Page 27 of Benjamin and the Thief

When they all sat down, he added, “I’m a private investigator, and your sister has asked me to look into your case.”

Confused, Santiago looked at his sister. “But we don’t have any money for that. Mama needs the money for her treatment.”

Benjamin turned to Catalina. “What treatment?”

Catalina sighed. “Our mother has cancer. She was already doing better⁠—”

“But then she and Papa got deported,” Santiago interrupted, “in the middle of her cancer treatment.”

He could hear the pain in Santiago’s words. “They were undocumented?”

Catalina shook her head. “They had work permits, but they got swept up in one of the ICE raids anyway and got deported. They were sent back to Mexico.”

“And you two? You managed to stay here?”

“We were born here,” Santiago spat, anger rolling off him now. “We’re citizens.”

Catalina put her hand on his forearm to calm him, but instantly there was a knock at the glass. Benjamin whipped his head in that direction and gestured to the guard to show he understood.

“Sorry!” he said, then turned back to Santiago. “I’m not the enemy, Santiago.” Then he looked at Catalina. “Is your mother in treatment in Mexico?”

She nodded. “Yes, but she lost valuable time while she was in the detention center, and the treatment isn’t as effective as it should be.”

“I understand.”

He felt for them, for the entire Vargas family. It appeared that they couldn’t catch a break. Cancer, deportation, a criminal conviction, no money. No wonder Catalina was desperate to help her brother. If he stayed in prison and their mother couldn’t beat her cancer, he would never see her again. It was hard to push away those thoughts and concentrate on the things that he could help with.

“Can we talk about what happened with the Prestons, Santiago?”

“What do you wanna know?”

His voice sounded tired now, without energy, hopeless. His shoulders sagged. He looked older now. Even his skin took on an ashen tone.

“You were accused of stealing a very valuable necklace from the Prestons.”

“It’s all in the court transcripts. Haven’t you read those?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. I want to hear your version first.”

“My version is simple: I didn’t do it. I never opened that safe. I never stole anything from them.”

Benjamin nodded. Santiago was defensive, and who could blame him? But he had to dig deeper.

“How did you know the Prestons? Where did you first meet them?”

“I got a job with an electrician. And they had a job to rewire part of their house. You know, they were doing renovations, and they needed more lights and outlets. And since the house is so old, a lot of that stuff wasn’t up to code anymore. So we needed to rip out some of the old wiring.”

“Were you the only one who worked on this job?”

Santiago shook his head. “No. Joe, the owner, did some of the work too, but a lot of the grunt work was just me.”

“Does that mean you would be left alone for long stretches to do the work? Without anyone supervising?”

Santiago shrugged. “Yeah, but I knew what I was doing. Joe had trained me. I knew enough to get my electrician’s license, I just hadn’t applied for it yet.”

“How long did you and Joe work on the job at the Preston house?”

“A good week for sure.”