Title: The Key to the Shadow
Summary: Lamont Cranston was perfectly content to let people think his alter ego learned how to cloud men's minds using Far Eastern magic. However, the truth was far simpler, yet more exotic than anything on Earth.
Disclaimer: Who knows that Doctor Who and The Shadow don't belong to me? The copyright holders know. (melodramatic laughter)
Author's Note: The Doctor doesn't appear in this story, but in this AU, he has a profound influence on one of old time radio's greatest crime fighters.
"Now what do we do?" Margo Lane asked her friend, Lamont Cranston. They were standing in the entrance of an alleyway where they had just said goodbye to their new friend, the Doctor.
"We, darling," Lamont replied as his hand was rustling about in his coat pocket, "are going to leave as soon as I can grab my car key. Somehow I don't think it'd be a good idea to stick around and explain to the Commissioner that Vincent Brady, one of the city's notorious gangsters, was really from another planet."
Margo nodded in agreement. She thought that it also probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell the Commissioner that the man responsible (with Lamont's help, of course) for helping bring Brady and his minions to justice was also from another planet.
Before she could voice that thought aloud, Lamont had pulled his key out of his coat pocket. However, the key in his hand didn't look like his apartment or car keys, nor had he ever threaded his any of his keys with a piece of string. The string was long enough to loop over one's neck like a necklace.
"Oh, no!" Lamont exclaimed in frustration.
"What's wrong?"
Lamont gestured with the hand that was holding the key. "This belongs to the Doctor. He lent it to me so I could sneak into Brady's warehouse. I forgot to return it to him."
Margo patted Lamont's arm. "I wouldn't worry too much about it, darling. I'm sure that someone like the Doctor should be able to replace a skeleton key with no problem."
"It's not a skeleton key, Margo."
"It's not?" she asked in bewilderment. "Then what is it?"
Holding up the key, Lamont answered, "If I understood what the Doctor said, this key gives off some sort of special radio frequency when someone wears it around his neck. That frequency somehow interferes with your mind and you can't see the person who's wearing the key."
He put on the necklace. "See, darling?"
Margo was dumbstruck. It seemed as if Lamont had disappeared as soon as he put on the key necklace, but …
"I can still hear you," she replied. "And I know you're there, but, somehow, I don't want to know."
Lamont took off the necklace and was immediately visible to Margo again. "Amazing piece of science, isn't it?"
"If the Doctor doesn't come back, what will you do with it, Lamont?" Margo asked with concern. "That could be very dangerous in the wrong hands."
He held up the key and stared at it for a moment. "Think of the possibilities for good though, Margo. I could use this to follow criminals and infiltrate their hideouts in ways the police can't. The criminals would never even know I was there unless I spoke to them."
"Like a ghost," Margo said.
Lamont gave his companion a cunning smile. "Or a Shadow."
The End