Show Me Chapter 26

Hello everyone! Hope you're all doing good and staying safe! Enjoy this chapter!

Héctor, Victoria and the twins stood outside the Land of the Dead's only prison, feeling the courage slowly beginning to slip away from them. Hours after arriving home, Héctor had revealed his plan to the family and a few days later,

Initially, Imelda really wanted to come but decided against it at the last minute knowing if she got into the same room with de la Cruz, she wouldn't be able to control her temper. It was an out-of-character move for her to decide not to go, but Héctor understood. Imelda needed time to process everything and getting herself arrested for attacking someone would not be a good idea.

"Why doesn't the living family know about this, Abuelito?" Victoria asked as she walked into the holding lobby. "Shouldn't we write a letter to let him know what else we've learned?"

"It could be that…" said Oscar

"…the living Rodriguez family…" added Felipe.

"…doesn't even know about Torres," they concluded.

Putting an arm around his nieta's shoulders, Héctor said, "I already wrote a letter to Miguel and told him what was happening. I got a reply this morning. The investigator has been following a lead in America and México City. Apparently, he sent an agent to de la Cruz Productions to look into their archives for information on Torres and Rodriguez."

SighingVictoria sat back and said, "And they're looking into the break-in as well?"

"Sí," Héctor replied as he stood up as the officer beckoned for the group. "Let's hope so."

Héctor had been inside a jail cell many times before, but every time it was a new experience. This time, his family was with him as he headed for the room in the back of the holding lobby.

After Día de los Muertos 2017, many of de la Cruz's bodyguards had been arrested or had gone into hiding to avoid prosecution. Some of the charges that had been listed were attempted murder of a living child, attempted assault, not putting up signs at the cenote, graverobbing and even extortion to name a few.

A couple of the bodyguards had reached out to the Rivera family in an attempting to apologize by letter for their actions. But Héctor didn't feel ready to read those letters nor did he pass them on to Miguel, knowing that his grandson still had nightmares about that cenote.

"Señor Rivera are you sure about this?" a prison guard asked. "I can always have someone go in with you and your familia if you want."

Shaking his head, Héctor said, "No, but if I don't get this over with now, then I'll never do it."

With a simple incline of his head, the guard opened the cell door. Inside it looked blank and bare, papers scattered about everywhere with bits of ink on the walls. In a small corner, lay a figure dressed in prison garb and looking nothing like the man it once was once was.

"Héctor," said the scratchy voice of what was once the greatest musico in México. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Stiffening at de la Cruz's weak attempt to charm, Victoria glared at the man who had caused her family so much pain.

"I'm not coming here to set you free if that's what you're thinking," Héctor said in an uncharacteristically icy tone that usually only his wife employed. "I just want to know about you and Torres."

At first de la Cruz said nothing, but upon seeing icy glares from Victoria and the twins, he knew that he better starts talking or run the risk of getting beaten up by that crazy alebreje again.

"A beautiful lady who was mí vida," Ernesto answered. "'The love of my life' as you would say, Héctor."

After Victoria pulled out a couple of pieces of paper from the pile by the bed, de la Cruz simply looked up, gathered the remains of his non-existent courage and said, "Good luck finding the rest of the answers, musico."

"Why did you do it?" Héctor asked. "Why did you murder me? Coco grew up without a papá and Imelda hated me. Coco used to love you, ya sabes."

To make it clear that he wouldn't give them an answer, de la Cruz turned around to face the wall, causing the Riveras to leave in anger and hurt.

Hours later, at the shop, the whole Rivera poured through dozens of the papers that de la Cruz owned, anxious to find a clue to Torres' death and Rodriguez's disappearance.

"What are we looking for, mí amor?" Imelda asked, holding up a piece of paper.

"Any reference that he made to having a child or Torres being pregnant or even covering up what happened to Rodriguez," Héctor said. "But knowing de la Bastardo, he probably burned a lot of these letters and gave us duds to cover his tracks."

Looking up from the pile with an "Ah ha!" Rosita held up a letter that said something pertinent. "It's a newspaper clip about Rodriguez's disappearance. It looks like his family took out an ad to find some answers. They said that he was last seen in… "

Imelda tensed slightly, but said, "Adelante, Rosita. Sigue leyendo*."

Reading through the clipping slowly as she compared it to the letter, Rosita said, "de la Cruz mentions in his letter that he's going out to a town in el Nuevo Méjico. It's somewhere in America and it says that he's out hunting in a town called Santa Fe."

Victoria rushed off, making Héctor think that she was upset, but when the woman returned moments later, there was no sign of tears anywhere. Instead, she held a piece of paper, a pen and a map.

"I think I know where he is," Victoria said tensely. "He's buried there in Santa Fe and we need to let the living relatives know. Especially Elena."

"But mija," Coco said. "We need to be sure that this letter is about Rodriguez. For all we know, this letter could be about anyone!"

"It's dated March 1942, Mamá," Victoria said. "de la Cruz died one month later, and Rodriguez went missing a month or so prior—ay, I better write this all down."

Timeline

November-January 1941—De la Cruz ends romance with Torres?

February 1942—Rodriguez vanishes, presumably in Santa Fe.

April 1942—death of de la Cruz

January 1943—Araceli Torres dies giving birth to her daughter but the official cause of death that is released to the public was a long-term battle with liver cancer.

"So, it's possible that Torres rekindled the romance with de la Cruz before he died?" Rosita asked in confusion.

"But if that's the case, what happened to Rodriguez?" Julio said. "Wasn't he de la Cruz's bandmate for years?"

"Even if it has nothing with Rodriguez, we still need to let the familia know so that this woman can learn about who she is." Rosita said, scribbling a note to Miguel and the living family.

"We need to be careful though," Imelda said. "I don't want this family falling victim to another of one of de la Cruz's tricks."

Getting up, Héctor kissed her soundly before grasping his wife's hands. "Don't worry, mí vida, we'll be careful. We've got more than enough evidence and Rosita's sent a message to Miguel and Elena, along with copies of the letters. If the investigator asks, la familia can say that they were sent anonymously."

*Slow down