I

A green-skinned witch, her nose covered in warts, laughed wickedly as she gabbed with a cape-clad vampire, while a girl dressed as a Renaissance maiden dipped the ladle of spoon into the punch bowl and poured some into a cup. A circus clown in a rainbow polka-dotted outfit and coned hat allowed a grizzly bear to squeeze his big, red nose, and a hobo danced with a fairy. The music started out as soft sambas and tropical guitars, then veered towards fifties and sixties Halloween-themed pop and rock. As Bobby "Boris" Pickett sang about the Monster Mash, a herringbone tweed-caped Sherlock Holmes and a gray wool-bedecked Watson, black bag and stethoscope in hand, stood off to the side, acting as spectators to festivities in which they were apprehensive to partake.

Holmes was none other than Steve McGarrett, the chief of Hawaii's illustrious Five-0 state police organization, and Watson was Steve's real-life sidekick, Danny Williams, known affectionately as Danno. Though they liked a good social outing once in a while, they felt strange wearing costumes and pretending to be someone else, because it reminded them of their undercover work.

The ambiance was interrupted by the sound of their hostess, Melinda Grayle. "Steve, Danny!" she called out. "Do I have to take you two by the hand and show you how to have a good time?"

"What makes you think we aren't?" Steve asked, casually as he flecked some loose thread from the collar of his cape.

Melinda fumed. "You are impossible, Steve!" Melinda threw her hands up. In her blonde sausage curls, green satin dress and matching parasol, Melinda resembled a Southern Belle. Her husband, the formidable Sen. Erwin Grayle, invited the Five-0 team out of formality, since the governor and everyone else in Hawaii's government and business world was there.

"So wonderful of you to come," Grayle told the two cops. Danno wasn't sure if he should say anything, knowing how his boss felt about the senator. It was obvious that the senator's greetings were phony.

"Thank you for having us," Steve said, managing a forced smile. The look came across as somewhat malevolent, and Senator Grayle was not fooled. "I see you chose the right costume for the occasion," referring to the senator's Red Death ensemble from the film Masque of the Red Death, complete with pitchfork. Grayle walked away in a huff, with his wife trailing after, trying to placate him.

"That was slick," Danno told his boss. "I didn't think you'd do it."

"Wearing that costume, he had it coming," Steve said, smiling while his blue Irish eyes shined. Sen. Grayle left the room while his wife returned to her guests. She went to the center and called out to everyone to get their attention.

"Everyone! Come around. Madam Lahaila is going to tell fortunes," she said.

"Shall we, boss?" asked Steve and Danno's burly associate, Kono Kalakaua, who was dressed as a Viking.

"I hope she doesn't tell me I'm going to get married and have ten kids," said Chin Ho Kelly, the fourth member of the Five-0 squad. He was already married with eight kids.

Despite being dressed as Sherlock Holmes, it was not Steve McGarrett who smoked a pipe but rather his Chinese-Irish sergeant, who looked pretty silly doing so in an alligator costume.

Madam Lahaila was a slender, bronze-skinned woman, with straight jet-black hair and almond-shaped hazel eyes. Her stare was just as striking as the rest of her appearance. She walked swiftly into the room, with all the finesse of a cat, sat in the center in front of a table where two large red candles were lit, and placed a transparent globe in front of them. The whole room was silent, and Lahaila looked around suspiciously, eyeing all the party guests as though they were going to pounce on her like hungry wildcats.

"Death is in this room tonight," she warned, as the flames on the candles started to flicker, as though the wind was passing by. The soft breeze from two open lanai doors explained that. Lahaila looked up. Her eyes locked with Steve's. "You!" she pointed at the Five-0 chief. Steve looked back at her, confused. He pointed to himself.

"Yes, you, Pretty One," Lahaila replied. "Be careful. Death will strike tonight. It will pull you in, and you must walk carefully." She pulled out a card from a deck of tarot cards in her hand and placed it on the table. Everyone stared at the image of a skeleton on horseback, carrying a scythe and grinning menacingly. Steve stifled a gasp while Danno gripped his boss, arm, fearful that something might happen to him at any moment.

Steve managed to regain his senses and challenged Lahaila. "Miss, this is not funny. If you're threatening me, you will be in serious trouble."

Lahaila's eyes opened wide in terror at the accusation. "I never use the spirits in jest, sir. I am serious."

"It's just a party game, McGarrett," Grayle interjected. "Lighten up."

Before Steve could snap a damaging retort back at the senator, a crack echoed through the room like the burst of a firecracker. Everyone hit the ground, while Steve and the rest of the Five-0 men went into action. Women screamed, Grayle yelled for everyone to hide and not move from their spots, and Steve ran toward the lanai in the direction of the sound. The back yard was deserted, except for the security guards combing the area.

"No sign of anyone else," one of them told Steve.

"Keep looking," he ordered.

"Steve!" the feminine voice called from the house. Steve turned to see another member of his team, Jayna Berringer, running towards him. The heavy blue velvet skirt of her Elizabethan gown was useless in impeding her speed. She ran up to him in record time, out of breath, her black hair falling over her face.

"What happened, Jayna?" Steve asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Danny found the bullet," she replied. "You'd better come and see."

"They went back inside the house, were the party guests were still gathered. Grayle and his wife stood over the costumed form of the Renaissance maiden who lay on the ground. The blue silk of her dress was spattered with crimson blood. Steve's eyes lit up in fear. The Renaissance maiden was Claire Treadway, the wife of Senator Arthur Treadway.

"Claire …" he said in a whisper, as though he had never seen the girl before. Jayna clutched his arm.

"Oh, God!" Melinda Grayle sobbed. Her husband consoled her.

Madam Lahaila's prophecy had already come true: Death had struck around Steve McGarrett.