But Méndez had already taken out his phone.
“Then I will get authorization,” he replied coldly.
Within minutes, calls began spreading through the prison administration, then through the prosecutor’s office, and finally toward the judge who had presided over Ramira’s original trial.
Meanwhile, Ramira held Salomé tightly, whispering apologies between sobs for the years her daughter had spent alone.
The girl only hugged her back silently.
Two hours later, a police unit was already on its way to locate Mateo Fuentes.
The case that had seemed closed forever was suddenly alive again.
And somewhere across the city, a man who believed his crime had been perfectly hidden was about to discover that the smallest witness had just shattered his freedom.
Back in the prison visiting room, Colonel Méndez watched the mother and daughter holding each other and felt something rare stir inside him.
Hope.
Because sometimes the truth did not arrive through lawyers or investigators.
Sometimes it arrived through the quiet voice of a child who finally decided it was time for the world to hear what she had seen.
