Page 1 of Investigation of a Quest

Postmortem of a Poem Recap

Spring arrives along with Bel's 35th birthday, and Eamon surprises her with an elaborate library in his mansion. He also surprises her with the fact that he never wants children-biological or adopted. Bel isn't sure how she feels about this information, but before she can process it, Sheriff Griffin calls. The Tritons' daughter Ariella vanished overnight. She's in college, and there are no signs of foul play, but the parents are worried. Griffin asks Bel to do a courtesy call with him. What starts as nothing turns worrisome when they learn Ariella snuck out to go to a party by the lake with her secret boyfriend and best friend. Even with Eamon's help, they can't find the girl, and before long her missing-person case goes cold.

Two months later, the Bajka Police Department celebrates the 4th of July on the lake. When Eamon hears someone screaming, he and Bel jet-ski out to find a boat in the off-limits part of the lake. The rocks below the surface are deadly, but a group of partying teens decided to risk it. One teenager got caught in chicken wire while swimming, and a skeletal arm was attached to the wire. Bel realizes that these rocks are within sight of the party where Ariella went missing. Bel worries this arm is the girl's. Eamon dives to find the rest of the body, but he finds something worse. Dozens of naked, dead girls with mermaid scales tattooed on their legs are trapped inside glass mermaid sculptures and floating, chained to the bottom of the lake. The FBI shows up to help, and Eamon's knowledge of tattoos sheds light on both the killer and the case.

The autopsy reveals the girls were drowned and then embalmed in an unnatural fluid. Bel wonders if the killer is somehow connected to Dr. Blaubart (Criminology of a Character), who perfectly preserved all his dead wives. They also wonder if the killer is either a tattoo artist or works in a funeral home, given their experience as an embalmer. Bel and Olivia look into local tattoo shops. Neptune's Ink is nautical-themed, and the owner, Ursa, has mermaid tattoos and skeleton mermaid decor. They then learn she worked at the funeral home before opening her tattoo shop. Ursa seems like the perfect suspect.

A storm rolls in, and someone calls 911 to report a body buried in the woods by the lake. Bel identifies the decayed body by her signature seashell necklace. It's Ariella Triton. Their missing girl is dead. They wonder if they have one killer or two. She was buried, not turned into a mermaid, but her burial site has a direct line of sight to the mermaids' grave. Did Ariella see something she shouldn't, and the mermaid killer took her out to keep her quiet? Or are they separate cases?

They notify the Tritons, and the family's grief encourages Eamon to bring up the kids topic again. It causes a fight, and Bel turns to her oldest sister for guidance.

Ariella's autopsy reveals she was choked to death. The detectives wonder if it was because the killer had no weapon with him, or if the death was personal. Based on how pretty her gravesite was, they wonder if the killer cared for her or felt guilty. If she saw something she wasn't supposed to see, like how Bel catches Ariella's boyfriend kissing her best friend, Ondine, in public right after the autopsy. Seeing that triggers Olivia's memory. The boyfriend, Erik Prince, interned at the funeral home, but they didn't put 2 & 2 together because they thought the boyfriend was 19, like Ariella. He's not. He's in his late 20s, dating a teenager... 2 now that he's with Ondine. What if he killed Ariella because he was cheating on her with her best friend, hence the care at the grave? Or what if he's the mermaid killer? He uses his youthful looks to gain access to colleges, dates a young girl to give himself an alibi and a reason to hang around, then finds his next victim. Maybe Ariella saw him trying to kidnap his next mermaid, so he killed her, and now he's dating her best friend because he no longer has an in. The detectives interview both the boyfriend and best friend, then go to interview the Tritons about Erik being almost 30 and dating their daughter, but when they arrive, the wife seems drugged. The husband implies it's how she's handling her grief. Later, Erik accuses the police of turning Ondine against him because his new girlfriend is ignoring him. He can't get ahold of her.

