I am innocent.
I was always innocent.
Now I can try it.
The guards tried to separate the girl from her father, but she clung to him with a force unbefitting her age.
“It’s time for them to know the truth,” Salome said in a clear, firm voice.
“It’s about time.” Colonel Méndez observed everything from the observation window. His instinct, the one that had kept him alive for 30 years, screamed at him that something extraordinary was happening. He picked up the phone and dialed a number he hadn’t used in years. “I need them to stop everything,” he said. “We have a problem.” The security footage showed everything with brutal clarity. The hug, the whisper, the transformation of Ramiro, the cries of innocence. The girl repeating that phrase. Colonel Méndez played the video five times in a row in his office.
“What did he say?” he asked the guard who had been closest. I didn’t get to hear, Colonel, but whatever it was, that man changed completely. Mendez leaned back in his chair. In 30 years I had seen everything. False confessions, innocents convicted, guilty released by technicalities, but I had never seen anything like it. Ramiro Fuentes’ eyes, those eyes that had always caused him doubts, now shone with something he could only describe as certainty. He picked up the phone and called the attorney general.
I need a 72-hour suspension, he said without preamble. Are you crazy? The procedure is scheduled, everything is ready, we can’t. There is potential new evidence. I am not going to proceed until I verify it. What evidence. The case has been closed for 5 years. Mendez looked at the frozen screen on Salome’s face. An 8-year-old girl with eyes that seemed to keep all the secrets in the world. An 8-year-old girl said something to her father, something that transformed him. I need to know what it was.
The silence on the other end of the line lasted for several seconds. You have 72 hours, the prosecutor finally said. Not a minute longer and if this is a waste of time, it will be your race that ends. Mendez hung up the phone, walked over to his office window and looked out over the prison yard. Somewhere in this case there was a truth that no one had wanted to see and an 8-year-old blonde girl was the key to finding it.
200 km from the prison, in a modest house in a middle-class neighborhood, a 68-year-old woman was dining alone in front of the television. Dolores Medina had been one of the most respected criminal lawyers in the country until a heart attack forced her to retire 3 years ago. Now his days consisted of pills, soap operas, and memories of cases he could no longer solve. The news appeared in the 9 o’clock segment. Dramatic scenes in the central penitentiary.
A prisoner convicted 5 years ago in the Sara Fuentes case asked to see his daughter as a last will. What happened during the visit forced the authorities to suspend the procedure for 72 hours. Exclusive sources indicate that the 8-year-old girl whispered something in his ear that provoked an extraordinary reaction in the convict. Dolores dropped her fork. Ramiro Fuentes’ face appeared on the screen. She knew that face, not from this case, but from another.
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