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EPILOGUE
Heads turned as the tall, slender young woman swept
past the rows of motionless sun-worshippers at poolside. She
held her head high, looking neither left nor right; despite
her casual flowered t-shirt and shorts, nearly everyone
recognized her as Ladybird Amelia, the exotic singer from
the hotel bar.
Saundra--even now she rarely thought of herself as
Amelia though she was quick to answer to the name--had
finally found her niche here in the Caribbean. After two
years of gypsying across Europe, pretending to be an
exchange student, she'd gotten drunk in a London basement
cafe and let herself be talked into getting up and singing.
No one more than Saundra herself had been surprised to find
out that she had a low, rich contralto voice that spun out
silky, smoky magic and an unerring ear for tone. Her
popularity as a cabaret singer grew, but she had to keep
moving lest the people looking for her find out by her fame
who and where she was. She traveled across France and
Germany, but this small Jamaican resort was the best yet;
her mixed blood wasn't the least unusual in the Caribbean,
and here she was making eight hundred American dollars a night,
six nights a week, plus room and board at the resort hotel.
She welcomed the coolness of the hotel's air
conditioning as she headed across the lobby for the elevator
and her rooms. As much as she liked the islands, she sensed
that it was time to move on. After three months here,
everyone was urging her to record an album or go to
Hollywood.
Another thing she'd discovered in her travels was the
art of makeup. With the right cosmetics applied carefully,
she went from a nominally pretty girl to a ravishing exotic
beauty with smoky dark eyes and red, pouting lips. Though
she was now used to men pursuing her, she rarely had more
than a one-night stand as she dared not get involved, though
she'd been tempted more than once.
As she stood before the bank of highly reflective
polished steel elevator doors her wide, slightly tilted eyes
scanned her reflection and a slight smile crossed her face;
hard to believe that this exotically beautiful woman was the
same shy, defensive little store clerk that had run like a
scared rabbit. Now she was in control of where she went and
what she did, the dark cloud that hung over her
notwithstanding.
The elevator bell dinged and she looked up at the
glowing red arrow over the doors. Anticipating lunch on the
terrace of her room, which faced the sea, she took a small
step forward as the doors began to open, then froze as the
warning pulsed through her stronger than ever before. She
hadn't felt it since the night she'd decided to run but it
wasn't something easily forgettable. She stared at the elev-
ator doors as they began to open, ready to bolt, then her jaw
dropped in shock.
As they slid back a body fell at her feet, Elmer's dead,
sightless eyes staring up at her almost reproachfully from
behind the mask of blood that covered his face.
"He did his job, just as you will," Lt. Cassidy smiled
at her coldly. "We told you we'd get you one way or the
other."