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 Danny Zigler.
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 Danny.
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, Danny had been held in something like an oven.
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, innkeepers, costumed entertainers, bartenders-all came out to the streets, staring with horror. There was such a crowd that everyone had to whisper to everyone else, asking what had happened.
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 Danny was in it?”
“What?” she asked, blinking.
“How did you know that Danny had been stuffed into the effigy?” Liam persisted.
“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 Danny wind up in the doll?” David asked.
“The doll was up before Danny disappeared,” Liam said, glancing at his notes. “The manufacturer is local, just up on Stock Island. They’ve done these dozens of times. And the effigy was set up by the salsa club right there, and they’re baffled and mystified-again, they said that the doll was in perfect shape from the manufacturer when they assembled it.”
“So someone killed Danny Zigler and stuffed his body into a giant-size effigy of another Key West legend,” David said.
“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 Danny’s ghost. When she had looked out the door and seen him, then the costumed Robert the Doll performer, she had known. Danny had been showing her where he could be found. Poor Danny. He would have been so horrified. He loved Key West.
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.