Chapter 6 - The Shadows of Naucalpan
The investigation into the identity of the woman in the coffin led Sebastián and Castillo to a forgotten warehouse district in Naucalpan, an industrial suburb on the northwestern edge of the city. It was a place of gray concrete walls, old factories, and heavy diesel smoke—the exact area where the state police had claimed to find the "closely enough" remains two weeks prior.
They stood inside a small, damp office on the second floor of an abandoned textile factory that had been used as a secondary storage depot by Mauro’s logistics front companies. The floor was covered in old shipping manifests and empty plastic crates.
"We found her identity records in the lower safe, sir," Castillo said, handing Sebastián a faded plastic folder containing the ID card of Valeria Mendoza. "She was thirty-two years old when she disappeared. According to the internal logs, she discovered that Mauro’s team was using the Veracruz container yard to store chemicals that weren't listed on the customs declarations—precursors imported from China."
Sebastián looked at the photograph of the young woman on the card. She had a kind face, with tired eyes and a small smile—a normal, working-class woman who had simply gone to work one morning and stumbled into the gears of a billionaire’s conspiracy.
"She had a daughter, didn't she?" Sebastián asked, his voice low as he stared at the document.
"Yes, sir," Castillo replied, looking down at his clipboard. "A nine-year-old girl named Camila. She’s currently living with her grandmother in a small town outside Xalapa. Mauro’s legal team had been sending them a monthly 'anonymous pension' of eight thousand pesos to keep them from filing a formal missing person report with the federal authorities."
Sebastián closed the folder, his heart heavy with a profound, unyielding anger. He looked out the window at the gray industrial landscape of Naucalpan, realizing that the wealth of the Aranda family was built on a foundation of hidden graves and bought silence.
"Cancel the pension, Castillo," Sebastián said.
Castillo looked surprised. "Sir?"
"Cancel Mauro’s pension," Sebastián clarified, turning his face toward him, his eyes bright with a cold resolution. "We are going to establish a permanent educational trust for Camila Mendoza. She will receive fifty million pesos from Mauro’s liquidated personal assets, and our company will fund her education through any university in the world she chooses. And I want the best corporate litigation team in Veracruz to assist her grandmother in filing a civil suit for wrongful death against the Kensington board."
"And the medical examiner, Dr. Perales?"
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"He was arrested an hour ago at the airport in Toluca," Castillo said, a small, dark smile touching his lips. "He had four million dollars in cash inside his carry-on luggage. He’s already talking to the federal prosecutor to secure a reduction in his sentence."
"Good," Sebastián said, walking down the rusted iron stairs of the factory. "Let’s make sure his confession is recorded in high-definition."
