A Ghost to Die For by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox

vendors and merchants to use for delivering fresh produce and goods in the neighborhood. Now, it is a popular path for foot traffic, walkers and joggers alike. Try it next time.”
    “I will, and what a relief it will be not to be gawked at.”
    Walter brought Alex’s breakfast. To make room for his platter and toast, Alex moved his computer notebook over to my place setting. I set aside my mug of coffee.
    “How about you open up the computer and load your pics to it. I’ll munch and you bring up the photos?”
    “Sure.” It took only a minute and a thumbnail index page popped up on the screen. “There’s only seven photos, I’ll bring them up in the order I snapped them.” The first three photos were pics the displayed a full frame of the painting. Alex leaned toward me to get a better look.
    “I see why the painting could be mistaken to be a Renoir. It certainly is in his style. Love the fact he often included bits of red or orange in a painting. Was it the red-haired woman that caught your eye?” Alex asked.
    “At first it was, that is a favorite subject of Renoir. But it was also the market scene that got my attention. I’ve been to France and this could be a scene in Paris, except for the body of water in the background, it doesn’t look like a river to me, what about you?”
    Alex put down his fork and zeroed in on the painting. “Can you enlarge the section that shows the water?” he asked.
    “Yeah, I took a close-up shot of that part of the picture, here, thumbnail number six will show it.”
    “It’s not a river. Look the pattern of waves rolling onto shore. I’d say it is the ocean, not a lake and that body of water is certainly not a pond.” Alex looked closer at the painting. “Yeah, it is the ocean, with waves coming onto a shoreline, but not a bathing beach, to shallow of a shoreline for that. ”
    “ Does it look familiar to you, at all?” I asked.
    “Lots of shoreline along the San Diego coast looks nearly the same as what is in the painting. Look again at the close up, notice how toward the right frame of the picture that the shoreline has a dramatic curve, and there’s that bit of a triangular rocky outcropping, well, that part is familiar looking, but I’m not sure where I may have seen it.”
    “Alex, could this be a painting of a place near here?”
    “The only place in San Diego, now or in the 1800s when this was painted, that has a market area like that in the scene is down toward the Gaslamp Quarter. And, I’d say no way could this painting depict that part of old San Diego. Anywhere in the Gaslamp area that could have been, or still is, a market square like what is in the painting, there is not a view of the ocean at street level. Some of the older buildings down there have ocean views at third-story level. But the ocean view is nothing like the shoreline in the painting.”
    “Hmm, rats.”
    “You still think the scene in the painting is familiar to this area?” Alex asked.
    “Yeah, I do, though I cannot say why.”
    “Shannon, show it around, maybe Greg Winslow or Rosario will have some ideas to help you.”
    “Oh, Alex, it’s probably nothing. I have to admit, I seem to be grasping at straws when it comes to this mystery involving Andalyn Dixon and Ruby Red.”
    “And Marie Laveau and that witch doctor, let’s not exclude them.”
    “Yes, and then there is the bank scam and the Halloween myth concerning Andalyn’s involvement in it. And if all the confusion is not enough, Otis Van Wyck has me on edge.”
    Alex raised his eyebrows, “Otis? Why would he have you concerned?”
    I explained to Alex what I talked to Chloe about and Alex asked, “Do you think that after you turned around and continued walking that Otis continued to watch you and Atlas until you were out of his sight?”
    “Yeah, I feel like that is what happened. By why would Otis behave that way?”
    “I do not know. But let’s test it out. This afternoon, same time as your walk the other