Deathly Ticket to Spain -  Donna Bashaw

Deathly Ticket to Spain (eBook)

(Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB
2020 | 1. Auflage
248 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-3025-5 (ISBN)
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3,56 inkl. MwSt
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Agatha Johnson and Dorothy Collins are recently retired and ready to travel. Their first trip is with Envy Travel to Spain, Morocco and Portugal. On the van ride to the airport they meet Robbie Thomas, also a tour member, who is quite obnoxious. However, he is not obnoxious for long as he is found dead in his seat on the trip to Madrid. It appears to be of natural causes, but his death starts a series of strange occurrences that leads Agatha to call friend and neighbor, Jake Porter, a consulting police detective, and ask him to do discreet background checks on their fellow tour members. To Agatha and Dorothy's surprise Jake finds that almost everyone on the tour is lying either about who they are or why they are there. And then, another death occurs. The two week tour is wonderful, everything Agatha and Dorothy dreamed it would be, except for the one thing that was not on the itinerary - MURDER. Agatha and Dorothy have included indigenous recipes and travel tips. Oh, and by the way, all the hotels, restaurants and travel sites exist, so you can take the same trip they did, either vicariously or actually. Without the murders of course!
Retired criminal court clerk, Agatha Johnson, and her lifelong BFF, retired art and history teacher, Dorothy Collins, have joined forces and are ready to travel. Their first trip with Envy Travel leaves today, and they are off to Spain, Morocco and Portugal. On the van ride to the airport they meet Robbie Thomas, a fellow tour member, who flirts with Dorothy and is quite obnoxious. He is not obnoxious for long however, as he is found dead in his seat on the flight to Madrid. Everyone assumes it's of natural causes, but his death is the first of many odd occurrences that take place during the tour. Agatha, confused at what was happening, calls her friend and neighbor, Jake Porter, a consulting police detective, to ask him to do a discreet background check on her fellow tour members. To Agatha's and Dorothy's surprise, Jake finds that almost everyone on the tour is lying either about who they are or why they are there. Still, there is no apparent explanation for why things keep happening that endanger the tour members. Are the happenings really just coincidences? If they are not, why would anyone be sabotaging this tour? Crazy things do happen when you're traveling. It's part of the adventure. But then, a second death occurs on the tour. Another accident, or is there evil accompanying them on their trip? The tour itself is wonderful. They visit the Prado, the monkeys at Gibraltar, the casbah of Morocco, and the beautiful little town of Sintra. They eat wonderful, exotic food, and they meet people living in all the countries they are visiting. Agatha collects recipes and Dorothy makes sketches for future art projects. The trip is everything Agatha and Dorothy dreamed it would be, except for the one thing that was not on the itinerary - MURDER. Agatha and Dorothy have included indigenous recipes and travel tips in the book. Oh, and by the way, all the hotels, restaurants and travel sites exist, so you can take the same trip they did, either vicariously or actually - without the murders of course!

Chapter 1

Day 1

USA to Madrid: Pick up at your home to take you to LAX. Overnight flight to Madrid.

“Dorothy, DOROTHY, for heaven’s sake, hurry up! We’re going to miss our flight.”

Agatha Johnson looked ahead, searching for their gate number. There it is! Four gates down on the left.

Why had security been so slow? She and Dorothy couldn’t miss their flight to Madrid! They just couldn’t, not after all the months of planning!

Agatha glanced back to see where Dorothy was. She was even further behind than before. She looked like she was moving in slow motion.

“Dorothy, hurry,” she yelled again.

Agatha’s heart was pounding and her legs burned, feeling like they would give out at any moment. She heard another announcement for them over the airport speaker:

“Agatha Johnson and Dorothy Collins, please report to Gate D14. You have one minute to board your aircraft. This is the last call for passengers on Flight 142 to Chicago continuing on to Madrid.”

Agatha put forth her last ounce of strength but she reached the gate just as the boarding door closed.

“No,” she yelled. “No!” Agatha ran to the door and tried to open it, setting off a loud alarm.

Agatha’s eyes popped open.

“Oh my gosh,” she thought. “It was just a dream—actually, a nightmare.” She was disoriented and the alarm from her dream was still ringing in her ears. For a moment Agatha was afraid she overslept and the nightmare might come true. Looking over at the bedside clock she was relieved to see it was five o’clock, and she realized both her bedside alarm and her cell phone alarm were ringing. She had set both of them last night in case one of them didn’t go off. Throwing back her covers, she jumped out of bed and silenced them. Her heart was pounding from her dream and she had to take a minute to calm down.

Fifteen minutes later Agatha was pulling on her clothes when she heard her roommate’s, Dorothy Collin’s, alarm blaring The Star-Spangled Banner from her room down the hall. Dorothy said she used that song for her alarm because she always automatically stood up for the national anthem. It always got her right out of bed and on her feet when she heard it.

Dorothy and Agatha both stayed up well after midnight the night before packing their suitcases for the first of what they hoped would be many exciting trips abroad during their retirement years. Agatha and Dorothy each had their own bedroom with an attached bath in their new condo in Leisure World, a fifty-plus community, which allowed them to prepare for the big day without hampering each other.

