I Taught a Siren to Court... Then Became His Mate novel · Chapter 20 of 32
Chapter 20: Rockland
The state hearing was two days later, in Rockland.
Margie came with me on the morning ferry in a clean flannel shirt, with her braid pinned up.
"You look like you're going to a funeral," I said.
"I'm going to a fight," she said. "Same clothes."
The hearing room was on the second floor of a state office building near the harbor.
Gray carpet, a flag, a long table, and a hearing officer with reading glasses on a chain.
Barrows had brought two lawyers from Boston.
They had matching leather folders and matching haircuts.
Barrows sat behind them, in his fleece, and nodded to me like we were colleagues.
I had a laptop, a folder of spectrograms, and Margie.
The hearing officer read the petition into the record.
Two hundred and eleven names, with the board's letter of support.
Then she looked at me over her glasses.
"Ms. Colcord. Tell me what's in that cove."
I told her.
Not the tail. Not the cave.
The song.
I put the spectrograms on the screen, one after another.
Nine months of nights from the ledges, and then three weeks from my own three hydrophones, every one timed and logged.
The same low structure, two to four every morning, never once missing.
"It isn't whale song," I said. "It isn't seal, or fish, or engine noise. It doesn't match anything in any catalogue. Whatever makes it lives there all year. Nobody has ever studied it."
"And if the station captures it?"
"Then nobody ever will. Not alive."
The hearing officer wrote something down.
The first lawyer stood up.
"Ms. Colcord," he said pleasantly. "How long were you employed by the Gannet Island Marine Station?"
"Two years."
"And who paid for the equipment that recorded these nine months of data?"
"I did. I've got the receipts."
"And who paid your salary while you recorded it?"
Keep reading free with an account. Start I Taught a Siren to Court... Then Became His Mate from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend