Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN THE PARKING LOT
I did not play the recording in front of Sofia.
That was the first smart decision I made all night.
My mother came to get her. Sofia made me promise twice that I was not sending her anywhere.
After she left, Clara locked herself in the guest room.
Camila and I listened in the kitchen.
At first there was only muffled noise. Sofia had recorded from the hallway.
Then Clara’s voice sharpened.
“I need Mateo to believe the pregnancy through Friday.”
A man answered. Nico.
“What happens Friday?”
“He signs the amendment. After that, I don’t care what story we use.”
My chair scraped backward.
Camila paused the recording.
“That’s enough for tonight.”
“No.”
We kept listening.
Nico asked about Marisol. Clara said the ultrasound images were handled. Then Nico laughed and said, “You better hope the kid doesn’t talk.”
Clara answered, “Sofia knows better.”
I stopped the audio.
At six the next morning, I called Marisol from the prepaid phone.
She agreed to meet only after I promised Clara would not be there.
We met in a grocery-store parking lot on the north side of San Antonio. Marisol Reyes was twenty-nine, visibly pregnant, and shaking before she even got out of her car.
“I didn’t know she was telling people the baby was hers,” she said.
“What did you think she wanted the scans for?”
“She said she had lost a pregnancy and wanted to show her husband what their baby might have looked like. It sounded strange, but she paid me.”
“How much?”
“Three thousand total.”
She handed me printed bank transfers.
The sender was not Clara.
It was an LLC called Blue Mesa Family Services.
I had never heard of it.
Marisol looked around the parking lot, then lowered her voice.
“She asked for more than pictures.”
“What?”
“A clinic wristband. A lab label. Anything with dates.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed them for a lawyer.”
“Brandon Hale?”
Marisol’s eyes widened.
“You know him?”
Before I could answer, she handed me one final page.
At the top was a scheduled wire transfer.
Recipient: Blue Mesa Family Services.
May you like
Amount: $850,000.
Release date: tomorrow.
