*
Dishes were still piling up in the kitchen, so when room service brought lunch, Jackie had the waiter load up his cart and take them away. She needed to send clothes to the laundry, but that could wait. They were running out of time and still they couldn't find the missing Georgia Marie James anywhere. They had accounts with several sites that claimed they could find anyone, but that hadn't helped either. They'd looked for every conceivable name combination in every English speaking country, and even checked cruise ship manifests.
They were coming up totally empty until Michael said, "Good news. Want to hear what the boarding school has to say?"
"You bet." Jackie answered. She quickly went back to her seat at the table.
"Not a darn thing. They have a legal document demanding they expunge all of Georgia's records except her grades. There is no description of her, no health records, and nothing that can tell us where she went after she left school."
"No kidding? I wonder how Connelly pulled that off," Carl said. He stood up and stretched his weary bones. "I sure could use a good workout."
"Oh, well this explains it," said Michael. "They got a large donation the day after they expunged Georgia's records."
"Money really can buy silence," Carl mumbled.
"I found something else interesting," Michael added. "I found a roster of teachers and one just happened to retire last year. If we can't get the school to talk, she might be our best bet."
"Forget the school," said Carl. "The other PI didn't get anywhere with them. Just go straight to the teacher."
"We could call her," Michael suggested.
Jackie shook her head. "She might have recent pictures of Georgia. That'd be worth the trip." Her movements were animated as she turned to stare at Carl.
Carl saw the grin on her face, looked away, and then looked back. "Okay, that means I get to fly my baby again. I better get her all gassed up."
"You got it," Jackie said.
"Oh, boy, oh, boy," Carl whispered, as he pulled out his cellphone. "I get to go flyin'."
*
Maggie was still distraught about it later that night when she logged into the chat room.
Sissy3211: Worst day ever. They cut Jim's pay in half.
Bronco8881: You're kidding.
Sissy3211: He turned down the promotion and embarrassed her. Nicole is afraid to fire him for it, so she's trying to get him to quit.
Bronco8881: Will he quit?
Sissy3211: He'll have to. I'm worried sick about him, he needs a good job. If he doesn't quit and they find a way to fire him, he'll have a very hard time finding another job.