Chapter 32

The Mermaid of Luna Lake

Ben Gardner sat at his desk, poring over the daily reports. To his side was a small cup of coffee, half-empty. The papers on his desk detailed the numbers of crashes in the county, the levels of gang activities in the town, and information on the rising costs of bullets and gas, plus maintenance for the cars. Ben worked industriously on it, the office filled only with the sound of pen scratches. Ben kept his gaze focused on the pages in front of him, assiduously keeping them from straying to the manila folder at the bottom. No one else had laid eyes on the content of that folder. He dared trust no one else with the secret of its contents. He knew them all by heart. It detailed all the information he had managed to collect, all the forensics gained from his murdered parents' farm, autopsy reports. Everything. The only difference between that folder and the official ones was the reports and search for The Enchanted Threads, reports of the transformation Sylvie and Taryn suffered, and everything he could gather on Nightshade and his operations. It was a rather thick file. And still so useless.

Ben didn't want to let himself think about how long there had been no word. It had been more than six months, and not even a blip. There was every indication that he had gone into deep cover with the girls, and would not be ready to make his reappearance until he was good and ready. Whether that was another six months from now or longer, Ben wasn't sure. It couldn't be all that long, or the cost of running the show would bankrupt him. Ben's biggest fear was that Nightshade had taken the girls to a foreign country, one without deportation. It was one of his private nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares. "Sir, the mayor is here to see you." Came the voice of his secretary.

"Thank you Anna." Ben sighed. "Please send him in." Really, these daily visits were starting to become painful. Something would have to be done.

The mayor walked into the office with the gait of an old, old man. His hair had turned grey since the day of his daughter's kidnapping. His skin seemed to sag around his bones, and his eyes had lost their luster. He seemed to have aged fifty years instead of just half of one.

"Hello Greg." He said gently. The poor guy's psyche had grown pretty fragile with no word. Greg was, or had been really, a man of action. Great when a target came his way and he could hit it, but terrible at waiting. And with no real leads besides the totally untraceable money deposits (the kid was still working on them, but Ben didn't have high hopes anymore), it had settled into a terrible waiting game.  The longer the game stretched out, the bigger a toll it had taken on Greg and his wife. Ben knew Anna had been handling most of the domestic chores and helping Mary as best she could, as well as somehow managing to keep her job. The last time Ben had seen her, she had looked haggard and puffy-eyed. Greg had told him that she stayed up most nights in Sylvie's room, sobbing. So far the excuse that the girls were off visiting relatives was holding, but it wasn't going to last much longer.

"Hello, Ben." Said Greg, sounding just exhausted. He practically fell into the chair. "Any word yet?"

At Ben's shake of his head, Greg groaned and rubbed one hand across his face. Ben couldn't help but notice thick stubble that his hand rasped over, though he was usually clean-shaven. It wasn't a good sign. If a man had given up the basics of self-grooming, it was because he was nearing his breaking point.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He's probably in China now, for all I know. I double we could get him deported back to us."

Ben snorted. "Him they could keep. It would be the girls we want back."

A ghost of a smile flitted across Greg's face. "China would insist on war if we made them keep Nightshade."

Ben fixed a grin on his face. He knew it was forced, but he wanted to make sure that Greg didn't go over the deep end. Christ, how do you keep someone from going insane?

A sudden buzz on his intercom saved him. Snatching up the receiver, he barked out a reprimand that he was in conference with the mayor. His secretary was unimpressed, and informed him that a local fisherman had found something near the edge of the lake.

"What do you mean, something?" Ben asked slowly. Across the table, Greg looked up frowning.

"Just what I said sir." His secretary said testily. What was it with women and being testy this morning? "The fisherman said he found something truly strange, and wanted to tell it to you direct. Wouldn't even take a patrolman into his confidence. Said you had told him to report directly to you if he found something."

"Yes, yes, I remember giving that order." Ben said distractedly. It had to be Bill Flintlock. He had lived near the edge of the lake since Ben had been a boy. He had asked him months ago when that Megan kid had gone missing to keep an eye out on the lake for any sign of anything out of the ordinary. Apparently, Bill had found something. But what could it be? There was only one way to find out.

"Tell Bill I will be on my way soon."

There was a startled sound on the other sign of the line. "Sir?" She said slowly. "I never gave you his name. How did..? Of course." She said briskly, adding it up. "You instructed him. I see. Very good sir. I will let him know directly." She hung up the phone and Ben made to get up.

"Something come up?" Greg asked anxiously.

"Not sure." Ben replied absentmindedly. Where did I put those dang keys again? "Could be something related. At least to the guy that sold those costumes."

