Chapter 5Sara and Esmerelda sat quietly, both staring at the ground but not seeing it. Lanterns were lit as night closed in. Palmer came to sit beside Sara on a boulder near one of the lanterns during the meal. Thanh joined them. The others sat within hearing range in the small clearing.
Esmerelda had been quiet for a long time before she spoke again. “Betty was among the first to fall, maybe the second.” That feisty woman would again speak of the tragic events of her daughter's demise. In fact, she expressly admitted needing to relive her daughter's last hours. But how many times? Maybe the repetition of it eased the pain in increments.
No one had told Esmerelda the truth about the women prisoners and how they were repeatedly r***d and sodomized. The captors had lined them up, taking a
