Mermaid by Tom Lowe

Author:Tom Lowe [Lowe, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798655210936
Publisher: Kingsbridge
Published: 2020-06-29T22:00:00+00:00

FORTY

Wynona and I took Max for a long walk before returning to Gibraltar where Dave and Nick where finishing a card game—rummy. Dave looked up as we came aboard and said, “Ah, yes. I assume Max took you for a very long and enlightening walk. Did you walk the beach?”

“Not this time,” Wynona said, “We went off the beaten path and strolled down to the lighthouse.”

Dave nodded. “Let us hope that no young women dressed as mermaids will be found dead in the shadow of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse.”

Nick said, “We do have a long jetty on the left side of the inlet as you take a boat out of the pass. Now, every time I go by there in St. Michael, I’m gonna remember the pictures we saw of the poor girl killed on the jetty near the lighthouse on Key Biscayne.”

Wynona said, “Police don’t know if she was killed there, or taken there after she was killed somewhere else.”

Dave grunted and shifted his weight on the couch, a soft but briny breeze moving through Gibraltar’s salon. “Did you two former detectives discuss the case of the mermaid murders on your long walk?”

“Briefly,” Wynona said. “What we did talk about is our upcoming sailing trip. If we’re lucky, perhaps we’ll see a real mermaid on a reef overlooking a tropical island. Like what Nick said he saw in the Caribbean. My hope is that the real mermaid will be far away from humanity, happy in her world, and very much alive.”

Nick grinned, sipped a beer and said, “I’ll draw you a sailor’s map. Put a circle around the place I spotted the beautiful mermaid. She might be hangin’ out here again when y’all sail by there.”

“Maybe so,” I said, setting Max down. “It’ll be something to make nautical memories.”

Nick blew out a deep breath. “I just hope the girls in mermaid costumes killed here were not murdered by some psycho workin’ with the movie company, some dude who’ll be gone in a few weeks like a carnival worker headed for the next town. I’m bettin’ the same creep killed both girls. I have no background in police work. But I gotta lot of experience in human nature or inhuman nature.” He set his beer on a coaster with the words Sanibel Island on it.

Dave nodded. “There are strong similarities. But does one psychopath bring out the worst in other like-minded criminals, creating copycat killings? Detectives will be eliminating suspects until they find the evidence that really connects the dots to someone in the shadows. And because these appear to be staged murders, the victims killed somewhere other than where the bodies are being found, that opens up more opportunities for police to find additional evidence. When bodies are moved, they leave traces, even miniscule—often not obvious, but there’s a trail. I do concur with you, Nick, my money would be on the same perpetrator.” Dave turned to Wynona and me. “However, I’m retired and Nick you are a fisherman, a man with unique talents to catch fish, not criminals.

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