Three names were circled in red.
Mateo Rivas.
Marcus Vale.
And Daniel Serrano.
My birth name.
---
(To be continued)
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