Dying Echo A Grim Reaper Mystery - By Judy Clemens Page 0,36

weren’t the three, were they? The ones who had left Alicia broken and dead? Casey remained where she was under the glow of a streetlight and judged the distance between the men. No angle for running, not with the cars and the men in a triangle. She could scream, but as soon as she did the men would be upon her.

She couldn’t see much detail about any of them. They all hovered at the edge of the light, wearing loose clothes that hid their builds, and hats which turned their faces into angles and plains. They moved loosely, unafraid. The light glinted off the teeth of the man in front of her. He was smiling.

The guy on her left stumbled and bumped into a car. He weaved away from it, giggling, waving his hands at the others. “I’m okay!” More giggling.

“Oh,” Death said. “Maybe I’m liking this a little better.”

So the one guy, at least, was drunk. Still no clear shot away, even past him, not with the cars lining the street. But if he was drunk…She took another look at the guy’s partners. Their loose movements spoke more now of alcohol than of competence.

Death swooped away and was back in seconds. “Yup, all three. Drunk as skunks. Although that saying never made much sense to me. Are skunks notorious drinkers in the animal kingdom? They’ve always seemed so antisocial to me. But then, maybe they’re solitary drunks, which of course makes them more dangerous.”

“Shut up,” Casey said.

“What did you say, darlin’?” It was the guy in front of her. He was closer now, and she could see more than shining teeth. He was young. Probably twenty. Not as drunk as his buddy on her left, but enough to make his posture loose-limbed. He wore a University of Colorado hoodie, which reminded her of Ricky’s T-shirt. The one with the blood spatters on it.

The guy behind her, to her right, had stopped, and swayed on his feet.

“Not even a challenge,” Death said. “I think I’ll sit this one out.”

“What do you want?” Casey said in a firm voice.

The guy on her left giggled again, and staggered back to rest against the hood of the car.

The hoodie guy stopped his forward movement but kept smiling. “Just looking for a little fun, baby, that’s all.”

“Too bad I can’t warn them,” Death said from a seat on the roof of a Jeep, where he was filming everything with a palm-sized digital recorder. “You’re not a fun-seeker.”

Casey sighed. She didn’t want to fight these guys. “I wouldn’t be any fun, guys. Honestly.”

“Aw, I don’t believe that.” Hoodie guy took another step forward. “You look like fun to me. Out in the middle of the night. You must be looking for some action.”

“Were you looking for action a week ago?”

“We’re always looking for action, baby.”

“With a woman who looked like this?” Casey pulled the photo of Ricky and Alicia from her pocket and held it up.

Hoodie guy squinted, most likely trying to focus. “Hey, she’s hot. But no. No, I’d remember. And she’s a little old.”

Death laughed. “Talk about beer goggles. What does he think you are? A high school student?”

“So you don’t know her? And you never did anything with her?”

“Never.”

“What about your friends?”

“If I didn’t have her, my friends didn’t have her. I’d know. We share everything.”

Lovely.

The guy behind Casey stopped swaying and began moving forward. Casey put the photo back in her pocket and stepped away, but that only took her closer to the guy on the car.

“Might as well accept it,” Death said. “You’re going to have to deal with this.”

She feinted left, on an angle that would have been between Car guy and Hoodie. Hoodie swung that way, and she moved right. The guy from behind staggered forward to cut off that direction, so all that was left was backward. She turned to go back the way she came.

Hoodie guy lunged forward and grabbed her wrist. She held her breath and counted to three so she wouldn’t break his arm.

“Seriously, guys, come on, you don’t want to mess with me.”

Hoodie laughed. “But we do, hottie. We do.” He pulled her closer.

Casey yanked him forward, sticking out her foot and sliding her arm from his grasp as he tripped and fell onto his knees.

“Owww!” He pouted, then lurched upright. “Why did you doooo that?”

Death tsked. “Didn’t his mother teach him not to whine?”

“I’m not interested,” Casey said to the kid. “Not in having fun or beating you up. Can we just