Turbulence woke me up. I opened my eyes and looked out at clouds - thinning, white puffs of them. The sun was somewhere in the distance, trying to break through. I thought, just under the wing on the plane, which was facing down in a left-hand turn, I could see some green out of all the blue and white.

I felt a wet kiss on my shoulder. I turned to see Jesse, smiling a playful smile he usually only reserved for the bedroom. But I knew he couldn't help himself - it was our honeymoon.

"Good afternoon, passengers," the overhead cracked. "We will be landing shortly on the beautiful shores of Hawaii, where it is currently eighty-two degrees and sunny. Please return to your seats and put you trays in the up-right and locked position. The seatbelt sign is being turned on for your safety. We will land at approximately one-thrity seven Aleutian time. Thank you all for flying Delta."

We broke through the clouds - there were the islands, lined up just like they were on a map. The plane tilted to the right.

"What do you want to do first?" Jesse asked, putting his head on my shoulder. We hadn't had much sleep in the last forty-eight hours, with all the ditching my bachelorette party in the middle of the night, then trying to bring a ghost back before she killed me, then the wedding, then the wedding night.

"Hum," I said, fingering his thick hair. "I was thinking we would check the firmness of the mattress, because you know how much I hate a saggy mattress. If that's okay with you, of course."

"Of course. Then what?"

"Well, I need a shower. Maybe even a bath. Does our room have a Jacuzzi tub?"

"I'm pretty sure," he said, looking up at me. "We will have to check that out as well."

I smiled and kissed his forehead. He sat up, stretching out his arms.

"What about dinner?" he asked.

I sighed. "Well, we can get dinner somewhere. I'm sure they have a snack machine on our floor."

He smiled and took my left hand in his, so our rings were touching. I had put my engagement ring back on as well, and with my diamond-circled wedding band it looked fabulous. "We can't stay in the whole trip, querida."

"Oh, I know," I said. "I plan to hit the beach as soon as we wake up and have sex tomorrow morning."

He smiled wider and shook his head.

The landing was bumpy, and I had to hold onto the seat in front of me. Where they letting the intern fly the plane? Gosh. The ground swelled to met us as the plane touched down, roughly, of course.

Jesse held my hand as we got our carry-ons and walked down the terminal. The airport was brighter than the one at home, with actual murals of birds and surfers and stuff like that on the walls. There were some people dressed up in flowered shirts - the girls tied under their boobs, their tanned stomachs toned and thin - handing out leis - and not the cheep fabric kind, either. These were made from real flowers. I noticed we were walking a little quickly to the luggage check. In fact, we walked quickly up to a taxi, which was driven by the nicest cab driver I had ever met, and then quickly into the front of the hotel, with it's views of the ocean out the huge back windows.

But, no matter how quick we were, we couldn't have missed the twenty-people deep line to check in. There seemed to be several more people in our situations - young couples holding hands, tapping feet, looking up at the rooms above us. There were even some who couldn't contain themselves that were kissing and giggling and groping - I wouldn't be surprised if they started making out on the floor within a few more minutes.

"Isn't there another way?" I grumbled to Jesse. He shook his head. He seemed frustrated as well. I looked out the windows, where the beach was calling my name. To the right of the reception desk was a bar with a flat screen TV over it. "Well I'm going to get a drink," I said, unhappy, and let go of his hand and make my way to the shiny bar.

"What can I get you?" the man behind the bar asked. He smiled at me. He was very tan.

"A dirty martini, please." I handed him my new debit card, complete with my new name.

"Just a minute," he said with another smile, and turned towards the expensive looking bottles of liquor and started working.

I stared up at the big TV. They kept showing pictures of the island, and of a big white hotel. The subtitles flashed by.

AND ARE THERE ANY REPORTS OF FOUL PLAY?

NOT THAT THE HONOLULU POLICE ARE DISCLOSING AT THIS TIME

THANK YOU, DR. JILES. CNN WAS THE FIRST TO REPORT OF STEPHANIE HILLS' DISAPPEARANCE FROM HER HAWAIIAN HONEYMOON LAST TUESDAY, AND NOW WE WILL BE THE FIRST TO INTERVIEW HER HUSBAND. TUNE IN TO NANCY GRACE TONIGHT AT NINE TO GET THE FULL INTERVIEW AS WELL AS MORE COMMENTARY. WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK.

The bartender sat my drink down in front of me. "Would you like to close your tab, Mrs. de Silva?"

I stared at him. Who was he talking too? Wait . . . wait! I was Mrs. de Silva. "Um, sure." I gave him a smile. Maybe he wouldn't think I was too crazy. He swiped my card and handed it back.

I went to sit at one of the polished tables by the windows and watched Jesse. He was close to being next, and he was growing even more impatient. I watched his long body, covered in those awfully concealing jeans and t shirt, as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. I watched those lean muscles flex when he picked up our bags to move to the next receptionist. I watched him flash a smile in my direction. I downed my martini - it gave my cheeks a pleasant little flush - and walked quickly over to him.

"Have a good stay," the receptionist was saying as she handed him our keys. He gave them to me and rolled both of our suitcases behind him to the elevator (always my hero), which was idle on the twelfth floor. I pressed the up button.

