Kim was standing impatiently on the curb, her long brown hair blowing in the sea breeze. She reached up, pulled a strand of hair out of her eyes, and stepped into the street.

Nancy was just leaving the hotel when she heard the sound of a car’s engine firing and the squeal of tires as the car peeled away. She saw that Kim had reached the middle of the street. Nancy started after her, but it was at that second that she noticed the dark blue car racing toward Kim.

Nancy yelled but it was too late. The car was barreling down the street at a crazy speed. Kim opened her mouth to scream, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the impact.

The car never slowed down. Its tires squealed again as it sped around the corner and out of sight.

Chapter Two

In a second, Nancy was at Kim’s side. It was impossible to tell how badly her friend was hurt. All Nancy could see were cuts and scrapes, but she didn’t dare move her. She wasn’t even going to take the chance of putting her friend’s head in her lap. She knelt down, took Kim’s hand, and leaned close to her.

“Kim?” Nancy tried to keep her voice from shaking. “It’s going to be okay. Just don’t move.”

Gripping Nancy’s hand, Kim licked her lips and tried to say something. Her voice was so weak that Nancy could barely hear her.

“Rosita,” Kim whispered. “The . . . it was . . . Rosita.” She took another breath and started to say something more, but then her eyelids fluttered closed and she was silent.

Nancy looked up and was surprised to see that a crowd of ten or fifteen people had gathered. She’d been concentrating so hard on Kim that she hadn’t even noticed them.

“Could someone call an ambulance, please?” Nancy asked.

An elderly man nodded his head. “Of course,” he said, and hurried away.