As they began the tour, everything seemed legit. Sin couldn’t find anything or anyone who appeared to be out of place, but the guard at the front door never strayed far from her mind.
“Why are there guards at the entrance?” Sin asked. “Isn’t that a bit extreme for an orphanage?”
“I can see how it would seem so,” Rosa smiled, “but many of these girls come from tragic pasts. Prophet Heap wanted to be sure not just anyone could walk in.”
Or out, Sin thought.
As the tour continued, Sin noticed that the security didn’t extend much past the entrance.
“Can we see the dormitory?”
Rosa smiled at Sin and led them up to the third floor. “The girls are responsible for making their own beds,” she said, “so I’m sorry if it’s a bit messy.”
Sin eyed the room looking for any discrepancies—anything that was incongruent to the environment. Again, she saw nothing.
“You have a wonderful facility,” Sin said to Rosa. “How many girls do you house?”
“It depends,” Rosa answered. “Right now we have twenty-eight girls, but we have had as many as thirty-five and as few as nine.”
“How do the girls get adopted out to families?”
“We are registered with all the adoption agencies and because we are on U.S. soil, the girls get placed fairly quick.”
Sin nodded and smiled. “I noticed that most of the girls looked Central American in ethnicity, how do the children come to the orphanage?”
“Come,” Rosa said, “we will have some lunch and I will answer your questions.”
They ate with the girls in the dining hall. Sin watched more than ate. When the guards walked in for lunch, the girls’ demeanor didn’t change. There was no fear in how they acted. This made her happy and angry at the same time. She could sense evil in the men, yet the girls sensed nothing.
If they had been abused by any of these men, they would shy away from them, she thought.
Rosa went on to explain how the girls came to the orphanage. Her words echoed Heap’s. The girls were either orphans in their native countries or their families could not afford to feed them. Either way, they were brought to the United States for a chance at a better life.
Sin wiped her mouth with her napkin and asked where she might find the ladies room.
“Through the door and to the left,” Rosa answered.
Sin excused herself and walked through the door. The short hallway split. On the left were bathrooms and on the right another door. Sin looked around, saw no one, and tried the doorknob.
Locked.
She slipped into the bathroom and into a stall. There, she pulled a pick kit out of her boot. Back in the hall, she had the door opened in seconds. She slowly opened the door being careful of trip wires or any signs of an alarm. On the other side of the door, she found a staircase—a steep staircase leading down. Carefully, she stepped down the wooden stairs trying not to make any sound. At the bottom, it was pitch black. She used her cell phone screen as a light. The room was musty, wet, and dank. The floor was sand. She could smell the shoreline.
She shined her light on the walls—bare cinder block. Between some of the blocks, there were slim openings. The closer to the bottom, the more frequent the openings. Sin thought for a moment. The bottom floor is enclosed just for esthetics. It’s strictly used for storm surge run-off.
She shifted the light from the walls to the hard-packed sand. If it’s not used for anything, why all the footprints and why is there a door—a steel door?
Sin knew she had already been gone too long and was about to make her way back upstairs when she heard the door at the top of the stairs open.
Sin hid in the shadow of the staircase.
“Why is this door unlocked?”
The voice was muffled but recognizable. It belonged to York—the guard from the entrance.
“I don’t know, I swear it was locked when I made my rounds,” a tentative voice answered.
“This is the third time I’ve found doors unlocked after you’ve made your rounds. If Marilyn knew about this, she’d kick both our asses. That’s the only reason I don’t report you.”
“York, man, I’m sorry. I swear I checked that door, but I promise it won’t happen again.”
“You’re lucky I needed to use the bathroom,” York said. “Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Sin heard the door close and lock.
The big boys are pretty scared of this Marilyn? Sin thought. Who the hell is Marilyn?
She waited a few minutes and made her way back up the stairs. She peered under the door and checked for shadows. The coast seemed clear. She made her way back into the hall, relocked the door and made her way into the ladies room.
A few minutes later, she reappeared in the hall to find York waiting for her.
“Rosa was worried about you.” He closed in on her personal space. “Where’ve you been?”
Sin looked back at the door she just walked out of and traced the engraved sign with her finger. “Laadies Rooom,” she elongated each word she spoke.
With her back to him, she heard what sounded like a Billy Club slide from his belt. The guard pushed her into the door and growled in her ear. “You think you’re so tough. You ain’t nothing. I could have been Special Forces, but I didn’t like the pay.”
So this is what this is all about, Sin thought. The fucker has penis envy. Damn.
He hit her lightly in the ribs with the club.
Sin, her face mashed against the door, mumbled, “You don’t have the balls.”
York shoved her into the door harder.
She used the distraction to slide her hand down the door and reach behind her. She grabbed his crotch with all her grip and twisted. She felt York’s air leave his body as he exhaled, groaning in pain.
She heard the club hit the hardwood floor.
Sin turned to
