Ghost Shadow

Katie set down her microphone-and headed out the door.

“Katie!” He shouted her name and went ru

She was out in the middle of the street. The parade had begun, and chanting pirates, wenches, fire-eaters, flag wavers, small floats-even costumed dogs-were marching along, and sidestepping Katie. There was a figure ru

Someone dressed as Robert the Doll!

Katie was chasing him.

David chased Katie.

Suddenly she stopped, and stared across the street at oversize Robert the Doll. Held in spot by a weight at the bottom by the feet, the figure seemed to move back and forth.

The huge effigy remained. The costumed Robert the Doll had disappeared.

“Katie!” David cried.

She seemed completely oblivious to him.

He rushed after her, but he was captured by a pirate wench, and spun around the street.

As politely and firmly as he could, he extricated himself.

He turned around, seeking Katie. She was across the street, wrenching at the effigy.

“Katie!”

Suddenly, he knew.

He knew the smell in the street.

And he knew what was going to happen.

Katie was tugging with a vengeance at the straw arms of the effigy. He reached her just in time to wrest her away as one of the arms came free.

As straw spilled out onto the street…

The thing crumbled, falling apart around the bottom weight.

Exposing the decomposing corpse of Da

15

It took forever for the sounds of sirens to cut through the revelry of the crowd, or so it seemed. It seemed forever that Katie stood there, staring at Da

The stench that rose from him was horrible. Even when the dead heat of summer ebbed and fall began to arrive in South Florida, the sun was viciously hot. Encased in the effigy, Da

When she had ripped up the effigy and he was exposed, the odor had risen like a miasma.

Katie imagined that the odor was actually what had finally alerted the revelers to the fact that there was something very serious, horrid and tragic going on. At first, people thought it was all part of a Key West game.

A game…

Key West loved her pirates.

She loved her ghost stories.

Her eccentrics…

She was a city that loved equality and fairness, a party, a good time, history, water and more.

This wasn’t customary.

Finally, though, the screams in the street became louder than the sounds of the sirens. The parade dispersed. Shopkeepers, i

Uniformed officers on horseback were the first to arrive. The rescue vehicle was forced to park on a side road along with the detectives and crime-scene investigators.

Katie just stood, feeling it all, seeing all, sensing it all and feeling David’s supporting arms around her, for what seemed like forever.

Then Liam was there, the one to officially question her while they awaited Lieutenant Dryer’s arrival on the scene.

She heard snatches of conversation from the medical examiner and techs.

“Oh, Lord, he’s ripe!”

“Been in there at least a few days.”

“Must have been dead since he went missing.”

“Cause of death?”

“No way to know-he’s far too bloated. Got to get him to the morgue.”

“Katie,” Liam said. “What happened? Witnesses said that you just came to the effigy and started tearing at it. How did you know that Da

“What?” she asked, blinking.

“How did you know that Da

“I-I, umm, well, I saw someone. Out the door-the doors at O’Hara’s are open, of course, you know. And I saw someone dressed in a Robert the Doll costume, and then the giant Robert the Doll effigy was right behind him, and I remembered the-the odor-and it seemed as if it was coming right in the bar and I…” She let her voice trail away. “I guess that I freaked out a bit, Liam. I’m so sorry, I just couldn’t take the smell and I suddenly realized it was coming from the effigy.”

“What about the manufacturer-how did Da

“The doll was up before Da

“So someone killed Da

“That’s what it looks like so far,” Liam said.

The medical examiner and police photographers gave the word and the corpse was lifted into a body bag-oozing liquids-to be taken to the M.E.’s office.

The owners of the salsa bar argued with the police; that area of the street would have to remain cordoned off until it had been thoroughly inspected and cleared by crime scene. It was Fantasy Fest. What was the city going to do about the amount of money they were going to lose?

Katie had felt ridiculously frozen and weak. Paralyzed. Horrified.

But she was suddenly angry. It wasn’t a shock; she had seen Da

Now, he was part of Key West. Part of the stories and lore that would be told to generations from now until eternity.

“Am I free to go?” she asked Liam suddenly.

“Of course, Katie. But-” Liam began.

“Thank you,” she told him.

She made her way through the gaping crowd on the street and back to O’Hara’s. Her brother was there, looking aggravated, but managing to put up a stream of pirate songs with singers, music and words intact. He was startled when he saw her arrive.

“Katie, you just found the corpse of an old friend. Get David to take you home,” Sean said. “Or leave David. I’ll take you home. Hell, Jamie would close this place down and take you home.”

“No,” Katie said angrily. “No, everyone is acting like Da

She took the microphone. “Folks, everyone knows that something terrible just happened. Everyone tried to get close, to find out what happened. Well, I’ll tell you. A friend of ours disappeared a few days ago. People were mad at him-they thought that he’d sloughed off work. In fact, it was even suspected that he had killed a woman. But he didn’t. He was murdered himself. He wasn’t an odor in the street-he was a good guy, a true conch, a real part of Key West. His name was Da

She went to the computer and set “Da

“Da

“Everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s day,” a drunk sloshed out in reply.

“Sing along, a good fellow is gone and departed!” someone else said.

When it was over, she felt David at her side. “Katie, come on. We’re going.”

“We can’t go,” she said dully.

“We can. Sean and Clarinda can handle your system. And it will thin out early-even in the middle of Fantasy Fest, a dead man means something, Katie.”

She let him drag her away. She had known that Da