CHAPTER TEN
“Dr. Childs!” McCallum cried out. “It’s good to see you in person again.”
Devon smiled politely and shook his outstretched hand. McCallum had demanded the meeting, face to face, and she’d been unable to say no. Particularly when the meeting was requested by a large man with an even larger man behind him standing next to a car. They were stood now near the site of the new resort that McCallum was building, the cause of her entire research trip.
“So…” McCallum said. “Do you have any news for me?”
“Only what I’ve already told you,” Devon said. He didn’t say a word or react and she continued with a sigh. “The creature, if it’s there, isn’t dangerous. It has never killed or even injured someone. It actively avoids being seen. It always has.”
“Doesn’t seem like it at the minute though does it?” McCallum said. “I mean, the monster’s torn two people up so far. Who knows how many more could die?”
“Whatever killed those men it was not the monster,” Devon said firmly. “And I’m going to keep saying it. I don’t know what killed them, what tore them up but it wasn’t an animal. I’m worried that no one’s listening to that part of the story, they’re just going for the exciting bit.”
“Well can you blame them?” McCallum said. He started to walk around the perimeter fence and Devon followed him. “Who wants to hear about people killing people when it could be a monster?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in Nessie?” Devon said. “It sounds like you do now,”
“Half the journos in town don’t believe in Nessie,” McCallum said. “They’re going with the story anyway though. Why? Because it’s exciting. It’s dangerous. It’s new. It Sells. And that’s what matters to the media.”
“Sales…” Devon said. “Sales of their reports are going up. Just like your stock. And how many reservations have you got for the resort now? For the resort that hasn’t even been fully built yet?”
“More than you could imagine,” McCallum said with a sly smile. “I don’t know what happened to those men but I’m glad it did. Shame about them of course but still.” He started to get excited. “Everyone wants to be here. They want a glimpse of the monster or to see the police find the next body. People are clawing at the bit to get a look. They don’t even care that the monster isn’t killing people.”
“So you know it’s fake then?” Devon said. “That Nessie isn’t killing anyone even if she does exist.”
“Of course it’s fake.” McCallum said with a sneer. “It’s only idiots who think it’s real. But those idiots are the ones who’ll pay a small fortune to stay at my hotel just for the chance to see Nessie.” He laughed. “These idiot yokels killing each other couldn’t have come at a better time. We’ve got pre-bookings, we’ve got tour requests. Hell the hotel’s already on those websites for monster hunters as a place to stay. The money is rolling in and we’re all anyone is talking about.”
“Jesus,” Devon hissed. “You don’t even care that people are dying do you?!”
“They’re just nobody locals,” McCallum said, waving his hand in the air. “No one would have known about them if they hadn’t been murdered.”
“Oh my god…” Devon said, a light bulb came on in her head. “This is all a scam isn’t it? Part of your sales pitch. I’m just a pawn in your little scheme.”
“Probably,” McCallum drawled. “But you add legitimacy. If even you can’t find any proof that the monster doesn’t exist or does exist then anyone could find proof. This will be the only hotel where you can possibly see monsters and hunt for them yourself.”
“You’re scum,” Devon snapped. “You’re taking advantage of people for something you don’t even believe in yourself. You’re nothing more than a snake oil salesman.”
“Perhaps,” McCallum said. He turned to her with a smirk. “But I make the big bucks and you get some of it too. Don’t forget that doctor. You took my money, quite happily. You’re not much better than I am.”
“At least my claims are based in science,” Devon hissed, “Yours are nothing more than rumour and hearsay.”
She turned and stormed off, not wanting to hear another word from the businessman who had hired her. She stormed through the building site and straight to the car which was still waiting to take her back. Apparently word hadn’t reached the driver that she had left early because as soon as she climbed into the back seat he started the engine and drove back to the village.