On a trip to the Espresso Shot for coffee, David (the owner) catches Bel scrolling through the evidence on her phone. He sees a photo of the glass mermaid sculptures that the bodies were inside. He asks if the Aquarium brought them back. Apparently, the Aquarium used to have Mermaid Week years ago, but they stopped for some reason. Those glass mermaids were part of the decor.

The detectives go to the Aquarium. The glass mermaids have been in storage for 10 years, and they don't have strict security for long-term storage. The director also explains why Mermaid Week was canceled. They used to have female performers swim with a tail during the event, but a performer slipped and hit her head. She drowned before they could get her out of the water, and Aquarium visitors were watching. The detectives know that's where their killer got his inspiration. The killer is associated with this Aquarium, and Erik's name comes up again. He works for his father's sign company, and they did the signs for the Aquarium and the funeral home.

As they leave the Aquarium, Bel spots a little girl wearing the same necklace as Ariella. She asks the mother where it's from. They purchased it at the gift shop. The detectives theorize that the necklaces marked Erik's victims, and they decide to talk to Ondine again. She's ignoring Erik, so the police think they can use her annoyance to get information she wouldn't normally confess to, but when they show up at her house, they learn she's missing. They try to interview Erik, but he lawyers up. They then interview his parents, which makes Bel think the father and son might be in on it together. Erik uses his youthful looks to lure the victims, but Dad is the skilled mastermind. They look into the victims. Every single one visited the Aquarium, so they have their connection.

But they don't have any concrete evidence. Everything is circumstantial and just a theory. Nothing concrete connects the tattoos, the girls, the Aquarium, and Erik except for a legal job and dating habits. Plus, the best friend is still missing.

Two weeks later, it seems like all their cases are going cold, but then Mrs. Triton calls the station asking for Bel. Bel visits her, and the woman admits that when they saw her drugged and groggy, it wasn't the first time. She was too afraid to face it, but she finally searched the house and found that her husband has seemingly been drugging her. Bel asks if she remembers when it happened, and it always coincided with a mermaid victim going missing, including Ariella and Ondine. The wife lets Bel look around, and she finds an aquarium maintenance uniform in the closet. The wife claims her husband doesn't work there, and Triton's name isn't on any employee list, but Bel thinks he figured out a way to lie to everyone and cover his tracks. Bel is convinced Mr. Triton works at the Aquarium. That's where he saw the mermaid performer drown and got a taste for death. That's how he finds his victims. That's how he was able to steal the glass sculptures. He drugged his wife every time he kidnapped a girl, so she wouldn't notice he was missing, and he was probably at the party to steal his next victim... maybe Ondine was his target. He didn't know his daughter was there, so he had to kill her when she caught him. Bel asks the wife about the necklace, and she confirms that Erik didn't give it to Ariella. Her father did.

Bel rushes to the Aquarium, but Triton isn't there. They search the security footage but can't find him, and she notices the abandoned Aquarium add-on building at the very rear of the property they stopped building after the mermaid drowning almost bankrupted them. Bel realizes it's the perfect killing spot, so she calls Olivia and rushes there. She means to wait for Olivia, but when her partner doesn't show up, she looks around. She finds nothing until she accidentally knocks something over. The crash is loud, and then she hears girls screaming to get her attention. Bel hits her necklace's panic button to alert Eamon for help since Olivia still hasn't shown up. She finds a secret entrance hidden in the walls, then a basement. A pool originally built for animals is downstairs, but it's locked inside a cage where Ondine and another victim are being held, both alive with mermaid tattoos. Bel tries to save them, but Triton finds her first. They get into a fight.

Triton admits that he's always had violent urges, but he tried to behave after Ariella was born. But seeing that mermaid performer drown changed him. He started killing again, but when he tried to take Ondine, his daughter caught him. He killed Ariella, but he shows no remorse. He liked it, and he brags to Bel about what he'll do to her and the other women.

