Surfacing, page 7
part #4 of Mermaid Tales Series
It had been over two weeks now since he’d come ashore, and all he’d gotten from Verona were arguments and glares of discontent. She wasn’t happy that he had followed her ashore. And the longer he stayed on land, the more certain he became that there was no convincing her to go back to the sea with him. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched as the sun continued to pull up over the horizon. He wouldn’t give up. He needed to find a way to get her to see the logic behind what he offered her. If not, then he’d need to figure out a way to use her excessive emotions to pull her over to his side.
Logan
Before they’d even finished eating breakfast the next morning, Alex knocked at the door. Logan went to answer it and found the shaggy surfer-nerd standing just inside the foyer. He offered a chagrined smile. “I didn’t want to let myself in all the way.”
Benji jumped up at his legs in greeting. Logan shook his head and waved him into the kitchen. “No problem. Let yourself in.”
With a nod, Alex came in the rest of the way and headed straight into the kitchen, finding himself a biscuit and putting a couple slices of bacon on it after adding butter and jelly. He moaned with his first bite and then set his sandwich down on the plate. “There’s been another attack. And this time the witness is alive, so we’re sure it’s a wolf.”
Logan’s fork rattled against his plate as he dropped it. His stomach twisted. “What?”
All eyes were on Alex. He poked at his biscuit. “Mr. Dodson, the old man who owns the convenience store, was closing up late last night after stocking his shelves. On his way to his car, he heard a scuffle behind him and turned around in time to see a big black and gray wolf running at him. He ran to his car, barely making it inside, but the wolf scratched down his calf before he closed the door. Ripped his pants leg and gave him a deep gash. Mr. Dodson sat in his car, bleeding, while he dialed my dad on his cell phone. He’s lucky to be alive apparently.”
“Mr. Dodson?” Logan suddenly felt lightheaded. He pictured the old man he’d seen last night in his mind. He could almost see the scene that Alex described as though it happened in a dream. It gave him the distinct feeling of deja vu. He swallowed hard.
Alex lifted a brow at him as he took a bite of his sandwich. “Yeah, you know him?”
Logan shook his head. “I went to the convenience store last night when I took a walk. I just saw him.”
Slowly, Alex nodded and finished chewing his biscuit before he said, “It’s hard when incidents happen on the island. Our population is just a little under three thousand, so even if you don’t know a victim, you know someone who does.”
“That’s really awful to think about things that way,” Mama Wend said as she held a cup of coffee to her chest. “Your father really does have a difficult job.”
Alex shrugged as he popped the last bite into his mouth and barely chewed before swallowing. “Usually violent crimes are rare. When the tourists are in town, things are a bit harder for him, but even then, it’s just breaking up fights or dealing with drunk people at one of the bars. Chincoteague is a quiet town.”
Verona stood and took some of the plates to wash and put away the leftover biscuits into the fridge. Her pale face and wide eyes worried Logan. He wondered if she recalled the incident they’d had with a wolf a couple weeks ago. But that wolf hadn’t been randomly attacking people on the island. It had been hunting specifically for her. Then Logan’s gaze slipped to Bailey. Could the new wolf be after him? And if it was, why would it have attacked Mr. Crenshaw and Mr. Dodson?
It didn’t make any sense.
Once everyone had gotten ready for the day, it was almost nine a.m. when they started the drive to the Crab Shack. Everyone piled into the van, since they had enough room to make it the three miles down the road to the Shack. Tourists milled about on the public beach already, and the sun had started heating up the air. July was a tough time to endure the heat at mid-day, so it was smart of the tourists to get their beach time in early.
The first thing Logan did upon entering the restaurant was turn up the air conditioner. Overnight, they set it at seventy-eight, knowing it was a bit hot for most, but it would save them electricity on the bill when it came around to not keep the place too cool overnight. Once they arrived, he set it at sixty-six. A little too cool for most people, but it helped make the crowds comfortable when they piled in for the lunch rush.
