Read Online Fantasy Life by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Free Book Online

worried about outsiders listening into the local conversations. When no tourists came to the place, the owner turned the sea chanteys off and put on some nice jazz (which would bereplaced midnote if an outsider walked in), and the atmosphere became almost pleasant.
    A waitress Gabriel had never seen before led him to a booth near the fireplace. Because it was the height of summer and the sun hadn’t yet set, no fire burned. Still the faint scent of woodsmoke lingered.
    Gabriel had just ordered a Rogue Ale when Denne walked in. He had changed clothes—now wearing a button-down shirt, open at the collar, and a pair of khaki pants that looked neatly pressed—and his hair was wet.
    So the smell had gotten to him too. Gabriel smiled and made himself look at the menu. Lots of little pirates, with scarred faces and greasy hair, decorated the pages. He looked at the specials card, which no one had had time to dress up, and made his decision.
    “Figured I’d get here first,” Denne said as he slipped into his chair.
    Gabriel closed the menu. “Nope. I didn’t have a lot to do. I canvassed, but I didn’t find any witnesses, at least to the death. No one saw the body wash ashore either, although it had been lying there all morning before someone realized it looked human.”
    Denne set his menu aside. “She. She looked human.”
    Gabriel put his menu on top of Denne’s. “She’s not human, is she?”
    “No, but she is female, and damn close to human, close enough that I feel odd calling her ‘it.’”
    “You think there was an intelligence there.”
    “I know there was.” Denne picked up his water glass and took a sip. Then he leaned back in his chair and looked over his shoulder.
    The waitress who had seated Gabriel held up a hand. “Just a minute, sir,” she said to Denne.
    “Is June here?” he asked.
    “She’ll be here soon, sir.”
    “Sir.” Denne set his chair back down on all four legs. “Crap. She’s new.”
    “That’s all right, isn’t it?” Gabriel asked, not sure how it mattered.
    “Always have to educate the new ones,” Denne said.
    The waitress came over, and as Denne ordered, Gabriel began to understand why someone new irritated him. His order wasn’t on the menu, and it was complicated, and every time she told him that his request wasn’t possible, sir, he told her to check in the kitchen.
    When Denne finished and Gabriel had ordered, and the waitress had gone back to the kitchen, Gabriel said, “You know, you could have just told her you were a regular and you’d done this before.”
    Denne grinned, which made him look like a cherubic prepschool student. “There’s no sport in that.”
    Gabriel shook his head. “I’m never going to understand you.”
    “And now you sound like my ex-wife.” Denne finished his glass of water and set it at the edge of the table, so that the waitress couldn’t miss it when she returned.
    Another waiter came by and dropped off Gabriel’s pale ale, along with Denne’s Scotch.
    “So you didn’t get anything from the canvass?” Denne asked as the waiter left.
    Gabriel wrapped his hand around the glass of ale. The liquid was slightly cool, nearly room temperature, the way they served beer in England. He liked it that way; the warmer the beer the more flavor it had.
    “I didn’t say that I didn’t get anything,” Gabriel said. “No one saw her wash up, is all. What killed her?”
    Denne shrugged. “I’m taking it slow, but I’m thinking that she suffocated. Her gills were filled with that gooey substancewe saw. I haven’t gotten to her lungs yet, but I suspect they’ll be filled with it too. Then again, I’m just guessing. I’ve never autopsied one of these creatures. I have no idea if the goo is a natural substance or not.”
    “I thought you said the physiology was similar to ours.”
    “The physiology of an ape is similar to ours too,” Denne said, “but there are enough differences that I wouldn’t trust myself to know exactly