***
She slammed the car door shut and didn’t say a word to the driver. Instead she raced up the front steps and into the entrance hall. She ignored the calls of greeting from the landlady, the shouts for interviews from the journalists. Taking the stairs two at a time she raced up to her room and started to pack up all of her research and belongings. She stared at the whiteboard, the whiteboard that she had spent so many hours setting up and filling with information. Now it was all worthless, nothing more than a means for a man to trick more money out of willing strangers. She reached for the first photograph. Her fingers were inches away. A knock at the door came, tentative and almost so quiet she might have missed it.
“Yes?” she called from the whiteboard. “I don’t want to be disturbed.”
“Maybe not lassie,” the voice of Arthur came from the other side. “But I want to disturb you. You wanted stories about the monster, I’ve got a story about your monster. But you can’t tell a soul what I’m going to tell you.”
“There’s no point,” Devon shouted. She grabbed the door and swung it open. She stared into Arthur’s surprised face. “None of this has any point, don’t you get that? McCallum never cared about whether the monster was real or not. He just wanted to make it seem like there was a real chance. It’s all been a scam. People are dying, I can’t find any proof that the monster exists or even existed in the first place and all he cares about is how much money he’s making already!”
“It’s real to us,” Arthur said harshly. He shoved past her and into the room. “Each one of us who lives here believes in some way in the creature of the loch. Maybe not completely but we all believe. McCallum might not care if Nessie is real or not but other people do. You’re doing this for them, not McCallum. He’s just footing the bill because he’s an idiot. He’ll get his comeuppance don’t you worry.”
Devon sighed and slumped down on to the bed. She rested her head in her hands, elbows on her knees and began to cry. The bed dipped beside her as Arthur took a seat and she felt his large hand on her back, awkwardly patting her.
“Here now, what’s with all the tears?” he said gently. “You’re not the sort of woman to cry at something like this. I know you, you’re strong, you’re smart. Are you going to let some arsehole like McCallum get you down or are you going to do what you came here to do? Find that monster, one way or another.””
“You’re right!” Devon said. She sat up and wiped at her eyes. “I can do this. It’s what I do. Who cares if McCallum doesn’t believe? I’ve got no proof that the monster exists but I’ve got no proof that the monster doesn’t exist. And besides, we need to figure out who or what killed those men.”
“That’s the spirit Lassie,” Arthur said, grinning broadly. “Shove it to McCallum and all those arseholes who call you a fraud.”
Devon smiled and nodded her head. She looked at Arthur and frowned.
“Didn’t you come to tell me a story?” she asked.
“Och, aye,” Arthur said. “I almost forgot. I saw the beastie once, when I was seven or eight years old. It saved my life.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The boat rocked from side to side, ripples spread out from where Arthur kept slamming the stick into the water.
“Come on Nessie,” he shouted. “Come on out, let me take a photo of you.”
He clutched the stick in one hand, hitting the water with it over and over again. In the other was a camera, the cheapest one he could find and it had still cost him three months’ worth of job earnings
. Arthur didn’t care though, he only wanted a photo of the Loch Ness Monster. Then he could show his friends and everyone else and he’d be rich. His mum and dad wouldn’t have to worry about losing the house or not eat much so that he and his brothers and sisters would have enough to eat. They thought that he didn’t know, that he was too young to understand but he knew that there was something wrong and now he wanted to fix it. He’d taken all the jobs he could to make some money; collecting eggs, chasing away the birds from the crops, cleaning windows, mowing the lawns and weeding the gardens, delivering papers. Each and every penny that he had earned, he had saved. His parents wouldn’t take the money though so he’d decided to do the next best thing. Use it to make more money.
So there he was, on the middle of the loch in the middle of the day. He should have been at church, that’s where everyone else was. But he’d pretended to be sick, wrapped himself in his blankets and jumped around so he felt hot to his mother’s touch. As soon as they’d all left and he was sure that they were well on their way to church,h Arthur had jumped out of bed and raced to the loch, new camera in hand. There was no one around, not on the loch or at the shore. He had the entire lake to himself and he was sure to catch a glimpse of Nessie, at least long enough to take a photograph.
