Page 57 of The Mermaid Murder

Jen drove her ancient Ford Bronco with the windows down, possibly to cool my rage. The wind was good, cool, and tasted like spring. The red haze cleared from my vision and we drove awhile in silence.

“Nice car,” I said at length. “Mason’s into the classics.”

“Me, too,” Jen replied. “Even my everyday ride’s an old Crown Vic. Trunk the size of a small garage.”

“Nice.”

We fell silent for a few miles. Eventually, she said, “So what did you make of Eva’s body?”

“We barely had time to look at her before we heard about Chri—Misty.”

“You called her Christy in the hospital, too.”

I averted my eyes. She was a good cop. “Mind’s the first thing to go.”

“I looked Misty up, you know.”

“No, I don’t know. On what grounds?”

“Routine background on her podcasting roommate. It’s obvious she’s working with her. So I know she has a twin. I’m pretty sure that’s Christy in that hospital room and that she’s covering for Misty in her mermaid duties.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because I spoke to Misty at the club a couple of days ago. But when I approached her in the hospital, she’d clearly never seen me before.”

“Head injury,” I muttered.

“Oh, come on. Where the heck is Misty?”

I met her eyes, so she wouldn’t think I was lying once I thought up a lie.

“Oh, wait. That’s what you’re here trying to find out, isn’t it? Is your other niece missing?”

I had been trying to read her ever since we’d got into the car together. Even leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes. But there was nothing. It was like that with Mason, too. Maybe it was a cop thing. Except I had no problem picking up emotions and stray thoughts from Mason’s partner Rosie, or Chief V. Maybe it was only a certain cop thing.

I sighed away my resistance. “She took off for the weekend and didn’t tell us why. Her mother is worried. So yeah, we came to verify she’s okay. Just to ease my sister’s mind.”

“And have you?”

My brain warred between telling her so we could get some official eyes looking for Misty, and keeping my mouth shut so my niece wouldn’t hate my guts when she got back.

“She’s fine. Boyfriend problems.” I made a face. “Nothing dangerous, though.”

“Thank god. I was worried for a minute.” She turned off the highway.

“Us, too.”

“So when we get to the club,” Detective Scott said, then stopped and started over. “I want to kick ass and take names as bad as you do. But I also want the truth. And I just…” She shook her head rapidly, like a dog trying to shake a flea. “I missed something. I need to start this whole case over. Go back to the beginning.” She took another turn. We’d be at the club in five minutes.

“How the hell does Eva look the same age?” I asked. “How has her body not decomposed?”

“I don’t know,” she said. She glanced sideways at me. I decided I liked her. “I’m hoping Sharpie can tell us that, tonight.”

“Sharpie. Cute.”

“She’s good. Albany’s her home base. I put in a request for her as soon as I found the body.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You found the body?”

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