Whoever said time flies when you’re having fun, forgot to mention that it flies almost as fast when you’re very busy. Before Logan even noticed, the crowd died down, signaling it was close to the end of the day. He peered at the clock and realized they had only a half hour left before they’d be turning the sign on the door to closed. The bell over the door rang, signaling the entrance of more customers. A party of six entered in and Logan pasted on his usual customer-service smile. “Welcome to the Shack. Give me just a moment and we’ll push some tables together for you. How many are in your party?”
“Five,” the guy answered and gave him a him a quick nod.
For a second, confusion flickered over him as he thought he’d counted six. Then he saw that the gentleman standing at the back of the crowd wasn’t dressed in beach clothes like the others. Then Logan frowned. There was something familiar about the mustached man, but Logan didn’t have time to stop and stare and figure it out. Instead, he called out to the single man, “Have a seat anywhere you like, sir. I’ll be with you in just a moment.”
Then he waved over to Alex, who stared at the man with the mustache as he rushed over to help Logan push together two tables for the larger party. He leaned in toward Logan. “That’s Bryce’s dad. The mayor.”
A bit of tension ran across Logan’s shoulders as he remembered the look of disdain on the man’s face when he’d stood on the yacht above their boat. The just-ate-a-sour-lemon look hadn’t really seemed to have left the man’s features since that day, considering it was the look on his face even now. Logan glanced in the direction of the man who’d chosen to sit at the bar. The man’s narrow gaze had been fixed on Logan and only slipped past him when Mama Wend said, “Mayor West, welcome to the Shack. To what do we owe the pleasure.”
The mayor’s sour lemon face instantly changed to one with a wide smile as he leaned in toward her. “I decided to give your she-crab soup a try. I’ve been hearing all about how wonderful it is from my staff.”
Mama Wend had a tight-lipped smile on her face, and tension made the wrinkles around her eyes more pronounced. Logan frowned. He remembered that Mama Wend had warned him to steer clear of the mayor and his family. Was there history there? Maybe she knew something about them that he didn’t... maybe she knew something that most didn’t.
Alex’s elbow poked him in the side. He nodded toward the two tables they’d pushed together once he’d gotten Logan’s attention. “Don’t they need menus?”
Logan blinked and nodded. “Oh, yeah.”
He headed over to the bar where the mayor sat. The man’s spine stiffened as Logan approached. He sniffed and that sour-lemon look returned to his face momentarily before it slipped back into a relaxed smile that Logan would attribute to a used car salesman. Logan tried to keep his distance from the man, so rather than leaning past him, he slipped behind the bar to grab the menus sitting next to the cash register. He avoided eye contact with the mayor.
The entire time Mayor West was there for lunch Logan noticed several things that made his visit odd. First was that Mama Wend was hostile but civil to the guy. She’d never been hostile to anyone as far back as Logan could remember, especially not a customer in the restaurant. Secondly, the man seemed to spend a little too much time studying Logan. The hairs on the back of Logan’s neck kept standing on end and when he’d peer over at the mayor, he’d find the man looking at him and then slipping his gaze away. And thirdly, and most disturbing for Logan, was the way the man seemed much too familiar. It wasn’t just that there was an occasional resemblance to Bryce or the fact that Logan had seen him that day when they were fishing. He felt as if he knew the guy, that they were more familiar with each other than the one chance meeting. And, frankly, Logan was with Mama Wend—he didn’t like the mayor.
Logan let Alex wait on the mayor while both of them took care of the five-top and the two other small tables that remained until closing. Once the clock struck two o’clock, Mama Wend nodded at Logan and he stepped over and put the closed sign up on the door. Just as he flipped the sign, the door pulled open, and Sheriff Masters stepped in, hat in hand. “Afternoon, Logan. Is the mayor here?”
After stepping to the side, Logan made a gesture toward the bar, “I believe he’s finishing up his soup.”
