Prodigal Son

little oasis of fantasy, was a police psychiatrist. Her work demanded logic and reason, but in her private life, she retreated into gentle escapism.
        At three o'clock in the morning, the windows revealed no lights.
        Carson rang the bell and then at once knocked on the door.
        A soft light bloomed inside, and quicker than Carson expected, Kathy opened the door. "Carson, what's up, what's wrong?"
        "It's Halloween in August. We gotta talk."
        "Girl, if you were a cat, you'd have your back up and your tail tucked."
        "You're lucky I didn't show up with a load in my pants."
        "Oh, that's an elegant thing to say. Maybe you've been partnered too long with Michael. Come in. I just made some hazelnut coffee."
        Entering, Carson said, "I didn't see any lights."
        “At the back, in the kitchen," Kathy said, leading the way
        She was attractive, in her late thirties, molasses-black with Asian eyes. In Chinese-red pajamas with embroidered cuffs and collar, she cut an exotic figure.
        In the kitchen, a steaming mug of coffee stood on the table. Beside it lay a novel; on the cover, a woman in a fantastic costume rode the back of a flying dragon.
        "You always read at three in the morning?" Carson asked.
        "Couldn't sleep."
        Carson was too edgy to sit. She didn't pace the kitchen so much as twitch back and forth in it. "This is your home, Kathy, not your office. That matters-am I right?"
        Pouring coffee, Kathy said, "What's happened? What're you so jumped up about?"
        "You're not a psychiatrist here. You're just a friend here. Am I right?"
        Putting the second mug of coffee on the table, returning to her own chair, Kathy said, "I'm always your friend, Carson-here, there, anywhere."
        Carson stayed on her feet, too wound up to sit down. "None of what I tell you here can end up in my file."
        "Unless you killed someone. Did you kill someone?"
        "Not tonight."
        "Then spit it out, girlfriend. You're getting on my nerves."
        Carson pulled a chair out from the table, sat down. She reached for the mug of coffee, hesitated, didn't pick it up.
        Her hand was trembling. She clenched it into a fist. Very tight. Opened it. Still trembling.
        "You ever see a ghost, Kathy?"
        "I've taken the haunted New Orleans tour, been to the crypt of Marie Laveau at night. Does that count?"
        Clutching the handle of the mug, staring at her white knuckles, Carson said, "I'm serious. I mean any weird shit you can't wrap your head around. Ghosts, UFO, Big Foot…" She glanced at Kathy "Don't look at me that way."
        "What way?"
        "Like a psychiatrist."
        "Don't be so defensive." Kathy patted the book with the dragon on the cover. "I'm the one reads three fantasy novels a week and wishes she could actually live in one."
        Carson blew on her coffee, tentatively took a sip, then a longer swallow. "I need this. Haven't slept. No way I'll sleep tonight."
        Kathy waited with professional patience.
        After a moment, Carson said, "People talk about the unknown, the mystery of life, but I've never seen one squirt of mystery in it."
        "Squirt?"
        "Squirt, drop, spoonful-whatever. I want to see mystery in life-who doesn't?-some mystical meaning, but I'm a fool for logic."
        "Until now? So tell me about your ghost."
        "He wasn't a ghost. But he sure was something. I've been driving around the past hour, maybe longer, trying to find the right words to explain what happened…"
        "Start with where it happened."
        "I was at Bobby Allwine's apartment-"
        Leaning forward, interested, Kathy said, "The Surgeon's latest victim. I've been working up a profile on the killer. He's hard to figure. Psychotic but controlled. No obvious sexual component. So far he hasn't left much forensic evidence at the scene. No fingerprints. A garden-variety psychopath isn't usually so prudent."
        Kathy seemed to realize that she had seized the wheel of the conversation. Relinquishing it, she sat back in her chair.
        "Sorry, Carson. We were talking about your ghost."
        Kathy Burke could probably keep her police work separate from their friendship, but she would find it more difficult to take off her psychiatrist hat and keep it off when she heard what Carson had come here to tell her.
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