Chapter 5 - The Price of a Son
Adrian reached the hospital ten minutes later.
His parents’ room was empty.
Rosa’s blanket lay on the floor. Ernesto’s cane was missing. The intravenous tube had been pulled loose, leaving a small bloodstain on the sheet.
A security guard led Captain Navarro to the surveillance room.
The hospital’s front camera showed Rosa and Ernesto leaving through a side entrance at 3:42 in the afternoon. Mateo stood beside a white van.
He did not force them inside.
He held the door open.
Rosa climbed in willingly.
“He used Gabriel,” Adrian said.
Claire stood beside him. “He knew they would go anywhere for news about their son.”
Navarro replayed the footage.
The van’s license plate was partly hidden by mud, but the final four numbers were visible.
He radioed the information to nearby checkpoints.
Adrian called Mateo.
No answer.
He called again.
Voicemail.
On the third attempt, someone answered.
No one spoke.
Adrian heard an engine and a faint coughing sound.
“Mama?”
The line ended.
Claire touched his arm.
“We will find them.”
“How?”
She turned toward the screen.
“The van came from the western road.”
Navarro shook his head. “That road splits three ways outside town.”
Adrian thought of the land documents.
Mountain Crest Development.
He opened the photographs on his phone and searched the addresses.
One property lay twelve kilometers west of town.
An abandoned poultry farm.
Navarro called for backup.
They drove in two vehicles.
Rain began halfway there, turning the road into mud. The provincial police truck led. Adrian followed in the rented car with Claire.
At the poultry farm, the main gate stood open.
The white van was parked beside an empty warehouse.
No people were visible.
Navarro ordered Adrian and Claire to remain behind the vehicles.
Officers entered the warehouse.
Seconds later, one shouted.
Rosa and Ernesto were found inside a locked storage room.
Alive.
Rosa was lying on the floor, barely conscious. Ernesto had been tied to a chair with electrical cord.
There was no sign of Mateo.
Adrian rushed to his mother.
Her skin was cold.
“Mama, can you hear me?”
Her eyes opened slightly.
“He lied again,” she whispered.
“What did he tell you?”
“He said Gabriel was waiting.”
Ernesto’s mouth was bruised.
“He wanted us to sign another paper,” he said.
“What paper?”
“A statement saying you never sent money.”
Adrian looked around.
A document lay torn near the chair.
It claimed Rosa and Ernesto had voluntarily sold their farm and that all funds sent by Adrian had been used for their care.
At the bottom were spaces for their signatures.
“They refused,” Navarro said.
Ernesto looked at his hands.
“I told him I would rather die.”
Rosa began to cry.
“He said perhaps we already had.”
Adrian held her carefully as paramedics entered.
Captain Navarro walked outside and spoke into his radio.
Adrian followed.
“You have enough to arrest him now.”
“For kidnapping and unlawful detention, yes.”
“Then do it.”
“We need to find him first.”
Adrian looked toward the empty fields.
Mateo had planned this location in advance. He had prepared documents, ropes, and transportation.
This was not a desperate reaction.
It was part of a system.
At the hospital, Rosa and Ernesto were placed under police protection.
Claire stayed with them while Adrian and Navarro reviewed evidence.
Late that night, Samuel called.
“I found Ruben Salazar.”
“Where?”
“In a provincial prison.”
“For what?”
“Armed robbery. He was sentenced five years ago.”
“Can we speak to him?”
“I’ve arranged a visit tomorrow.”
Adrian barely slept.
At sunrise, he and Navarro drove three hours to the prison.
Ruben Salazar was smaller than Adrian expected. He had graying hair, hollow cheeks, and a tattoo running from his wrist beneath the sleeve of his prison uniform.
He sat behind a glass partition and picked up the telephone.
“You’re Mateo’s brother,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“You have the same eyes.”
Adrian showed him a photograph of Gabriel.
Ruben looked away.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were paid for transportation and cleanup.”
