Page 67 of Last Ticket to Paradise

Chapter Fourteen

Jake dropped the lid on the suitcase full of bones as Georgette’s scream beat against his eardrums. He pivoted toward her and pulled her trembling body into his arms.

“What’s going on? What’s the matter?” A custodian, his keys jingling at his belt, jogged toward them.

“We need to call the police.” Jake kicked the bag on the ground. “We discovered human bones in this suitcase.”

The custodian’s mouth fell open, and all the color drained from his face.

Georgette’s scream had been loud enough to attract the scant crew working the night shift at the airport.

Felicia showed up, her gaze darting from the custodian yakking on the phone to the police, to Georgette, her head still buried against Jake’s shoulder.

“What is it? What’s in the suitcase?” Felicia covered her mouth. “What’s that smell?”

“Bones.” The custodian ended his call and pointed a shaky finger at the suitcase on the floor. “There’s a skeleton in there.”

“What?” Felicia stumbled back, clutching her stomach. “Th-that’s not the smell of a dead body, is it?”

Jake sniffed the air that emanated from the locker and the suitcase. It smelled like some kind of acid component or lye—something that might melt the flesh off of a dead body.

He pulled Georgette away from the bag asGabriel, the airport security guard, showed up.

“What happened, Jake? There’s a body in the bag?” Gabriel placed his hand on the gun in his holster as if to apprehend the perpetrator here in the corridor of lockers.

“It’s a skeleton, Gabriel, just bones.”

Gabriel hissed between his teeth. “Hallie? Oh God, I hope it’s not Hallie or that other woman, the tourist.”

Georgette’s body stiffened in Jake’s arms, and she twisted around. “Open the suitcase again, Jake.”

“I’m not going to do that, Georgette. Let the police figure it out.”

Her gaze swept past him and settled on Gabriel and then shifted beyond him to Clive and another officer, who were scurrying between the banks of lockers.

Jake pulled her close again and whispered in her ear, “They’re not going to investigate this on their own. They’ll have help from another agency.”

The knots in his stomach tightened, and he squeezed Georgette harder. He hoped to God this skeleton wasn’t Jamie. Georgette would never get this image of her sister out of her mind.

Jake greeted Clive, and the questions began. He and Georgette told a half-truth about finding information about Jamie’s locker and the combination among her things, and he got a grateful look from Felicia.

“Why would your sister have a locker at the airport, Ms.... Lawson, is it?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Jamie is my sister before, Constable, and I don’t know why she’d have a locker here. I just saw the combo information on a postcard of hers and asked Jake to take me here to check it out.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll get help from the investigators on the big island to identify the...remains. It might help if you can get your sister’s dental records. DNA test results will take a long time to get back.”

“If there’s a possibility that the bones in that suitcase belong to my sister, maybe we can get the FBI involved in the investigation.”

“Maybe.” Clive’s eyes glittered through slits. “We’ll see.”

Jake pinched Georgette’s waist. Now was not the time to antagonize Clive. “What about Jean-Claude, Clive? Is he still alive?”

“Still clinging to life in the hospital, but he hasn’t regained consciousness.” He nodded toward the suitcase. “Do you think he has something to do with this? Perhaps he and Jamie Lawson had an argument and he killed her.”

“And then he came back to the scene of the crime and stuffed her bones in a locker she happened to have rented?” Georgette’s nostrils flared, and two spots of color stained her cheeks.

“Perhaps, and then he felt guilty and tried to drown himself in the pool.” Clive rubbed his hands together, warming to his story.

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