Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(62)
“Do you have a lounge or empty staff room that they could meet in all together?”
She looked uncertain. “We don’t usually allow patients into the lounge, but I can just let the staff know it’s off-limits for an hour. Do you think that would be enough time?”
Otto nodded. “That would be much appreciated.”
*
Fifteen minutes later, Selena found herself entering a nurses’ lounge where four women in hospital gowns sat around a table looking dazed. Vie had entered first and introduced Selena in English, but two of the women clearly couldn’t understand her.
Selena sat down at the table and took a long calming breath. The expressions on their faces took her back several years, and she realized the officer had been right. She did not want to relive the feelings she’d put behind her, but as she looked into the terrified eyes of the four women staring back at her, the fear grabbed hold and closed her throat so that she could barely speak. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Vie smiling kindly at her.
Selena cleared her throat and spoke in Spanish. “I’m so sorry for what’s happened to you, to all of you. I’m here to try and explain things. So you know what’s happening. So you won’t be so frightened.” She stopped, suddenly aware she had no idea what was going to happen to them. No one had any idea what was going to happen to them. They were one more casualty in a world where monsters preyed on the desperate.
They stared at her, probably too tired to hope she could really help, but also too desperate to turn away.
“I’m from Venezuela,” Selena said. “I came here like you did. I paid my way. People lied to me. Stole my money and my dreams. Men treated me like an animal. My life was gone.” One of the women shifted in her seat and looked away as if she didn’t want to confront the subject matter, but Selena continued. “I learned that when people said they wanted to help me, it was usually a lie. The police. Other girls. People who said they wanted to find me a job and place to live and food to eat? They took advantage of me. Made me do things that made me ashamed to even be alive.”
A woman whose long black hair was in a loose braid down her back swiped away tears.
Selena leaned into the table. “But I want you to know that I made it. I’m okay now. There are people who are good, who want to help you. The man who drove you was a devil who should burn in hell. But the people here?” She gestured toward the door. “The nurses and doctors and the police? They aren’t bad. They want to help.”
The woman with the braid sniffed, blinked away her tears, and sat up straighter. Selena recognized her attempt to put on a strong front when everything around her was crumbling. She herself had been there too many times to count.
The woman said in Spanish, “The police told me they were there to help. They gave me a clean bed and room to stay in. And that monster came and took me. He took all of us. How do we know he won’t be back?”
Selena recognized the woman speaking must be Isabella.
“Because he’s in jail. When the police stopped the van, they took him and locked him away. It’s partly why I’m here.” She paused and looked directly at Isabella, who stared back, her eyes filled with worry.
“How do we know he’ll stay there?”
“If you can tell me what happened, we can make sure all of the people who hurt you go to jail and stay there. But we need your help.”
One of the women sitting at the end of the table hugged her arms around her chest and said, “What’s going to happen to us?”
Selena sighed. “I don’t know. I wish I could say, but I won’t lie to you. I do know that you need to tell someone what happened. Someone needs to stop the people who put you through this.” She paused. “And you need to put the people who shot Renata in jail.”
Selena watched Isabella turn her head away as if she’d been slapped. She closed her eyes and put a hand to her mouth.
“Will you tell me what happened?” Selena said, lowering her voice to barely above a whisper, wishing she didn’t have to drag the woman through the terrifying memory.
Isabella shook her head no.
“Do you know who killed her?”
She continued to shake her head no.
“Was it Josh?”
She began to cry, her body shaking. One of the other women wrapped her arm around Isabella’s back.
Selena stood and walked over to the sink and ran cold water. She found a plastic cup in a cabinet, filled it with water, and handed it to Isabella. She drank the water and eventually settled down again.
Selena sat down next to one of the women who’d remained quiet. Selena asked her name.
“Maria.” Her eyes were bright and clear.
Selena said, “I promise I’ll do whatever I can for all of you. But I want someone to pay for what happened.”
Maria shook her head, looking intently at Selena.
“People think there’s a woman who’s behind getting you here. Did you ever hear about a woman working with Josh and Ryan?”
Maria nodded, her eyes widening in recognition, as if someone had finally understood her.
“Did you ever hear her name?”
She finally began to open up. “No. They never called her anything but boss, or boss lady.”
*
Selena spent another half hour with the women, but they wouldn’t talk about the trip any longer. They were more interested in Selena and her life in Texas. She could see that her story at least provided some hope. But she knew there were most likely years of struggle ahead before any of them found a life anywhere near what they had imagined when they left Guatemala behind.