Ghost Shadow

David had turned and was starting for the stairs. “Hey, where are you going?”

“Just to freshen up.”

“Well, then, I have to freshen up, too!”

“Ten minutes!” he said. “We’ll run by your place, and you have twelve minutes.”

He was good to his word, but he came down having stepped into the shower, and with freshly shaven cheeks and damp hair. He was devastating, she thought. It wasn’t the simple fact of his good looks, it was more. There was something that seemed hard and chiseled about his features, strong about his stature and compelling when he smiled. She took one look at him and nearly ran for the door, eager to get out before she longed to do something rather than leave and make their appointment.

They walked to her house, and he seemed light, taking her hand, swinging it as they hurried along.

Once in the door, he was all business. “You have twelve to fourteen minutes,” he told her.

“I can be faster than a speeding bullet,” she promised.

And she was. She managed a sixty-second shower and chose a halter dress and sandals with one-inch heels, ran a brush through her hair, splashed water on her face and ran on back down.

“I’m impressed-you have two minutes to spare.”

She smiled, walked to him, leaned against him and kissed him. He smelled divine. He felt rock-hard, and yet warm and vital. His tongue moved in her mouth, and she forgot all about the sunset.

He moved back, smiling, smoothing her hair. She quickly opened the door and stepped into the night, locking the door behind her.

“Sunset on Mallory Square. I can’t remember the last time I was there,” he said.

“I haven’t been in a while myself,” she said.

The city seemed to be teeming with people, even though it was a weekday. The air was already a hint cooler, and the sun was low in the western sky. Shadows seemed to darken doorways, as lights came on in the streets and streamed from shops and bars.

They crossed Front Street and continued to the square. The bar was crowded. There were advertisements everywhere for Fantasy Fest.

Body painting here. Whatever body part you want-painted!

Costumes of the absurd!

Beer for a buck!

Live your Fantasy-clothes optional up in the Garden!

“Hmm. I guess we are pretty decadent here,” David said.

“Grown-ups still like to dress up, that’s all,” Katie said.

“Or dress down. I’ve seen lots of costumes that consisted of nothing but body paint,” he said, gri

They’d reached the bar. Clarinda, dressed casually in a white pinstripe dress-one that made Katie glad that she had changed-came ru

“Sounds great,” David said pleasantly.

It might have been a normal night, Katie thought. Two couples out to enjoy time together.

Jonas was tall, on the thin side, with a shy smile, but a pleasant ma

“The city is insane!” he said, beckoning to their waiter. Katie and David ordered the draft-beer special for the night. David had his camera in his pocket, and though it looked like the usual slim digital camera that many people carried, Katie noticed that the lens was larger than most, and that it seemed to extend farther. Jonas asked him about the camera and David showed it to him, giving him the technical specifications. As he did so, Clarinda turned to Katie.

“You doing okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine. Why?”

“Well, that poor girl…it’s a similar murder.”

“Yes.”

“It means a killer is loose,” Clarinda said, and shivered. “I’m not making a move by myself, not a single move. I’ve moved right in with Jonas, and you know that I always liked keeping my independence. You-you’re hanging with David, right?” she asked.

Katie opened her mouth to answer, but Clarinda kept going. “I mean, all you have to do is know him to know that he didn’t kill anyone, but it is so bizarre that he’s back here, and that girl…you know?”

“I have complete trust in David,” Katie assured her.

As she spoke, David, who had been showing the camera to Jonas with the lens extended, suddenly stood.

He stared through the camera for a long moment.

She tried to see what had so captured his attention.

Below them, one of the local entertainers-originally from France-was performing with his multitude of cats. Cats that walked on wires and hopped over one another, and cats who jumped through burning hoops. Katie had always liked the man-he adopted strays to train, or saved animals from the local pound. A group was around him, laughing and chatting, and he had just chosen two youngsters to come up and help with the act. Beyond him were a pair of comedians who worked with balloon animals, and they had the group around them laughing, as well.

Beyond the entertainers was the sea, darkening like the sky. It was a calm night. Sea and sky together were picture-perfect.

The lights in the square suddenly seemed to brighten.

The sun had taken another plunge downward into the night. Orange, mauve and crimson streaks were streaming across the sky, with a deep purple on top, promising that night was nearly here.

David suddenly moved. He dropped the camera on the table, and he was gone, streaking down the stairs to the ground level below.

“David!”

Katie strained again to see what had attracted his attention before grabbing the camera and bolting down to follow him.

Just past the balloon men, there was a lone figure gathering his own fair share of the audience. The actor was dressed up as Robert the Doll. His mask must have been off; as Katie watched him, frowning, she saw that he was adjusting it, retying the bow at the back of his head that held the mask in place.

Katie had always considered the doll to be an ugly thing-and she was stu

But it was creepy.

The actor was standing on a little plastic platform, holding a stuffed dog toy just like the real doll’s and looking around the crowd in straw-stuffed silence with threatening moves.

Katie saw that David was making his way through the crowds, watching the cat man and the balloon artists, and heading for the doll.

She raced down the stairs in his wake, doing her best to weave through the crowd without plowing anyone down.

But as she reached the area where Robert the Doll was working, David burst in on him.

The actor forgot that he was working in silence. He let out a startled scream, jumped off his pedestal and started ru

David took off after him, and Katie took off after David.

David caught up with Robert the Doll on the grass behind the aquarium. He tackled him, as if he were sacking a quarterback, and the two plowed to the earth together.

People around them jumped back. Some gasped. One lady screamed. Another laughed and said it was part of the entertainment.