Ghost Shadow

12

The night sergeant on duty was ready to bring them in. David had called Liam, and Liam, who had just left for the evening, called Pete Dryer, who had left just a bit earlier, and the result was that both men would be returning to the station.

Clarinda sat in the waiting area, shaking her head at Katie. “I feel as if I’ve just been brought in on some kind of a sting. Look around, will you?”

There was an odd assortment of people in the station that night. There was a drunk who was crying in the arms of another drunk.

A junkie.

A belligerent fellow being held on a drunk-driving charge.

It was hopping.

Fantasy Fest was all but here.

Liam Beckett came back through the door first. His white polo shirt bore a police insignia and he was in neat work khakis. He was totally professional, shaking hands with Mike Sanderson and thanking him for coming in on a voluntary basis. Pete came through the doorway just a minute later, looking worn-as he should. One of the city’s most important and biggest festivals was on the way, and a murderer was loose in the city.

Pete nodded at David. “Thanks. Thanks for talking this fellow into coming in. We can take this from here, David.”

For a moment, David looked as if he didn’t want to move. Then he nodded. “Of course,” he said.

But as they started out, he held back for a minute. “Hang on, I just have to catch Liam quickly.”

He went back in before Katie could try to stop him.

“Oh, Lord-is he coming back out, do you think?” Clarinda asked.

“I think,” Katie said.

“Umm, maybe not,” Jonas said after a minute.

Just when Katie was about to give up, David came out. He was smiling. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and one around Clarinda’s shoulders. “Where shall we go for di

“Umm-anywhere,” Jonas said.

“I’m not so sure we can get in anywhere,” Clarinda said. “The city is teeming.”

“O’Hara’s,” Katie said dryly. “I can always get in there.”

Clarinda laughed. “My night off! But that’s all right-I do know they have good food.”

“And we can park in back there, too. I know the owner,” Katie pointed out.

The evening ended, oddly enough, on a good note. Jonas was fascinated with photography, and David talked about different places he had been. Jonas pointed out that with all that David did, now was the time for him to go back and do some shots and film work in his own backyard. “My God, think about it. We’ve got more wildlife and shipwrecks than a dog has fleas,” Jonas pointed out.

“You know, that’s odd,” Clarinda noted. “David, you and Sean wound up going into just about the same thing. You’ve been very successful with your still work and Sean’s usually doing video or film or whatever. Do you ever work with video?”

David nodded. “I love both. Still life is capturing a single moment with the subject, light and characters just right. But film is great-it’s life in motion, or dust motes moving through the air. Last year, I did some work in Australia, filming oceanographers searching for one of the really well-preserved wrecks recently discovered there.”

“But have you and Sean worked together?” Jonas asked.

David shook his head. “I haven’t seen Sean in ten years,” he said. “We keep up with e-mail now and then, but we’ve never worked on the same project.”

Jon Merrillo, Jamie O’Hara’s main manager in his absence, stopped by the table. He was about forty, and hadn’t been in the Keys very long. He had taken to the area like a native; he loved it, and never wanted to go back North.

“You guys can’t get enough of this place, huh?” he teased.

“I just love a night when the drunks aren’t pestering me!” Clarinda told him.

“Hey, we don’t let drunks pester folks here, Clarinda, and you know I’d never let that happen,” Jon said.

“I do know, Jon.”

Jon nodded. “Hey, Katie, have you talked with your uncle Jamie?” he asked her.

She felt guilty. She shook her head. “No, but I have spoken with Sean. Sean is coming home-I expect by tomorrow.”

“Well, it will be good to see Sean. I’ll give Jamie a call myself tomorrow. I figured he’d want to be back by the end of the week. It’s already getting insane.”

He left them. Clarinda sighed. “Ah, well, so much for my plans for a lovely sunset and di

“We’ll try again later in the week,” Katie said.

Clarinda sniffed. “I get next Monday off and that’s it-we’re heading straight into ten days of events and pure mayhem.”

“So, we’ll go next Monday,” David assured her.

They finished with their coffee and the Key lime pie-really homemade-that Katie had talked them all into ordering. In the car, Jonas asked, “Should I drop Katie, we’ll see her in safely, and then drop you, David?”

Clarinda smacked him on the arm. “Don’t be ridiculous. Just go to Katie’s place. David is staying there. This is not a time for pretense of any kind. Katie should not be alone, and that’s that.”

“Aha,” Jonas said. He looked at David and David nodded.

Jonas left them at Katie’s house, and they waved goodbye. They could still hear the loud sounds of revelry coming from Duval Street. “Kind of like Christmas, huh?” David asked. “Fantasy Fest starts just a little bit earlier every year.”

“We need to be glad. We do survive off tourism,” Katie pointed out.

“Yep. I guess I have been gone a long time,” David noted.

They walked into the house. Katie moved ahead, into the kitchen. “You know, it’s interesting that Da

“We heard the history-but Da

Bartholomew thought so, too. So did she.

Katie made a mental note to pursue that theory the following day. “Do you think that something happened in the far past that might have had something to do with Tanya’s murder? Is that why her body was left in the museum?”

“I don’t know. Oh, by the way, I gave the credit card we found to Liam and told him that I was pretty sure that the stuff on the card was ice cream. I don’t know what is going on, but sure, maybe something from the past can explain it all. Tanya was from the area, and her family went way back-I don’t know. I just don’t know. But, I intend to find out. I’ll start reading the books tomorrow,” David said.

She had started to pick up the kettle. “Want some tea or something?” she asked.

He took the kettle from her hands and set it back on the range top. He pulled her into his arms. “Yes…I want to bury myself in you, and forget the world, and even my own obsessions for the night,” he told her. “I mean, of course, if you don’t mind.”

She smiled. She stared up at him, wondering how she could feel so mesmerized by the sound of his voice and the feel of his arms.

She threaded her fingers through his dark hair and met his eyes. “You’re good, you know,” she teased. “Very good.”

“Oh?”

“Eloquent.”

“With words?”

“Oh, very.”

“Really? It gets worse. I was thinking that I could die in the radiant sunset of your hair, drown in the sea of your eyes.”

“My eyes are kind of hazel-green.”

“I’ve seen our waters blue and green, every shade between, and even dark and wild and wicked when storms are coming through.”

“Very eloquent.”

“And strong, too,” he assured her.

“Really?”

He swept her up into his arms.

Her world was in turmoil; he was still, she was certain, to others, a person of interest in a murder case-or cases. He was obsessed with the truth.

But at that moment, it didn’t matter. The world was holding still, and the world was pure magic. Wonderful, carnal, hot, wet magic.

“Strong, too,” she agreed.

They fell into her bed so easily. So quickly, naturally. Clothing only half off, they were kissing and removing tangles of clothes. She was aware of him as she had never been before, the sound of his breathing, every movement of his muscles, twist and turn, the beating of his heart. He was an experienced lover, and she didn’t want to think of anything that had come before in his life, or in her own. She just wanted to feel. And it was so easy. He knew where to touch, and where to kiss, and where to tease most sensuously with his tongue and teeth. Movements could be so tempestuous and passionate, and then just a breath or a whisper against her skin could send her spi