Chapter 19: Off the Pier

The whole town stood at the end of the pier with their lanterns held up.

Two hundred paper lights shook in the wind off the water.

Garrick walked me to the trailer and put his hand on the tarp.

"Friends," he said. "Before we toast, let me show you something rare."

He pulled the tarp off with a flourish.

The iron tank gleamed under the lanterns.

Through the glass lid, everyone could see what was inside.

Lachlan lay curled in a foot of gray water.

His arms were burned raw to the elbows.

Seven fresh gaff scars crossed his back.

Tilda lay across his chest, her silver hair matted and her face gray.

The crowd gasped.

Someone said, "That's a girl."

Someone else said, "Garrick, what is that?"

"Iron cure," Garrick said easily. "For the sea-sickness. Don't be alarmed."

"Open it," I said.

"Marnie."

"Open it, so they can see how you cure it."

"I'm afraid I can't."

"Then I will."

I set the canvas tote on the tank lid and took out the ledger.

I held it up in both hands.

"This is Garrick Moss's account book," I said.

My voice carried over the water.

"It's twenty years of mermen and mermaids he's sold, and every scale he's pulled off them, and every buyer who paid."

Garrick laughed.

"A private notebook. She stole it from my safe last night."

"I'll read you the names, then," I said. "Since it's private."

I opened to a page.

I read the first name in the buyer column.

It was the man who ran the Grange hall.

He had stood at the back of the crowd with his hat in his hand.

Two hundred lanterns turned and found him.

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