Eleven. Ten. It stopped on nine.

Jesse groaned quietly.

"I have never seen you so impatient," I said with a laugh. Well, except with something other than me. He got very impatient with me sometimes - especially when we are going on a date and I run longer getting ready than I told him.

"I just want to get to our room." He gave me a sad look. "It was a long flight."

I pouted back at him. "The longest."

Seven. Six. Five. Four . . . it stopped on three.

I put my head on his shoulder. The alcohol had certainly calmed me. Jesse grumped about the elevator. Two. One.

The doors opened, and we let the passengers get off before we darted on. I pressed the button for the fifteenth floor and we started to rise.

I gave Jesse my sexiest little smile from across the elevator. He smiled back.

"So," I said, walking over to him and putting my arms around his neck. He smiled down at me, his eyes shining. "Who's on top first?"

He laughed. "How about we decide that when the time comes?"

"Or I could just wrestle you for it, if you would like. You know I always win."

He sighed and kissed my forehead. "Yes, I do know that."

The doors opened. He got our bags again and we hurried to room 1520. I swiped the key and turned the knob. Jesse caught it before it could swing open.

"Stay right here, querida." He took our bags in and was back for me in an instant, swooping me up in his arms and carrying me into the room. The heavy door shut loudly behind us.

"Jesse," I breathed. "It's beautiful."

The curtains were drawn back to show the full view of the ocean and the beach, and there was a deck with a big lounge chair. The room, centered by the king size bed, was very homey, and there were orchids everywhere. There were even two miniature bottles of champagne and two glasses.

"They wanted to know your favorite flower when I made the reservations," he admitted. "I think it was part of the honeymoon package. We get some other things as well, I just don't remember - "

I put a hand over his mouth. "It's wonderful. Perfect."

He smiled at me, and I nearly choked with anticipation. "Susannah, you make it perfect," he whispered, and laid me on the bed.

L7L7L7L7L7L7

I think it was around nine when I woke up to Jesse's wonderful kisses. They were everywhere - my lips, my cheeks, my chest, my stomach. I groaned and opened my eyes. The lights were off, and the curtains were open. The ocean was a rolling black sheet, and lights from the hotel glittered off the sand on the beach.

I looked at Jesse, who had his head on my chest and was staring back. He smiled at me and kissed me again, long and hard, on the mouth. Without braking the kiss he picked me up off the pillows. I wrapped my legs around his torso as his lips moved down me.

Then the TV came on. I jumped and stared wide-eyed at it. Jesse turned and gave it an annoyed look.

"What the crap?" I breathed. My eyes slowly adjusted in the light - some kind of news broadcast. Jesse reached for the remote and turned it off, then went back to kissing me.

It turned back on.

"And what do you think happened to your wife?" the anchorwoman - I had seen her before, I knew - was asking.

I grabbed the remote and hit the power button. It flickered, but stayed on.

"I don't know," a man was saying. "I think that she didn't take her medicine, because the detectives found the bottle full, and she wondered off when she went to the pool."

"And where did she wonder? Strait out of the Hilton and into the ocean, Mr. Hills?" The woman's voice had a distinctive Southern drawl - I squinted to see the Nancy Grace logo at the bottom of the screen. A picture of the Hilton flashed onto the screen, complete with a very familiar looking ocean front.

I pressed power again and again. It refused to turn off, only flickering when I pressed the button.

No. This couldn't happen on my honeymoon.

"I don't know," the man choked. "Let's hope not."

"Thank you, Mr. Hills, and good luck with the case. Now with commentary - "

Jesse had unwrapped himself from me and went to the wooden entertainment center, where he pulled the power cord from the wall. The TV flickered once more and went dark.

"There," he said, after a few choice words in Spanish. He looked at me. I pried my eyes from the dead TV.

"I'm hungry," I said quickly. Besides the fact that my stomach was rumbling, I needed to get my mind off that TV.

We put on our pajama pants and t shirts, then Jesse found some change and we headed to the hallway. There wasn't a snack machine on our floor, but we did find a map.

"There's one on fourteen," Jesse announced victoriously after studying it for a minute. We caught the elevator to the floor under us.

"There's no thirteen," I noticed when I pressed the button.

"Well," Jesse said, "the fourteenth floor is really the thirteenth, of course. You know how superstitious people are." He winked at me, like I should.

The snack machine was the the right, and we ran happily to it. We seemed to be doing a lot of running that day. In fact, I had never felt so carefree in my life - with the creepy TV thing aside, I mean.

"I want Fritos," I said, and put in my money. The bag fell and I pulled it out.

Jesse leaned up against the machine and looked over his selection. He had the perfect sex hair going on. I wondered if mine looked equally as sexy. He face glowed in the backlights from the machine.

"I think I'll take something sweet." He put in his change and got a Hershey bar. Then he smiled at me. "Anything else, querida?"

"No, I think I'm good."

We started back into the elevators and came to a dead stop at the same time. At the end of the hall was the very familiar sight of police tape, and the door was open. There was a cop by the door - he was watching us.

"Jesse," I whispered as we hurried onto the elevator. "What hotel is this?"

"The Hilton."

I sighed as the doors opened to our floor. "Great."