The pressure of the crayon, the shape of the figures, the limited perspective. This drawing is authentic. Dolores, a young child, made it. Could it represent a real trauma?
Undoubtedly, children who witness traumatic events often process them through art.
This drawing shows a violent scene, one figure on the ground, another standing in a dominant position.
The use of the color red here indicated stains on the reclining figure. It suggests that the child understood there was blood, and the man in the blue shirt is the most significant detail.
Traumatized children remember specific elements: colors, smells, sounds. If the girl drew a blue shirt, it’s because the actual abuser wore a blue shirt. That’s a sensory memory, not a fabrication.
Dolores showed the photographs of Gonzalo that Carlos had collected.
In every single one, without exception, she wore shades of blue. Ramiro Fuentes always wore dark colors, Dolores said. Black, gray, brown, never blue. Patricia nodded.
If you can prove that the girl drew this days after the event, you have psychological evidence that she saw someone other than her father commit the crime.
It’s not legal evidence on its own, but combined with other elements it could reopen the case. Exactly. Dolores carefully kept the drawing.
I had one piece of the puzzle, but I needed more. I needed to find Martin.
Carlos arrived that night with more information. He had investigated Sara Fuentes’ past and found something crucial. Sara had a close friend, Beatriz Sánchez.
They had known each other since university. According to phone records I was able to obtain, Sara spoke with Beatriz the night before she died.
A 40-minute phone call. Beatriz Sánchez, a relative of Aurelio, his cousin, but they haven’t spoken in years. There was a family fight some time ago.
Beatriz lives on the outskirts of the city. She is a retired nurse. Dolores visited Beatriz that same afternoon.
She was a 60-year-old woman who lived alone with three cats and memories of better times. Sara called me that night, Beatriz confirmed. She was scared.
She told me she’d discovered something about Gonzalo, Ramiro’s brother, a fraud involving their parents’ will. What else did she tell me? That Gonzalo had been harassing her since before they were married.
Ramiro never knew. Sara didn’t want to cause problems between the siblings, but in recent months Gonzalo had become more aggressive.
He threatened her if she didn’t keep quiet about the will. Why did she never report this to the police? Beatriz lowered her gaze.
My cousin Aurelio visited me two days after Sara died. He told me that if I opened my mouth, he would investigate my taxes and find irregularities I didn’t know about.
He told me he could destroy my life with one phone call. I was afraid, Dolores. I was afraid and I kept quiet. And I’ve lived with that guilt for five years. Would you be willing to testify now?
Beatriz looked out the window where the sun was beginning to set. Sara was my best friend. I let her innocent husband be condemned out of cowardice.
If testifying now can fix some of the things I did wrong, I’m willing. Dolores left Beatriz’s house with a recording of her testimony and renewed hope.
But when he got to his car he noticed something strange, a black vehicle parked at the end of the street, the same model he had seen in front of his house days before.
She pretended not to notice and drove home. The black car followed her at a distance. Dolores changed her route, taking side streets.
The car was following her. Her heart was pounding, but she remained calm. In her years as a lawyer, she had faced worse threats.
Finally, it stopped in a well-lit area in front of a police station. The black car drove past, but something fell from its window as it accelerated.
Dolores waited a few minutes before leaving, picked up the object from the floor, a religious medal of the kind that mothers give to their children for protection.
It had his initials engraved on it.
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