Lost: Casa Perdida [Completed]

To Catch A Liar

The Narrator

In the confines of the station, Felipe and Alejandro were filing some reports that they had to file about Basilio Armada's death, amid the sound of the rain outside. It was a lot of paperwork that they had to do. While they were doing paperwork, Enrique was in the interrogation room, busy with interrogating the other two boys: Alfredo Sanchez and Valiente De Las Playas.

Early morning that day, Felipe had interrogated Diego Alonso (the boy who peed in his pants when Felipe questioned him). The sketch he made the sketch artist do was ready. When Felipe and Alejandro saw the completed sketch earlier that night, they understood who the suspect was: Scapoli Gutiérrez.

Scapoli Gutiérrez was wanted by the Police for two years. His pictures were circulated throughout the police network in the country. They were circulated so much that the Police knew him, his face, and what he did, by heart. He was wanted for the crime of assaulting his father when he discovered Scapoli's attempt to rob money from his father's safe. When he tried to confront Scapoli, Scapoli beat him up in such a way that the old man was left dying after he escaped from the crime scene. The old man, however, was found wounded and bleeding the day after, by a neighbor. It was a miracle that the old man was discovered because, if the neighbor did not find him, he would have died. Neither Felipe nor Alejandro knew the name of the father though. Scapoli was a master at escaping. Two years have passed and the Police don't know where to find Scapoli. Felipe had a gut feeling that arresting Scapoli would be the answer to many crimes. A son who could do the despicable act of beating up his father could do any worse thing. Felipe was determined to catch Scapoli.

Just when Felipe sighed in relief as he completed the paperwork, Enrique came to the door.

Whenever a criminal didn't spit out the answers that the Police needed, the person to go to was Felipe. Felipe looked very intimidating. His face and extremely well-built body made him look that way. And Felipe was definitely not the person who would try to sweet-talk a suspect into giving the answers. He gets straight into business and makes the suspect blurt out confessions.

If one never knew Felipe well, they would think of him as a rude person because he is quite stern in his behavior, especially when he deals with criminals. People often think the same about Police officers and soldiers in general. The reason why both police officers and soldiers look rude is that they deal with so many criminals who do brutal crimes that they become tough because of encountering such criminals.

"What's up, Enrique?" Felipe asked.

"Sir, I first interrogated Valiente about why he did the crime. His account of why he did the crime differed from the account that you extracted from Diego this morning. When I confronted him with the account that Diego gave about why he did the crime, Valiente said Diego's was a lie. So I asked Alfredo about the reasons for the crime. When I listened to Alfredo's account, it matched with Valiente's."

As Alejandro heard what Enrique said, he leaned back against his chair, holding his palms together.

"I thought so," Alejandro began.

"What do you mean?" asked Felipe.

"I had an intuition that what Diego said today morning wasn't entirely true, if not completely false," said Alejandro moving his chair a bit forward.

Felipe looked at Alejandro as if Alejandro must be more clear.

Understanding what Felipe's look meant, Alejandro began, "You see Enrique told me about what happened that night when you went to rescue Armada. He told me that Diego was laughing when he was about to stab the old man."

Felipe thought about where Alejandro was going with his words, as he listened to him speak.

"Someone who kills in desperation to save their family doesn't laugh when he's doing the deed. He would be showing some reluctance, some remorse."