Heather Graham - Ghost Shadow

David left then, afraid that he’d be shown out soon. Just outside, he saw Liam questioning the people who had been the first through. They were two young girls and an elderly couple. He nodded to his cousin, who realized why he was leaving. Liam nodded in acknowledgment.

The crowd was growing. News stations were setting up, and several reporters were already on air.

As he walked out, he thought about Katie. He called her quickly to tell her about what had happened.

“I already saw the news,” she said.

Katie stared at the television.

The dead woman was Stella Martin. She had worked at a strip club on Duval, and most of the locals on the street who didn’t know her well still knew her. The club owner denied that any of his girls engaged in any illicit activity. Stella had been a good girl.

But the next person the reporter talked to was a pretty young girl from the Czech Republic. She worked in the bikini shop downstairs and next door.

“Stella…well, it is sad, so sad. But Stella…left with men often. She-she could not come in my shop anymore, the manager said. She propositioned men here, and my manager, he would not have it happening in here. A stripper is one thing…well, it is illegal here to charge for sex.”

A stripper.

A minute later, Lieutenant Pete Dryer was introduced by an anchor. “Lieutenant! Isn’t this a copy of one of the last unsolved murders to take place in Key West?” the reporter asked.

“A copy, just that,” Pete said.

“How do you know? The previous killer was never arrested, or known,” the reporter said.

“There are differences.” A barrage of questions started coming his way and he lifted his hand. “Naturally, we don’t want to give out details. We need to keep some information quiet so that we can investigate this killing and solve it. We have a lot more scientific investigative techniques now, and we’ll find out the truth this time, I swear.”

“But isn’t it true that the last murder involved the Beckett family-and isn’t it true that David Beckett has just returned home?” a reporter asked.

Pete was silent a second. Just a second too long.

“No further comment,” he said.

“Hey, what about Beckett? Supposedly, all those years ago, he had an airtight alibi, didn’t he?” someone else asked. “Airtight-through Grandpa!”

Liam must have been nearby. She heard an explosive sound, and the camera angle jiggled for a moment before it settled on Liam Beckett. “Trust me-David had an airtight alibi, and he’ll have one now. Watch it, unless you want to find yourself in court!” Liam said angrily.

The doorbell rang and she nearly jumped out of her chair. Bartholomew was watching her. “I’d get it for you if I could,” he said.

She ran to the door and looked through the peephole. It was David. She threw the door open.

“This isn’t something I was expecting,” he said.

“Come in. Come on in,” she said.

“You sure?”

She frowned. “Of course.”

He stepped in. “All the old crap is being thrown back up,” he told her.

“I know.”

“You still believe in me?”

“Unconditionally,” Katie said.

He smiled, closed the door and drew her close to him.

“Pete’s trying to help-I mean me, specifically. He managed to get me in to see the crime scene. And I managed to get a few of my own pictures.”

“Oh?” she seemed worried.

“Hey, I went to school for this. I took a couple of courses in crime-scene work.”

“So-you think that this will help you find out what happened in the past?” She stared at him frankly. She stepped back and put her hands on her hips as if she were indignant for him. In no way did it seem to occur to her that it was just too odd that this had happened right after he had returned.

“It’s either the same killer or a copycat,” he said. “Thanks to Pete, I won’t have to rely on the memory of what I just saw.”

“Shall I send out for some food?” she asked. “I can cook something-”

“No,” he said. “Let’s head out.”

“On the streets?” she asked, surprised.

“Duval Street, as a matter of fact. I’m not hiding. I didn’t do anything then, and I sure as hell didn’t kill a stripper I’ve never seen before. Hell, if they’re going to come at me, I’m going right out where they can do it!”

“He doesn’t look overly agitated,” Bartholomew commented. He was perched on a stool next to her at an open-air bar on Duval; David had just been cornered by the press again.

He could have gone into public speaking, Katie thought. He managed the press well. He spoke about leaving Key West after Tanya’s death because his home memories were far too painful. He managed to make the Becketts sound like the typical American family, and when he spoke about Craig and his grandmother, affection was apparent in his tone. He admitted that he didn’t understand how such bizarre murders could have occurred so far apart; yes, there might be a copycat at work, especially since some aspects of the crime seemed to be different. He had every confidence that the police would find the killer. Someone wanted to know how they thought they would find a killer now-when they hadn’t done so years ago. Someone else suggested that they wouldn’t try as hard. Stella Martin had been a stripper and probably a prostitute.

David clearly stated that he was sure the police would work every bit as hard; a human life was a human life, none less valuable than others.

Katie sipped a rum and Coke, listening to him. Bartholomew watched him, and turned back to her. “Ah, if I could but taste that grog,” he moaned. “Hey!” He straightened in his seat. “Look. There.”

Katie looked down the bar. There was a woman with huge breasts and tight shorts sitting at the end of the counter, shaded by some of the palms that covered the bar.

“I’m looking,” she said.

“I don’t know her name, but she works at the strip club.”

“And you know this because…?” Katie asked.

“Well, I may be dead, but I can watch!” Bartholomew said.

Katie stood up and came around the bar slowly. She didn’t recognize the woman. Strippers, however, had a tendency to be very transient. She might not have been in Key West long.

“Hi,” Katie said, sliding up on the stool beside her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, fine,” the woman said, trying to act as if she hadn’t been crying. She seemed defensive. And scared.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you. You just appear to be very sad, as if you’d lost a friend, and I just wanted to say that I’m so, so sorry.”

The woman had been twirling her swizzle stick in her pink drink; she looked over at Katie. She nodded slowly. “Yes, we were friends. Stella had a few bad habits, but…she liked money. She wanted to travel one day-far, far from Florida. She was born in a trailer up in Palatka, and she always wanted to get out of the state.”

“Well, we can imagine heaven as a place far away, and maybe as wonderful as anyplace she might have wanted to see.”

The woman stared at her. “You-you’re Katie-oke, right?”

Katie nodded.

“Stella liked to stand outside and listen. She had a nice voice.”

“She should have come in to sing,” Katie said. “Do you know who…was she fighting with anyone? Do you know where she’d been?”

“She picked up a kid the night before… Well, they say she died Sunday afternoon sometime. Yeah, she was with a kid. I might recognize him if I saw him again. But…he was young. He didn’t look like a killer. Then again, that’s what they always tell us-God alone knows what a killer looks like. Oh, Lord-she was murdered!” the woman said, and huge tears formed in her eyes again.