Triton’s grip on her gun faltered, and Bel ripped it from his grasp and lunged backward. “Hands in the air, Triton!” She aimed, but the dripping blood obscured her vision. She wiped the crimson from her eyes, but the pause gave him an out. He bolted for the industrial catwalks surrounding the enclosure and grabbed a control switch before her finger found the trigger.
“It’s time for me to move on anyway,” he said as he lifted it to show Bel the buttons. She didn’t know what they did, but the triumph in his eyes told her they were dangerous.
“I came to Bajka after Ariella was born,” he continued. “I have a dark past, but I loved my little girl. I wanted to be better for her. I wanted to change. I really did.”
“But the mermaid performer triggered your suppressed nature,” Bel finished for him.
“I couldn’t stop myself,” Triton said. “I’d taken Ariella to the aquarium. It was supposed to be a fun father/daughter day. She’d gone to the bathroom before the show, so I waited by the tank to watch them set up. My daughter missed the tragedy, but I didn’t. The blood in the water. Her drowning. The way her hair and tail reflected the light as she sank. She was a brunette,like my mermaids… like you. You floating bloody through the water just now… I wish I had the time. I’d add you to my final collection, but this will have to be quick and messy. You three will be my last kills in Bajka.”
“People are coming for me.” Bel had to keep him talking. She had to give Olivia and Eamon time to get there. “Killing me will only waste time. It’ll get you caught. And can you really kill without the lake? Will your obsession let you forget our bodies here?”
“There were places before the lake, and there will be places after it. I learned about the lake’s restricted area years ago, and I taught myself to tattoo in private. No one looks at the maintenance men. It’s why I got the job here. All that downtime where people never looked at me. It allowed me to slip below the surface. I was a family man with a mediocre job. No one cared what I did. Not even my wife realized that the company I worked for was all smoke and mirrors to hide the aquarium. I could’ve hidden here forever if it weren’t for you, but there’s no use suppressing who I am anymore. My only reason for hiding my nature is long gone, so I’ll use another one of my IDs and vanish. You’ll never find me.”
“Neal Flounders. He passed background checks. Your next identity will too. I know only one person who could create such convincing alter egos. He’s the same man whose magic created embalming fluid powerful enough to preserve human flesh indefinitely.”
“You’re familiar with Charles Blaubart.” He smirked. “He failed to kill you. I won’t.”
“You forget I’m the one with the gun, and I’m a good shot.”
“But you don’t like it when young girls die.” He lifted the button. “I press this, and that cage lowers.” He pointed to the metal that Bel hadn’t seen hanging over the enclosure. Its bars crisscrossed to create a giant lid of sorts, the gaps between theirweldings too small for a human to slip through. The structure was attached to the ceiling by a system of gears and chains that were obviously not part of this building’s original structure, and Bel could tell by its size that, when lowered, it would fit perfectly within the pool’s borders, creating a trap atop any swimmer until they couldn’t escape. That was how he’d drowned his mermaids without leaving marks on their bodies. He lowered a cage, trapping the women below the water’s surface.
“If you’re going to kill us, then why should I listen to you?”
“Because I can make it quick, or I can make them suffer.” Triton nodded at Ondine and her companion. “They’re so young. So innocent, and I’ll make you watch everything I do to them before I do the same to you. You won’t die well. None of you will.”
“My partner is on her way,” Bel didn’t mention that a man who couldn’t be killed was also hard on her heels. It didn’t matter that Triton had the upper hand. The minute Eamon got here, he was dead. She just had to stall long enough to let him reach her.
“No, she isn’t. I saw a car drive in this direction, and I knew it was you. I also knew that blonde wouldn’t be far behind, so I set up an intervention. Then, when you opened the false wall, my alarm sounded, and I realized I’d been found out. The legendary Detective Isobel Emerson. She always catches her man. Your partner won’t be here in time to stop me from taking you and those two mermaids and doing whatever I want for days on end. But if you surrender now, it’ll be quick. I won’t have to take you. I won’t even hurt you that badly. It’ll be over fast, like my Ariella.”
“Your Ariella?” Bel repeated, a repulsive sickness roiling through her stomach. “You killed your own daughter?”
“She made me do it!” Triton screamed as he jabbed an accusatory finger at Ondine. “I meant to take her that night.”
“You killed your own daughter?” Unquenchable rage flooded Bel. The girl’s own father killed her? He’d looked her in the eyes as he choked her to death before leaving her unceremoniously in the dirt. The man who was biologically created to love and protect her murdered her. “How could you do something so vile?”
“Bel!” Olivia’s voice broke the tension with her alarm, and for a second, Bel thought she was imagining her partner. She wasn’t coming. Triton had seen to that. “Eamon told me you hit the panic button! He told me to find you at all costs.”
Both Bel and Triton jerked at Gold’s sudden appearance. Bel was trained, though. She stopped her finger from twitching against the trigger. Triton wasn’t. His finger depressed the button, and the cage over the enclosure started lowering. Ondine shrieked as she tried to escape the pool, but Triton held the controls over his head.
“Get in the water!” he shouted at the second young woman hiding in the cave.
“Never!” the tattooed girl screamed.
“Don’t make me release it!” he shouted. “You saw what the toxin did to Mary. I left her body in there with you so you would all remember.”
“Release it!” the girl shouted back. “I don’t care what you do to me anymore.”
“Triton, hands in the air!” Bel’s voice echoed over the rest.
“Get in the water now!” Triton screamed at the girl.
“Triton, let go of the controls!” Bel demanded.
“Get in the pool, or I’ll record what happens to you when the toxin enters your bloodstream and send it to your mother. Do you want that? Do you want to force her to hold a closed-casket funeral for you, complete with a video to prove why?”
“Olivia, get the girls out of there!” Bel ordered her partner.
“She’ll just die too,” Triton said as the second mermaid finally obeyed with the mention of her mother. “You all will.”
