“After you,” Lila said.
Nancy lowered herself through the hole, found her footing, and stepped backward down the staircase. When she reached the bottom, she looked up, hoping that Lila would back down too, so she could grab her ankle and get the gun. But Lila came down facing forward, holding the gun in front of her, aimed at Nancy’s chest.
They were in a very narrow, dimly lit passageway, with two doors on each side. Obviously not first-class accommodations, Nancy thought. “Look, I know all about your operation,” she said to Lila. “I know you bring in illegal aliens, and then force them to work on your family’s farms. They don’t have any ID cards, not even fake ones, and they don’t have any money, because you charged them so much to bring them into the country. If they escape you, they get caught by the immigration police. They’re trapped.”
“That’s right,” Lila agreed. “They’re trapped, and so are you.”
“Then you admit it?” Nancy asked.
Lila shrugged. “Why not? You’re not going to tell anyone. In a few hours, you’ll be food for the fish.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a key and slid it into the lock on one of the doors.
“One of my boys will be down soon to take care of you,” she said, opening the right-hand door. “Until then, I suggest you and your friends enjoy the time you have left.”
My friends? Nancy barely had time to wonder whether she meant Kim and Maria or Bess and George, before Lila shoved her inside and slammed the door shut.
“Nan!” Bess raced across the small, stuffy room and hugged her friend. “Thank goodness you’re okay!” She pulled Nancy farther into the room. “Come on, join the party!”
Nancy looked around the dim room and couldn’t help smiling. All her friends were there. George, Kim, and Maria were sitting on storage crates, a single can of soda on the floor in front of them. With a slight grin, George pointed to it. “We’ve been passing it around,” she said. “Help yourself.”
Nancy shook her head. “Some party,” she joked.
Everyone laughed, and the tension was broken for a moment. Then Nancy crossed the room and looked closely at Kim, who was wearing Bess’s baggy pants and print shirt. Bess, she noticed, looked much more comfortable since she had stripped down to the bikini she’d brought along—for fun on the island. “Are you all right?” Nancy asked Kim gently.
“Physically, I’m okay, except for this,” Kim replied quietly, holding up her plaster-casted arm. “Mentally, I’m terrified.”
“That makes two of us,” Nancy admitted. The room was incredibly hot, so she slipped out of her caftan, and instructed George to do the same. If they ended up in the water, Nancy didn’t want them bogged down by unnecessary clothing. Feeling slightly cooler in her bikini, she sat down on a crate and took a sip of the soda. “Kim, why didn’t you tell me what was going on when I came to your room the other day?”
“I didn’t think there was time,” Kim said. “I was freaking out—Maria was gone, and Ricardo was yelling at me to meet him. I just panicked.”
Nancy nodded. “Did George and Bess tell you what happened to Ricardo?”
Kim took a deep breath and lowered her eyes. “Yes,” she said softly. “I still can’t believe it. I feel terrible about it. We weren’t in love,” she admitted with a sigh, “but he was special.”
“How did you get involved in all this?” Bess asked.
“By the time Maria escaped from Lila, Ricardo and I were good friends,” Kim explained. “He’d told me all about himself—how he tried to help illegals—and he knew I was sympathetic. So when Maria needed a place to stay, I was the obvious one to ask.”
“How come you didn’t go to the police?” George asked.
“I wanted to,” Kim told her. “I knew Ricardo couldn’t because he was an illegal too, but there was nothing to stop me. He didn’t trust the police, though. He asked me to wait, and I did. But I should have gone anyway.”
Maria, who had been quiet until then, brushed her long hair back from her face and spoke rapidly in Spanish.