Ben continued searching for his keys, unaware of how quiet it was. Ben finally spotted them gleaming under a pile of maintenance reports. Snatching them up, he reached for his coat and turned around to go before leaping back with a startled curse. Greg was standing right there behind him, having come up behind him pretty damn quietly. Ben raised his head to ask just what he thought he was doing when he locked gazes with his eyes. They had gone from lusterless to burning hot, searing a hole through Ben. He stepped back unconsciously, scrabbling for his sidearm. Stop that, he scolded himself. This was Greg, after all.

"What did you say?" The voice sounded like a knife being drawn from the sheath, if the knife were frozen ice that is. Ben had forgotten how cold Greg's anger tended to be, and he shivered as if it were directed at him.

"I said, I may have a lead on the guy that sold those costumes to Sylvie and Taryn." Ben croaked out. Pausing a moment to gulp, he forced his hands to stay loose and relaxed at his sides and made his voice come out even. "There was a report around the time of Sylvie and Taryn's disappearance of another girl that had disappeared in much the same manner. Roommate said she was going to pick up a costume for an office party back in New York. She was supposed to be up here visiting relatives I guess. We found her car at the edge of the lake in an old fishing shanty. Used to be a lakeside baitshop. Same MO. Clothes ripped on the Ground, footprints in, no footprints out. There was a trapdoor that looks as if something had gone through. CSI couldn't find anything there though."

Greg looked thoughtful. "You think he turned her into something water-friendly, like a selkie?" He asked.

What on earth was a selkie? Ben wasn't sure, but wasn't about to ask. "No, a mermaid actually. At least, that was the costume that the other girl, Cindy, said she was going for."

Greg nodded. He seemed animated, his eyes merely intense now, his face less lined. "Need an extra set of eyeballs?" He asked eagerly. Ben understood; he was finally able to DO SOMETHING. Something that would be able to help his daughter.

"Sure." Ben said.

Bill's place was tucked into a grove of maple trees a short distance from the lake. The mobile home was modest, painted a deep grey color, with well-tended flowerbeds making a riot of color in front of the house. Ben parked his squadcar in front of a beat-up white and tan jeep pickup that Bill used to get to the lake and back with the thirty-two foot bass boat the old man had sunk his fortune into. It sat gleaming on one side of the house, under a special garage the man had set aside for it. The boat was evidently ready for a trip to the lake, because it had nets of every shape and description being stowed by a barrel chested man with a salt-and pepper beard trimmed short and a bushy mustache. He glanced up from his work as they pulled in, and then hopped off the boat to meet them.

"Any trouble, Bill?" Ben asked, running an eye over everything.

"Unless you count fish stocks low, and strange going ons." Bill responded sourly.

Ben went on point. Beside him, he could feel Greg quivering with suppressed excitement. "What kind of strange going-ons?" he asked slowly. Best not to get hopes up just yet.

"Well, two ice fishermen this past winter, swear they saw a huge shadow underwater after their tent crashed through a hole. The two were in their cups down at Kelly's when I heard them, but they swear that the shadow was part human. And then a pair of boat fisherman last fall, tell me they heard singing out on the lake. Thought it might be someone who lived on the lake." Bill growled. "Ain't no one on this lake but Old Agatha and her niece, and both of them sound like bullfrogs. This one was mesmerizing they said!"

Ben and Greg exchanged glances. This sounded promising; a half-human shadow in the ice, and weren't mermaids or sirens supposed to be great singers?

"Anyway, I wouldn't have bothered you except…" He hesitated, losing his normally dour expression and appearing unsure. He was uncomfortable about something, that was for sure. Bill was never unsure about anything as far back as Ben had known him. "Go on." He prodded.

"Well, I was on the shore with my glass when I spotted something on one of the big rocks near the far shore. It's pretty much deserted forest land out there, but sometimes the kids head out for a swim. So, I thought one of them had climbed onto the rock. I put the glass up to my face, and there she was; bold as brass. The actual Mermaid of Luna Lake."

"The what?!" Greg exclaimed, clearly incredulous. So was Ben for that matter, The Mermaid of Luna Lake? When had she acquired that title, and how?

Bill had the good sense to look a little embarrassed, but he lowered his head a bit aggressively and stuck out his chin. "Just what I said. The Mermaid of Luna Lake. I had discounted the stories too, when I started hearing them last winter, but I swear on my mother's grave, it's true."

"What stories?" Greg asked curiously.

