Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Raphael

At twenty-four, Isabel was the mother of a two-year-old girl.Her husband, Rafael Santo, who is only a little older than her, is a journalist by trade.The young couple lived in a shabby apartment in the Barakas neighbourhood.Isabelle and Raphael met in college.Like Raphael, Isabel had studied journalism; Raphael always told her that his writing was more determined and delicate than hers, and she had an unrivaled gift for describing someone's appearance .However, when their daughter was born, Isabel chose to give up her career until Maria Luz was old enough to go to school.Journalism was a shared passion for the couple, and Raphael read each story to Isabel before publishing it.After their daughter fell asleep, Isabelle sat down at the kitchen table, pencil in hand, to revise Raphael's manuscript.Raphael, Isabel and Maria Luz are living a happy life, and a bright future is waiting for them.

But a military dictatorial coup that rocked the country ruined their plans. Rafael lost his job.The centrist daily Opinion, which had hired him in the past, was outlawed despite often taking an extremely "cautious" stance when it came to the new regime.This incident led to the worst financial crisis for the family, but it was also a good thing for Isabel.The journalists still working for the newspaper at this time expressed their allegiance to General Videla's regime more or less.And Isabel and Raphael, as leftist Peronists, would never agree that their words appear in such newspapers as "Cabildo" or other newspapers that are still in print.

Ingenious Raphael quickly finds a new job at a joinery shop in the neighborhood, while Isabel and her best friend take turns babysitting to free up time for a science high school job as superintendent. The end of the month is never easy, but the combined salary of the two can still help them get out of the woods and provide for all the needs of their young daughter. Every day when Raphael came back from the workshop, the family had dinner and they sat down at the dining table.While Isabel sews and mends to support her family, Raphael chronicles the sorrows of the Argentine people about injustice, government repression, corruption of power, religious complicity, and other social phenomena.

Every day at 11 o'clock in the morning, Rafael would leave the workshop with the excuse of smoking.A cyclist stopped his car and asked him for a cigarette.While helping him light the fire, Raphael quietly slipped him the article he had written the night before.Couriers delivered the forbidden texts to a dilapidated workshop that is now a secret printing office.In this way, Raphael contributed his strength to an underground publication secretly published by the resistance organization. Rafael and Isabel dream of one day leaving Argentina and emigrating to a free country. Whenever Isabel was discouraged, Raphael would take out a small book with a red cover from a small drawer in the wardrobe.He calculated their savings, counting down how long it would take before they could leave here.Lying in bed, he whispered to Isabel the names of the cities one by one, like people telling dreams, and they both fell asleep, Raphael always the first one.

One day in early summer, after dinner, little Maria Luz had gone to sleep, and both Raphael and Isabelle had finished their day's work earlier than usual.Isabelle was lying naked under the covers.Her skin was delicate and pale.Raphael was worried that his rough hands used to carpentry would hurt her when he touched her, even though the skin-to-skin contact was full of affection. "I love your working hands," Isabel whispered into her husband's ear with a smile, "tell them to hold me tight." While Rafael and his wife were making love, someone knocked on the door of their small apartment.

"Don't move." Raphael grabbed the shirt at the foot of the bed and said. The knocking on the door became more and more urgent, and Raphael was afraid that this sudden change would wake up their daughter. When he opened the gate, four heavily armed men pinned him to the ground. One of them put his knee on Rafael's back, and another grabbed the terrified Isabel by the hair.He pushed Isabelle against the kitchen wall and wrapped a rag around her neck until she could no longer scream.As soon as her screaming stopped, the man took the opportunity to release her so that she could catch her breath.The third man began a quick search of the room.After a while he returned to the living room, holding Maria Luz with one arm, and with the other he held the knife to her throat.

