This time, accompanied by Arturo Salcedo.
“He introduced him to me as a real estate specialist.”
Javier looked up at Lucía.
“Is that why they started coming home?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
“And you knew they were trying to take over the house?”
“At first, no.”
“What’s next?”
Lucía swallowed.
“Then I knew there was something illegal.”
Javier ran a hand over his forehead.
“My God… »
Don Ernesto continued.
He had begun to examine old documents.
He had discovered bank letters that he had never received.
Account statements that Ricardo managed in his name.
Authorizations that he did not remember having signed.
And a modification of his will, presented as a draft, in which Patrimonios del Centro appeared to be linked to certain management and sale operations.
This did not mean that they had legally managed to dispose of his house.
But it showed a worrying preparation.
“I went to talk to Ricardo,” he recalled. He told me I was confused. »
Javier gritted his teeth.
“What?”
“That I was starting to forget things. That I had to have my memory examined. »
The same idea was in the red envelope documents.
Don Ernesto had heard it before.
Well before this afternoon.
And now he understood that it was not a coincidence.
“They wanted to make me look incapable in order to control my decisions,” he says.
Lucía ferma les yeux.
She knew it was true.
Arturo had repeated this phrase many times.
The old man loses his faculties.
Javier will end up thanking us for fixing the problem.
We only need the right medical reports.
“And why didn’t you tell us anything?” asked Javier.
His father looked at him.
“Because every time I told you about Ricardo, you told me I was exaggerating.”
Javier lowered his head.
He remembered these conversations.
His father had told him several times about the disappearance of some receipts.
Ricardo’s strange behavior.
Arturo’s overly insistent questions about the house.
Javier attributed all of this to concerns about age.
And Lucía was always there to reassure him.
Your father becomes suspicious.
Don’t give it any importance.
Ricardo has always helped her.
Javier felt a deep sense of shame.
Not only had he ignored the warnings.
But he had also repeated his wife’s lies without ever verifying them.
“Dad, we have to file a complaint.”
Don Ernesto shook his head slowly.
“With what we have, we can start. But we need solid evidence of everything they did. »
“We have the messages.”
“The messages prove part of the plan. But Ricardo could claim that he knew nothing. »
Javier looked at the photograph.
“So what do we do?”
The old man leaned forward.
“There is someone who can help us.”
“Who?”
« Pilar. »
Javier knew this name.
Pilar Cordero had worked for nearly twenty years as Ricardo’s secretary.
She was a discreet woman, with gray hair and a soft voice.
When Javier visited the practice during his childhood, she always greeted him with a candy.
She had retired two years earlier.
Or at least, that’s what they had been told.
“What does Pilar know?”
Don Ernesto looked out of the window.
“She came to see me three weeks ago.”
Javier redresses.
“Here?”
“Yes. She asked me not to tell anyone. »
Pilar had arrived one morning with a black bag.
She was nervous.
She was continually looking towards the street.
She had told him that she had been fired after refusing to change certain documents.
According to her, Ricardo had been using intermediary companies for years to carry out real estate transactions that were not very transparent.
Some seniors had signed documents they didn’t understand.
Others had authorized money movements that they had never requested.
And several properties in the centre of Madrid had suspicious histories.
“She told me that she kept copies of some of the files,” Don Ernesto explained.
Javier gets up.
“We have to find her.”
“I’ve already tried.”
“So what?”
“His phone is cut off.”
Lucía raised her head abruptly.
Don Ernesto observes him.
“Do you know anything about him?”
“No.”
The answer was too quick.
Javier turns around.
“Lucia.”
“I don’t know where she is.”
“I didn’t ask you where she was. I asked you if you knew anything. »
She began to cry again.
“Arturo showed me a photograph.”
Don Ernesto is figed.
“What photograph?”
“That of a woman coming out of a building.”
« Pilar ? »
Lucía acquiesça.
“He told me she was asking dangerous questions.”
Javier felt a shiver run down his spine.
“What did they do to him?”
“I don’t know. I swear to you. »
Don Ernesto rose with difficulty.
“Give me this phone.”
Lucía obeyed.
The old man went through the messages.
He found a photograph sent by Arturo five days before.
