Chapter 6 - A Signature From Another Country
Teresa spread the documents across her desk without touching the signatures. "First, we preserve the original files. Then we challenge the filings. The papers don't become honest because they have stamps."
She pointed to the guarantee supposedly signed by me in Zaragoza. The date was June eighteenth. I had been on a military base in Lebanon, with duty records and witnesses to prove it.
"I can get my commanding officer to confirm where I was," I said.
"Good. But don't contact Claudia again. Let the police and court handle the threat she made about Sara's life."
Mateo stared at the buyer's name. "Valverde Urban. I know that company. Claudia said her cousin could get us cheap repairs through them."
Teresa made a note. "Which cousin?"
"Andrés Vidal."
I remembered the initials in Sara's notebook. A.V.
At the hospital, Dr. Vega told us Sara was more alert after her treatment had been reviewed. He wouldn't speculate on wrongdoing, but he had ordered an independent medication reconciliation and restricted nonmedical visitors until the team finished assessing her safety.
I sat beside Sara with a paper cup of chamomile tea. She could barely hold it. "I'm sorry I wasn't here," I said.
"Don't apologize for serving," she whispered. "Apologize when you stop coming back."
She asked me to open the curtain. The evening sky was orange, the same color as the fruit she used to peel for us in winter.
"Did Claudia make you sign something?"
Sara nodded, then shook her head as if even that answer frightened her. "She said Mateo would lose his job if I didn't."
"Did she say what you signed?"
"Medicine papers. Then the man told me to keep quiet."
A nurse entered with a sealed evidence envelope recovered from Sara's belongings. Inside was a discharge planning sheet with a transfer date: Friday, the day of the proposed sale.
May you like
The named destination wasn't another hospital.
It was a private residential facility two hundred miles away—and the contact person listed was Claudia.
