How embarrassing!”
Andrés smiled without looking up.
“Sometimes days that start badly end well, or at least that’s what I want to believe.”
When he finished adjusting the tire, he wiped his hands with a dirty rag and looked back at her.
The woman stared at him for a second too long.
“Thank you.
What’s your name?”
“Andrés, Andrés Herrera.”
“Thank you, Andrés.
I don’t know what I would have done without you, since I was late, just like me.”
He laughed nervously.
“Go on, go now and good luck in your new job.”
The woman smiled at him, got into her car, and disappeared among the other vehicles.
Andrés got into his own without noticing that in his haste, his small USB drive had slipped out of his briefcase’s inside pocket and landed on the passenger seat of the other car.
It was 7:42 when Andrés rushed through the door of Civil Court Number Five.
His shirt was soaked with sweat, and his briefcase looked like it was about to fall apart from all the jostling.
A guard directed him to courtroom 2B.
The hallway seemed endless.
Each step was a heartbeat, each door a threat.
He entered the courtroom, and the first thing he noticed was the lawyer Salgado.
Expensive suit, venomous smile, and the look of someone who already feels like he’s won.
Beside him sat the clerk, Paula Aguilar, dressed simply, but with eyes as cold as ice.
And then he saw her sitting at the front in a black robe, her expression solemn: the judge, the same woman from the tire incident.
Andrés’ blood ran cold.