The five-top stepped up to the cash register then and paid their bill. Over the next half hour, the restaurant emptied out of customers except for the sheriff and the mayor. Mama Wend set a bowl in front of the sheriff soon after he sat down at the bar. The sheriff smiled and nodded his thanks to her. Then he leaned in toward the Mayor. “I’m sure that you’ve heard about the incidents that we’ve been dealing with this week?”
The mayor set his spoon down into his empty bowl and then wiped his face with his napkin before leaning back in his stool. “Wild animal attacks, I hear. What are you all doing about it? Are you setting out traps?”
The sheriff frowned. “We’ve got traps out, but they are for predators that are coyote size or smaller. There aren’t any big enough to accommodate a wolf, which, after Mr. Dodson’s attack last night, we’re pretty sure we’re dealing with here.”
A scoff escaped the mayor’s lips as he lifted a brow. “How could a wolf possibly go unnoticed on our little island. Outside of Dodson’s supposed testimony today, no one has spotted one, right? We all know that he tends toward exaggeration, don’t we?”
“I would feel the same, except that we already shot that wolf on the island a couple weeks ago. And wolves don’t always tend to be alone. They tend to run in packs.” The sheriff said around a spoonful of his soup.
The mayor shrugged. “A lone incident doesn’t necessarily make for a pattern.”
“That much is true, but I think it’s best to take things at face value until there’s evidence to prove otherwise.” He worked on the last bit of soup in his bowl, remaining calm even though the conversation was full of tension.
A frown tugged at the mayor’s lip. “What plan of action do you have for this situation, then? Hunting parties?”
The sheriff pushed aside the bowl and nodded. “Pretty much. This thing is tending to hunt only at night, so we’ll start patrolling a bit harder in the areas of town that it seems to frequent. Also, I’ll be needing to hire a few extra deputies.”
As he stood, the mayor’s frown deepened. “Great. Just don’t go arming every Tom, Dick, and Harry. We don’t want amateurs shooting people’s dogs, or worse yet, a human because they’re trigger happy fools. And try to keep this under wraps, all right? We also don’t need for the tourists to get wind of this, got it?”
“Of course,” the sheriff said as he stood.
The two of them paid Mama Wend, who stood at the register, but Logan didn’t fail to catch the last smirk that hit him just before the mayor slipped out the door. His stomach twisted, and the voice at the back of his mind tugged harder than it had during the day before. A sudden flash of pain through his head accompanied it, amplified when his head hit the table, and the last thing he remembered was the floor getting closer and someone shouting just before he blacked out.
11
Verona
Alex rushed out the front door to catch the sheriff immediately while Verona and Mama Wend collapsed next to Logan. His forehead was bleeding right at the hairline. He’d scraped it and broken the skin where his stitches had been taken out from the wolf attack. Verona’s gaze darted up as Alex and the sheriff returned inside, and just past them, the mayor had the door to his car open, peering inside with a strange smile tugging half his lip upward. The sneer made her stomach turn cold. Exactly what had just happened? Did the mayor do something to Logan?
“I’ve radioed for an ambulance. Don’t move him. We can’t be sure he didn’t wrench his neck when he hit the table,” the sheriff said.
Sirens already wailed in the distance. Mama Wend sobbed next to Verona, holding Logan’s hand. Verona put an arm around her shoulders. “He’s going to be okay, Mama Wend,” Verona said, because that’s what they’d always said on the TV shows she watched, but not because she firmly believed it. Instead, she feared exactly what this meant.
Bailey, Alex, and the sheriff all stepped outside to greet the ambulance.
“He’s been working himself too hard. I know that’s what it is,” Mama Wend said through her tears. “He always gets insomnia when he’s worried, and I noticed he hadn’t been sleeping well.”
So, Mama Wend had noticed Logan’s odd sleeping habits, too. For a split second, Verona was mad at Logan for worrying his grandmother when her health wasn’t good. Then that feeling gave way to guilt, and finally fear. What if it was more than what Mama Wend thought? What if Bailey…
When the ambulance arrived, everything happened in a flurry. They put a neck brace on Logan before loading him onto the stretcher. Two strong men picked up the stretcher so that the wheels dropped down at waist height and then rolled it back through the narrow front door, slowly trying to make sure they didn’t injure Logan in the process. Mama Wend still had tears running down her face when she shoved the keys to the restaurant in Verona’s hands. “Please take care of the place and lock up. I’m going to ride with Logan in the ambulance.”
