The Mermaid Mystery by Tamar Myers

Author:Tamar Myers [Myers, Tamar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2024-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

The evening before, as Gan-Gan and I had walked the short distance from her antique/souvenir store up to her house, I’d queried her about Gunner Jones’ romantic entanglements – if any. Gan-Gan firmly believed that Gunner Jones ‘batted for the other team.’ Her opinion was based on rumours, and the fact that the man was not known to date any women who lived in Tidal Shores. In my estimation, all that said about Gunner Jones was that he was a wise man who didn’t want old gossips like Gan-Gan actually knowing the details of his love life.

When I smacked into Gunner Jones that morning, we instinctively clutched each other to keep from falling over. A rational person might suppose that our embrace would have lasted a nanosecond, and then we would have pulled apart while mumbling words of apology. Or at least I would have apologized. Instead, we stood perfectly still, locked in each other’s arms, like two pieces of a puzzle that had never quite been separated. I breathed in his smell, felt his body heat, and heard the thump of his heart.

It was Gunner Jones who disengaged from our inadvertent embrace. ‘Whoa,’ he said. ‘Maybe we should take things a little slower at first. You know, like dinner, or a movie. Or not. Or we could just fall into the sack if that’s what you were signalling. To be honest, I’m not up on the latest lingo that you kids use these days.’

I shrugged. ‘What’s “lingo” mean?’

‘Oh my God,’ Gunner Jones said. ‘You don’t own a lingo? I thought that everyone in your generation owned a lingo.’ He said that with a straight face.

‘I’m not exactly a kid, and I know what lingo means, you dingus. And dingus, for your information, is slang for a dim-witted, silly person, but not meant in a mean sort of way. But yeah, dinner and/or a movie would be nice, except that I’m headed up to Charlotte this morning.’

‘Why?’ Gunner Jones said.

‘Because that’s where I live, and that’s also where I’m gainfully employed.’

‘Doing what, if I might ask?’ he said.

‘You might,’ I replied, ‘but if I told you, I’d have to kill you.’

I was merely stalling in order to brush hair back from my face using my fingers. I even had to pull a few strands out of my mouth. If only I’d listened to Gan-Gan, it wouldn’t look quite this messy. But how was I to know that I would collide with someone?

‘I’ll take the risk of you trying to kill me,’ Gunner Jones said. ‘So, spill; what is it that you do, up there in Charlotte?’

‘I’m a features reporter for The Observer Today.’

Gunner Jones smiled. Believe me, he was devilishly handsome when he did so.

‘So you write fake news for a living?’ Gunner Jones said.

‘Not you too!’ I wailed.

His smile widened. ‘I’m just yanking your chain. It saddens me that so many newspapers are going out of business or being forced into only online versions. I read the print version

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