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“I would complain that they were girlie, but you loved them, and, to be honest, so did I. I guess it makes sense that we both ended up in jobs where we chase things that most people believe are fairy tales. You debunking them and me…” He paused.
“What do ye do,” Liam murmured, “that has caused ye to turn up in all the places where people are dyin’?”
Kris felt a trickle of unease. If Marty had been chasing the legends, most likely studying their origins, finding out all he could about them, then he knew enough to imitate them.
“I’ve been traveling from kill site to kill site to investigate,” Marty answered. “But by the time I get there, the kills have stopped and there’s no trace of the creature. At least until I came here.”
“Nessie isn’t the killer,” Kris said.
Liam cast her a quick glance, but she ignored him.
“How you figure?” Marty asked.
“The Loch Ness Monster has avoided detection for centuri
es. They’ve brought sonar and radar and all kinds of ’ars, trying to catch a reading, a picture, some film. But they’ve got bupkes. The only way for her to stay hidden so well is for Nessie to possess human-level intelligence. And if she’s that damn smart, she’d keep the bodies as hidden as she is.”
Marty appeared intrigued. “If not Nessie, then what?”
“Someone’s been trying to pin the killings on her. Get her killed.”
Marty frowned. “Who’d kill Nessie?”
“You?”
“I don’t kill these things.”
“You said ‘hunt.’”
“As in ‘search for, track, investigate.’” He spread his hands. “All I do is find them.”
“And you let them keep on keepin’ on, piling up the bodies as they go?”
“Of course not. If the creature is harmful, we outsource the killing.”
“Let me guess,” Kris said. “You hire the Jäger-Suchers.”
Silence fell over the room. Marty broke it first. “I should have known. All those hoaxes. It was cover for being a hunter.”
“Me?” Kris laughed. “No.”
Marty lifted a brow at Liam.
“I dinnae even know what ye’re talkin’ about.”
Kris glanced at him. There was something more to that; she could hear it in his voice. Was he a hunter? He did disappear all the time, wandered around the loch, showed up whenever he was needed. He was either a Jäger-Sucher or a superhero. If he wasn’t a shape-shifter.
“Are you a serial killer?” Marty asked.
“Are you?” Liam returned.
“All right,” Kris interrupted, afraid they’d start shoving each other again. “Why do you think we’re dealing with a serial killer and not a super shape-shifter?”
“Maybe we are.” Marty shrugged. “In my experience shifter and serial killer are the same damn thing.”
Kris kept her gaze on Marty’s face. “But you don’t think we’re dealing with a super shifter, or you’d have contacted Edward the instant you got here and discovered the killings were still in progess.”
“Killer creatures don’t stop until someone makes them. But these did.”
