Agents Cristina Cruces, played by María León, and Javier Ríos, played by Carlos Blanco, of the Civil Guard investigate Asunta’s murder case.
Agent Cristina Cruces and Agent Javier Ríos are partners assigned to Asunta’s murder case. The two of them work with Judge Malvar.
Unlike Judge Malvar, Cruces and Ríos are sympathetic towards Rosario and Alfonso, who have just lost their daughter.
Cruces and Ríos inform Rosario and Alfonso of Asunta’s death, a job that they find difficult to do. However, being sympathetic does not make them any less alert.
Ríos accompanies Rosario and Alfonso to the country house and finds the twine there when he grows suspicious of Rosario and follows her to the bathroom.
The compassionate agents
Judge Malvar asks Cruces and Ríos to arrest Rosario during Asunta’s funeral. The agents try to convince him to wait until after the funeral on humanitarian grounds.
However, when Judge Malvar refuses to wait, they arrest Rosario and take her to the station discreetly, without creating a scene.
Although Rosario is a suspect, Cruces and Ríos are kind to her, which leads Rosario to confide in Cruces about her affair.
As more details about Rosario and Alfonso’s life and relationship emerge during the investigation, Cruces and Ríos also start suspecting the parents.
Despite their suspicions and their determination to catch the culprits, they are never outrightly rude to the parents like Judge Malvar.
In fact, whenever Rosario breaks down, Cruces and Ríos help her, unable to remain unaffected.
The investigation
Cruces and Ríos grow concerned about the details related to the case being leaked to the media because this can affect their investigation.
They request Judge Malvar to open an internal investigation, unaware that he himself talks to the media when it suits his purpose.
Ríos proposes a plan to arrest Alfonso and place him in the same cell as Rosario to eavesdrop on their conversations and gather evidence.
This conversation also gets leaked to the public. Soon after, Carlos Murillo’s name is linked to the case, which confuses Cruces because he doesn’t seem to fit into the scenario.
Cruces is not wrong. She and Ríos work hard to confirm whether Murillo is the murderer. It is because of their investigation that Murillo is proven innocent.
It is revealed that Carlos Murillo had nothing to do with the case; his name only came up because the samples in the lab were contaminated.
As they delve deeper into the case, Ríos develops a theory about the parents’ motive for killing Asunta.
He suspects that Rosario murdered Asunta, with Alfonso assisting in covering up the crime to hide his involvement in drugging Asunta.
However, as Cruces and Ríos expected, Judge Malvar, who wants both parents behind bars, dismisses Ríos’ theory.
The defense then accuses Cruces and Ríos of not investigating properly and rushing to close the case, but the parents are still found guilty.
In the end, Cruces, now a new mother, and Ríos, responsible for raising his granddaughter with his wife, spend quality time with their families.
They do not pass judgment on the case, as they believe that their job is to gather evidence, which is then interpreted by others.
Also Read: Juan José Domínguez and Elena Garrido: The Asunta Case characters explained