Cool Specs (Part 5)

In the morning, over breakfast, she picked the telephone directory and looked for Dr Mireles’s number. To her surprise his clinic was located on Octavio Paz. “Get me that paper!”

“What’s it?” asked Camila.

“See if the Dolores woman lives on Octavio Paz, I remember reading somewhere…”

Valentina turned the pages of the directory to check on the Dolores and plainly both live on Octavio Paz. She spread a map and looked into the San Jerónimo area.

She said, “We’ll go there at once to take a look. Get the camera.”

Soon they were on Octavio Paz taking pictures. The placard read ‘Dr Juan Carlos Silva Mireles’.

They took pictures outside the Dolores house and sat down for coffee in a café nearby. In exchange of few words with the waiters they found out the funeral was to start at the parish on Sunday.

Valentina told Camila while climbing the car, “We must come back. I will attend mass tomorrow.”

“Why?” asked Camila Agular, “You can report to the police.”

“And say what?” she asked, “I need something to support all these psychedelic events.”

 

Following day, Valentina arrived at the Catholic Church and joined mass at nine. She wore a black dress and a dense veil that covered her face unrecognizably. She arranged Camila to sit in the car and take photos of the visitors.

Into the service she felt the presence of police officers. Dr Mireles attended the mass. He passed so close to her, patted the two cute kids and nodded to the Dolores Family members.

Rodriguez planted a couple of plain cloth guys outside to keep routine watch for three days. Enrique noticed Camila in the Mustang taking photographs. He noted the licence number and passed to the Guadalupe Police. Most of the police presence here belonged to San Jerónimo and they too noticed her.

In a moment, Enrique reported to Rodriguez who was wired to the neck that the car belonged to the super model, Valentina Buscar.

At the Guadalupe Police Station, officers dug into the website escondis.com knowingly she was the host of Las Escondidas. However, they failed to match Chloe Chase to Ibañez Trevizo.

Enrique Sala passed the word, “Captain says to approach her.”

“Not so fast, buddy,” Rodriguez replied.

At the funeral wake Officer Rodriguez reached the mourning model, “Hola! Miss Buscar. I didn’t know you were associated to the Dolores.”

Valentina stepped aside, “Who are you?”

“I’m Juan Carlos Rodriguez,” he replied.

“I see! Have you found the motive?”

He shrugged, “Negative.”

“No lead?”

“Nothing,” he admitted. “By any means, do you come to know this girl?” He produced the photocopy of the girl wearing full-rim eyeglasses.

“I do,” Valentina replied, “but she doesn’t look like that anymore. You better put it away. How do you come to know she’s involved in this?”

“Is she?” Rodriguez asked in shock, “That’s a very intelligent question but I honestly didn’t know. We are looking for her on a fraud case.”

“Never heard of that before,” said Valentina, “I thought she was a very honest girl. Ibañez is working for me.”

“I’d like to have a word with her.”

“No, you can’t. She’s in a hospital.”

“What happened?”

“Collapsed,” Valentina said, “Officer, we must talk. Can I call at the police station?”

“In that case it is the Guadalupe Police Station.”

“Huh! Why is that?”

“When a body is found on Cerro de la Silla it’s our case as well.”

“Fine, I’ll be there at three in the afternoon.”

“Alright, ma’am,” he left leaving San Jerónimo police off guard.

 

At the Guadalupe Station officers gathered to the counters and windows to take a good look at the super model. Her car pulled up at five past three. She came alone.

Captain Ramón had his final shot and cleared the desk. Thumbs in his belt, he came out to greet her. Officer Rodriguez escorted her to the meeting room, joined by the chief and two assistants.

Captain Ramón said, “What’s your story? What do you know about the girl?”

Valentina began, “Alright, first I have to say I do not know anything about this fraud, alright.”

“Fine, go ahead.”

“When she first arrived here in Monterrey, she fainted somewhere, she was taken to the Gleco Hospital and she lost her clothes she was wearing. They changed her to pyjamas and this doctor…Dr Mireles, gave a shot that she says provoked her sexually and experienced continuous orgasms. She ran away. And looking for job she came across me…in pyjamas.

