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I shoot him a look. “We both know that’s not entirely true. There are security cams at the lodge. You guys went out in diving gear and something that didn’t get recorded brought you back to this dock. Boating at night is dangerous, and night diving is even worse. It’s forbidden, which you know. It’s in the contract.”
“Which is why we did it when no one was around,” Mike grumbles.
“Why are you interrogating us?” Travis finally speaks up. “We’re the victims.”
I roll my eyes. Who are these guys? “Asking what happened is not an interrogation. And if you want justice, we need to know who did this. Like I said, the camera footage is no help.”
“I never saw his face,” Travis says.
“Really?” I frown. “That seems pretty unlikely.”
“It was dark.”
“Uh-huh. Mike? Bobby? Did you see anything?”
They shake their heads sullenly and I sigh. That’s impossible. They have to be lying, but why? Before I can suss it out, a noise catches my attention; it’s Griffin, his friend Scott, and the boat.
“Thank goodness,” I say.
We hand the guys towels to cover up, I pull on a pair of shorts that Griff brought, and then we all head back to the lodge.
“If you want to file a police report, you can do that in town,” Griffin tells the trio as they head back into their cabin. Scott takes off on the boat, leaving Griffin and me to sort out the whole mess.
“What are you thinking?” he asks me.
“I have no idea what happened to them, and they aren’t talking. Maybe the police will get more if they decide to file a report. As for the other guests, I don’t think Cabin 4 cares about what happened. Neither does 6. The families in Cabins 1 and 2 were annoyed, though. They were making noises about a refund.”
“Nonsense,” Griffin says. “I’ll put together some vouchers for them this afternoon. Free meals, free tickets to the observatory, that kind of thing.”
“Okay,” I say with a nod. “That might mollify them. I’m thinking we play this off as some kind of publicity stunt, though I’m not sure exactly how to spin it. And we may need to rethink our whole ‘family friendly’ approach.”
“How?”
“I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot, and it goes back to some of our previous discussions. I’m thinking we play up the spooky angle hard. Men are jumped by an invisible force, maybe there’s a Nessie kind of thing happening in the lake. There are already rumors of hauntings out here, so why not embrace them? Maybe they got tied up by a ghost. There are funny cryptid signs in the mountains, so let’s lean into it even more. Like town-wide. Rebrand Haven’s Hollow as a place for monster tours, spooky events, and pagan parades. Like the festivals I mentioned at the diner the other day. We could really run with it.”
Griffin rubs his chin thoughtfully. “That might be genius. Really give our town a niche vibe. A brand, so to speak. Something no other place offers.”
“Exactly.”
“All right. I’m gonna tell Jed over at the paper that this was all a publicity stunt, and then try to guide him into the cryptid angle. Maybe you can convince your influencers that this was just something silly and nothing to be worried about.”
“Of course, if the guys in Cabin 3 get wind of this story, they’ll be pissed.”
“They were diving at night, which is expressly forbidden in the rental contract,” Griffin says darkly. “They’re lucky not to be in trouble for that. Make sure they know it.”
I nod and Griff heads to his car, off to deal with the next crisis, which is probably Sabine’s break-in. I make a mental note to check on her and see how she’s doing, then turn to go inside and try to salvage the rest of my day.
When I turn, I see our last renter has finally emerged.
Wick is standing in front of his cabin, staring at the water. He has a giant bear claw donut in one hand, and a bottle of soda in the other. As much as I love pastries, I can’t fathom pairing them with cola. Not only is the combination disgusting, but how can he handle that much sugar all at once?
The brilliant sunlight slants down on him at just the right angle, highlighting his incredible blue eyes and the glints in his hair, coloring that almost seems unreal. Despite his height, the shadow he casts seems too long, and not the right shape.
That’s when it hits me.
Came out of nowhere. Unnatural coloring. Massive sweet tooth. Never seems to appear on the security cameras. The honey bowls that always return to my doorstep. It all points to one thing.
Wick is not human.
