Ghost Shadow

Katie O’Hara was so beautiful.

She rose, and he could see the perfection of her silhouette on the drapes, the curve of her breasts, the lean length of her torso, the exquisite stretch of her legs…

He imagined her, as she would be.

And his fingers itched to touch her.

Her death would be spectacular. She deserved the true immortality.

The light went off at last, and he turned away.

14

They’d barely woken up before the phone rang.

In fact, it was quite a jolt. Katie’s eyes had just opened, and David’s had just opened, and she was thinking that it could be a lovely morning.

Then the startling sound of her phone, and when she saw the caller ID, she answered.

For a moment, Katie had a strange sensation of, “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here!”

Her uncle Jamie was back in town, just in time for the festivities.

“Pirates!” he said.

“Uncle Jamie? What are you talking about?”

“Pirates. Here, there, everywhere. Oh, and with a vampire or two thrown in. Katie, my girl, bless you, wonderful! I need you-desperately! I was afraid I wouldn’t get you. Ah, and I heard that your brother is here in town, too, eh?” Jamie said. “Tell him to get his rich, famous, sorry ass down here with you. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! I thought we’d have a small breakfast crowd and the good Lord help me, I told Merrillo to open her up, and it’s a deluge! A deluge of pirates. And, oh, Lord have mercy. You should see the hottie who just walked by with a wench’s costume painted on.”

“Uncle Jamie, if she’s twenty, behave yourself.”

He chucked. “I need you, my girl.”

Katie covered her phone and looked at David.

“I need to go into O’Hara’s,” she told him.

“Now?” he asked, his hand on her midriff as he pulled her closer.

“I’ll be there in just a bit, Uncle Jamie. And I’ll get my brother’s sorry ass out of bed, too.”

She hung up. It was good hearing from Jamie. Business as usual.

No worry about corpses taking the places of ma

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

She started to get out of bed, but the hand on her midriff didn’t let go. David’s eyes were alight and a subtle smile was curved into his features.

He rolled over, pi

She laughed. Something seemed beautifully normal about the day. She ran her fingers through the thick richness of his hair. “Well, now, yes…”

She felt his fingers stroke down the length of her body.

“Well, almost now,” she amended. “I mean, really, almost now…”

“Time schedule, yes,” he said, and they locked in one another’s arms.

Fifteen minutes later, breathless and laughing, she leapt out of bed while he rolled over and groaned. She flew into the shower, raced out in a towel and banged on her brother’s door while David took his turn in her shower.

“I’ve a message for you to get your sorry ass up!” she called to him.

“What? I’m still supposed to be filming in the China Sea!” he called back.

“You were seen. Get your-”

“Sorry ass up, yeah, yeah, all right. What the hell?”

“Uncle Jamie is back and we’re being deluged by pirates,” she called. “Ten minutes, downstairs!”

Jamie hadn’t lied. Pirates were once again walking the streets of Key West. The street was already packed with people, but it helped everyone, and everyone knew-this was one of the big chances to make money. Shopkeepers and bars weren’t stingy; they didn’t try to grab customers and hang on to them all night. They depended on one another. O’Hara’s was filled with flyers for another Irish bar, just as they advertised O’Hara’s bands and Katie-oke nights.

Katie parked in back. Sean and David were with her.

“See, here’s the point,” Sean pointed out. “You go off, and the world respects you as a filmmaker. You come back, and you’re a busboy,” Sean said, shaking his head sadly.

“Hey, big shots,” Katie said, “you have both forgotten what’s in your own backyards. You should get together and do a documentary right here. I know where you can find cheap divers. Then again, what would make a better film than Fantasy Fest?”

“Busboy by day, the Spielberg of documentaries by night! Like it-has a ring,” Sean said. “Let’s get in, and dig into the mayhem, huh? David, you’re not obliged in any way.”

“I can help out for a while,” David assured them.

He did. They walked into pure insanity. There was a mile-long line for the advertised breakfast.

Fantasy Fest Special! O’Hara’s opens for ye olde Irish breakfast.

Clarinda was working the floor, and she’d gotten Jonas to come in. One bartender held down the liquor angle, even though it was ridiculously early. “Hair O the Dog that Bit ye!” was a Bloody Mary, while “Sunrise Screamer” was an O’Hara’s concoction of rum and various juices.

Her uncle was a good-looking man, the family baby, sixteen years younger than her father and only nine years older than Sean. He was definitely harried when they walked in. He didn’t seem disturbed in any way to see David Beckett arrive with his niece and nephew. He studied David and gri

Katie looked at Jamie and then at David, but they were still studying one another. “What went on?” Katie asked.

Clarinda came hurrying by with a tray carrying four of the house specialty-bangers and grits. She’d heard the question. “It was almost a heavyweight bout,” she said. “Sanderson and Barnard-Mike versus Sam. But David set them straight.”

“You beat them up?” Katie demanded.

“They beat themselves up. They were about to break into a mammoth fight, after, it appeared, drinking together in commiseration,” David said.

“And then-”

“They went to lockup for the night to sober up,” David said.

“Hey, hey, times a-wasting!” Jamie said. “We’ll get onto all this later. Katie, you, in the kitchen. You still know the menu, eh? Gloria is still back there. She’ll call the shots.”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Katie said.

“David, the bar, if you will. Sean-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Bus tables,” Sean said, rolling his eyes. “I’m on it.”

“That damned Da

Dead, Katie wanted to say, but she didn’t. She hurried back to the kitchen.

The breakfast rush lasted into lunch, but by then, Jamie had managed to gather all his part-time employees and the operation was ru

Like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a very long time.

She saw that Clarinda had stepped outside and went to join her on the sidewalk. “The air! Ah, the air, the air!” Clarinda said.

“So, what was going on with Mike Sanderson and Sam Barnard last night?” Katie asked. “Did they come in together?”

“No. Sam came in-he’s been coming in here pretty regularly since he got into town. Strange, huh? He’s been living up in Key Largo all this time, never came here, as far as I know, and now, this week, here he is.”

“And, wow, really go figure! Mike Sanderson, dressing up like Robert the Doll,” Katie said.

Clarinda shuddered and grimaced. “Now, that is frigging creepy- Oh, look!”

Katie looked down the street. She didn’t see anything unusual-not for Key West in the midst of Fantasy Fest. A pirate with a peg leg was escorting a vampire down Duval. The pirate was fairly customary-and good. He had an eye patch, a real peg leg and looked as if he might have stepped off the pages of Treasure Island.