Death of a Blue Movie Star

motion. Her first thought: Shit, he’s back. Whoever was following her through Times Square.
    A man’s face …
    Panic took her. Just as she was about to turn and run she squinted into the shadows and got a better look at her pursuer. He wore jeans and a navy-blue windbreaker that said NYPD in white letters on the chest. It was Cowboy. The guy from the Bomb Squad.
    She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. Tried to steady her shaking hands. He sitting on a folding chair, looking at a white sheet of paper, which he folded and put into his pocket. She saw a thin brown holster on his right hip. Rune lifted the camera and shot a minute or so of tape, opening the aperture wide to get some definition in the gloom.
    He looked at the camera. She expected the man to tell her to get lost. But he merely stood and began walking through the ruined theater, kicking at debris, bending down occasionally to examine something, training his long black flashlight on the walls and floor.
    The image in the viewfinder of the heavy camera faded. Dusk had come quickly—or perhaps she just hadn’t noticed it. She opened the lens wide but it was still very dim and she didn’t have any lights with her. She knew the exposure was too dark. She shut the camera off, lowered it from her shoulder.
    When she looked again into the building Cowboy was gone.
    Where had he disappeared to?
    She heard a scuttling of noise near her.
    Something heavy fell.
    “Hello?”
    Nothing.
    “Hey?” Rune called again.
    There was no answer. She shouted into the ruins of the theater, “Were you following me? Hey, Officer? Somebody was following me. Was it you?”
    Another sound, like boots on concrete. Nearby. But she didn’t know where exactly.
    Then a car engine started. She spun around. Looking for the blue-and-white station wagon, emblazoned with BOMB SQUAD . But she didn’t see it.
    A dark car pulled out of an alley and vanished up Eighth Avenue.
    Uneasy once more. No, damn scared, for some reason. But as she looked over the people on Eighth Avenue she saw only harmless passersby. People on their way to the theaters. Everybody lost in their own worlds. Nobody in the coffee shops and bars paid her any mind. A horde of tourists walked past, obviously wondering why the hell their tour guide was leading them through
this
neighborhood. Another teen, a mean-looking Latino, propositioned her harmlessly and walked on when she ignored him, telling her to have a nice night. Across the street a man in a wide-brimmed hat carrying a Lord & Taylor shopping bag was gazing into the window of an adult bookstore.
    Nobody in a red jacket, nobody spying on her.
    Paranoia, she decided. Just paranoia.
    Still, she shut down the camera, put the cassette into her leopard-skin bag and headed for the subway. Deciding that she’d had enough atmosphere for one night.

     
    In the alley across the street from what was left of the Velvet Venus a bum sat beside a Dumpster, drinking from a bottle of Thunderbird. He squinted as a man stepped into the alley.
    Hell, he’s gonna pee here, the bum thought. They
always
do that. Have beers with their buddies and can’t make it to Penn Station in time so they come into my alley and pee. He wondered how the guy’d feel if the bum walked into
his
living room to take a leak.
    But the man didn’t unzip. He paused at the mouth of the alley and peered out over Eighth Avenue, looking for something, frowning.
    Wondering what the man was doing here, why he was wearing that wide-brimmed, old-fashioned hat, the bum took another sip of liquor and set the bottle down. It made a clink.
    The man whirled around quickly.
    “Got a quarter?” the bum asked.
    “You scared me. I didn’t know anybody was there.”
    “Got a quarter?”
    The man fished in his pocket. “Sure. Are you going to spend it on booze?”
    “Probably,” the bum said. Sometimes he’d hustle the crowds at the commuter stations by saying, “Help the blind, help the blind…. I want to get blind drunk.” And people gave him more money because he’d made them laugh.
    “Well, I appreciate honesty. Here you go.” The man reached down with a coin.
    As the bum began to take it he felt his wrist gripped hard by the man’s left hand.
    “Wait!”
    But the man didn’t wait. Then there was a slight stinging feeling on the bum’s neck. Then another, on the other side. The man let go of his wrists and the bum touched his throat, feeling two flaps of skin dangling loose. Then saw the razor