by David Sal
Irma did not remember any reprogramming. But it was not unusual for Pedroza to order upgrades and maintenance work for the office computers and communication systems without consulting anybody.
“Okay, well, let me see…”
The sound of the phone ringing cut off Irma’s train of thought.
“Hello,” she answered. “Yes? Now? Okay, I’m on my way.”
She stood up and ordered Edgar to wait there. As soon as she left the office, though, Edgar jumped out of his seat, focusing his gaze on the things covering her desk. He sat behind Irma’s desk and opened the drawers, one by one, combing through their contents. He picked up papers, folders, and envelopes.
Outside, Irma walked at full speed until she stopped at Karen’s cubicle.
“Are you sure that it was Luis Rivera that was looking for me?” she asked with annoyance.
“I don’t know. It was over the phone and they just mentioned the last name Rivera,” answered Karen, expressing confusion.
Irma’s cell phone rang in her hand. She looked at the name of the person calling her on the screen and spun around to answer it.
“Talk to me...why now? I’m at the office…Okay, I’m taking off now,” said Irma, trying to be discreet. Completely forgetting that she was leaving her conversation with Karen in mid-air, she quickly headed back to her office.
Edgar had looked for the rubber stamp unsuccessfully and he knew that his time had run out. He could see through the glass walls that Irma was closing in on the office without recourse. Just then, his gaze stumbled upon her purse on the floor, propped up behind one of the desk corners. He did not think twice before bending down and looking inside. He did not even have time to smile when he found the stamp and, in three quick steps that looked like one, grabbed a piece of paper, stamped it, and returned the stamp to its place.
Irma opened the door just as Edgar’s butt sank back into the seat. Irma jumped when she saw him there.
“What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to leave?” she asked angrily.
“Umm…no, you told me to wait here and here I am. I haven’t moved,” answered Edgar innocently.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you right now. I have to go.”
Edgar stood up while Irma gathered her purse from the floor.
“No problem. We’ll leave it for later,” said Edgar while they both left the office. Once in the hallway, Edgar met Karen’s gaze, looking up over her cubicle wall. Edgar gave her the “thumbs up” sign, and she did the same in return.
•••••
A tuna sandwich was disappearing bite by bite in Lorenzo’s hands. That morning, he stopped by the town coffee shop to try to find something to eat. Normally, he ate earlier in the day, but he had lost his appetite due to anxiety and stress. The pleasure that he used to get from eating breakfast had all but disappeared.
For years he had enjoyed sitting in that coffee shop every morning to observe the passers-by, listen to the day’s news, or simply read the newspaper. All of that pretty much came to a halt when people started reading in the newspapers and talking about the work accident where he had disabled his co-worker. And although being gossiped about was not exactly pleasant, what had most affected him about the unfortunate incident was the fact that he was never able to close the matter with his co-worker. At one point, he tried to find peace by visiting his injured supervisor at his house. He was well received and they chatted about a lot of things, except for the accident. The man’s good attitude led Lorenzo to believe that he did not have any hard feelings toward him. It looked as if he could finally close that painful chapter in his life and move forward. Then one of the man’s children showed up.
“Come ’ere, Luis, this is Lorenzo. He used to work with Daddy,” said the little boy’s mom, introducing Lorenzo.
“Lorenzo…you’re the reason Daddy can’t walk? Why’d you do it?” asked the little boy with complete innocence, not perceiving the immense shame it made his parents feel and the devastating effect it had on Lorenzo, who could only fake a smile and excuse himself after just a few minutes.
Sitting once again next to the coffee shop’s picture window to eat his sandwich was nothing more than Lorenzo’s attempt at recapturing the simplicity and pleasure of happier times—times that were free from serious worries. A phone call from Edgar once again woke up those bothersome butterflies in his stomach, though. With a slightly trembling hand, Lorenzo answered.
“I’ve got it,” announced Edgar with triumph. “There’s no doubt. The invitation from Doris was signed using Irma’s stamp. She invited Doris to Pedroza’s house.”
“Okay, wow,” expressed Lorenzo with a mix of surprise, relief, and anger. “So, the question now is, why?”
“Exactly. But to answer that we have to do something else,” said Edgar in a conniving tone.
At that moment, Lorenzo’s eyes fell upon a well-known figure walking along the sidewalk on the other side of the street.
“Edgar, you’re not going to believe who I’m looking at.”
“Who?”
“Your beloved boss.”
“Yeah, she left the office a few minutes ago.”
“Would it be normal for her to be strolling along the beach at this hour?”
“Not at all.”
“I gotta let you go. I’ll call you back,” ended Lorenzo, getting up from the table and throwing his leftovers in the garbage can. He left the coffee shop without taking his eyes off Irma, who was walking very hastily.
Lorenzo walked along the opposite sidewalk, maintaining a distance that he deemed safe to avoid being seen. He used the cars parked along the other side of the street as a shield and he stayed especially alert to any movement that Irma made aside from walking. He also bent his knees slightly in case he suddenly had to hide.
