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

asked.
    “Nothing about your man.” Denne had set his fork down.
    “No, but you know something about our fish woman.”
    “I know a lot about our fish woman, but you didn’t want to have that conversation during dinner.”
    “Hamilton,” Gabriel said. “Stop playing with me.”
    Denne’s fingers found his Scotch glass. They rubbed its sides as if he could absorb the liquid through his skin. “Just tell me what this guy said.”
    Gabriel took another bite of his burger before reluctantly setting it down. It would take him a while to pick it back up again. The sandwich was falling apart.
    “He waited until I got through everyone else,” Gabriel said. “Then he made sure no one was listening. He asked me if I had ever seen creatures like that before.”
    “Had you?” Denne asked the question sharply. He seemed more intense than usual.
    “No. But I’d heard about them, mostly from some oldtimers.”
    And Gabriel accepted those stories, because he’d seenstranger things than fish women on this stretch of Oregon beach. He had grown up here and had had terrifying experiences as a child. When he’d started traveling as an adult, he’d realized that nothing would compare to the experiences he’d had in Anchor Bay. Finally, he came home and started the slow process of accepting the supernatural as part of life.
    “What did they tell you?” Denne asked.
    “What the old-timers told me isn’t important. What the guy told me was weird.”
    “Does the guy have a name?”
    “Yeah.” Gabriel shrugged. “I have it written down somewhere.”
    Denne picked up his fork and pushed the rice around. It seemed like his appetite was gone. “So he saw her.”
    “And two others. They attacked his car one night.”
    “Attacked?”
    “His word. I got the sense he was covering something up. He said that was the beginning, and they’ve harassed him ever since. He said he was happy to see one dead.”
    Denne pushed the rice so that it lined the edges of his plate. “I trust you asked him what he meant by
harassed.”
    “He said they came into his house at night, and then he blushed. I thought that part was weird. He said that they left seaweed trails and sand, and sometimes they left sucker marks on the outside of the windows.”
    “Sucker marks?” Denne said.
    “She didn’t have suckers?”
    “Not like an octopus.” Denne frowned. “I don’t recall seeing anything like that at all.”
    “You’re telling me he’s making all this up?”
    “No. I’m not saying anything of the sort. I haven’t finished examining that body. I just did a cursory, looking for cause of death. I’m going to have to do much more, obviously.”
    “You believe him then, even though you didn’t findanything to make the marks?” Gabriel didn’t understand what Denne was getting at.
    “Just keep going.”
    “He said that these women were driving him crazy. He couldn’t sleep because they sang so loudly, and if he did sleep, he’d wake up on the beach, and they’d be there. He said he hoped her death meant he was done with them for good now.”
    Denne nodded.
    Gabriel picked up his burger. A slice of bacon fell off the side and into the pile of guacamole. The bun squished between his fingers, and he took a bite before everything slid off.
    Denne still hadn’t eaten any of his meal.
    Gabriel finished the burger in four quick bites, knowing he would probably regret that later. Then he wiped off his fingers.
    “Tell me what I should think of this guy,” Gabriel said. “His story sure made you quiet.”
    “What do you think of him?” Denne asked as if he were a shrink, unwilling to express his own opinion for fear it would taint Gabriel’s.
    “I don’t know what to think of his story, but his emotions are consistent with someone who’s being harassed. He’s nervous and confused and angry, and he’s pleased that she’s dead. I would expect all of that.”
    “But?”
    Gabriel gave Denne a sideways look. Denne was always too