Without saying a word, these men motioned Raphael and Isabel to put on their clothes and go out with them. They took the family to a pickup truck, with Maria Luz seated in the front seat. Trucks move quickly through the city.Although the front and rear of the truck were separated, and despite the constant roar of the engine, Rafael and Isabel could still hear their daughter calling them all the way.Isabel's sobs grew more uncontrollable each time little Maria Luz called "Mommy."Raphael took her hand, trying to calm her down, but how could one comfort a mother who was suffering from hearing her child's cries?Thirty minutes later the truck finally stopped.When the doors opened, they found themselves in a square.Someone dragged them out of the car mercilessly, and when Raphael tried to look back at his daughter, he got another hard hit on the head.Isabelle tried to run back when one of the men grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back.They were taken to a house surrounding a small square.

Isabelle called her daughter's name one last time, then got a chin bump and rolled down the stairs.Raphael was also kicked down the stairs. They were lying at the bottom of the steps, on a muddy floor that smelled of urine.Then Isabel was put in a cell, and Raphael in another... "What are you doing?" Andrew asked as he walked into the living room. Valerie placed what she had just been reading on the coffee table in front of her. "Since the other party is also a reporter, this investigation has bothered you very much?" "Okay, Valerie, it's confidential! I don't want to have to lock everything in drawers in my own home! Please understand me, this is my job and I hope you respect it." Andrew put away The paper on the coffee table made a calm summary.

"Isabelle has the right to read what her husband writes...she can even give him advice." "I'm sorry but please don't make me angry, I don't like people reading my notes and drafts." "'Someone' includes your future wife. 'Someone' has to endure the utter loneliness and boredom you have for weeks on a business trip; and when you come back, 'someone' has to understand that your heart is somewhere else, thinking of you work; 'someone' has to respect it all, out of love for you. But for me, I can't live with you without sharing the passion of your work."

"Did you like what you just read?" Andrew asked. "I was terrified of knowing what was going to happen to the family, and at the same time I was jealous that Raphael and Isabelle could be working side by side at the kitchen table in close proximity." "It's just a draft," Andrew muttered. "It's much more than that." "If I don't go to Argentina again, I will never be able to publish their story. It's not a fictional story, you understand? The people in it are real people, I can't just rely on a little clue to complete my story. report."

