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Newt didn’t resist as Tommy jerked him out of the back seat of the Crown Vic. The whole drive over, Newt had blubbered about how he didn’t do it. Tommy had arrested the wrong man, Newt insisted. Tommy wanted to believe it, too. He’d known Newt far too long to believe that he would do something this horrendous.
Quiet now, Newt marched dutifully ahead of Tommy into a thankfully-empty waiting area, then through the glass doors into the bullpen. Tommy could feel confused eyes burning into him as he made his way back to an interrogation room. Most of these cops had known Newt their whole lives, and, though he could hardly be considered perfect, he’d never been paraded around in handcuffs before.
The small interrogation room was a converted supply closet, boasting none of the trappings of the fancier ones on TV. The door contained the only window. A camera peered down from the corner, recording everything that transpired. Tommy had always viewed that camera as a boon, but the urge to beat the truth out of Newt made it feel more like a liability today.
Tommy pushed Newt down into a wooden chair, slung his jacket on the back of the other, and paced back and forth across the tiny room.
“You understand your rights?” Tommy asked. “You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to.”
He’d gone through the formal list before shoving Newt in the car, but getting it on record seemed prudent. If Newt had done something to Stacy, Tommy couldn’t afford to let him get away with it on a stupid technicality.
“Yeah, of course,” Newt said. “Don’t need no lawyer, Tommy.”
Tommy felt somewhat certain that Newt absolutely needed a lawyer, but he didn’t really care whether Newt made wise choices so long as they were clearly his choices.
Tommy stopped his pacing, unbuttoned the cuffs on his sleeves, and rolled them up to his elbows, trying to sort through his approach. He could call in some help, but it wasn’t uncommon for initial interrogations to be done by solo detectives. Cape Madre didn’t have the resources to do everything in pairs.
“What’d you do to Stacy?” Tommy asked, a little more bluntly than he would have liked. He resumed his pacing.
“I didn’t do nothin’ to her, Tommy. Bark did.”
Tommy stopped. In the entire car ride over, Newt had insisted his innocence, but this was the first time he’d mentioned Bark. Tommy couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it. If Cape Madre bothered to recognize a Citizen of the Year, Fred “Bark” Barker would be an automatic nominee, and eventual winner.
“Seriously, Newt?” Tommy asked, sliding into the chair across the table. “You expect me to believe that? Why would Bark be at your house?”
“He was looking after that boy,” Newt said, leaning forward in his chair and clasping his cuffed hands in front of him. “Tanner.”
Tommy felt his face blanch. A headache started creeping across his temples.
“You’re gonna have to give me more than that, Newt. None of this makes sense.”
Newt licked his lips, glanced up at the camera and then back at Tommy. “Bark found the boy. After... you know. The incident. Floatin’ in the water out there. Brought him back in. Needed somewhere to keep him, so he asked to use my old place out there. I agreed. We had to keep him safe. Had to make sure he didn’t go do what Joe did, ya know?”
“No,” Tommy replied. “I don’t know, Newt. Explain it to me.”
“Well, I mean, we coulda brought him in or let him go, or something. Been heroes, I suppose, but that wouldna done him no good. He would’ve just found a way back out there. To see her.”
“See who?”
Newt kept rambling without answering the question. “It was Bark who figgered it out. After Joe. Once you spend some time with her, you just kinda wanna go see her again. She’s beautiful. In all my years on the water, I ain’t seen nothing so beautiful. So, I get it. I understand why people wanna see her again, but with Joe it just kinda took him over, ya know? And Bark was worried this Tanner kid would do the same thing.”
Rolling over so easily had become Newt’s MO. Every time Newt ran into the law, he became a fountain of platitudes and promises. Still, Tommy felt uneasy at how quickly Newt wanted to spill the beans on this particular issue.
“Are you talking about the kraken, Newt?” Tommy asked.
“Um. I suppose so? Is that what you call it? She don’t have a name, I don’t guess, so that’s as good as any. She lives out there, Tommy. That water belongs to her. We’re just borrowin’ it.”
Krakens. Boys thought dead. Stacy. Joe. It all swam around in Tommy’s head, the facts crashing into each other like angry waves. Could any of this even be remotely true? Or was Newt telling stories to save his own ass? The latter seemed more likely, but Tommy had seen a lot of weird stuff in Cape Madre in recent days.
“So, you’re saying Bark has Tanner and Stacy?” Tommy asked.
“Yessir. The both of’em. Took’em out on the Mayhem I reckon, but he didn’t tell me where he was headed. He just had to get out of there, ya know.”
No more time for talking. Not until Tommy made sure that the coast guard dispatched their only Cape Madre-based ship to find Stacy. They were already looking for Tanner, so it wouldn’t be out of their way.
