No Escape

The flat tone in the coroner’s voice stopped just short of insulting, but that somehow made the statement worse. He winced, as if he’d just realized how harsh he’d sounded.

“Sorry. Something like this, it’s hard to take even if you’ve seen it dozens of times before.”

The morgue, for all its stainless-steel and tiled-floor impersonality, suddenly seemed too small. Lauren made herself breathe out. He’s just here to do his job. Just answer the questions. She worked to unclench her fists and failed. She wanted to defend Megan, wanted to explain how her sister loved life and new experiences, and she wanted to lash out at the coroner all at the same time.

“Megan was impulsive.” The statement felt naked and indefensible to Lauren’s ears. She desperately wanted to make the man understand, but she just couldn’t find the words. There were words. She knew there were. “She wanted to see Jamaica. She’s— She’d been going on about it for weeks. This trip was something she’d promised herself when she finished up a project at her advertising firm. This was a celebration. A getaway from the 24/7 life she’d been doing the last few weeks to close the deal.”

“So there was no particular reason she came to Kingston?”

“She wanted to come here. For Megan, that was reason enough.” Lauren thought back to her discussion with Megan before her sister had left. “There was some movie she’d seen lately. Something about an island cop.” She shook her head. “I can’t remember anything more than that. She caught a movie on Netflix, and she decided this was where she had to go.” She took a breath. “That’s just Megan. It’s always been Megan.”

The coroner made another notation in his book. “Was she meeting anyone down here?”

“No.”

“Would she have told you if she was?”

“Yes. When Megan was in discovery mode, that’s what she called it, she didn’t want anyone else around that she knew. She said having a friend along was too limiting. It didn’t let her really explore a new environment.”

The coroner studied her with those gold eyes. “Would you say you and Ms. Taylor had a good relationship?”

It took a moment for Lauren to answer the question because her voice was thick and felt like shattered glass. “Yes. We did.”

“You knew she was here?”

“Yes.”

“Who else knew she was coming?”

“I don’t know. Lots of people. Megan was people-friendly. That’s why she was so good at her job. She kept a Facebook account and updated it regularly. She let everyone know she was taking this trip.”

He wrote something else down. “So someone could have been meeting her here?”

“You’d have had to know Megan. If she knew something, or even thought she knew something, she told you. That’s how she was.”

“Did she have many romances?”

Heat filled Lauren’s face, and she glared at the man.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I apologize. That wasn’t supposed to come out like that.” He waited a moment to see if she would respond. When she didn’t, he went on. “I just wondered if there’s the possibility that she was currently seeing someone and you didn’t know about it.”

“No. Not that I’m aware of. Maybe Megan wouldn’t tell me about a new guy in her life at the time that relationship started, but I always knew. Megan thought she could hide things like that, but she really couldn’t. Not from Mom. Not from me. I knew.” Lauren looked down at her sister and wanted to believe that. No, she did believe that. She would have known.

The air-conditioning unit cycled, and the cool air washed over Lauren. She wrapped her arms around herself and trembled slightly. Her fists still wouldn’t open. She couldn’t remember feeling so cold and so alone.

“If Megan had been meeting someone here, I would have known.”

“You’re certain of that?”

“I’m positive.”

“Was Ms. Taylor casually seeing anyone back home? Someone that didn’t come along on this trip?”

Lauren tried to keep up, but the questions just kept coming with staccato regularity. The man was like a machine. “No.”

“There wasn’t anyone she’d started seeing a little more of before she left? Maybe someone she was interested in but not officially seeing?”

“No. Like I said, with Megan, every potential romance was a big deal. I would have known.” So would everyone on Facebook. Megan liked being in love. None of her suitors had stood the test of time, though. Megan had liked her diversions, but most of her exes were still friends of hers. That was just how she was. No one would hurt her.

Except that someone had. The dark bruising around Megan’s throat testified to that.

“Was there anyone your sister had stopped seeing recently?”

“No.”

“Anyone she’d stopped seeing in the past that would hold a grudge?”

“Look.” Lauren’s tone came out sharper than she’d intended. “You didn’t know Megan. She wasn’t like that. No one would want to hurt her. Not even an ex-boyfriend. She was the kindest, gentlest, most innocent person I’ve ever known.” A tear fell from her right eye, and she felt it skid down her cheek. She refused to brush it away because she knew that would only open the floodgates.

“Where are Ms. Taylor’s—” The coroner stopped himself and offered a correction. “Your parents?”

“We lost our father a few years ago. Mom’s not well. She’s gone through chemo and isn’t able to travel. She asked me to bring Megan back home.”

“I see. I’m sorry to hear that.” For the first time, the cold, impersonal voice softened just a little.

Lauren took a deep breath and looked at the bruises around her sister’s throat. They looked almost like handprints. “Can you tell me what happened to Megan? The police inspector I talked to on the phone wasn’t very informative. I’m supposed to meet with him later.” She didn’t want to know what Megan went through in her last moments. She knew her mom wouldn’t want to know, but they had to know so they would be prepared for what was going to happen next. For when whoever had done this was caught. “He said there’s going to be an investigation.”

“What were you told?”

Again with the questions. Lauren made herself breathe out. “A police inspector, Wallace Myton, contacted my mother and told her that Megan had drowned. When my mother told me, I knew that couldn’t be true.”

“Why?”

“Megan was a strong swimmer. And she didn’t take chances out in the water.”

“But you said she was impulsive enough to come to Jamaica on a whim.”

Lauren’s voice tightened and grew sterner. “I’m telling you what I knew the minute I was told what had happened. My sister did not drown.”

He looked at his notebook. “I see that. You called Inspector Myton back and insisted that your sister could not have drowned. You wanted him to investigate your sister’s death.”

“That’s right. The inspector was very polite, but I could tell he didn’t believe me.”

“He believed you after the bruises showed up postmortem on your sister’s neck.”

Lauren closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe the man had stated that so coldly. “That’s when the police knew Megan had been strangled.”

“I’m sorry.”