Chapter 11 - The Echoes in the Cell
The concrete walls of the Querétaro federal holding facility were damp, cold, and smelled permanently of cheap disinfectant and human despair. Raúl sat on the lower bunk of the narrow cell, staring blankly at his calloused hands. The industrial plant uniform he wore felt heavy, like lead weights dragging him down into an abyss he had dug for himself.
Across the aisle, Elvira paced like a caged animal, her unstyled gray hair clinging to her damp forehead, her breath hissing through clenched teeth.
"Call that lawyer again!" Elvira snapped, slamming her fist against the rusted iron bars. "Tell him we have money! Tell him we can pay double!"
"Mom, shut up," Raúl muttered, his voice hollow, completely devoid of the arrogant bluster he used to wield in his own kitchen. "There is no more money. The federal accounts are frozen. Our bank cards were confiscated. Even the secret stash you buried behind your cousin's chicken coop in Michoacán was flagged by the asset forfeiture unit this morning."
Elvira stopped pacing, her eyes widening in sheer horror. "Flagged? How? No one knew about that account except you and me!"
"Mariana knew," Raúl whispered, a cold shiver running down his spine as he remembered his ex-wife's calm, terrifyingly precise gaze when she handed him the divorce papers. "She didn't just stumble into our lives, Mom. For years, while we thought she was just a convenient ATM, she was studying us. And we walked straight into her trap like fools."
Suddenly, the heavy metal door at the end of the cellblock creaked open. A guard in a crisp navy uniform walked down the row, stopping right in front of their cell.
"Medina," the guard barked, unlocking the squeaky latch. "You have a visitor. Room three."
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Raúl looked up, a faint, desperate spark of hope flickering in his chest. "Is it my brother? Did he hire a defense attorney?"
"It’s not your brother," the guard replied with a cold smirk. "It's your new cellblock assignment paperwork. And someone who wants to have a very brief, very interesting conversation with you about where you hid the rest of the company's missing hardware."
