Lost: Casa Perdida [Completed]

Resolution

Felipe Altamirano Alvarez Espadachín

Next Day

I could smell the aroma of steamy, black coffee in the mug in front of me. My pistol was beside the cup, on top of the table. We had admitted Mendo and Margalida to the government hospital at Roboré. Mendo was fighting for his life, while Margalida was brought to a stable condition. They were a serious case when we admitted them. They were gravely injured, and they'd lost a lot of blood. When I was taking the injured policemen to the boat the day before, the chief of the village gave me an 'I told you so' look. I was thinking about how foolish I was in ordering a small, haphazard operation almost immediately after knowing about the case of the missing policemen. I should have gone with a larger force into the forest to find the two policemen, especially after a week of planning; the reason why I didn't take a long time planning was that I feared that if we tarried some harm would ambush the two policemen. I underestimated the jungles and their dangers. I risked the lives of two policemen, and if my superiors heard of that, they would not be happy. Moreover, I lost a lot of resources because in order to quickly carry the injured to the Police boats, which were anchored along the bank of the river that was close to the tribal village, we had to throw off those bags of supplies that we carried with us, only taking with us the First-Aid boxes and some of our weapons.

As I was thinking about these things, I stared at the steam rising from the surface of the coffee in the mug. Legends say that if you're seeking them, and if you look closely enough, you will see scenes from your future as reflections on the coffee in your cup. I was not superstitious but I was thinking about this legend as I stared at the cup of swirling, black coffee in the mug.

My mind then drifted back to thoughts of regret over deciding to pursue the missing policemen, without foreseeing the dangers in the forest. After a while, I shook myself out of the deep thinking I was almost drowning into and took the jar of sugar from the table behind me. I opened the lid of the jar and dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into the cup. Then I stirred the black liquid with another spoon.

Content with stirring the coffee, I took out the spoon and put it on some tissue paper neatly folded and put beside the mug on the table. I lifted the mug and drank the coffee with a slurp. When my wife was alive she used to always hate it when I made that slurping noise. I used to always tell her that only if I truly enjoyed something, I made that slurping sound. She would still be mad at me when I made that sound. I gulped down a lot of coffee and put the mug back on my desk. I opened my laptop and looked through my emails when someone knocked on my cabin's door. "Come in!"

Bernardo Valenciano entered the room and put a large file on my table. "These are the updates about what happened when you were gone, sir." While I took the file and flipped through the first pages of the file, reclining on my chair, he began, "Señor, I found out how Sergio Abrigo met with an accident."

I leaned forward, closing the file and putting it on the table. "What?" I asked, expecting Bernardo to tell me more.

"Yes, sir. While you were gone, my team and I investigated the Incasisi case alongside the case of Shifaly Udawatte. What we found was interesting..." he began.

I stopped sipping my coffee and paid even more attention to what he was going to say.

"So this Eduardo Rodriguez, the friend of Sergio Abrigo, was a man who always brought supplies to Sergio Rodrigo's camp. We got information about that through some mutual contacts that Sergio and Chayo Esteban shared. They were about ten people we interrogated and they confirmed that Rodriguez always brought supplies to Sergio's camp."

"Hmmm. And?"

"And one of these people, Fabián Velázquez Pousa, said that Sergio had this one particular disease. To protect himself from being paralyzed, Sergio always had to consume one pill of a particular type of medicine every day: Blafimenthol. Pousa was with Eduardo on the day he went to give Sergio supplies for the last time. Pousa told me that by accident Eduardo had put the Blafimenthol tablets in the bag where he put the Ximanthiseptirum tablets. When Pousa told Eduardo he put the wrong tablets in the wrong bag, Eduardo pulled out some tablets from that bag and put it in the bag full of Blafimentholtablets that Eduardo was supposed to give to Sergio Abrigo."

"So that's how Abrigo got the wrong pills?" I asked.

"Yes. Oh, and on the day before the day when Abrigo met with an accident, the records at Quemado Corporation show that the shipment of Ximanthiseptirum that Eduardo Rodriguez brought on that day was contaminated - it had a few tablets of the medical drug Blafimenthol. When I came across this piece of information, I confirmed that Sergio Abrigo got the drugs because of a small human error."

"Hmmm. He might have probably taken the wrong pill on the day he took Seagale and Gallagher with him on the jeep."

"Yes sir, and he might have hallucinated on the road, and that caused him to end up dead along with Seagale and Gallagher."

"Hmmm. Do you have a report detailing your methods and procedures that led you to your conclusions"

"It's here in the file," said Bernardo almost immediately, taking the file, which he had earlier placed on the table, and flipping through a few papers until he reached a page that read 'The Quemado Ximanthiseptirum Affair'. Once he reached that page he handed the file over to me across the table.

Taking the file in my hand, I skimmed through the report. There were numerous headings. Bernardo has a reputation for an extreme inclination for detail. That's why I love his reports. He makes sure to leave no detail overlooked.

"I'm very glad that you solved that aspect of the case, Bernardo," I said, "How is the case of the missing Sri Lankan kids going on? Avanthi Bandaranaike and Shifaly Udawatte?"

"No progress, sir. We examined all the area around the dam but couldn't find even a trace that leads us to where they or their bodies are."

"Have you extended the perimeter of the search area?" I asked, putting the file down.

Bernardo thought for a while. "By about 20 sq km. Yet no result, sir."

"Where do you think they might have gone, Bernardo?" I asked, trying to suppress my worry.

Bernardo thought for a while. "I think, sir, that they might have not drowned like those three boys whose bodies were discovered in Brazil. If they drowned, they might have been found by now in Brazil or Argentina."

I raised my eyebrows, signaling to Bernardo that I needed him to continue.

"I think that they might have wandered off into the jungle and lost their way."

"Which are the possible forests that they could've wandered into? Where do you think that they'd possibly go?" My coffee had turned cold.

Bernardo flipped through the pages on the files and pulled out a map of Bolivia sandwiched between two pieces of paper. "May I?" he asked.

"Of course. Go for it!" I said.

He unfolded the map. It was a huge map. He got up and carried the huge map to a spot in the wall where there was a nail. He hung the map on the wall and pointed to a spot north of the dam. I turned my chair in the direction of the map on the wall. He began, "If they walked north, they might journey for a long time until they reach Brazil. However, if they took this route," he said using his finger to delineate a route, "they might end up in Peru. But there's also a possibility that they could end up in civilization before even going to Peru. The regions in this portion (he pointed to a region in Northwest Bolivia) are underdeveloped with no access to the internet. There's a chance that some villagers would have taken them in, but never found any way to get them to the Police."

"Is there a probability that they could have gone deeper into the jungles in the East?"

"Yes. There are many probabilities, but.."

"Yes?"

"But there's a chance that the drug gangs could have captured them."

"We can't imagine what they could do to them." The telephone rang. I pulled the receiver to my ear. "Hello?" After listening to the person on the other end for a while, I put the phone down and looked at Bernardo. "Bernardo, thanks for coming. I need to discuss with you about the case of the missing policemen. But we will do that tonight. I've got to go to Roboré for some important business." I smiled at Bernardo and shook his hand.

I gulped down the coffee, took the cup with me along with my weapon and bag, as I headed for the door. I didn't forget to grab my car keys on the way out.

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Next Chapter(Episode): Los Gringos