Page 24 of Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters
“It wasn’t a freaking alligator. That’s what it looked like,” she said sullenly.
“Not an alligator is a little broad,” Vikash said in his same even tone, but Kyle saw the little twitch of his eyebrow. “About how big would you estimate?”
“It was huge. Just…huge.”
Kyle matched his voice to Vikash’s, calm and reasonable, though he wanted to shake her. “Can you give us a comparison? As big as…”
“A taxicab. The monster was as big as a taxi.”
“Good. That’s a good start. Now I know it was dark, but what could you make out? Feet? Head?”
She finally abandoned the pizza. “It all happened so fast. It lunged at me. I screamed. Colin shoved me behind him, like he could do anything, the stupid jerk. And it bit him. Crunched right into his leg. He was screaming. I was screaming. I was holding on to him hard as I could ’cause thatthingwas trying to pull him into the river.”
“All right. Deep breath. It must’ve been scary as hell. But anything you can remember about it might help. We can’t let this thing run around loose. You say it bit Colin? So it had teeth?”
“No, it…it didn’t. I don’t know, maybe. But I didn’t see teeth. It was more like…like a beak. Like a parrot has or something, right?”
Vikash’s pen froze a moment at this surprising bit of information, but he picked right up again. Unflappable, was that the word?
“You’re doing great, Caitlin. What else can you tell us?”
“It had these huge claws.”
Now Vikash did stop writing, lifting his eyes without moving his head. “Do you remember seeing how many?”
“Four on each foot. These big, pizza-size feet.”
Kyle exchanged a glance with his partner. He was sure Vikash didn’t believe in coincidence any more than he did. “Anything else you remember? Anything at all. There’s nothing we’re going to think is silly or unimportant.”
“You’re gonna think this is stupid…”
“Whatever you remember. This thing tried to kill Colin. Anything you tell us might help.”
“When Officer Stuckup came flying down the path with his partner and flashlights, the thing let go. I think the lights startled it or something. And it’s sliding back into the water, right? And I couldn’t help thinking it looked like that Godzilla movie monster.”
“It looked like Godzilla?”
“No, like one of the other ones.” She clicked her tongue in frustration. “And not, you know, Rodan. The one that looked like a turtle.”
“Gamera?” Vikash supplied.
“Yeah! That’s it! It looked like Gamera. Kind of.”
After a few more questions, they left Caitlin with the pizza and Kyle pulled his partner back into the squad room where Loveless was drinking from an opaque, plastic-covered cup. Never a good thing to think too hard about what everyone knew was in there. Zacchini sat typing at her computer.
“Carr? Were you close enough to see much? Amanda?”
Loveless shook his head. “I saw something big sliding into the water. Couldn’t make much out beyond size.”
“I was a few yards behind. You know how fast Carr can move when it’s dark.” Zacchini shook her head. “What I saw afterward? Just murky impressions. Something big moving downriver underwater. It felt, I don’t know, angry? What’s that word that sounds like Maleficent, Carr?”
“Malevolent,” Loveless said with a sigh.
“Yeah, that.”
A clatter interrupted them, followed by Edgar screaming, “Go fuck a lamppost!”
“Shh, Edgar. You have five pens left. Chill. All right, I think we’ve gotten everything we could here. I want to go talk to the kid at St. Joseph’s if we can,” Kyle said as he made the wide berth around Amanda and Carrington to get to the front hall. “Sounds like you saved those kids, Carr. But maybe let Amanda wrap up for you.”