"I understand that you have to go back there again. This passion that turns you on is one of the reasons I love you. I just hope you don't get away from me because of it." Andrew sat down beside Valerie, took her hand and kissed her. "You're right. I'm a fool. As soon as it comes to work, I don't care about it. I always have a paranoid attachment to secrets. I'm afraid that I won't be able to present the real truth, and I'm worried that I'm too one-sided, easily influenced, It is used by others. It is precisely for this reason that I hope that after this report is published, you can understand the reasons for my daily struggles. But, I was wrong," he said and shook his head. "In the future, I will write Wherever it is, I will invite you to read it." "Then?" Valerie continued. "Then what?" "Then you'll be a little more interested in my work?" "Everything related to you interests me. You want me to read your daily work report?" "Of course not," Valerie laughed, "I want you to come to my clinic, if only once, and then I can show you what my day-to-day job is like." "You want me to see the mounted police stables?" "And my office, operating room, analytical laboratory..." "I think I'd be happier if you worked with pets... I haven't been to where you work so far, and the only reason is that I'm afraid of horses." Valerie looked at Andrew and smiled. "You don't have to be afraid of them at all. What I just read is a hundred times more terrifying than the most unruly of them." "How untamed?" Andrew asked. With that he stood up. "Where are you going?" Valerie asked. "I'm going to get some fresh air, I think we'll go for a walk outside in a minute, and then I'll take you somewhere suitable for a romantic dinner." Andrew put on a coat for Valerie, she turned around and asked: "What happened to Raphael and Isabel?" "Next time," Andrew said as he closed the apartment door, "next time I'll tell you everything." Andrew came to the newspaper office around 8:30.He passed security, then stopped into the cafe for a cup of coffee before going upstairs to the office. Andrew sat at his desk, turned on the computer, entered the password and started searching.After a while, he found some materials and took out a pen. Also, can you please check the location of this park, it seems to be a children's park based on the pictures I saw on the internet... Andrew slipped the note into an envelope, wrote the recipient's address, and put it in the mail box that the Daily Postman came to pick up. Back at his desk, he couldn't help but start thinking about what Capetta said before leaving. "If I were you, I would definitely not take her threat as a joke." And Chicago is only two hours away by plane from New York... Then the phone on his desk rang, and the operator told him that a visitor was waiting for him at the reception on the first floor. Andrew walked towards the elevator.In the elevator, a violent shudder suddenly ran through his body, and he felt a dull pain in his lower back. "You don't look well," said Sheriff Pileg. "It's fatigue, I don't know what's wrong with me, I feel like I'm freezing." "It's weird, but you're sweating." Andrew wiped his forehead with his hand. "Would you like to sit down?" Pileg suggested. "Let's go for a walk, I want to get some fresh air." Andrew replied. However, the sudden pain was so strong that Andrew couldn’t take a step at all.His legs were weak and he slid down, and Pileg hugged him hastily. When Andrew regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a bench in the hall.Pileg was by his side. "You're finally recovering. The way you look freaks me out. You just fell down. Did it used to happen?" "No, how should I put it, it's never happened before." "It's the stress, my friend," sighed Pileg. "I know what I'm talking about. It's the same thing when people find themselves losing all the money in their wallets. Heart racing, ringing in the ears, Your body is light, you have no strength, the external sound seems to be getting farther and farther away, and then you sit down on the ground. Your appearance is a symptom of excessive anxiety..." "may be." "Have you ever told anyone other than me what happened to you?" "Who else do you think I can tell all this to, who will believe what I say?" "Don't you have any friends?" "Of course there is." "A lot of friends you can count on no matter what happens?" Pileg asked derisively. Andrew sighed. "Well, I'm still a loner. Simon is like a brother to me, and a genuine friendship is better than a lot of flamboyant superficial friends." "The two are not contradictory. You should talk to this old Simon and tell him your story. Now you have eight weeks to find the murderer." "Thank you for reminding me. I've been thinking about this from morning to night. Even if I forget it for a while, the pain in my back won't make me forget." "The tighter the clock, the more you need to depend on someone." "Is this your way of telling me I need to find someone else?" "Don't be like this, Steelman, it's just a suggestion. I didn't say I'm going to leave you alone, but I have to go home. I have my own life too, I have a wife waiting for me at home, and I'm just a Retired police officer. I will continue to investigate in New York until the day you leave for Argentina. After that we can still communicate by phone, and I also often use the Internet. I have been typing reports on a typewriter for years, so my typing The speed is also quite fast. But anyway, I hope you can tell your friends about this, this is an order." "Why did you come to me this morning? Is there any new progress?" "The list of suspects who might hate you got longer last night, but that won't help us solve the problem. I'll check Mrs. Capetta's lead and see if I find anything. As for you, you'd better pay attention The state of mind of your colleague, Freddie Olsen. I would also like to know more about your female boss." "I've already told you, Olivia's line is wrong." "If it's me this time, I can tell you I won't leave anyone out. Also, as a pity, I need to point out that there are others on my list." "Who else?" "Your wife, you abandoned her on your wedding day." "But Valerie isn't strong enough to kill a fly." "On weekdays, she is just a veterinarian. But in fact, in order to get revenge on the man who hurt her deeply, she is likely to do outrageous things. You can't imagine how she will behave if a person has revenge in his heart Unpredictable. And she's dealing with the police all day long." "so?" "If it was my wife who wanted to kill me, she would have done more creative things than a detective novelist could have imagined." "Are you playing with me, Mr. Police, or do you really trust me?" "Stop being so talkative, Steelman, I'm always going to fail you. Come with me." "where are we going?" "Go to the crime scene where the murder hasn't happened yet."