CHAPTER 4 — THE FIRST NAME ON THE LIST
CHAPTER 4 — THE FIRST NAME ON THE LIST
The wail of police sirens grew louder.
Red and blue lights flashed through the mansion's towering windows, casting eerie reflections across the marble floor.
For the first time in three years, law enforcement had arrived at Castillo Estate.
But Alejandro didn't feel relief.
He felt suspicion.
The old groundskeeper's words echoed in his mind.
"They were paid to believe her."
If Vivian had bought the silence of local officials once...
Who was to say she hadn't done it again?
As uniformed officers entered the foyer, Alejandro raised a hand.
"Nobody touches the evidence."
The lead detective frowned.
"Mr. Castillo, this is now a police investigation."
Alejandro's expression remained unreadable.
"It became a criminal investigation three years ago."
"You simply arrived late."
The detective stiffened.
Before he could respond, Alejandro's chief of security stepped forward.
"Every room has already been documented."
"Every piece of evidence has been photographed."
"Every surveillance file has been copied to three encrypted servers."
"And everything has been transmitted to federal authorities."
Several officers exchanged uneasy glances.
Alejandro had anticipated interference.
There would be no opportunity for anyone to make evidence disappear.
Vivian sat in a chair in the center of the foyer.
Her wrists were restrained.
Yet she still carried herself with arrogant confidence.
She laughed as Alejandro approached.
"You really think you've won?"
Alejandro stopped in front of her.
"I know I have."
"You've found Elena."
Vivian smiled.
"But you still don't know the whole story."
Alejandro's eyes narrowed.
"What story?"
Vivian leaned forward.
"I didn't choose her."
The room fell silent.
"What?"
Vivian's smile widened.
"I wasn't the one who first suggested Elena should disappear."
Alejandro's jaw tightened.
"You're lying."
"Am I?"
She tilted her head.
"Ask yourself something."
"How did I know exactly where Elena would be that afternoon?"
"How did I know the security schedule?"
"The alarm codes."
"The blind spots."
"The route you were taking home."
Alejandro's heart began pounding.
Those details had never been public.
Only a handful of people had known them.
Vivian whispered,
"Someone opened the front door for me."
Meanwhile...
The forensic team continued searching Vivian's private office.
One investigator called out.
"Sir!"
Alejandro walked upstairs.
The office looked immaculate.
Mahogany furniture.
Designer artwork.
Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Nothing appeared out of place.
Until the investigator pressed a hidden switch beneath the desk.
A section of the bookshelf slid aside.
Behind it was another room.
Much smaller.
Its walls were covered with photographs.
Thousands of them.
Elena.
Sleeping.
Crying.
Cleaning.
Eating.
Standing by windows.
Curled up on the basement floor.
Every day.
Every month.
Every year.
Alejandro felt sick.
This wasn't imprisonment.
It was obsession.
Then he noticed another wall.
This one wasn't covered with Elena.
It was covered with him.
Business meetings.
Airports.
Charity events.
Restaurant dinners.
Even private vacations.
Someone had followed him for years.
Every photograph had handwritten notes beneath it.
"Still wearing his wedding ring."
"Rejected another date."
"Spends Sundays at Elena's favorite beach."
"Still searching."
Vivian hadn't merely imprisoned Elena.
She had been studying Alejandro.
Waiting.
Planning.
The investigator carefully opened a locked drawer.
Inside lay a leather-bound journal.
On the first page, written in elegant handwriting, were the words:
PROJECT PHOENIX
Alejandro turned the page.
His blood ran cold.
It wasn't a diary.
It was a strategy manual.
Every month contained detailed plans to manipulate his emotions.
Fake anonymous sightings of Elena.
False ransom letters.
Invented witnesses.
Even fabricated reports that she had been seen overseas.
Alejandro remembered every one.
Every lead that had sent him across oceans.
Every hopeless chase.
Every crushing disappointment.
None of it had been chance.
Every dead end had been designed.
To keep him searching.
Far away from home.
Downstairs...
Elena was sitting quietly beneath a blanket while paramedics treated the wounds on her wrists.
She hadn't spoken since leaving the basement.
A female trauma counselor knelt beside her.
"You don't have to say anything."
Elena nodded faintly.
Then...
She looked toward Alejandro.
Their eyes met.
Very softly she whispered,
"I remembered something."
Alejandro crossed the room immediately.
"What is it?"
Her fingers began trembling.
"There wasn't just one basement."
The room froze.
"What do you mean?"
She closed her eyes.
"I heard voices..."
"Children..."
Alejandro's heart lurched.
"What children?"
"I never saw them."
"They cried at night."
"They kept saying they wanted to go home."
Every person in the room stopped moving.
The detective slowly lowered his notebook.
"You never mentioned children before."
Elena's breathing became uneven.
"Vivian said..."
"If I ever told anyone..."
"They would disappear forever."
A terrible silence settled over the mansion.
Alejandro turned sharply toward the detective.
"Search every inch of this property."
"Every wall."
"Every underground tunnel."
"Every storage building."
"If there is another hidden room..."
"I want it found."
Immediately, officers and security teams spread across the estate.
Ground-penetrating scanners were brought in.
Cadaver dogs arrived.
Construction blueprints were requested from the county archives.
Hours passed.
Then...
Just after sunset...
One of the search dogs stopped near the old greenhouse.
It began barking furiously.
The handler called everyone over.
"There!"
The dog scratched wildly at a cracked concrete floor.
Workers brought in jackhammers.
Within minutes, the concrete began to break apart.
Beneath it...
A rusted iron hatch appeared.
No one spoke.
Alejandro slowly stepped forward.
The hatch had no handle on the outside.
Only on the inside.
Someone had been meant to stay down there.
A bolt cutter snapped the lock.
The hatch creaked open.
A wave of stale air rushed upward.
The beam of a flashlight disappeared into darkness.
Then...
A faint sound echoed from below.
Not machinery.
Not water.
A voice.
Weak.
Fragile.
Barely audible.
"...Help..."
Every hair on Alejandro's arms stood up.
The officers looked at one another in disbelief.
Someone was still alive beneath the estate.
As the rescue team hurried down the narrow ladder, a young officer suddenly shouted from below.
His voice cracked with horror.
"Chief!"
"You need to come down here!"
"What is it?" the detective yelled.
There was a long pause.
Then came the answer that turned every face pale.
"There aren't children..."
Another pause.
The officer's breathing became ragged.
"...They're women."
"And they've been here..."
May you like
He shined his flashlight deeper into the darkness.
"...for years."
