“This is Elena,” Aria said as she gestured to the meek woman shuffling toward them. “She’s a housekeeper at the resort.” Aria could practically read Monroe’s mind. How could a woman so skinny and hunched over do a job like that? The answer was simple, she had no other choice.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Monroe smiled, extending his hand and offering her a gentle handshake. “I’m grateful you’ve made some time to speak with me today.”

“Are you with ICE?” she asked nervously, looking back and forth between them. “You want my papers?”

“No, Elena, he’s not with Immigration Enforcement. He’s my friend; remember I told you he wants to hear about how you came to be here.”

“I’d also like to see a copy of any contract or paperwork you signed,” Monroe offered. “I’d like to look into things a little deeper.”

Aria cut in, “They didn’t give us copies of our contracts. They reference them often enough. Use them against us. But I haven’t seen mine in full since the day I signed it.”

“Same for me,” Elena said, nodding her head and frowning, which made her wrinkles deepen. “But I know where they are.”

“You do?” Aria asked, looking surprised.

“Yes.” She beamed suddenly. “I have to clean the top floor when the staff up there is sick. There is an office that faces the lazy river, and in there they have all of our paperwork. Files. Everything about us.”

“Could you get me in there?” Monroe asked, and Aria momentarily lost her breath at the terrible idea.

“We can’t break into an office and steal paperwork. We can’t ask that of Elena. It wouldn’t be safe or fair,” Aria insisted.

“In an hour,” Elena said with a casual shrug. “The cleaning crew will be finished. Everyone else is at lunch. My card works there.”

“You’d do that?” Aria asked hesitantly. “Aren’t you worried about getting in trouble?”

“They threaten me all the time that I’ll be turned over to ICE if I screw up. Sent to some prison somewhere. I’m old. I’m tired, and I’m starting to think any way out of here is better than staying.”

“If you get me in that office, I’ll need twenty minutes,” Monroe calculated quickly, seeming to brush over the emotion and desperation in her voice. “Can you get me that much time?”

“Don’t you want to hear her story?” Aria tried redirecting the conversation. “She has grown children in the states. Grandchildren she’s never met. Elena has been here for two years. They found her working at another hotel in Texas. You can’t imagine the pressure they put on her. They made her think this was her only choice, and they would help her gain legal citizenship if she would come work.”

“I’m sure it’s been difficult,” Monroe offered, but it sounded hollow. “You get me what I need, and I’ll do what I can to help you.”

“Sounds like what they said.” Elena laughed, exposing a few missing teeth in her kind smile. “But I have less to lose this time.”

“I’m not here to trick you,” Monroe assured her. “Immigration and citizenship issues are not easily solved. I don’t pretend to offer any kind of hope there. Whatever I can do to help, I will. But first I need what I can get out of that office.”

“Meet me up there in an hour. I’ll swipe you in. From there it’ll be up to you.” Elena was already shuffling away from the bunk area and back toward the resort.

“If you get caught up there, it won’t really matter,” Aria said flatly. “If she gets caught letting you in, the consequences will be severe. She’s not a pawn in a game.”

“I could hear every story by every person on staff and it still wouldn’t be enough. It doesn’t prove that anything illegal has taken place. I need to see the contracts and determine if what they are doing is unlawful or just unethical.”

“Just unethical,” Aria huffed. “Don’t ethics mean anything?”

“Of course they do. But bait and switch doesn’t hold as much water as actual fraud. Something you can prove if you look at the contracts that were signed. If I see documentation they have on each employee, we can get an NGO in here to investigate.”

“NGO?” Aria asked, furrowing her brows.

“A non-government organization. Some have the capacity to come in and investigate a situation and help bring the issues to light. It doesn’t mean they have the power to take immediate action, but I’ve seen a few NGOs with some punch to them. But they don’t show up for nothing. They need a starting point.”

“And you think that can be in the office you’re about to break into?” Aria asked, propping a hand up on her hip and eyeing him.

“Don’t know until we try.” Monroe shrugged coolly. “Life is full of risks. But that’s how we get to the reward.”