Verona’s heart sunk. “But I want to go with you both.”
Mama Wend’s eyes shined with tears, but also reassured Verona. “I want you to come, too, but there’s only room for one, and someone needs to take care of the Shack. No matter what befalls us, we can’t shirk our responsibilities.”
Verona nodded, but her heart squeezed in her chest.
“I’ll drive her to the hospital after we lock up, Mama Wend,” Alex offered, standing over Verona’s shoulder. “If you don’t mind me driving your van?”
The tension in Mama Wend’s shoulders disappeared and her face relaxed. “I don’t mind at all. Thank you, Alex.”
Pain and longing were all that Verona felt as they watched the ambulance pull away from the Shack and head down the beach road back toward the main drag, following the sheriff’s patrol car. Bailey and Alex coaxed her back inside once the vehicle was out of sight. She hadn’t been this distraught since Mama Wend collapsed. How could so many upsetting incidents occur in such a short period of time? She’d be glad when things grew into some semblance of normal.
Together, the three of them cleaned up the Shack, checked and double checked that everything was in order before they went out the door. They got into the van and headed to the hospital on the mainland. It wasn’t until they were crossing the bridge that Verona’s heart dropped. Not only was she in danger on the mainland, but so was Bailey. This wasn’t the best idea, but there wasn’t any chance that she’d let the possibility of being spotted by the witch stop her from making it to Logan while he was hurt.
She caught herself chewing on her lip, her eyes darting in each direction, waiting and watching for anything to happen. Her stomach twisted, and the feeling of nausea came over her. She bit down harder on her lip, making her eyes tear from the sharp pain. But the pain had exactly the response that she’d hoped—it made the nausea die down enough that she didn’t fear vomiting in the van again. When they pulled into the hospital parking lot, she felt some semblance of relief, but couldn’t wait to get out of the van. She hopped out, even though all she could do was stand there, not knowing which direction they should go.
“I’m pretty sure they will have taken him to the emergency room. Let’s go that way,” Alex offered and then started off in a direction, expecting Verona and Bailey to follow.
Verona started to, but Bailey grabbed her by the arm. “Do you not see how fragile these humans are? They get hurt easier, heal slower, and when one is down, they all run about in panic like a school of fish in the presence of a shark. Tell me you do not want to become one of them. You cannot possibly think this existence is better than the one you have in the sea.”
Ripping her arm away, she glared at him. “Then I won’t tell you. Only know this—you are wrong about almost everything you’ve said.” And then without another word, she jogged to catch up with Alex. She didn’t care whether Bailey followed or not. Honestly, with the anxiety pressing on her from all sides, she didn’t care if the witch swooped down on a broom and took him away from her. At least then she wouldn’t have to deal with him any longer. Her step faltered at the thought, and she peered back at him to make sure he followed.
He did, and relief struck her. How could she even have such a dreadful thought? She hated that she even entertained such ugliness for even a moment. She prayed that providence wouldn’t punish her for having such a sinful consideration and forgive her. And then while she was at it, she prayed for Logan and Mama Wend and this whole situation. If any time she needed the help of providence, it would be now.
Alex stood at the front desk, asking, “We’re here to see Logan Clarke. He would have been brought in by ambulance from Chincoteague about an hour ago?”
The nurse behind the desk had rainbows and teddy-bears dancing around on her scrubs, her dark hair was pulled back in a braid, and her almond eyes fixed on Alex and then darted toward her computer. Verona chewed her lip more while she listened to the keys clack under the woman’s fingers. Her heart pounded as she waited. Finally, the woman nodded. “He’s currently being seen. If you’ll have a seat, I’ll let you know when he’s in a room and able to take visitors.”