Olivia shows up to help, finally saying that Triton set up a distraction to stop her, but Eamon called and told her about the panic button, so she came straight here. She tries to help free the two young girls, but Triton starts a trap in the pool that will kill them all. Olivia and the two young girls start screaming, but Bel can't focus. All she can think about is how happy Triton was to kill his own daughter, and in what she believes is a fit of rage, she shoots him between the eyes.

She turns off the trap, saving the two girls and Olivia, but she feels numb. Eamon arrives, as do the police and the news crews. They call her a hero for saving everyone. Olivia, after months of fighting with her, is hugging her. The friend's parents are overjoyed. Everyone thinks Bel saved the day, but she can't get it out of her head that she's a murderer. She killed Triton because she was angry that he murdered his daughter. She's afraid Eamon's evil has infected her and made her a killer, so in a deep depression and moment of self-hatred, Bel hands her badge and gun to Sheriff Griffin and quits her job.

*Things to note. In Autopsy of a Fairytale (Book 1), Alcina Magus was a witch who tried to curse Eamon by making him kill Bel. She stole her victims' hearts to fuel her black magic. In Evidence of a Folktale (Book 5), cast and crew members made a sacrifice to a Deal to make their TV show famous. They killed an old grandmother, and to get revenge, her grandson and werewolf, Ethan Rollo, got a job as a Bajka police deputy so he could kill those responsible when the show came to Bajka to film their next season.

Eamon didn’t bother to hide his frown as he stared through the restaurant window at the back of her head. She couldn’t see him, so he let his emotions seep into his features. He didn’t know how much longer he could maintain the charade, how long he could shove his frustration into its chained box. He was a predator unmatched, a creature unused to faking his approval. Most who crossed him suffered their heads being separated from their necks, but since she was the only human to ever claim power over him, he bit his tongue. He didn’t want to. Lord, how he didn’t want to. He wanted to scream, to let her have it, to shake sense into her, but instead, he shoved the monster down and smiled. Never had a smile tasted so bitter.

The object of his stalking checked her phone, clearly wondering why he’d yet to arrive, and with a grumble deep in his chest, he forced the frown to transform into an expression she wouldn’t start a fight over.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” He slid his hand along her back and kissed her cheek, the woman stiffening at the unexpected touch until she registered the depths of his voice.

“I wasn’t waiting long,” Bel said, either ignoring his irritated undercurrent or believing his acting enough to trust that nothing was wrong.

“Oh, good.”

“I ordered for us, though,” she said. “I have to get back to work, and you always eat the same sandwich here.”

“Perfect.” He accepted her extended hand, hating how much he hated the falseness dancing between them. This wasn’t Isobel Emerson. His girlfriend was a ferocious detective who could hand him his own ass, but this newly sanitized Bel Emerson was a stranger he didn’t care to make too welcome.

“How was work?” he asked as if he were addressing a skittish animal. Maybe he should frighten her. It was the only thing he hadn’t tried in the months since she quit her job at the Bajka Police Department.

“Oh gosh, it’s going to be so fun.” Bel smiled at their waiter as he delivered their sandwiches. “The committee is partnering with the neighboring towns to run a haunted house contest for Halloween. Local businesses have agreed to donate prizes for the winners, and all ticket sales will go to benefit our communities. Homeowners have to submit their design plans, and we’ll select the strongest concepts. Once approved, they’ll start the builds, and the goal is to create houses so terrifying that we pull in traffic from other cities. Make it a holiday destination. You should see the ideas people are submitting. They are so cool… expensive, though. Too bad you don’t like public attention. You would single-handedly win if you entered the Reale Estate.”

“It seems unfair to enter a contest when I’m actually something that goes bump in the night,” he smirked around his food, choosing to ignore the fact that he welcomed no one—human or otherworldly—into his home save the brunette across the table from him, her tiny beast, and the mortals she loved.

“I know.” Bel shrugged. “It wouldn’t be fair. You wouldn’t even need to decorate. You’d win just sitting there.”

“Thanks.” He rolled his eyes.

“What?” She froze, iced tea halfway to her lips. “You’ve never been quiet about the fact that you’re evil. Just not the evil I seek.”