Color Him Dead

Terrified, she rolled over on the sand and sat up, not even trying to cover her body.

''Tell you what,'' the strange man said. ''We’ll play a little game. You try to remember me and I’ll tell you when you’re getting warm.''

She watched him slowly unwrap an oilcloth package. ''You hid in that shack,'' she said, ''so you could catch me alone . . .''

''And violate your fair white body? No, Edith. I've been there and back. I can’t make that scene again.''

''Damn you!'' she cried. ''You come on like an old lover, but I can’t remember!''

''You aren’t trying,'' he said softly. ''Think of me without the beard, without the scars, a married man with a wife and kid. You destroyed it, Edith. You wiped me clean. Remember?''

He opened the package then and Edith saw the gleam of the gun.

''See, Edith? I brought it two thousand miles. Nobody knows I’m here, so they’ll just have to assume that the sharks got you . . .''