Irma continued until she arrived at Costa Linda’s public seaside resort. This beach was maintained by the government and it included, among other facilities, gazebos, benches, restrooms, and showers. Irma crossed the parking lot that separated the street from the beach area. She stopped at one of the empty gazebos and stayed there. She continually turned her head from side to side, as if she were looking for someone.
After a few minutes, a man dressed in a bathing suit and t-shirt came up to her. He was clearly younger than she was, maybe around thirty years old. He hugged her and she immediately pushed him off her, alarmed and looking all around. The man let out a laugh. Lorenzo judged that something about his appearance gave him away as a foreigner. He had white skin, was of medium height, and wore his blonde hair cut very short, military style. Lorenzo crossed the street to observe more closely.
After adjusting to his new position, behind a van in the parking lot, he was able to see Irma take out a letter-sized envelope from her purse and give it to the man. He opened it, examined the contents and then stashed it in one of his pockets. Lorenzo could clearly see that the contents of the envelope were cash. Cash for what? he wondered.
When Irma and her companion left the gazebo, they headed in the direction of the parking lot, directly toward Lorenzo. He crouched down behind one of the cars to avoid being seen and continued his pursuit of them in that position. He could feel the effect of months without exercise in his knees. Why had he not taken advantage of his time out of work to get in shape?
Lorenzo maintained his painful position until the pair got in a car, which he had no difficulty identifying as a rented vehicle thanks to a sticker attached to one of the windows. The car took off, leaving the seaside resort. Believing that he had been given a great opportunity that he should not waste, Lorenzo ran to his car, which he had left parked near the coffee shop. His heart pounded in his chest and his adrenaline did its job so that Lorenzo arrived at his car just in time not to lose them.
He tried to catch up with them, swerving between cars headed against the flow of traffic and speeding up past the speed limit. He did not even notice the traffic violations he was committing; he was completely focu
sed on the white car that was moving forward. He was just shy of an accident when, suddenly, Lorenzo hit the brakes, causing him to skid toward the sidewalk. His prey had made a simple right turn. It was an involuntary reflex that reminded him of his uncertain nervous state. He decided not to follow them when he realized that it was the entrance to one of the most frequented hotels in the area. He felt ashamed for his paparazzi action and abandoned the chase. He was entering Irma’s private life, an area that he considered to be off-limits.
While he drove back, Lorenzo mentally pieced together the bits of information he had picked up thus far. Each one, by itself, did not represent substantial progress in the case. Therefore, he decided to put together as coherent a picture as possible from the pieces available, without being worried about whether the result would be favorable. The important thing was figuring out how his future fit into this picture.
•••••
The sun’s rays soaked through the sheet of paper, making it translucent to Lorenzo’s view. He held the paper up with his right arm extended toward the sky and his left arm stretched equally upward, grasping the invitation, made of thicker paper. He carefully examined every little detail of the imprint left by the rubber seal on both papers while battling with the strong wind that blew from the peak of the seaside resort’s observation tower, the meeting place chosen by Edgar. Trying to make the job easier, Edgar pointed to what was, in his opinion, the key to the identification: a small slit in one of the letters on the signature. Specifically, the head of the letter P, which had not appeared in the imprint that he had retrieved off the stamp that Javier Estrada used. Both imprints were otherwise identical.
There was not a shadow of a doubt, Irma Alfonzo had used her rubber stamp on the invitation that Doris brought to Armando Pedroza’s house the night of the crime. Without that invitation, she would not have been present. Lorenzo asked himself again and again why Irma would do such a thing. Edgar insisted they did not need a reason because they had enough proof to establish that she was the one who invited her. The why would be explained in due course.
Lorenzo thought it would be a good idea to bring his attorney up to speed on his finding, so he called him on his cellphone. But as soon as the phone call ended, he realized it had been a bad idea. Alexis minimized his finding, implying that it only proved that Irma possibly stamped the invitation, maybe even at Pedroza’s command. And what does that have to do with the crime? Nothing. He assured him again that he was working on the case and not to worry too much. Back to square one, thought Lorenzo.
He knew that Alexis was genuinely interested in the case. He considered his attorney’s advice to be objective and founded on what was important to the case from a legal perspective. But every time he thought there was a ray of hope, it was torn apart, and mercilessly extinguished within seconds by his legal representative. And the worst part was that he knew it was the sad, naked truth.
It was all the more frustrating for Lorenzo, too, that Edgar, one of Doris’ colleagues, seemed to have more enthusiasm and faith in his discoveries than he did at that point. Edgar insisted that the clue, although far from being conclusive, also pointed toward Irma as possibly being the one responsible for Doris’ being fired.
“That’s easy to say. The hard part is proving it,” lamented Lorenzo, depressed.
“It turns out that we can prove it. If Irma did it, it’s very likely that she used her office computer to change the report submitted by Doris. We just have to know how and where to look,” said Edgar in a scheming tone. Precisely the tone that did not exactly instill any level of confidence in Lorenzo.
“Well, I would think that if she used her computer, she must have erased the evidence a long time ago,” reported Lorenzo dejectedly.
“Oh, of course. I would expect so. I’ll come up with the plan. You worry about carrying it out.”
