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“You know him?” Charlie asked.
Catalina finally lifted her eyes to look at them and shook her head. “No. He contacted me once about ten years ago in an email, asking questions about my parents. I was debating whether to answer him when my husband suddenly decided that it wasn’t good for my health to remain in Buenos Aires. A couple of days later, I was packed off to this gilded prison cell.” She waved to the room they were in, her thin lips twisting into a bitter smile. “Since that day, all my emails and phone calls have been closely monitored by his people. I’m not permitted in Buenos Aires or to leave the country.”
“He knows,” Will snarled. “He knows you’re one of the Los Desaparecidos, and he’s kept you a prisoner here.”
Catalina’s thin shoulders lifted in a lackadaisical shrug. “He’s always known that I was adopted, but my parents have very official-looking papers, claiming they went through proper channels.” She snorted inelegantly. “Everyone knows how easy it is to get official documents that say any number of lies. I wondered when I was growing up, but I never gave it much thought until Lopez contacted me.”
Charlie sighed and sank back in his chair. “Your son and husband have made it look like you’ve completely disappeared. Most people think you’re dead.”
“It’s why I tried approaching your son in the first place,” Will admitted. “If I couldn’t have access to your DNA, his was the next best thing.”
“Little monster,” Catalina grumbled. “Takes after that bastard of a father.” She narrowed her gaze on Will, who straightened under those dark eyes. “Okay. What do you need? Some blood?”
Charlie laughed, confident that he couldn’t be more impressed with the older woman. She looked like she was ready to open a vein right then and there for him.
Will jumped to his feet, his body practically vibrating with his excitement. He pulled a small plastic test tube out of his jacket pocket and held it up so she could see that there was a cotton swab sealed inside of it. “Actually, all I need to do is swab the inside of your cheek. Just a bit of saliva is plenty.”
Shock had the older woman blinking at him for a second. “Your friends weren’t planning to kill me?”
“Oh God, no!” Will gasped.
“We figured you’d be asleep, so we were going to send someone in to steal your hairbrush and toothbrush,” Charlie explained.
Catalina sniffed at him. “That would work, I guess, but this has been more interesting.”
That was an understatement.
At Will’s direction, she opened her mouth and the doctor very carefully swabbed the inside of her cheek, treating her with incredible care. When he got what he needed, he carefully returned the swab to the test tube and screwed it shut.
“How long will it take for you to run your test?” Catalina inquired.
“If I can pull some strings, we should get the answer inside of a week.” Will paused and cocked his head to the side. “Would…would you like to know the results?”
The older woman stared off into space, a frown starting to tug down the corners of her mouth. “You said that Lopez is on his deathbed?”
“He is. Terminal cancer. He doesn’t have long. Maybe days. Maybe weeks,” Will replied, his words barely more than a whisper.
“And his wife, the woman who might be my aunt…she’s already dead?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
The silence stretched for several seconds, and she finally gave a small nod. “I still want to know.” She stood and walked across the room to a small writing desk positioned in front of a wall of windows looking out on the lawn. She pulled over a small notepad and scribbled something down before tearing the sheet of paper off. Returning to the sitting area, she handed the paper over to Will. “This is an email address my husband doesn’t know about. Your message can be a simple yes or no. I’ll understand what it means.”
Will accepted it and held one of her hands in both of his. “Thank you, Señora Perez. You don’t understand what your help means to me and Carlos. Even if this isn’t a positive match, it is enough to lift the weight from his shoulders. He’ll know that he did everything he could to find the truth for his wife.”
“Thank you for fighting so hard for your friend. I’ll be anxiously awaiting news.”
Will tucked the paper away and crossed the bedroom toward the doors to leave. Charlie started to follow right on his heels, but Catalina grabbed his elbow, stopping him. Charlie stared at the diminutive woman who’d narrowed her eyes on him in warning.
“You keep a close watch on him. Take good care of him. Be worthy of that kind of love and devotion,” she advised him.
Charlie grinned. “That’s not going to be a problem at all.”
