Chapter 12 - Arturo's Second Life
Nobody believed the printout at first.
Elena read it twice.
“Arturo is dead.”
The investigator nodded. “Legally, yes.”
“But financially?” Álvaro asked.
“His identity has authorized transactions within the last three months.”
Javier gripped the table. “Then someone stole his identity.”
“Or the death record is not the whole story.”
Alba remembered Mateo’s words.
Ask your mother why Arturo Vega died.
Elena called Arturo’s widow, Sofía.
No answer.
They drove to her apartment with police.
Empty.
Closets cleared.
Medicine gone.
On the kitchen counter sat a postcard addressed to Elena.
No stamp.
It had been placed there by hand.
The front showed a village on the Portuguese coast.
The back contained one sentence:
I COULDN’T DIE TWICE FOR THE SAME COMPANY.
Elena sat down hard.
“He’s alive.”
Javier stared at the card.
“If Arturo staged his death, then he built North Cascade.”
“Maybe,” Alba said.
Everyone looked at her.
“What?” Javier asked.
She pointed to the handwriting.
“That isn’t the same as the notebook.”
Elena compared them.
Alba was right.
The capital R. The number two. The way the writer crossed a T.
Different.
The postcard was another planted message.
Then Alba noticed something else.
The postcard image showed a lighthouse.
On its railing was a tiny logo: a blue spiral.
Elena searched the vendor database.
Blue Spiral Systems had serviced Server B12 for seven years.
Its founder was a man none of them had mentioned yet.
Gabriel Fuentes.
Clara’s father.
Clara closed her eyes when she heard the name.
“My father has been dead for nine years.”
Alba looked at her.
May you like
“So was Arturo.”
The room went silent again.
