Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Blue Coat
"Tell me exactly what you signed," I said.
"An estimate. Maybe a bank authorization. Claudia said the roof needed work."
"Our roof doesn't leak."
Mateo said he would catch the next train from Bilbao. For the first time in years, my big brother sounded like the scared boy who had hidden beside me when our parents died.
Pilar met me at the pharmacy across the square. With her was Inés Salgado, an older cleaner who sometimes helped Sara with the heavy work. Inés wore a blue wool coat despite the mild afternoon.
"I should have spoken earlier," Inés said. "Claudia told everyone your grandmother was losing her memory. She said she'd have me arrested for stealing if I interfered."
"Did she pay you?"
"Not for the last month. I kept going because Sara was afraid to be alone."
Inés showed me three photographs on her phone. A gray car at the back gate. A man carrying a portable document scanner. Claudia holding Sara upright while the man guided a pen toward her hand.
"Those were taken Thursday?"
"The time is in the file. I took them from Pilar's window."
I forwarded the originals to a lawyer a friend recommended, Teresa Medina. She agreed to meet that evening. No matter how furious I was, I needed somebody who knew how to stop a sale, not somebody who knew how to win a fight.
Inés pressed a house key into my palm. "Sara gave me this before they took her away. She said if anything happened, you should look behind the sewing machine."
The old machine stood in the small workroom, its brass wheel polished by years of use. Behind it I found a tin of buttons, an envelope of birthday cards, and a notebook of grocery expenses. The last page didn't list groceries.
It listed dates, money, and initials: C.M., A.V., and M.M.
Next to M.M. was a figure that made me stop breathing.
May you like
€460,000.
My brother's initials were beside a payment larger than anything our family had ever owned.
