Evening was beginning to fall when Elena Rose returned to the place that had always made her feel suffocated over the past year.
The club was still the same.
The dim lights, the music drifting from inside, and the scent of alcohol mingling with the visitors' perfume seemed never to have changed. Only one thing was different.
Mona was no longer there.
Elena stood in the club's back hallway, staring at the staff-room door. Her hands slowly curled into fists.
It had been too long.
For a year, Mona's death had left behind nothing but questions that never received answers.
Who was Mona's last guest?
Why had Mona left that night without telling her?
And most importantly, why had no one at the club truly been willing to talk about it afterward?
Elena had tried asking several people. Some pretended not to know. Others chose to remain silent.
However, there was one person Elena believed couldn't possibly know nothing.
Pedro.
He was the one who had escorted Mona to her guest that night. And Elena intended to get her answer today.
She found Pedro in the back area of the club. The burly man was smoking while leaning against the wall.
“Pedro.”
Pedro turned around. “What?”
“We need to talk.”
“If it's about the work schedule, talk to me tomorrow.”
“It's not about work.”
Elena's tone made Pedro fall silent.
Elena stepped closer. “This is about Mona.”
Pedro's expression changed for a moment. Only for a fraction of a second.
But Elena saw it.
“I told you, I don't know anything.”
“Don't lie.”
Pedro slowly exhaled a stream of cigarette smoke. “I'm not lying.”
“You were the one who escorted Mona that night.”
“I was just doing my job.”
“Then who was her guest?”
The question made Pedro fall silent.
Elena fixed him with a sharp stare. “It's been a year, Pedro.”
“I really don't know.”
“Don't know?”
Elena gave a small laugh, but there was nothing humorous about it.
“You were the one who escorted Mona. You saw the person she was with. How could you not know?”
“I didn't know him.”
“His name?”
“He introduced himself by another name.”
Elena fell silent. “An alias?”
Pedro nodded. “Yes.”
“What was his name?”
“I don't remember.”
Elena immediately looked at him in disbelief.
“After a year, you can still remember other details, but you suddenly forgot that man's name?”
Pedro tossed his cigarette onto the ground and crushed it under his foot. “Because I had no reason to remember him.”
“Pedro.”
“I'm serious.”
Elena didn't answer.
Something in Pedro's manner made her even more certain that he was hiding something.
It wasn't simply that he'd forgotten. Pedro looked nervous.
Every time Elena mentioned the night of Mona's death, his eyes shifted away.
“Did Mona look afraid that night?”
Pedro fell silent. The question abruptly changed the atmosphere.
“I don't know.”
“Answer me.”
“I said I don't know.”
“Did she leave willingly?”
Pedro didn't answer right away.
And it was that silence that made Elena's chest feel even tighter.
“Pedro.”
“She wasn't forced.”
“Are you sure?”
“At least, that's how it looked to me.”
Elena studied his face.
“Then why do you look like you're hiding something?”
Pedro sighed. “I'm not hiding anything.”
“You know something.”
“No.”
“Then look me in the eyes and say you don't know who that man was.”
Pedro finally met Elena's eyes. Several seconds passed. “I don't know who he was.”
The answer sounded convincing.
Too convincing.
Elena knew there was something he wasn't telling her.
However, before she could press him further, someone inside the club called out to Pedro.
Pedro immediately seized the opportunity to leave.
“I have to work.”
“Pedro!”
The man didn't turn around.
Elena could only stand there, watching his back.
Now she was even more certain.
Pedro knew more than he was saying.