“Where are you going? Katie, are you all right? Hey, wait!” Clarinda said.
But Katie was already on her way out.
Tanya waited, caught in that glimmer of sunlight, until Katie was nearly upon her. Then she started to walk.
Katie made her way through buxom lasses and strapping pirates, and a U.S. Navy sea captain here and there. Vampires and zombies were crowding the streets, as well. The season was changing-it was just hot instead of dead hot-but all manner of costumes were being worn-naked and in paint, almost naked, to period frock coats and heavy fabric skirts.
Music was emitting from restaurants and bars already; a fire-eater was working a corner of Front Street.
Tanya managed to stay just ahead of Katie.
Bartholomew was following close behind her.
“She’s headed for the hanging tree,” he said.
“Why?” Katie murmured.
Bartholomew said, “I keep telling you, it has to have something to do with the past. It has something to do with me,” he said.
She turned to stare at him, crashed into a wolfman, righted herself, apologized and hurried on. “Wolfman-the guy is crazy! He’ll be sweating to death before tonight,” she murmured.
They reached the saloon. It was busy. Katie saw Tanya slip in and she followed. There were no tables. There was one seat at the bar and she grabbed it, ordered a drink from a harried bartender and looked around.
“Imagine back,” Bartholomew said, standing right behind her and whispering in her ear. “When I died, the building wasn’t here. The area where you’re sitting was built in eighteen fifty-one. Morgue. Quite convenient. After one of the hurricanes, folks came back and found that the bodies weren’t in great shape. They ripped up the floorboards and buried them right here.”
“I know. There’s still a tombstone here,” Katie said.
“And bones in the ground,” Bartholomew said sadly.
“And the woman who haunts the bathroom,” Katie said. “But, Bartholomew-”
“You’ve got to go back before that. Military law-and no law. Evidence? What was evidence in a buccaneer town like Key West?” he asked bitterly.
“Did you see Smith hang?” Katie asked him.
He shook his head. “I had friends. I was buried on the beach. After the same hurricane, they dug me up with the others-and what pieces they discovered were transferred to the new cemetery-the Key West cemetery.”
She actually felt his hands on her shoulders. “Katie, it’s all attached, I just know it, somehow. You have to go through that book again.”
“Danny Zigler had checked out several books. They’re at David’s house. We’ll get them first thing in the morning, how’s that? Or, I’ll call David. I’ll ask him to get them before tonight, and then I’ll have them to read.”
“Is something wrong?” the bartender asked Katie, concerned despite the insanity of the bar. She had large brown eyes and a Romanian accent.
“I’m sorry, muttering to myself, practicing for tonight,” Katie told her.
Her cell phone was ringing. She saw that it was Clarinda. She answered quickly. “Sorry, I saw an old friend-from school,” she said quickly.
“Anyone I know?” Clarinda asked.
“College,” Katie lied, and winced. “Meet me on Duval and Front, okay?”
“I’m there, looking for you.”
“I’m there!” Katie promised.
Katie offered the bartender a bill and slipped off the bar stool.
She turned, and Tanya was there, staring straight at her. Her lips were moving. Katie froze, staring, and then inhaled, watching Tanya’s lips.
Then she could hear. Barely.
“Revenge. He whispered the word when he was behind me. Revenge.”
Tanya then stared at Bartholomew; her lips moved again, and she seemed distressed.
She faded, and was gone.
“See, she wants you to listen to me,” Bartholomew said. “That’s why she brought you here. Revenge! And she must somehow know or sense that it has to do with the past.”
Katie nodded. “Right. She’s gaining strength as a ghost.”
“And she just used it all, bringing you here, whispering.”
“I got it, I got it!” Katie assured him.
Her cell started ringing again. Clarinda!
She waved a thanks to the bartender and hurried out. It was all crazy. Two women were dead, dressed up and laid out like a twentieth-century corpse. And yet Tanya had come here, and Bartholomew insisted that it all went back to something that had occurred before the buildings here even existed.
She saw Clarinda on the street, waved and blocked her mouth with her hand as she told Bartholomew, “Please, please, please! Don’t make me keep talking, okay?”
He didn’t reply. He was silent as they met Clarinda.
“Let’s head back to O’Hara’s, and I’ll get the car and we’ll bring it back later. We’ve only got an hour or so, but I’d like to take a shower before tonight. I feel like I’m covered in bangers and grits,” Katie said.