It seemed though that Nessie didn’t want to play. He was sure that he could see her down there in the depths but the water was too murky, a thick deep green, and all he could see were shadows, black moving shapes in the deep. Arthur leaned further forwards, his stomach pressed against the edge of the boat. It rocked for a moment and his stomach lurched with fear. It quickly settled down though and he focused once more on the water.
“Come on Nessie!” he cried out. “Just one photo, so I can help Mam and Da. That’s all I want.”
He kept hunting, scanning the depths. There was nothing. He threw himself backwards, on to the bottom of the boat and stared up at the sky with a heavy sigh.
“I’m never gonna get it,” he said.
The boat rocked in place. There was the sound of an engine far off, getting closer and closer. Arthur sat up on his elbows and looked around. There was a speedboat, one of the ones owned by rich Englishmen who liked to come up for a bit of fishing now and then. It was roaring across the loch, kicking up a wall of water. Arthur’s little boat started to rock as the water buffeted it. It was coming right at him. Arthur stood up, trying to keep his balance and waved his arms in the air, shouting. It was no use. The driver of the boat wasn’t looking at him, his head was turned to talk to someone behind him. Arthur watched as everything seemed to go into slow motion.
The man reached down and held on to a lever. He pushed it forward. The boat sped up, engine roaring even louder. It came faster and faster across the loch, streaming over the water straight for Arthur in his little wooden boat. Arthur scrambled for the oars, tried to get them into place. His hands wouldn’t work, he couldn’t move fast enough. The oars refused to go into their slots. The man turned back at the last moment. Arthur caught a glimpse of the surprised ‘O’ of his mouth as he saw the little boy in the boat at last, the yanking the man did on the wheel. Then he saw only sky.
The speedboat slammed straight into the little wooden boat, bow against bow. Wood cracked and splintered. Arthur was thrown into the air and then fell, down into the docks. A chunk of the wooden boat slammed against his temple as they flew together. He was out cold. Not even the chill of the water woke him when he landed. He fell and fell and fell, drifting down into the loch.
Arthur came to, surrounded by water and unable to breathe. He thrashed. He couldn’t tell which way was up. His lungs burned for air. He kicked and kicked only to realise he was sending himself deeper and deeper into the water. He looked around, eyes stinging from the water. He couldn’t feel his fingers, his toes. The camera had gone. There were only small shadows on the surface, far above him. All that remained of the little wooden boat. There was no sign of the speedboat. Arthur kicked and reached, trying to get to the surface. He was tiring. His lungs were screaming. His vision was going black, fading out.
Something moved in the green murk around him, a dark shadow. It was coming right for him. Fast. He tried to swim, tried to move. His sodden clothes slowed him. His need for air overwhelmed him. He could only float there as the shape got closer. Then something hit him, bumped against him really and he felt himself rushing through the water, towards the surface. Something was pressed against his front, warm and cold at the same time, smooth and lightly scaled. His head broke the water in a burst of white spray. He gasped for breath. Coughed and emptied his lungs. He kept gasping for breath and collapsed on to whatever was holding him up. He lay there, draped over whatever it was and let his hands rest in the water as he tried to empty his lungs and stomach of loch water. He felt the water moving between his fingers, slipping through faster and faster. He weakly lifted his head, caught a glimpse of grey flesh beneath him before he realised that he was heading towards the shore.
The creature took him to a shaded patch of shoreline, hidden and almost completely surrounded by low hanging trees. It stopped moving when Arthur’s feet bumped against the soil and shale. The young boy tried to stand and stumbled. A long neck and small head gently knocked him, strong enough to keep him upright for a moment. Arthur clutched on to the creature’s body as he slowly made his way around it, towards the land proper. The creature nudged him gently as he went until he was out of reach. The young boy collapsed, dripping wet, face first into the grass. He looked towards the loch, wanting to thank the creature. But all he saw was its tail flicking in the air as it returned to the depths.