Tommy stood from his chair, leaving his coat behind as he opened the door. Before he could step foot into the hallway, he heard shouting across the bullpen.
“Just let me talk to Detective Wallace!”
He’d only seen Miriam Brooks calm and collected, but he still recognized her voice through the panic. The desk officer, Grabowski, held his hands out in front of him to keep Miriam from moving farther into the bullpen. She stopped trying when her eyes locked onto Tommy’s. She cocked her head towards Grabowski, silently begging Tommy to call off the enforcer.
Tommy let the interrogation room door shut behind him with a bang, as he rushed over to the commotion. “I got this, Grabowski.”
“You sure, detective?”
“I’m sure,” Tommy replied as he cast a sideways glance towards Miriam. “Ms. Brooks won’t cause any trouble.”
Through the glass door, Tommy saw a pale-faced Macy Donner rocking back and forth in a chair.
“I think I know where Tanner is,” Tommy said before Miriam could launch into whatever news she brought with her.
Whatever her mission, Tanner neutralized her urgency. “He’s alive?”
“I think so. I need to get the coast guard after him. Can you just hold on here? One second? I’ll be right back. I promise.”
Though she looked unsure of the agreement, Miriam nodded, and stayed put.
A quick glance told Tommy that his chief sat behind her desk, happily typing away on her keyboard and ignoring the drama unfolding in her bullpen. She never liked the drama. And she certainly wasn’t going to like this.
***
The adrenaline of a good argument coursed through Tommy as he stepped out of the chief’s office. He’d won, though. The coast guard would be immediately dispatched to search for Madre’s Mayhem. And the bigger coup — Tommy got permission to bring on a monster hunter.
Miriam hadn’t moved from her spot, blocking the door out of the bullpen with her arms wrapped defiantly around her chest.
When he got to her, Tommy tried to sound upbeat. “You’ve just been deemed a subject matter expert, Ms. Brooks. Ever participated in an interrogation before?”
Her mouth curled up into a faint smile. “Um. Not really.”
“That’s okay. You’ll catch on.”
He motioned with his head for her to follow. She did so, after briefly sharing a perplexed look with Macy. Tommy escorted her to the interrogation room, let her in, then slid a chair from the corner so that the two of them could sit side-by-side across from Newt.
Newt sat with his head hung low, his foot tapping against the shiny linoleum.
Tommy started. “Okay, Newt. This is Miriam Brooks. She’s an... expert on sea life. I’m going to need you to tell her what you know.”
Newt didn’t look up before mumbling, “I ‘member her.”
“Tanner’s alive?” Miriam asked.
“Yes’m. Bark has him.”
“And why didn’t he bring him in. To the hospital?” Tommy asked.
Newt looked up at Tommy before dropping his head again, which Tommy took as a protest of the repeated question. But Tommy wanted Miriam to hear this for herself. He wanted to know whether it meant something. Whether it fit with whatever crazy theory she had about the kraken.
Newt regarded Miriam, his eyes dark and wet. His sharp, narrow face seemed older now, resigned and exhausted. He steepled his fingers in front of him, the handcuffs rattling against the cheap, wooden table.
“To make sure,” Newt answered.
Tommy egged him on. “To make sure of what?”
“That she hadn’t changed him like she did us.”
“And who is ‘she’, Newt?”
Newt swallowed hard. His lip quivered as he tried to speak, but then he stopped and folded his fingers in from the steeple, as if to say a prayer before he answered.
“She don’t have no name. But you call her the kraken, I guess?”
Miriam leaned forward, enthralled. Tommy studied the faces of both Newt and Miriam in turn, confident that Newt wouldn’t let the silence hang.
“She attacked us. Bark. Joe. Ol’ Newt here. And then she let us go. It took a while at first, ya know, before either of us realized what was going on and even still, I don’t really understand it. Bark thinks he does. He made the connection and finally understood after what happened to Joe. See, he tried to keep Joe from her. Thought it’d be better that way. But it was worse. Way worse. Joe wouldn’t quit.”
“Wouldn’t quit what?” Miriam asked, strangely confident for someone who’d never participated in an interrogation before. Whatever panic she’d brought into the room had already begun to give way to curiosity.
“Trying to get to her,” Newt answered. “To... help her, I guess? Hell, I dunno how it all works. She needs us. We gotta take of her. Make sure she eats. Stays healthy.”
“Help her? She tried to kill you. Why would you help her?” Miriam asked, clearly exasperated.
“Well, I... because...” Newt stopped suddenly, his eyes searching the room, looking for the solution to a question he couldn’t answer.
“Where’s Tanner?” Miriam demanded, changing the subject.
Newt refocused, the confusion of the previous question evaporating from his face. “Bark has him, like I said. On the Mayhem, I suppose. Though I don’t for sure.”
