Chapter 4 - THE LAWYER WHO REFUSED TO CALL IT A MIRACLE
Nina Chen returned Mateo’s call two days later.
She worked with a Chicago innocence clinic that had reviewed his case eighteen months earlier.
Back then, Nina had believed the conviction was troubling.
Troubling was not enough.
Post-conviction courts required evidence.
Now she visited with an investigator named Marcus Bell.
Mateo immediately asked when he could go home.
Nina stopped him.
“Don’t do that to yourself.”
He stared at her.
“We have a picture.”
“We have a potentially important picture.”
“My daughter saw Gabriel.”
“We have an eight-year-old making a new disclosure about something that happened when she was five.”
“He threatened her.”
“Which makes this more serious. It also means we have to be extremely careful.”
Mateo leaned back.
He hated careful.
Careful had taken three years.
Nina explained that they needed an uncontaminated forensic interview of Elena conducted by a qualified child specialist.
They needed the original locket.
They needed the photograph authenticated.
They needed to determine whether Daniela had actually written the date.
And they needed to understand why Gabriel was in the house.
“A lie about his whereabouts doesn’t automatically make him a murderer.”
Mateo’s jaw tightened.
“You sound like the prosecutor.”
“I sound like someone who wants this to survive a courtroom.”
That quieted him.
Marcus examined trial records.
Gabriel had testified that he spent October 14 at Rosa’s home from roughly 6:30 p.m. until after 10:45.
Rosa confirmed it.
Daniela’s estimated time of death was between 8:30 and 10:15.
The photograph, if authentic, destroyed both accounts.
Nina asked Mateo a harder question.
“Why would your mother lie for Gabriel?”
“She wouldn’t.”
“You’ve been in prison three years because she already supported his version.”
“She believed him.”
“Maybe.”
Mateo looked away.
Nina continued.
“What did Daniela and Gabriel fight about?”
“The company.”
“Specifically?”
“I don’t know. Money.”
Daniela had complained for months that invoices did not match deposits.
Mateo had dismissed it as bookkeeping stress.
Gabriel always had explanations.
Customers paid late.
Materials increased.
Subcontractors changed prices.
Mateo had wanted peace between his wife and brother.
So he stayed out of it.
Now Nina asked, “Did Daniela ever tell you she thought Gabriel was stealing?”
Mateo remembered a dinner he had spent three years trying not to remember.
Daniela had said:
Your brother is moving money somewhere.
Mateo had snapped back:
Then prove it before you accuse him.
She never got the chance.
Nina closed her notebook.
“The photograph may not be the story.”
Mateo frowned.
May you like
“What is?”
“Whatever Daniela knew that made your brother lie about seeing her.”
