“I don’t know.”
“I need the security office.” Bel strode across the floor without waiting for his permission. She remembered where the room was. “We need to find him.”
“I’m sorry,Detective, but I’m not finding Flounders,” the security officer said after fifteen minutes of scanning the entire aquarium… twice. “I don’t think he’s here.”
“Did he come to work?” she asked.
“He’s on the schedule.”
“Then he’s here. Can you check again?”
“Sure.” The man restarted the search, enlarging the camera angles one at a time so they could scan them.
“What’s that?” Bel pointed to the small corner image on the main screen that displayed every angle in a massive grid. It was the only camera the officer never enlarged.
“That’s the addition that was abandoned after that performer died,” he answered. “We lost so much money that construction halted, and it’s sat unused at the rear of our property ever since. It’s been left exposed to the elements for so long that to revive the project would require a complete redo, so management opted to leave the structure locked up.”
“It looks massive.” She leaned closer to the screen. “Can you enlarge the shot?”
The man obliged her request, and Bel did a double-take. “It’s huge… and almost done,” she whispered.
“The exterior, yeah.”
“When Sam Flot mentioned that you had broken ground on a second location, his wording implied that it was in its skeleton phase.”
“The interior was never finished, but most of the structure was completed. There are some holes, though, so the weather damage is undoubtedly unsalvageable.”
“Where is it?”
“There’s a drive north of the property that leads to it. The original plan was to create a scenic road between the two buildings, lined by a park, picnic area, and playgrounds. The idea was that visitors would start here in this building, then take their lunch breaks—weather permitting—out on the grounds before moving to the secondary building. We’d split the animals by habitat, and the extra space would allow us to house a significantly larger, more diverse number of fish and animals, offer more shows, and host events. After that performer died, though, we had to re-home some of our residents.” Hisshoulders sagged at the admission. “Having to ship our animals, who’d been here most of their lives, to other aquariums because we couldn’t afford their upkeep was heartbreaking.”
“I can imagine,” Bel said. “What’s the security like over there?”
“Just this camera and the fence. No one goes there. Trust me, that’s a quick way to kill yourself. Employees used to sneak out there to smoke on their breaks, but then one summer volunteer broke his leg. Snapped it right in two, and he almost didn’t survive. It was a weird accident based on where he was exploring, but still. It scared people enough to permanently leave it alone. Half of it is probably flooded by now, anyway.”
“Flooded?” Bel almost choked on the realization. “Oh my god.” She fumbled for her phone as she backed away from the crumbling image on the screen. “Oh my god.”
“What’s wrong?” the guard asked, but she ignored him.
“Tell Director Flot not to confront Neal Flounders when you locate him. I don’t want him to know we’re coming for him. Today needs to be business as usual,” she said as she fled the security room, her feet slapping the tiles as she raced through the aquarium.
“I know where he kept them,” Bel said the second Olivia answered her call. “The mermaids. I figured it out.”
“Where?” her partner asked.
“Remember the abandoned construction Director Flot told us about? It’s not quite as unfinished as he let on. A secluded building designed to hold water and sustain animal life… I think Ondine might be there.” Bel launched into a quick recap of Mr. Triton’s convincing identity as Neal Flounders, their inability to locate him on the premises, and her discovery of a forgotten half-aquarium that wasn’t worth the effort or money required to properly secure the perimeter.
“Bel, don’t,” Olivia said the second she finished her monologue.
“Don’t what?”
“Drive there. I know you. You’re already halfway to that secondary location, aren’t you… Aren’t you?”
“Okay, yes, fine,” Bel growled into the phone as she slowed to a crawl, her SUV creeping through what should’ve been immaculately kept grounds but were now the tangled and unruly mess of an apocalypse.
“You know better than anyone what happens when women move to a secondary location.”
“That’s in kidnapping and murder cases. I’m just driving over there to take a look.”
