Josie smiled. “So you’re staying busy keeping up with her.”
“That I am. And tell me how Marta is. She never stops by anymore to visit.”
Josie glanced over at Marta, who looked away in embarrassment. Marta knew that Sergio had pined after her since childhood. When Marta married her husband, a man with alcoholic demons he’d never been able to tame, Sergio had married too, but he’d told Josie years ago that he’d never stopped loving her.
“Marta’s doing well. She’s sitting here with me. We’re actually calling to see if you can help us with some information.”
“Absolutely. What can I do?”
Sergio had heard about the two women and the fact that the surviving woman was found at Josie’s home. Josie explained her theory and asked, “Does it seem plausible that two women, traveling through Mexico, would connect with someone in your town who would lead them to me rather than to a safe spot in Piedra?”
“Of course it does. Right or wrong, the general feeling is that once you’ve made it this close to the border, your only hope for help is to make it across. People stake everything on their trip across the border. They flee Guatemala and Honduras, trying to escape the cartels that are destroying their cities. Many of them have sold everything, their homes and their belongings, to pay for the trip north. They believe, even if you get picked up by the U.S. authorities, that they’ll help you find shelter and food.”
“Does it seem reasonable that someone would have sent them to me, specifically?” she asked.
“You’ve had two bad run-ins with the Medrano Cartel. Both times, you lived. Not only that, but you humiliated them. Your name is known in Piedra Labrada. I’ve heard you called se?ora con muchas vidas.”
“Which means?”
“Lady with many lives.”
Josie sighed audibly.
“That’s it. You don’t get more than one life with the Medranos. People think you have the saints on your side.”
Josie winced. “It’s got nothing to do with saints, Sergio. I don’t want this to get weird.”
He laughed. “You don’t have a choice, Josie. The saints choose you, not the other way around.”
“I just need to know who helped these women get to me.”
He made a noise as if he was thinking. “Do you know of Se?ora Molina?”
“No.”
“She’s a hundred years old, with the heart of a lion. She’s the mother to the women and children who have none. If anyone could help you, I’d say it would be her.”
Sergio provided Josie with directions to the woman’s home. “The local story is that she took a vow of poverty over fifty years ago, not as a Catholic nun, but as a servant of God. The locals say she trusts no one and helps everyone. She’s an amazing woman, but she has no phone or anything beyond the basics. You’ll have to chance a visit and hope to find her home.”
Josie thanked Sergio for the information and ended the call with a promise to visit soon.
“I’ll go tonight. Nick’s staying at my place until we clear this up. He knows Piedra Labrada, so he can help me find the woman’s home. He also speaks fluent Spanish. I might stand a better chance of talking with her if he’s with me.”
Otto huffed as if irritated. “You need to take him with you for protection. If he can’t go with you tonight, then call it off. Sergio said you’re known in town. Well, that means you’re known in town by the cartel too. Play it safe.”
“I got it. And Marta, can you check in at the trauma center? See if you can get anything else out of Isabella?”
Marta nodded. “I don’t feel good about her staying at the center. But we don’t have any victims’ assistance homes in town. With the house for battered women closed down we have nothing.”
“I’ve got an idea on that. Let me work on it for tomorrow,” Josie said. “There’s a sheriff’s deputy posted there until eight. Why don’t you relieve him and stay through your shift. I’ll call the sheriff and make sure he’s got someone who can cover you at midnight.”
*
Marta parked her jeep in the parking lot at the trauma center and carried her printing kit inside, where she found nurse Vie Blessings in her purple scrub suit and bright pink tennis shoes talking to Caroline Moss, the mayor’s wife.
Marta had never cared for Caroline. She was rich and uppity, and Marta always felt as if the woman thought she was doing Marta a favor when speaking to her. Marta wanted to remind her, You might be the mayor’s wife, but he’s mayor of a town with twenty-five hundred people in it, not exactly bragging rights.
Rather than interrupt the conversation, Marta took a seat in the waiting room.
When Caroline left, Vie approached Marta. “You here to check on Isabella?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“She’s a popular girl.”
Marta frowned in confusion. “Someone’s been here to see her?”
“Selena Rocha stopped by earlier and asked if she could speak with Isabella, but she was asleep.”