Chapter 3 - THE WEB OF THE FALSE DOCTORThirty minutes later, Diego was parked three blocks away from Dr. Navarro’s private clinic in the older district of Guadalajara. Through the binoculars, he watched the clinic’s rear exit.
The drama was deepening by the second. The police report from the hospital had flagged Dr. Navarro’s vehicle, but Diego knew waiting for bureaucratic red tape would sign his son’s death warrant.
A sleek black sedan pulled around the back alley. The trunk popped.
A man in a white lab coat stepped out, dragging a large medical supply bag—and inside it, something was wriggling.
Diego didn’t hesitate. He slammed his truck into gear, roaring down the alleyway and cutting off the sedan’s escape route with a deafening screech of burning rubber.
Dr. Navarro froze, dropping his keys as Diego leaped out of the truck, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles turned bone-white.
“Where is my son?!” Diego roared, tackling the doctor against the side of the car.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Navarro stammered, sweating profusely. “I’m a respected medical professional—”
Diego grabbed him by the lapels of his white coat, lifting him off the ground with pure adrenaline. “My mother’s recording is in the hands of the state police, Navarro. Óscar is in a holding cell. The game is over. Where is Mateo?”
The doctor’s eyes darted toward the backseat of his car.
Diego shattered the side window with his bare elbow, ignoring the spray of glass and blood. Inside, tucked beneath a pile of biohazard waste bins, sat a portable incubator.
Through the clear plastic wall, Mateo’s tiny chest rose and fell in a shallow, drugged sleep.
Diego unlatched the incubator, pulling his son into his arms. The baby was warm, too warm, but breathing.
“Please,” Navarro whimpered, bleeding from a scratch on his cheek. “Teresa said… she said you were going to lose everything anyway. She promised me a cut of the insurance payout!”
Diego lowered his son gently into the front passenger seat of his truck, strapping him in. Then, he walked back to the cowering doctor.
He didn’t strike him. He looked at him with a gaze so chilling that Navarro physically shrank away.
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“You’re going to call my mother’s cell phone,” Diego said quietly, handing Navarro’s burner phone to him. “You are going to tell her the transaction is complete. And you are going to ask her where Lucía is being kept.”
Navarro, trembling violently, dialed the number.
