I’m about to shift to the next picture when something makes me do a double take, and my stomach just about drops to the basement of the building. I grab the magnifying loupe, pulling the image of Penley right up to my face.

I stare in amazement.

Utter. Freakin’. Amazement.

Chapter 44

I QUICKLY CHECK the previous shots, the ones of only Dakota and Sean. Is it happening with them too?

No. No, it isn’t.

Everything looks fine. Better than fine, in fact.

I grab the shot of Penley again, staring, squinting hard, running my finger over it. The negative seems fine to me.

Her image, though. Not fine. Not good. Not possible.

It’s that same effect as with the body bags outside the Fálcon, subtle yet definitely there. Or, should I say, not there.

Transparent. Like I can see through her. Like she’s there but isn’t.

Penley’s thin, but she’s not that thin! How is this happening again? Why?

I flip on the light, spinning around to face the black corkboard behind me. The other shots, my father – I never checked to see if the effect was happening with the photos of him. Did I just not notice?

My eyes race along every picture pinned to the wall, and not a single one has the effect.No problem with these shots – just a man who’s been dead for twelve years!

So it isn’t the lens after all. The new one did the same thing the old one did. Must be the camera, then. At least I hope it’s the camera.

I remember a business card that Javier at Gotham Photo once gave me. On the back he wrote his cell phone number. I think maybe he was fishing for a date. Nonetheless, he said I should call him anytime I have a problem with my pictures.

I think this qualifies.

The only question now is where I put that card. I start with my wallet, shuffling through ATM receipts, my AmEx, Visa, Discover, driver’s license, a frequent-coffee-drinker card from the Java Joint.

Javier’s card isn’t there.

I check all the drawers in my bedroom, including the one in my nightstand. It’s amazing how much junk I accumulate. Do I really have to take a book of matches from every restaurant I eat in, for God’s sake?

C’mon, Javier’s card, where are you?

I try to think back to when he handed it to me. When was it, what time of year?

Winter, I decide.

Maybe it’s still in a coat. In fact, I’m pretty sure I know which one. A shearling I splurged on – a beautiful “just gotta have it” that I saw in the window at Saks. I ate a lot of tuna fish sandwiches for dinner that month, as I recall.

I also recall Javier complimenting me on it…when he handed me his card.

I’m pretty impressed with my memory as I head for the hall closet. Maybe I’m not completely losing it.

With any luck, I’ll reach Javier and we can meet. I’ll show him the pictures, he’ll study my camera, and he’ll tell me what’s wrong. Simple as that. Mystery solved.

First things first, though – that card of his.

I open the closet door.

At least I try to. It’s stuck. The knob twists, but the door itself seems to be jammed. Oh, brother. Now I’m not so sure I want to get into this closet.

But I have to, so I pull harder. Then harder still, with both hands. It’s almost as if the damn door is locked from the inside; only that’s impossible, isn’t it? This closet’s never been locked. Who would lock it?

Changing my grip on the knob, I really put some muscle into it. I yank so hard my shoulders ache.

Slowly, the door begins to give – until it flies open.

I look inside.

Oh, no! Oh, God! Help me!

And then I’m screaming at the top of my lungs.

Chapter 45

“KRISTIN, WAKE UP. Wake up!”

My eyes snap open, and I gaze around, confused and out of sorts. Not to mention petrified. Everything is soft focus. “Where am I?”

“You’re in my apartment,” says Connie. “On the planet Earth.” She looks concerned, scared, even.

“Are you okay?” I ask her.

“Am I okay?” Connie shakes her head in disbelief. “My God, the way you were screaming, I thought somebody was trying to kill you in here!”

I can see sunlight slicing through the blinds. It’s morning, and I’m lying on the pullout couch in Connie’s living room on the Upper East Side, that much I’ve got figured out. Everything else is sketchy at best.

“I… don’t… remember…”

“You came here last night, hysterical, ” explains Connie. “You were going on and on about this dream and some pictures you’d taken – oh, and you were telling me about your closet. The one in the front hallway? Is any of this ringing a bell?”

“The cockroaches…”

“Yeah, you said there were a million of them. It was horrifying just to listen to you describe it.”

That’s the last thing I remember. The entire closet was crawling with cockroaches. Maybe not a million, but a thousand, and I’m deathly afraid of cockroaches. They got in my hair, on my face. The rest is a blank.

Connie takes my hand. “You were quite the mess, sweetie,” she says. “I gave you two Xanax and put you to bed. You slept straight through the night, not a peep.”

Until now.

The hotel, the four gurneys, the hand. The same dream, only I had it in a different location. It travels.

“What can I get you, Kristin? How do you feel?” Connie asks.

Like shit.

With a sound track to boot. Will I ever figure out what this song in my head is? I wish Connie could hear it; maybe she’d know what it is.

But she can’t. So I don’t mention it, or anything else. If I don’t understand what’s happening to me, how could she? Plus, I don’t want to frighten her any more than I have already.

I’m fine, I tell her. “In fact, what time is it?” I ask – panicked. “I can’t be late for work.”

I pull back the covers, and Connie stops me.

“Hold on,” she says. “This is serious, Kris. You should’ve heard yourself last night, the things you were saying. Something’s very wrong. I think you need to see that psychiatrist of yours again.”

Been there, done that.

“I’m so sorry I scared you,” I say. “I’ve been having this recurring dream, and it seems so real. I guess I’ve been under a lot of stress lately.”

“What about these pictures you were ranting about? Ghostly images? Transparencies?”

“Part of the dream,” I lie.

Am I embarrassed about going bonkers? Ashamed? Why can’t I talk to one of my best friends about this?

Connie regards me for a moment. “At least call in sick,” she says. “You need to relax.”

“I can’t, Connie. The kids depend on me.”

“Let the Pencil take care of them today. She is their mother, after all.”

“Really, I’m fine.” I fake a smile and swing my feet to the floor. Then I give Connie a little wink. “Do you think I can borrow some clothes?”

Chapter 46

DONNING A PAIR of black slacks and a putty gray turtleneck from Connie’s closet, I’m out of her apartment in less than ten minutes. Normally it takes me a little longer to get ready for work. Then again, normally I don’t have someone – in this case Connie – eyeing me as if any moment I might climb onto a chair and begin shouting, “I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!”

So as I walk into the Turnbulls’ building and ride the elevator up to the penthouse, I experience something new and different. Being early.

Good. No chance of Penley waiting for me at the door.

Instead, it’s Sean I see immediately. He’s sitting on the floor of the foyer, engrossed in the bright-colored Legos scattered around him. He doesn’t even hear me come in.

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

Sean glances up, beaming. “Hi, Miss Kristin!”

I kneel next to him. “Whatcha building? Looks impressive. Sha-zam! Whatis that?”

“A supergalactic missile launcher that will save the world from the evil aliens of planet Thunder.”