“Thank you Nessie,” he gasped out. Then he passed out.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“They found me a few hours later,” Arthur said quietly. “My Mam and Da. When they’d come back from church and found me missing they rounded up everyone and started to look. It was almost dark when they finally got around to that side of the loch. They’d thought I’d drowned when they saw the remains of my boat. I was sick for three weeks after that.”
“Wow,” Devon said quietly.
She had listened to the entire story intently, sat on the edge of the bed as Arthur had described it all.
“I can’t imagine how terrifying that must have been for you,” Devon said carefully. “Almost drowning like that.”
“Oh it was,” Arthur said. “The speedboat owner sold his boat after that, never came back. He’d almost killed one of the local kids and he felt guilty for it. That and no one would talk to him or his buddies.”
“I can imagine,” Devon said. “But… I’m not sure that it really proves anything. I mean… you didn’t really get a good look at the thing did you? You said it yourself, you were barely conscious by the time you got to the shore.”
“I know what I saw lassie,” Arthur said firmly but not unkindly. “I know it sounds strange but Nessie saved my life and took me back to the shore. She left only once she was sure that I wasn’t going to drown again, that I was back on dry land. That doesn’t sound like something that would kill people now does it?”
“No,” Devon said. She sighed. “It doesn’t.”
“See?” Arthur said. “This is why you should stay. Not for McCallum or yourself. But for Nessie. She needs someone on her side, someone to talk for her. She is not a killer, she is not a monster. She’s like any other animal, only getting aggressive when she’s cornered or scared. You can understand that can’t you?”
“Yeah… yeah I can,” Devon said, a small smile gracing her lips. “Ok Arthur. I’m staying. Thank you.”
She stood and hugged the boat man tightly.
“Can you do me a favour though?” Arthur asked, pausing at the doorway. “Please don’t tell anyone about that story. I never told a soul and I’m afraid what people will do if they know I’ve actually seen Nessie.”
“Of course,” Devon said. “You have my word, I won’t tell a single person about this.”
After she’d shown him out
though she wasn’t so confident. There was no way that he’d actually been rescued by the creature. It had probably been a dolphin or porpoise, possibly even a small whale that had found its way into the loch from the sea. It wasn’t unheard of for marine mammals to come that far inland after all and there were dozens of well documented cases of dolphins and whales protecting humans who had fallen into the water. Arthur had almost drowned after all and he had only been a young boy with Nessie on the brain. The dying and the scared saw what they wanted to see and years of being convinced of his memory had probably made it seem more real.
She sighed and turned back to her boards. Time to put it all back together again.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The next morning, she walked into the bar of the hotel, intending to collect her breakfast and instead she was met by uproar. The journalists were all hurriedly chattering away on their phones and scribbling in notebooks, the photographers and camera crews were checking over their gear. Many of the locals were gathered near the bar, talking to each other and looking over at the newcomers with fear and worry. Devon pushed her way through the crowds, keeping her head down but for once none of them paid her any attention.
“What’s going on?” she asked Callum who was amongst the group. “Has there been another death?”
“No,” Callum said, not even looking at her. “They’ve called a town meeting and McCallum stepped up and said he wanted to turn it into a press conference. Everyone’s freaking out.”
“I can see that,” Devon said. “What’s it about?”
“Nessie probably,” Callum said. He scoffed. “Fat lot of good it’ll do them. These folks have locked on to the idea of her being a man killer and they’re not letting that go any time soon. Not even the mayor will be able to get them out of town.”
“You think he wants to?” Jack asked. “This place is rolling in it all of a sudden. Most money we’ve seen in years. He’s not gonna wanna let that all go right now, if ever. Most of the folks round here might not like the journos but they pay good money and a lot of it.”
Discovered Page 6