“This seems to me like an experiment. She says some others were present. She named a suspect, Tony Facundo, the Scorpio, owner of La Picadura and Telson Collectors.

“Just last week Ibañez told me those clothes you found on the body of Roslyn Dolores were identical to those she lost.

“And here is the worst part, if you believe it or not. Friday night we lost her. Upon my hunch we rushed to the Gleco. I found her deep in the corridors walking like a ghost, her arms raised, fingers stretched, inside the Left Wing in total dark. She was under an influence, kind of hypnotic. I pulled her out and brought her to a doctor. She’s suffering memory loss and in partial coma.

“I’m seeing strange things. I referred to obtain this doctor’s telephone number and found out he lives on Octavio Paz just few blocks away from the Dolores. I attended the mass because of that.” She brought her story to an end.

“Where is she now?” asked the captain.

“She’s at Dr Gonzalez Clinic in Garza Garcia.”

“Miss Buscar, that is very intriguing. Strange things I do believe. We are chasing here a drawing of a psychic. I can tell you, Miss Roslyn Dolores did have scorpion venom in her body. We must therefore carry out a medical test on Miss Trevizo.”

“Is it possible? We are five months behind.”

Officer Rodriguez said, “Possible. Special type of screening and tests could show neurotoxin in blood, tissue, internal organ damage, allergies and such. She must be moved to the Medical Centre.”

“And that be done in absolute secrecy,” Captain Ramón said. “Miss Buscar, since you mentioned these names, Dr Mireles and Mr Facundo, you must maintain silence while we check on them and look for connection and what goes in the Gleco Hospital.”

 

First thing Rodriguez did in the morning was to obtain the arrest warrant of Dr Mireles from the court. In few hours after Valentina left they dug out Dr Mireles deeply involved in scorpion venom research at the Gleco Hospital. Though, they were unable to find a connection to Tony Facundo.

An appointment was arranged with Dr Roland Garcia. Officer Rodriguez and his assistant arrived at the Moles Tower where they learnt of ‘Project Erotica’ and how Dr Mireles was keen to seek fund to produce a drug that could sell in the exotic market.

Filipe Escala with fair access to Moles Tower discovered police presence and informed Dr Mireles in the Left Wing.

“Calm down!” the doctor disagreed, “They’re not here for us.”

Escala running short of breath said nervously, “I knew when I saw the body wrapped in those clothes, we were blown.”

“That bothers you! Nothing leads there.”

Escala decided to run. He knew something else. Since the discovery of the Dolores body there were no new sets of Chloe Chase uploaded on escondis.com and while others did appear regularly.

Dr Roland Garcia expressed, “Telson Collectors would be the most likely source to fund a project and provide milk for him. Everything ties to a sting.

“And this…” he tossed the folder of Vanessa Calderon, “another case under investigation. Tests show scorpion venom in her blood. I will pass you a copy.”

Dr Mireles eventually decided to go to his clinic and pack up just in case if he had to fly to the States. He drove all the way to the clinic only to find Rodriguez waiting there to pick him up.

Dr Mireles was ushered into the police car. He was wearing the beads necklace with the crystal skull on its tail.

 

Filipe Escala managed to live in hiding for five months in Santiago where he was trailed. Tony Facundo maintained innocence and there was no evidence of any funds forwarded to Dr Mireles.

Ibañez Trevizo served a six month sentence for fraud. She got hooked on drugs while in prison. Ibañez later decided to do studies and carried on with Interior Designing.

Valentina continued with her modelling website and Las Escondidas very creatively. In 1994 she founded her very own ‘BUSCAR’ fashion magazine and opened a new office in Monterrey.

She encountered with Ibañez Trevizo after two years and only this one time in a Selena concert at the baseball stadium in October 1994. She was lost in words to see the changes in Ibañez.

“Iban!” cried Valentina, “We must talk. I have to give your share of the website. Give me your account.”

“Now?” asked Ibañez.

“Call me, okay! And I will remove Chloe Chase.”

Selena was singing ‘Amor Prohibido’ and there was very little Ibañez could share with Valentina. Ibañez lost her figure. She was slightly obese and seemed like she did not belong to that society of models.

~The End~