AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Some say that down where the depths of the water are unknown and uncharted there’s a way out of the loch. That Nessie is, in fact, a group of ancient sea creatures that has adapted to live in both salt and freshwater and despite the extreme cold of the loch they thrive here.”
“That would take care of the argument that several animals of such size couldn’t survive on the amount of food contained in Loch Ness without significantly and obviously depleting it.”
“Exactly!” Dougal exclaimed, obviously thrilled that Kris was familiar with all the Nessie factoids. “If there’s a way out, there’s no need to feed while in.”
Someone jostled Kris, and she glanced around. The pub was filling up. All the seats were taken. Though Dougal had said this was a local watering hole, quite a few tourists seemed to have found it, too.
Which might explain why Kris had the sudden sensation of being watched. In a crowd like this, someone had to be staring. She took a surreptitious glance around and caught the gaze of an elderly man at the end of the bar.
He was tall and very thin, his once-blond hair faded to white. His skin was lined from a lifetime spent outdoors, and his pale blue eyes shone.
He lowered his chin, an acknowledgment that he’d been staring, then returned his attention to his drink.
Probably lonely, she thought. He’s gotta be two or three decades older than anyone in here.
“The passage to the sea creates the possibility of a large breeding population, which also gives an explanation as to why the sightings of Nessie can vary from ten to twelve feet in length to other reports of a thirty-to forty-foot creature,” Dougal continued.
Kris turned back to her companion. “Baby Nessies.”
“Yes!” Dougal punctuated his exclamation by downing the rest of his whisky. Kris had given up on hers.
She cast another glance at the old man, thinking maybe she’d ask him to join them, but he was gone.
“Sounds like a solid theory,” Kris said.
“If creatures the size of Nessie can get in, then why haven’t others? Sure, they’d die in the freshwater, but then there’
d be bodies. Somewhere. Sometime.”
“And if Nessies were going in and out, wouldn’t someone have observed them in the sea?”
“Well, to be fair, out there they’d be seen as whales or dolphins or squids.”
He was right. People often saw what they assumed they’d see, whether it be truth or fiction. Kris had found just that in many of her hoax-hunting cases. If one person saw a ghost or a beast or a monster, everyone else saw one, too. If people expected to see a whale, they weren’t going to see a Nessie.
And vice versa.
“For me, it comes down to this,” Dougal said. “If Nessie’s been hanging out in Loch Ness for several thousand millennia, why hasn’t anyone proved it yet?”
Kris played devil’s advocate better than she played just about anything. “Maybe she’s hiding. Maybe she doesn’t want to be captured, then examined and analyzed and—” Kris shrugged. “Dissected.”
Which was what would happen if Nessie were actually caught. Luckily she never would, or could, be.
Kris, enjoying herself immensely, sat back and, in doing so, caught a glimpse of the room behind Dougal’s head. There, on the other side of at least two dozen people, stood the man who had kissed her last night.
He wasn’t looking in her direction, was in fact facing away, but she knew it was him as surely as she knew she really, really hated Scotch whisky.
Kris blurted an excuse to Dougal, shoving her unfinished drink in his direction before making a beeline to the place where she’d last seen the mystery man.
By the time she got there, he was gone. But she hadn’t fallen off the idiot tree—at least not lately—and when she saw the rear exit she took it. Unfortunately, if he had, he was quick as a bunny—or a ghost—because there was no sign of him.
She considered going back inside but, instead, headed out of town.
The night was clear and lovely. A bit cool, but she didn’t mind. The moon, only a day past full, glowed like a silvery sun, which was handy, because once she left Drumnadrochit and walked toward the cottage the moon was all she had to light her path.
She picked her way carefully across the fields, crested a hill, and became captivated by the shimmering bands of brilliant white that topped the waves of the loch. She was drawn nearer by the strange little blips of something darker that bobbed through the moonlit water like—
“Nessie,” she breathed.