"Well, there was a story from the Johnson's daughter, Laura? She claimed she was rescued by the mermaid of Luna Lake, overheard her telling her friends. Apparently the mermaid had asked her not to tell anyone, but after overhearing someone else talking about it, and hearing her friends disbelieving it, she decided to tell them the truth. Then there were some hikers that came up here a couple of months ago. Swear they saw her on that rock out there, it's gotten the name Mermaid Rock now by the way, singing some sad lament. Claim they couldn't stop crying until the tune stopped. Then another fisherman that fell into the water claims he was rescued by the Mermaid out near the river mouth. Says he was sure he was going over the falls when he felt her grab his hand and tow him into calmer water. Left him there to swim to shore. The stories go on. Many are fake of course. I'm not sure about the fisherman and the river one myself, but I'd be prepared to swear the little girl's tale and the story of the hikers is true."

Greg seemed stunned, and Ben sympathized. He felt poleaxed. This girl had apparently become a local celebrity. It did not seem possible, but there it was.

"Well." He said more to break the silence than to give instruction. He wished Greg would stop gaping like a…well, like a fish. It was distracting. "We want to check this out. Can you take us to Mermaid Rock?"

Bill nodded. "I can take ya, but we'll want to get started. She doesn't seem to come that often, but we might get lucky. Come on." With that the old man went to get some warm clothes. They all pushed the boat back into the garage and set off in Bill's Jeep to the far shore. It was about an hour's drive, and the cab was totally silent. Not even the radio worked, and no one felt like starting a conversation. Ben kept turning the situation over in his mind, and found it as dark and confusing as before.

At Mermaid Rock, Ben was surprised to see several lake people already gathered, hiding in the bushes with everything from camera phones to expensive rigs, all focused on the rock. He turned to Bill in surprise. He shrugged at Ben's demand to know what was going on. "They's here to take a picture of the Mermaid. Most are townsfolk, but several are from out-of-town. Some of those fools have hired people to take them out in boats to find her, and several have offered a huge sum of money to net her. Those nets you saw me taking up in my boat? Those are some of the loose ones I collected this morning. I'm getting a lot of salvage money cleaning up after these jokers." Surprisingly, he did not look happy at that, and spat in the direction of one of the rigs.

Ben shook his head. "Well, I doubt she'll how up at this rock anymore. With this many people, there's no way she would come up. I'll have to start chasing them away." He said resignedly. Of course, every one of them had to complain and say they had every right being there. To which Ben asked to see their park passes, lakeshore permits, etc. None of the people from out of town had one, and bitterly packed up their things, stalking away. The actual residents were a bit harder to talk too, as they lived on the lake, but they admitted that they didn't have passes, and maybe it was better that no one got a shot of the Legend of the Lake anyway. She probably wanted privacy, after all. Poor thing. Yes, yes, it was all terrible and she must want to be alone, please hurry on your way. After about an hour, he had most people cleared out and the rest were getting ready to leave.

"Tomorrow, we'll go out on your boat and see if we can find her." Ben said slowly, watching the last of them leave. "And then I'll ask her some questions. If necessary, I'll have some of my boys up here in the boats, clearing them off the lake. I think there's an old ordinance that forbids drift nets and other nets on the lake."

"If there isn't." Greg growled. "I'll make one. Heaven help me if I let some poor girl get netted and dragged into the spot light like some freak!" His vehemence was enough to raise Bill's eyebrows to the top of his skull, so Ben though he needed to diffuse the situation and get them out of there soon.

"It can't hurt to take another pass and make sure we have everyone." He said, changing his mind with his mouth open. He could feel the surprise of the others, not to mention his own, but his gut was telling him to do so, and he would go with his gut on this.

They split up and began making sure that everyone had gone home. The boats Ben had shouted at earlier had left already, and the lake was as calm as glass. The sun had dropped down, and now only twilight remained. He was glad he had packed his flashlight, getting out of here back to the truck would be nearly impossible this time of night without it. None of those other idiots had one. Ben couldn't imagine what they were thinking. Well, he wasn't going to be caught out here at night! It was time to be done with this and go home.

A beautiful song suddenly filled the air, and Ben froze. He turned to the water, for that is where it sounded the loudest, yet he dared not move unless the spell was broken. The song was sweet and pure, filling the heavens with their beauty, and he found himself hoping it would never end. He was only just able to make himself here the words instead of just the voice, and listen to how the song ran:

I thank you stranger for what you've done,
You have gone and made them run.
I now will sing, so you can hear
That you have nothing to fear

Listen to me for a moment, for that is all I'll spare
You've been searching for me, that much I can tell,
The question is why?
The question is why?

I have not stood among you in so long,
I can only remember that time with song,
Filled with sorrow, pain and fear,
Now I am free!

So why do you chase me so?
Seek to net me, take me so?
Can I not, live in peace?
I wish this hunt, it would cease.

But you don't seem, to hunt for fame,
So I wonder why you came,
Searching for me?
Searching…for…me?