Agatha and Dorothy were about to embark on the first day of their adventure. Two sets of new luggage sat by the front door, one navy blue with a colorful stripe for Agatha and one hot pink for Dorothy. They’d chosen easy-to-find colors that wouldn’t get mixed up with the predominately black luggage usually seen at the airport. Just to make sure, bright red tags from the tour company with their names and telephone numbers adorned each piece.* (Reader note: at each star there is a travel tip or a delicious indigenous recipe chosen for you by Agatha and Dorothy at the end of the chapters.)

Agatha was the first to reach the kitchen after dressing quickly in her new navy pantsuit with the white sailor top. She thought it looked cute on her pleasantly rounded figure. She loved her new hairstyle, having had it layered and cut very short—easy to care for on the trip. Agatha was sixty-plus but still refused to color her hair, even though it was now naturally “highlighted” with gray. She’d been born a real redhead, and she’d always considered her thick, wavy hair her best asset. Agatha never colored her hair and she “wasn’t about to start now”—a phrase she would say to Dorothy when Dorothy encouraged her to color it. Which was often!

Agatha put the kettle on to heat water for herbal tea, both Agatha’s and Dorothy’s beverage of choice. About fifty herbal tea bags of various kinds were tucked into a corner of each of their suitcases along with a few favorite snack items. They wouldn’t starve even if they didn’t like the food on the trip. They weren’t particularly picky eaters, but one never knew if the food in foreign places would be to their taste. They were prepared!

“I can’t believe that tonight we will be in Spain!” thought Agatha excitedly as she pulled mugs and plates from the cupboard and placed them on their small kitchen table. As happy as she and her husband Bud had been in their life together, the one thing they had not had in common was the desire to travel. Agatha’s longtime best friend, Dorothy, also always wanted to travel but hadn’t been able to do so because of personal responsibilities, i.e. the need to care for aging parents and a disabled brother. But now the time had come for them both, and they would soon be on their way to checking off items on their travel bucket list.

Dorothy rushed into the kitchen about twenty minutes before the van was due to take them to the airport. She looked great in her new hot pink sweat suit that matched her luggage. She had a trim figure and she kept her long hair a lovely golden blond making her look about ten years younger than her actual age, which was the same as Agatha’s.

“Tea and toast are ready,” said Agatha as she smiled at her friend. “That is about all we have time for. I don’t know about you, but I’m too excited to eat anything else anyway.”

“Me, too. Thanks for fixing it. Can you believe we’re actually leaving today? We will be in Madrid in just a few hours. I don’t think I slept a wink last night.”

“That’s why I fixed Chamomile tea, to calm us both down.”

“Mmm, good!” Dorothy said as she took her first sip of tea. “Please pass the orange marmalade. Marmalade is big in Europe, you know. I can hardly wait to eat the real thing.”

“This is the real thing,” laughed Agatha. “It’s just made here in the U.S. instead of in Europe. I’m sure they have good and bad marmalade in Europe too. This happens to be excellent orange marmalade made right here in California.”

The doorbell rang, startling them both.

Agatha and Dorothy grinned at each other, and Agatha jumped up scrambling to put their dishes into the sink.

“They’re a little early. You get the door and have the luggage loaded while I rinse the dishes,” said Agatha.

Dorothy was already headed for the door. She would have left the dirty dishes on the table.

“Hi!” Dorothy said as she flung open the door.

“Hi!” replied a tattoo-covered young man with a big smile. “I’m Ken from Envy Tours. Are you ready to go?”

“We sure are. The luggage is right here. Agatha,” Dorothy called, “let’s go!”

“I’m ready,” Agatha said as she hustled into the living room. “I have the checklist. Let’s see—luggage, purses, carry-on with travel books, wallets, passports, money, credit and debit cards, cell phone, and medication. We’ve got it all. Let’s go!”

After loading the luggage, Ken escorted the ladies to the van.

“Have a great trip,” their neighbor, Jake Porter, called from next door. Jake, a retired police detective, was always an early riser and was in his front yard doing stretches for his morning run.

“Thanks! We will,” Agatha answered, and then stopped short. “Oh, my goodness! Jake, I meant to call you last night and forgot. Could you do us a favor?”

“Sure! What do you need?”

“We have some new furniture being delivered next Monday. It was supposed to be delivered this week but didn’t make it. Would you mind letting the delivery men in?

“Of course. Be glad to.”

“We already gave you our key. Let’s see, the receipt is in my purse. Yes, here it is,” Agatha said as she dug through her purse and pulled out a yellow piece of paper. “Just call this number Monday morning to check the delivery time. Thank you so much. I hope you don’t mind doing this. We’ll owe you one.”

“No problem. Do you have my card with contact info if you need anything?”

“Yes, thanks!” said Agatha. “I have it with me. Here, I’ll write our phone number on the back of the furniture receipt. They said the number will work in Europe. Isn’t that amazing? Technology is great—often baffling—but great.”

“Agatha, Ken says we need to go,” called Dorothy.

“Okay, I’m coming,” said Agatha.

“Bye, and again, have a good trip,” said Jake giving her a hug and a big kiss on the cheek.

Agatha was surprised by the friendly kiss but pleased as she turned and hurried to the van.

“Jake is one good-looking man,” thought Agatha. They’d only been neighbors a few weeks but had...

Erscheint lt. Verlag 11.11.2020
Sprache englisch
Themenwelt Literatur Krimi / Thriller / Horror
ISBN-10 1-0983-3025-0 / 1098330250
ISBN-13 978-1-0983-3025-5 / 9781098330255
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