A woman’s voice called out a question in a language they didn’t understand.
“Sorry,” May said. “Sorry, we don’t understand you. Do you speak English?”
There was silence.
Then the door opened.
May found herself staring into the face of someone who could have been the maid’s sister. She was tall, slim, blonde, in her twenties, and she looked terrified.
Beyond her, the small room contained a double bed with a white coverlet, a small wardrobe, and a bathroom cubicle. It was like the most basic, spartan motel room May had ever seen.
There were no photos in the room. No paintings. There were no books. No little things. No signs of personality. Just a room that someone had moved into.
No window, just a ventilation grille and a fan.
“We’re police,” May said. “Do you work for the hotel?”
The woman stared back at her and May saw even more terror in her eyes.
With a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach, she was starting to understand what really must be going on here.
“You speak English, don’t you?” May insisted. “Please, talk to us.”
But again, the woman said nothing. She just stared at them.
“Please, I only work here. I do not know anything,” she whispered eventually.
“We’re not going to cause any trouble,” May said. “We just want to ask you some questions.”
“No police. Never police. I don’t know anything. Please, go away,” the woman said. Her words were fast, panicked.
It was clear that the maid was petrified to be caught talking to them.
May and Owen stepped inside the room. Then May turned around and closed the door. She knew this was their only chance.
“We are investigating a crime,” she whispered. “I promise you, you are not in trouble and this is not a trap. If we get the right information, things could change for you. If we leave, things might never change. What do you want?”
May stared at her, letting her decide for herself.
“Okay,” the maid whispered.
“What’s your name?” May then asked.
“Anya.”
“Please tell me. What goes on here?” May asked calmly. “We need to know. We want to try and help the people. We have a feeling things are not right here.”
The woman looked at her for a moment, her face sheet white.
“No,” she admitted in a low voice. “Nothing is right.”
“You can tell us,” May said. She kept her voice low, her manner soothing.
“I can tell you. But you must not tell anyone else, or I will get into trouble.”
“Why?”
Anya looked around, as if she were checking to see that nobody was listening.
“I have a passport, no visa. But I cannot go home because they took my passport when I arrived here. I must work. I am here on a contract. When I finish my contract, I will receive my green card. But the contract is not like they said it would be. We have to work without pay for a long time. All we receive is a room and basic items and our food.”
“How long?” May asked, feeling a terrible coldness inside. This was horrific.
“Ten years,” the woman said sadly and Owen gasped.
This was slavery, pure and simple.
The puzzle pieces were falling into place for May.
Now she was starting to understand why Madeline had made so many trips to Eastern Europe. She wasn’t just bringing back temporary workers on the cheap. She was not looking to bypass visa requirements. She was bringing in slaves, who would be imprisoned, helpless and terrified, to work at no cost in Reed Leisure hotels. And perhaps other places, too. May wondered whether this might just be the start, the tip of an iceberg.
“How many workers are there here?” May asked.
“Twenty of us, between this hotel and one other,” Anya replied.
“Have you been in this hotel long?” May asked.
“Almost a year,” the woman said.
“How did you come here?”
“I was waitressing in Slovakia. And this woman called Madeline came to my restaurant. She seemed really nice. She told me there were opportunities in the hospitality industry in the USA, that I could be working there instead and earning ten times as much. That I could have a life there. I believed her. She organized me a flight and a visa. But only a vacation visa,” she said sadly. “She said the real one would be arranged on arrival. But when I got here, everything was different. They said that I owed them a lot of money and that I would need to work to pay it off. But every time we make mistakes, the time gets longer.”
May nodded sadly. She could just imagine how this woman’s spirit had been broken.
“I don’t go outside, except to go to work. We are not allowed to leave the grounds at all. We know if we are found, we will be punished. Our time working for the hotel will be longer. Or else, worse things. We could be imprisoned. We will have a criminal record and spend many years here locked away. Or the guards will deal with us, and that is the worst of all.”
May glanced at Owen. He was looking back at her with a grim expression, as if he was thinking the same thing she was.
They had to get them out of there. They had to get help for this woman and the others like her who were trapped in this hotel.
But May wanted to find out more. She was sure there was more to learn.
She took a deep breath, ready to ask the next question, the one that she hoped would add the final pieces to the puzzle.
And then, from the other side of the door they’d entered, came the tramp of heavy footsteps, approaching purposefully.
May’s heart was banging in her chest. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the wrong person walked into this room now.
Anya put a terrified finger over her lips. They all froze in place.
May crossed her fingers, feeling cold inside about what the consequences might be.