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“Of course the powers that be would not admit to funding a monster hunt.”
“Of course.” Kris lifted the envelope. “What do I have to do for this?”
“Simply keep me informed of whatever you discover.”
“About the un-monster? I don’t see how that will help.”
“I’m not paying you to analyze the information; I’m paying you to let me do so. I’ve been in this job long enough to know that where there is smoke there is usually a dragon.”
“If there were actually dragons.”
“They’d call it a guivre in this area—serpent body, dragon’s head. Venomous breath. Afraid of naked humans. The females have green scales.”
Kris opened her mouth, shut it again, then: “Are you for real?”
Confusion fluttered over his well-lined face. “Why on earth would I not be real?”
Kris rubbed her forehead.
“Where there are rumors of a monster,” he continued, “a monster often appears—be it human or no. As you research the loch and its most famous inhabitant, I’m certain you will discover information that can be of use to me.”
“And then?”
“You will tell me.”
“How?”
“I will come to you.”
Kris got a little tingle across her spine at that statement. “It would be easier if you gave me your contact information.”
“No doubt,” he agreed, but he didn’t offer any. “I must be on my way. I’m needed…” He paused, then gave a tiny twitch of one shoulder in lieu of a shrug. “Elsewhere.”
“And the other Yag—” She bit her lip and tried again. “Suke—”
He sighed as if dealing with a slightly amusing but extremely annoying two-year-old. “Jäger-Suchers.”
“Yeah, them. No takers on the age-old Loch Ness problem?”
“I’m a bit…” He glanced toward the road, then back. “Shorthanded of late. And the monsters are multiplying.”
“I don’t believe in monsters.”
A sudden commotion from the road—voices, a siren—drew her attention. Headlights permeated the hovering haze.
“You will,” Edward Mandenauer said.
When she looked back, the old man was gone.
CHAPTER 6
Chief Constable Alan Mac was the first to arrive, but he wasn’t alone. Her mystery man, whose name she
still did not know, appeared to have roused half the village, then sent them ahead without him.
Some came in cars, some on foot, but come they did, and a crowd began to gather.
“Keep them back!” Alan Mac shouted to the other officers as they arrived. “This is a crime scene!”
