Chapter 6 - The Weak LinkLicenciado Alatorre was not a brave man. He was a corporate parasite who thrived in the grey areas of the law, but the moment the light was shone on him, he scrambled for the shadows.
By midnight, Diego and Sofia’s private investigator had located Alatorre at a luxury hotel near the Toluca airport. He had already packed his bags, planning to catch a flight to Spain the next morning to escape the fallout of the Montgomery scandal.
The door to his hotel room didn't open with a key; it was pushed open by two large security guards Diego had hired.
Alatorre spun around from his suitcase, his face turning paper-white as Diego walked in, followed by Sofia.
"Mr. Ramírez..." Alatorre stammered, backing toward the balcony. "I... I told you, I had no part in the forgery. Patricia brought me the papers. She swore they were genuine!"
"Save it, Alatorre," Sofia said, sitting down at the hotel desk and opening a sleek silver laptop. "We have the metadata from the digital signature on the power of attorney. It was registered using your corporate IP address on a day when Diego Ramírez was verified to be on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s not an administrative error. That’s ten years in a federal penitentiary for document forgery and international wire fraud."
Alatorre sank onto the bed, his shoulders slumping. "What do you want?"
"We want the truth," Diego said, stepping closer, his shadow falling over the trembling notary. "We want a signed, notarized confession detailing exactly how my mother and sister planned to steal this house. And we want the names of the people they paid to get that eviction notice signed."
Alatorre looked at Diego’s hard, unyielding expression, then at the federal indictment drafts Sofia had displayed on her screen. He knew when he was beaten.
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"It was Héctor Vargas," Alatorre whispered. "He paid Judge Silva fifty thousand dollars to sign the eviction order. The goal was to force you out, sell the house to a dummy corporation, and split the profits between Vargas, your mother, and Patricia."
"Write it down," Sofia said, sliding a pen and a pad of paper toward him. "Every single detail. And then, you're going to make a phone call."