“Carrying it out?” asked Lorenzo, worried about the idea of delving any further into the supposed plan that Edgar was concocting in his head. But delving was not necessary. Edgar started to bombard him with details, instructions, and warnings about his idea, the objective of which was to extract the information directly from Irma’s computer outside of work hours.
His plan, to a certain point, was very simple. Actually, in the downpour of words that Edgar spilled over Lorenzo, expressions like easy, piece of cake, and cake walk were all too abundant. It consisted of simply gaining access to Irma’s office, turning on the computer, and connecting a USB drive to the corresponding USB port.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to hack into the computer through the internet?” asked Lorenzo, praying to God that Edgar had not thought of that.
“Impossible. She doesn’t have her computer connected to the internet. I don’t know what she’s afraid of,” responded Edgar.
“Me, neither,” pointed out Lorenzo, holding his brow. The picture became more complicated because Edgar insisted that Lorenzo had to be the one to enter the office to do the dirty work.
“Why can’t you do it? It’s your plan. Besides, you’re the one who works there. They wouldn’t be suspicious of you,” reasoned Lorenzo with the intention of getting out of the risky mission.
“That’s precisely why I can’t. The guards would recognize me and they would find it odd to see me outside of work hours when I rarely go in. Don’t worry about the technical part, either. As soon as you connect the device, the little worm trained by me will do the job without you ever having to lift a finger. You just have to wait for it to finish, disconnect, turn it off, and get out of there. It couldn’t be easier,” explained Edgar with a smile that Lorenzo was starting to hate.
The little worm was nothing more than a small program designed by Edgar to search for and copy all of the documents created and copied onto the machine, including those that had been erased. As soon as it was connected, it would execute its job without anyone’s help. The hard part was Lorenzo’s gaining access to the building without raising any red flags.
To achieve that, he would have to enter through the main door, which was manned by a security guard 24 hours a day. Then he would have to go through the building’s main entrance (also monitored) and climb to the fourth floor, whose access points (the stairs and the elevator) were secured by another guard. Finally, he would enter Irma’s office, which she locked every day upon leaving.
Lorenzo weighed the pros and the cons of this illegal action which this person, who was practically unknown to him, assured him was the only way to prove that his wife had been unjustly fired. Then maybe, just maybe, a door would open that would lead him to other clues or to establishing reasonable doubt in the homicide case. Lorenzo figured things could not get any worse. At least clearing his wife’s and his family’s stained name would serve him some purpose when his son or daughter asked uncomfortable questions in the not-so-distant future.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” muttered Lorenzo, closing his eyes. He basically felt like he was being thrown into a pit with the promise that someone would catch him at the bottom.
“Perfect. We’ll do it tonight,” exclaimed Edgar in high spirits, as if he were talking about a date to play video games.
“Tonight? But how am I going to get in? Where’s the rest of the plan?” asked Lorenzo, alarmed.
“Right up here,” answered Edgar, pointing to his head. “But I still have to adjust a few details and make a few phone calls. Don’t worry, “you’re in good hands,” he said, quoting the famous Allstate commercial.
“I’m not worried…I’m terrified.”
“Okay, go ahead and worry now and leave the terror for later. We’ll meet at 8:00 tonight, two streets down from the building,” finished Edgar, catapulting down the stairs to leave the tower.
Lorenzo gave one last look at the sea from his advantageous position and deeply breathed in the beach smell that so helped him relax. It did not work this time.
Chapter 12
Every dusk during summer gave rise to a spectacle that few in the area had the oppo
rtunity of witnessing. Those privileged individuals were the ones sailing their ships or arriving home from a boat ride. Being in the sea at that time of day allowed them to appreciate how the coast line became slowly speckled with light. The lights began dotting the coastline when both private homes and inns started lighting tiki torches and strings of lights to illuminate their nighttime festivities. Music, dance, and food dominated the festive atmosphere that would continue through sundown. The temperature even rose in some areas due to the intensity of the partying. The transformation was not only visual but also auditory. From the sea, it was almost impossible to distinguish one type of music from another when each light that flicked on was accompanied by its own special music and rhythm. Everything mixed into a cultural fusion that arrived to the ear and was then simply interpreted by the brain as a party, relaxation, and happiness.
Although Lorenzo was somewhat removed from the action, he could still hear and breathe the festive air that permeated the entire town. Nevertheless, the atmosphere did not have that exalting effect on him this time. On top of that, he felt warmer than usual, even for a summer’s evening. One of the contributing factors was surely the fact that it was eight o’clock at night and he was sitting in his car listening to Edgar spill the details of his scheme to acquire the information they needed from Irma’s office. He also gave him the USB drive that he was supposed to use to connect to the computer to extract the data.
Lorenzo forced himself not to squirm in his seat when the most important part of the plan arrived. A white van pulled up and parked in front of the Pedroza Enterprises building. With decades of wear and tear, it had obviously seen better days. It had the words Soltero Cleaning Services painted on the side. Three individuals, two men and a woman, dressed in white cleaning overalls with the business name printed on the back stepped out of the van. One of them, who appeared to be the oldest because of his gray hair and beard, waved hello to Edgar, who waved hello in return.