Ruben’s gaze returned to Adrian.
“You found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Then Mateo will come for you.”
“He already has.”
Ruben leaned closer to the glass.
“Seven years ago, Mateo hired me to move a man from the old mill to a fishing cabin north of the valley.”
“Gabriel?”
“He was alive when I transported him.”
Adrian gripped the phone.
“Was he injured?”
“His face was bloody. Hands tied. But he was talking.”
“What did he say?”
“He kept saying his brother had stolen from the family.”
“What happened at the cabin?”
“I left him there with Mateo and another man.”
“Who?”
Ruben hesitated.
“Chief Arman Villareal.”
The local police chief.
Adrian remembered the officers who had barely investigated the brick thrown through his hotel window.
“What happened next?”
“I came back the following morning to clean the truck.”
“Was Gabriel there?”
“No.”
“Was there blood?”
Ruben’s eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
Adrian struggled to breathe.
“Where did they take him?”
“I don’t know. Mateo told me the problem was finished.”
Navarro leaned toward the microphone beside Adrian.
“Why are you telling us this now?”
Ruben laughed bitterly.
“Because Mateo promised to protect my family. Instead, my wife disappeared after I went to prison.”
“Disappeared?” Adrian asked.
“Left town with my son. At least that’s what Mateo said.”
The pattern again.
Everyone left.
Everyone abandoned the people who loved them.
Always according to Mateo.
“Do you believe him?” Adrian asked.
“No.”
Ruben gave them directions to the fishing cabin.
Before ending the visit, he said, “Look under the water tank.”
The cabin stood near a lake surrounded by pine trees.
It had been abandoned for years.
Navarro brought a forensic team. Beneath the rusted water tank, they found a sealed plastic container buried in the soil.
Inside was a bloodstained shirt.
A broken watch.
And a memory card.
Adrian recognized the watch immediately.
He had given it to Gabriel on his sixteenth birthday.
The watch face was cracked.
The hands had stopped at 11:48.
The memory card contained one video file.
They played it on Navarro’s laptop.
The image shook as if recorded secretly from inside a pocket.
Gabriel’s voice came first.
“You cannot keep taking his money.”
Mateo answered.
“He doesn’t deserve it.”
“It belongs to Mama and Papa.”
“They would waste it.”
“You forged Papa’s signature.”
“Lower your voice.”
“I copied everything. I’m sending it to Adrian.”
A blow struck.
The video turned sideways.
Gabriel fell, and Mateo’s boots appeared in the frame.
Then another voice spoke.
Chief Villareal.
“Your brother is becoming a problem.”
The recording ended.
Adrian sat without moving.
It proved Gabriel had discovered the fraud.
But it did not reveal what happened afterward.
The forensic team searched the cabin.
Near the fireplace, they found dried blood beneath old floorboards.
Navarro ordered samples collected.
Outside, Adrian looked at the lake.
Claire had joined them after arranging a private nurse for his parents.
She stood beside him.
“You cannot assume the worst yet,” she said.
“He was bleeding. Mateo had him tied up.”
“The watch and shirt were buried, but there’s no body.”
Adrian wanted to believe her.
Then Navarro emerged from the cabin holding a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a human tooth.
Adrian closed his eyes.
A vehicle approached from the road.
Police officers raised their weapons.
It was Samuel.
He stepped out carrying a folder.
“I have news,” he said.
Adrian looked at the evidence bag.
“Good news?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Samuel opened the folder.
“Gabriel Reyes used his national identification number six months ago.”
Adrian stared at him.
“Where?”
“At a clinic in Davao.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Gabriel might be alive.
Samuel continued.
“The clinic treated a man with severe memory loss.”
Adrian looked again at the broken watch.
For seven years, his family had believed Gabriel abandoned them.
May you like
But perhaps he had not disappeared.
Perhaps, like Adrian, he had simply been kept from finding his way home.
