Read Online Murder Hooks a Mermaid by Christy Fifield - Free Book Online Page B

him promise to split the check. Mermaid’s Grotto was a tourist place, with prices to match.
    LIKE MANY TOURIST RESTAURANTS IN resort towns, the Grotto didn’t have much of a dress code. Jeans were fine, and chinos were considered dressed up, and the Friday-night crowd in the restaurant wasn’t exactly fashion forward. Which meant I fit right in.
    Mermaid’s Grotto was a throwback to another era, and I watched Jake’s eyes widen when we walked in. I had to admit, if I hadn’t seen it before, the giant fish tank would have been overwhelming. Even knowing it was there, it was still pretty amazing.
    “There really were mermaids here, once upon a time,” I told Jake, after we were seated in the dining room. “There was an underwater show with mermaids swimming in the tank.”
    Jake stared at the giant tank that formed a wall between the bar and the dining room. “They swam in there?” he asked.
    I nodded. “They used a system of air hoses that let them breathe underwater. That way they could stay down through the whole show, without having to use respirators or tanks or anything.”
    “How long ago was that?”
    “Well, I remember coming here a couple times when I was a little kid. Really little, like three or four. I thought the mermaids were the most beautiful things I had ever seen, and I remember telling my dad he was a liar when he told me they were real people.”
    I reddened a little at the memory. My parents usually didn’t allow such back talk, but that one time my dad had just laughed and let it pass—which was probably why I remembered it so clearly.
    Jake chuckled. “So you’ve always had strong opinions, eh?”
    “I guess so. I also told him I was going to grow a tail so I could be a mermaid.” I glanced at the tank, then back at Jake. “Which wasn’t such a great idea, since at the time I couldn’t even swim.”
    “But you lived here, right by the beach. You must have learned.”
    “I did, once I had some incentive. I spent that entire summer and the year after that practicing holding my breath underwater. Got pretty good at it, too. But by thenthey’d closed the show, and I couldn’t see much future as a mermaid.
    “I understand there is still a show somewhere down south, Weeki Wachee Springs, maybe. But I think I’m over my dreams of being a mermaid.”
    The waitress arrived to take our orders, and I stopped to take a quick look at the menu. The prices were even higher than I remembered, but I managed to find a salad I could shoehorn into my budget without too much pain.
    After she left, Jake gave me an appraising look, a grin playing around the corners of his mouth. “And that was when you were three or four? So the mermaid show’s been gone, what? Maybe twenty years?”
    “Oh, please!” I took a sip from my water and laughed. “More like thirty years. Sometimes I’m amazed that they’ve kept this place going that long!”
    “They look pretty busy.” Jake glanced around with the shrewd assessment all local businesspeople seemed to make on a daily basis, judging the number of paying customers and how much they appeared to be spending.
    I followed his gaze. There were several families in the dining room. Judging by the frazzled looks on the adults’ faces, I would guess most of them had driven down that afternoon and were looking forward to getting the kids fed and in bed for the night.
    On the other side of the giant tank, a decent crowd was starting to fill the bar. Most of them were clearly tourists, their brightly colored Hawaiian shirts and deck shoes without socks advertising how cool they thought they were.
    Jake caught my eye and winked slowly. “Yes, I do think we’re the only locals in here,” he said. “But you can blame it on me; you had to show me the historical sights.”
    “It really is a piece of Keyhole Bay history. The restaurant’s been here since the forties, at least. Maybe longer. You know, you have a section of local histories in your store,” I