The resort in Cabo San Lucas was on the cheap side and didn't provide all the extras the really expensive hotels provided, but they hired Rachel on the spot, attracted to her skill as a bartender and cocktail waitress and her facility with the English language. The recommendation from Mickey didn't hurt.
She would work shifts in the evening, from eight until closing. They could only offer her a few shifts a week doing that, but they also offered her some cleaning shifts, if she was willing to fill in when the regular girls were sick.
"I'll do anything."
In return, they let her stay in one of the small rooms with a king-sized bed and a roll-away for Sadie. The bathroom needed to be renovated but they didn't have the funds so Rachel and Sadie, now known as Rose and Elsa, occupied the room. Mickey had really pulled through with the fake IDs, and Sadie was completely entranced that her new name was Elsa, having fallen in love with the movie character who had white-blonde hair like hers. Rachel just wanted a name close enough to her own that it was easy to remember and Rose made her think of her friend who was murdered and turned up in the dumpster.
Rose fit the bill.
So, within a week of 'the event,' as Rachel thought of it, she and Sadie were at the tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, sitting on the beach, looking out at the Pacific Ocean.
She was honestly too shell-shocked from the trip down the coast, the change in scenery and the new routine in their lives, to think about what happened.
She signed into her Facebook profile using the hotel's internet and a VPN she registered for free, then posted a private message to Mickey to let him know she and Sadie were all right. Until she knew what happened back home with the murders of her father and Bill, she couldn't risk contacting him more directly.
Maybe once that was settled, she'd contact Craig and he could come for a vacation, if he didn't want to come and live with her and Sadie.
Rachel knew that she could probably never go back to the USA.
If she could, she'd eventually make it down to Montenegro and live there. It would be hard for Sadie to keep on the move, but Rachel was not going to let them take her and put her in foster care. Rachel would survive all right in prison -- she was sure of it -- but it was Sadie she thought of. Sadie would never be in foster care if Rachel could help it.
Montenegro sounded perfect. They wouldn't extradite her back to the US in case they ever discovered she was alive and had killed her father and Bill.
Rachel had started to relax, glad that there had been no news about the murders. She hoped it took a while to discover the identities of the two dead men. That would give her and Sadie time to recover from their ordeal.
Sadie seemed no worse for the wear. All she remembered was talking to her 'grandpa' and then getting sick. Rachel told the girl she developed a bad case of the stomach flu, which gave her a high fever so she couldn't really remember what happened to her.
"Be glad you don't remember," Rachel said in a joking manner. "All you did was sleep and throw up and all I did was look after you and clean up the mess."
Sadie seemed satisfied with that response and didn't push. If her body remembered what the two perverts did to her, her conscious mind didn't. Rachel hoped that it stayed that way and that the girl never had to get counseling. She was afraid the abuse would resurface later in Sadie's life and require therapy, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it. Otherwise, Sadie seemed happy to be in Mexico, staying with Rachel in the hotel, doing her school work and when Rachel was finished with her shifts, going to the beach, learning to boogie board and eating the fantastic Mexican food at the resort. She didn't ask too many questions about why they left Washington behind. She seemed willing to accept Rachel's explanation that she wanted to travel and see the world. The only questions were about why Craig hadn't joined them.
"He'll come and join us when he's done with his work. He has several big projects he's working on, but he will soon. He loves us both."
"I know," Sadie said and continued to do her work at the tiny table in their room. "I miss him."
"I do, too," Rachel said.
For the first full week they were at the hotel, Rachel really thought they might be able to stay for a good long time, but she was wrong.
News about the murders turned bad when Rachel opened up her browser and read the Seattle Sentinel.
Craig was now the main suspect in Rachel and Sadie's disappearance.
It had taken five full days of travel to get there, and two days to recover and get settled in the hotel. Then, she assumed Mickey or Craig reported her missing. There was no news report about them that day, the Friday, a week after the murders. There was no news report until the following Monday. Then, there was just a small photo taken by Craig of her and Sadie standing in the park together. The accompanying article said that they had gone for a short trip to Oregon for a mother-daughter getaway and had not come back or been in contact with Craig.
Then, the vehicle had been found and that changed everything.
Rachel figured that when they found the car, they would find her sister's skeleton and would eventually discover that the victim was her twin sister. She had watched years of episodes of Law and Order and read books on forensic science. They would eventually connect her to their father, who would also be identified through DNA.
In Rachel's mind, they would realize that her father was a murderer. They'd go looking for her mother and the focus would be on that, and not on whoever killed her father.
She knew they'd suspect Craig of murdering her but figured that they had no evidence and couldn't convict him.
She never expected that the police would suspect Mickey and that they would charge him with the murders, and he would confess...
Now, they'd realize she took her father's van and they'd track her south through California, where she sold the van and used the clean license plates Mickey had given her for her escape. There, she bought an old VW camper van, in case she and Sadie needed a place to live if times got tough. It was cute if old, with a tiny sink and mini-fridge, and a hot plate. All they had to do was find a camping ground and they could plug in and even cook food if they needed.
Either way, they'd know she and Sadie were alive.
Because of one footprint in blood that had not yet dried and Mickey's penchant for unique boots, they suspected him, and he confessed, taking the fall for her...
It wasn't right, but hopefully, there would be some evidence to prove he didn't kill them.
No one thought that she, Rachel, had done it. Mickey's footprint made it look as if he did. He was a man, after all. Men, not women, were violent enough to kill two men much larger than her.
For a few days, she debated what to do. Should she turn herself in?
If she did, she knew what would happen -- what had happened to other women who killed their abusers. She'd be put away for life. Sadie would go to a foster home, and who knew what kind of people she would end up with?
They could be like her father -- a murderous pedophile who got away with bad things for too long.
No, she would never abandon Sadie to abuse and neglect the way she had been abused and neglected as a child.
Over the next week, Rachel earned enough money for the next leg of the journey south. The shifts cleaning the rooms was grueling and she agreed to take on a double shift twice, to make extra money. She needed every extra cent she could get, in order to get as far as she could each day of travel.
Once she was in Montenegro, she'd be safe.
Even if they did figure out that she had killed her father and Bill, not Mickey, the government of Montenegro would be unwilling to extradite her back to the USA.
She and Sadie would begin a new life in the ex-pat community there. She trusted her gut that it was the right thing to do. Mickey would be cleared eventually -- he didn't kill anyone.
As she stood on the beach outside the resort on her break, while Sadie played in the sand, she thought about Craig and what he was going through. She felt bad but couldn't worry about that now. She had one focus and that was keeping Sadie out of the foster care system. She would fight until the bitter end to prevent that.
One day, maybe she could let Craig know where she was, if she could trust him to keep silent.
Maybe one day, they could all be together again, but until that day, Rachel knew she was on her own.
Just like she had been all her life.
THE END OF BOOK ONE