SEARCHING FOR PILAR

by

PATRICIA HUNT HOLMES

Genre: Contemporary Suspense / Thriller

Publisher: River Grove Books

Publication Date: April 10, 2018

Number of Pages: 320 pages

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Pilar, an innocent young wife and mother, is abducted during a fake job interview in Mexico City and forced into sex slavery in Houston. Can she survive the horrors of a world—one which many good Americans don’t see or ignore—long enough for her brother Diego to find her?

Searching for Pilar breaks open the secretive and dangerous world of sex trafficking while exploring human nature and our connections to each another. Diego’s guilt transforms him from a rudderless youth into a man of purpose, and courage. While he searches, Pilar finds a strength that could save herself and a young girl who needs her. The themes of family, love, faith and the law intertwine in this action-packed tale of the Bayou City.

Praise

“Patricia Holmes fictionalizes the heartbreaking reality of cross-border sex trafficking in her novel, Searching for Pilar. This cautionary tale should be required reading for high school classes to foster awareness, understanding, and ultimately solutions to this horrific epidemic.” –Joanne F. Phillips, author of Revenge of the Cube Dweller.

“In Searching for Pilar, Patricia Hunt Holmes makes us aware of the terrible nature of sex trafficking in the context of a fast-paced, exciting Houston story that moves from affluence and glitz to barrio cantinas and the federal courthouse. The charitable, can-do nature of Houston is reflected in the wide cast of residents who help a young man on an extremely dangerous mission to find his kidnapped sister. This book will be an added weapon in our fight against sex trafficking.” –Sylvester Turner, Mayor, City of Houston

Diego

Chapter Four Excerpt from Searching for Pilar

By Patricia Hunt Holmes

Entering the station, Diego saw four police officers standing around the room smoking cigarettes. The air in the room was thick and harsh with smoke. There was a small television propped on one of the desks and they were all watching a fútbol game. It took a few minutes to get their attention. He yelled, “Pardon, señores!”

“What do you want?” a short, burly officer with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth finally asked Diego, while looking over his shoulder at the television. He sounded irritated at being interrupted. The other men cheered a goal. “I am Lieutenant Juan Carlos Ruiz Perez, in charge of this station,” he said. Annoyed at having to look up at Diego, he straightened himself to his full height, though he still had to look up.

“Señor,” Diego said, loud enough to be heard over the noise. “I need help. I drove my sister into the city today. She wanted to shop for a surprise for her husband while I did some business for my father and went by the Estadio Azul for a few minutes. She was supposed to meet me at four at the Monumento a la Revolución. But she never came.”

“Hmmm, how old is your sister?”

“She is nineteen. She has a husband and baby in San José and she wanted to be home before dark. They don’t know she was coming into Mexico City.”

“Why not?” the lieutenant asked.

“She said it was a secret.”

“From whom?” The lieutenant’s curiosity was piqued.

“From everyone.”

The lieutenant turned his head to cough a deep cigarette cough. Then he said, “Did she tell you where she was going to shop?”

“No, señor.”

“It seems strange she did not give you an address or ask you to stay with her. Mexico City is a dangerous place for young women alone.”

“She said she didn’t want to hold me up on my business.” After hesitating, he added, “She knows I like to watch the professional fútbol clubs practice. She was being considerate.”

“It doesn’t seem like you were being considerate of your sister, leaving a young woman from a small town alone in this part of Mexico City,” the lieutenant said sharply.

“I guess not, sir,” Diego replied, realizing how thoughtless he had been.

“Do you see any clothing shops or markets in this neighborhood?” the lieutenant asked Diego, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and looking hard at him. He was not smiling. “If the surprise was for her husband, why did she ask you to keep it a secret from everyone else?”

Diego looked down and shuffled his feet. Nevertheless, he tried to answer in a strong voice, “I don’t know, señor.” In the context of the lieutenant’s questions, he was starting to realize the oddness of Pilar’s actions and that his own conduct had been careless at best.

“You don’t know much, do you?” Lieutenant Ruiz stated as he walked into his small office and motioned for Diego to sit down in the chair across from his desk.

Sinking into the chair, Diego looked pleadingly at the officer. “Will you help me find her?”

“It’s too early to consider her a missing person,” Lieutenant Ruiz replied in his gruff voice, flicking the ashes and taking another drag on his cigarette. “That is, if she is lost. Perhaps this is just another case of a pretty young woman who got tired of living in the country and talked her brother, who doesn’t have a brain in his head, into helping her make a getaway to the city. She is probably meeting her lover here and you will never see her again. On the other hand, she may get homesick or the lover may beat her, and she will run back to her husband in a few days. We see situations like this every day.”

“Pilar wouldn’t do that, señor,” Diego protested.

“Is her husband wealthy? A gang could be holding her for ransom.”

“No, he does not have any money. He lost his job recently.”

“Women have left their husbands for less,” the lieutenant sneered.

Lieutenant Ruiz seemed to be mulling over something, but then he abruptly said, “In any case, it’s late. Before you get into trouble yourself, go home and wait at least twenty-four hours. If she shows up, all is well. If she does not, come back and I will fill out the paperwork for a missing person. Eventually the paperwork will get to headquarters and maybe a search will begin. Now I need to get back to the game.”

Diego felt like a fool. He could hardly make his legs walk out of the police station. He knew that Pilar had not run away with another man.

What else could have happened?

Patricia Hunt Holmes spent 30 years as a public finance attorney with the international law firm of Vinson & Elkins LLP.   She was consistently listed in Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers, Top Lawyers in Houston, and awarded the highest degree by her peers in Martindale Hubbell. She was a frequent speaker at national public finance and healthcare conferences.  Patricia has also served on the faculty of the University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Tennessee, and University of Texas Health Science Center Houston. She has written and published in the fields of intellectual history and law.

Patricia has been a member and board member of social service organizations in Houston that focus on helping women, including the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast Women’s Initiative, Dress for Success Houston, and the American Heart Association’s Circle of Red.  She was a founding member and first board chair of Houston Justice for Our Neighbors, which provides free and low cost legal services to immigrants.  For the past five years, she has been taking writing workshops with Inprint, associated with the outstanding University of Houston Creative Writing Program.  She began to write Searching for Pilar in a workshop after learning that Houston is one of the biggest hubs for sex trafficking in the country.

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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

THREE WINNERS!

1st & 2nd Prizes: Signed Copy of Searching for Pilar + Mexican Necklace

3rd Prize: Signed Copy of Searching for Pilar + $20 Amazon Gift Card

(U.S. Only)

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