I SEE YOUR FACE BEFORE ME

I see your face before me
Crowding my every dream
There is your face before me
You are my only theme
It doesn't matter where you are
I can see how fair you are
I close my eyes and there you are
Always

When he wasn't working, he was sleeping, not in his bed but in movie palaces, that is to say any movie palace that was running films from both early in the morning to late at night. His sleep cycles had been all out of whack lately and he often found these were the only places he could get some shut eye routinely falling in and out of repose in front of the flickering films being projected.

It wasn't long, though, before Detective Grogan's own reality became an indistinguishable blur between his real life and the celluloid fantasies on screen. Then again, he was living in Los Angeles so it kind of made sense. Dreams were being pedalled like candy in Hollywood and exploring the nightmares behind that candyfloss reality was his job to look into. He had been a private detective for nearly twenty years now and had seen more dead bodies than most of the public had seen talkies which was to say a lot. The dead bodies he saw, though, were generally the average nobodies that Hollywood generally liked to ignore or forget. And the victims who died on the big screen left far better looking corpses than the ones he'd find down dead end alleyways, that was for damn sure.

Grogan's favourite movie actress was Katherine Francis who seemed immortal to his bleary eyes whenever he woke up in his red velvet seat to find her staring down at him from the giant screen above. She possessed a pure beauty that he felt was unrealistic to get close to but paradoxically something at least for him to aspire towards. She'd been in close to fifty movies and Grogan must have seen them all. His favourite was Adapt to Survive - a screwball comedy set in Death Valley.

He wondered how many miles apart they might be from each other right now in this crazy town.

Wandering out of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the wee small hours, past the imported oriental pagodas, golden bells and stone figures, Grogan made a call to the station to see if he was needed for any after hour call outs.

"Actually, we just got something for you come in. It's kinda low key, though, so they only want one of us to go and investigate."

"Okay, where?" Grogan asked, curious about the assignment.

"Shadowlight Studios"

Arriving after midnight through the ornate iron gates of the impressive studio, Grogan felt like a bit of a fan boy he wasn't ashamed to admit to himself.

"You've finally hit the big time Grogan. Yes sir!"

Driving toward the studio lot 54 he was curious as to what he might have been sent to investigate.

Greeting him outside the lot was a nervous looking producer who was puffing on the end of a cigar like he was trying to put it out.

"Glad you made it, Detective. We got a real problem and we're trying to dampen down the hysteria. We don't want this spreading like wild fire through the entire studio. We need to be discreet about this."

Grogan nodded, understanding the producer's concern.

"Well, how about you let me do my job and I'll let you go about yours. I'm not looking to step on any toes here."

Leading the detective to the scene of the crime which was to say a crime perfectly preserved on the floor of a studio film set.

For lying on the fake marble floor, Grogan recognised the familiar human sized shape lying motionless beneath a white blanket.

"I'm guessing that's what you want me to be discreet about?"

The perspiring producer nodded.

Lifting the white sheet off like a grand unveiling of a new artwork, Grogan found himself face to face with ...

Katherine Francis.

It took him a moment to recover his nerves as he'd only ever seen this woman as a 50ft goddess up on screen.

But lying there on the sterile looking movie set he no longer had any illusions.

She was made of flesh and blood.