On the last line, she emphasized each word, and ended with a high note that ended it perfectly. Ben was dazed; he had never heard a song so beautiful in his entire life. In the far gloom, he could see Greg and what had to be Bill standing in a clearing, frozen like statues. Giving himself a mental shake, Ben set to gather what wits remained about him.

"I was looking for a missing person, first name Megan. I knew she had disappeared at the lake, and I wondered if her disappearance might have had something to do with a certain…costume shop."

Silence. Ben began to sweat. If she fled now, he would never find her. The lake was her home, and she knew how to hide in it well. Crickets sang in the night, and somewhere a frog croaked. Ben feared that she had left when she spoke again. "Come down near the water." The voice was soft, and still wonderful to hear. Hastily, he made his way down to the waters edge.

A shadow broke the surface of the water in front of him, the head of a very pretty young woman appearing in front of him, shrouded in twilight. With a curse, Ben grabbed his flash light and turned it on. The girl shied away from the light, hissing in pain, and Ben quickly angled the light so it shone on her body, then on the water, face burning. Apparently, there hadn't been much to cover herself up with down there.

Ben could feel her scrutiny on him, and forced himself to meet her eyes. A man could be safe just staring at a face, and not seeing…anything else. He fought an urge to look down. Her face was…unusual. It was surprisingly human, with strange eyes with too-wide pupils, like those he found on manga's or Japanese comics in the store downtown when he was investigating shoplifting there. Their color seemed a little…off, although that could just be a trick of the light. Her brown hair was very long, but surprisingly soft-looking and clean. Idly, Ben wondered what she had been using on it when she spoke again.

"I haven't used my name in quite some time." Her eyes seemed tinged with sadness for a moment. "I've forgotten a lot of things from my old life, it seems." They snapped back up and locked on his once more, "But I remember that trickster from the comic shop. A wizened old man that seemed so very friendly, very helpful. I said I wanted a mermaid costume for my friend, as real as I could get. He said he had one special in the back, and then he brought it out. It was so lovely, I just couldn't resist, see?" She twisted around and lifted her tail out of the water. In his light, it flashed and glittered like jewels. "But when I tried it on," she continued, putting her tail back in the water, "I found the zipper had fallen off, and a great pain overtook me. I transformed into a mermaid. I was so frightened, I came out of the dressing room to find the shack deserted, abandoned for a long time, save for a banner which proclaimed No Returns!"

"But why didn't you stay to be found?" Ben half asked. He was afraid he knew the answer, no one had come quickly, and she had fled in fear.

"The water called me." She shrugged. "I needed it. I found an old trapdoor, and crawled through. I found a home in the lake, called it my own. Within days, I…had moved in to my life." Her eyes sharpened even more, if possible. "Don't pity me! I am happy here. I have more freedom than ever before. I don't want for anything, and the world has forgotten me."

Ben nodded. It seemed the transformation on her had been more sudden, and more permanent. Perhaps as a matter of necessity?

A frown slid over her face. "You are unsurprised by my story, and you already knew what you were looking for? How?" A moment later she nodded grimly. "I'm not the only one he has caught, am I?"

"No." Ben said grimly. "The mayor's daughter and her friend were turned into centaurs a day or so before you were. A couple of other unexplained disappearances have happened as well. I don't know if it's him or not, but any information is useful. They have been centaurs a long time. I wonder…" he trailed off, thinking.

"Centaurs?" Megan said thoughtfully. "I would remember seeing any of those. And I don't remember that!"

Ben nodded. "I'll do what I can for you. Netting is being considered illegal now, but there's no way we can keep them off the water or shore."

Megan shrugged. "It's nothing. I can remain hidden and stay very deep. I just like to come out and sing, it reminds me of old days, and it comforts and soothes me. I can easily remain hidden from most people. All I want is my life to remain undisturbed, now."

Ben nodded slowly. "I think I understand. Before I go, I think you should now, your friend Cindy is in town."

Megan's eyes opened wide. "Cindy?" she whispered in shock.

Ben shrugged. "I assume so. My secretary says she is at any rate. I personally haven't seen her, but she has been coming every other weekend and conducting her own search. I think she's worried sick about you."

Megan nodded and surprisingly, tears were in her eyes. "I never realized…" she whispered. "Would you… could you tell her I'm all right?"

Ben shook his head. "You're a missing person, remember? I wouldn't have had contact with you if you weren't. No. But maybe you can." Ben spent a few minutes talking quietly with her before leaving. Behind him, he could hear her splash softly away. A moment, a sorrowful song rose from the shore, so sad it seemed the rocks wept from her pain.

"Everything all right?" whispered Greg as they walked slowly away.

"It will be, soon enough." Ben whispered back. Bill said nothing, and together they left the lakeshore, and the Mermaid of Luna Lake behind.