Miriam slid back in her chair and stood up, looking at Tommy. “We have to go get him. Now!”
Tommy held up a hand. “I’ve already dispatched the coast guard. They’re redirecting to go find him right now.”
“I need to be there with them!” she yelled into the tiny room.
“Ms. Brooks,” Tommy said calmly. “They’re trained to apprehend vessels out on the ocean. They’ll find him. They will save him. But I need you here now. To figure this out.”
Her eyes narrowed as she processed his plea. Tommy could tell it took a lot of willpower for her to slink back into her chair. Before she could change her mind, Tommy urged Newt on. “Why do you take care of her, Newt?”
He shook his head, as if answering would be painful. “I dunno, Tommy. I dunno. I dunno. I told you. We just have to. She’s alone. She needs us.”
“Did Bark feed him Emma’s friend?” Miriam asked out of the blue.
Tommy assumed she meant Hannah Huang, but his mind instead went to Justin’s cold, sawed-off leg sitting on the table at the ME’s office. Miriam had posited that maybe it’d been detached as fodder for the kraken, but Bark? Surely Bark hadn’t done that.
“Maybe,” Newt said. “I dunno, really, but I know that he doesn’t wanna do that. He just wants to keep the city safe, ya know. We both do. That’s all we want and to do that we need to keep her out in the deeper water. Away from the beach. She came too close. Bark had to do something to keep her out there. To protect her. To protect us. To protect Cape Madre.”
Tommy cleared his throat. Was this what Miriam had come to tell him? That Bark had murdered two co-eds and fed them to a giant sea creature? He wondered how she could possibly know that. He hadn’t known her long, but he suspected that perhaps Miriam Brooks had done a bit of sleuthing of her own.
So maybe it was all related, after all. It seemed unbelievable, but the facts were starting to align. The kraken attacked Emma, and for some reason Bark thought he could keep it from happening again by feeding it Justin? And probably Hannah? Though Tommy struggled to believe that Bark could murder anyone, if it meant saving Cape Madre, then perhaps Tommy could see it. That might be enough to push Bark over the edge.
“Help us out, Newt,” Tommy said. “You help us catch Bark and sort all this out, and I’ll make sure it all falls on him.”
“I have been helping, Tommy,” Newt stammered. “I don’t wanna see this end bad.”
Frustrated and tired, Tommy slammed his fist into the wooden table, causing both Miriam and Newt to jump. “Then tell me the truth, Newt! What the hell is going on here?”
Newt bumbled and mumbled and shook his head, tears welling up and spilling across his dark cheeks. Like Tommy, Newt was frustrated. Confused.
“I dunno, Tommy,” Newt blubbered. “I really don’t know. I don’t know why he took Stacy. He was just trying to keep the boy safe, ya know. Stacy must’ve come over? He didn’t tell me, honest! But Bark don’t want no trouble. I don’t want no trouble.”
Tommy leaned forward, feeling the rage getting the better of him. Newt had to know more. Tommy couldn’t believe the facts as they’d been laid out in front of him. Newt was being irrational. He seemed confused, yes, but maybe that was all an act. Newt acted almost like a victim.
A hand lightly touched his bare forearm and Tommy felt himself almost instantly cool off. He looked towards the young girl beside him, her eyes begging him to calm down. It seemed out of place and surreal that Miriam could so quickly regain her cool, but she sat there collected and serene, despite the fact that Tanner was in real danger. Just like Stacy.
“Hey, Detective,” Miriam said. “He’s clearly upset. Maybe we take a break?”
For someone with no experience with interrogations, Miriam read the situation surprisingly well. Tommy nodded and stood up, promising Newt that they’d be back.
***
Tommy poured the scalding coffee down his throat and hardly noticed the burn. He needed caffeine fast, but he also needed something to do while he worked through Newt’s interrogation and everything that Miriam had just revealed. He believed her, even though he didn’t want to. Somehow, for some reason, Bark had gotten mixed up with this kraken, and it had led him to murder.
It seemed consistent at least, even if it didn’t make sense. Memories of Joe turned Tommy’s stomach, forcing him to make the connections. Joe acted weird, too. No murders, but he’d become a different person. A person that neither he nor Stacy recognized. The same thing must’ve happened to Bark. Maybe to Newt.
And Emma?
Tommy made a mental note to send some uniforms to her hotel to keep an eye on her. Though, she hadn’t seemed particularly interested in the kraken when he’d last spoken to her.
“I helped you, Detective,” Miriam said from across the small round break-room table. “Now you help me. Get me out there to find Tanner. To hunt this kraken.”
Tommy wasn’t sure she’d helped him much at all. Not yet. But some part of him still believed Miriam would be useful in stopping the madness descending on Cape Madre.
“Call me Tommy,” he said. “And I already told you. The coast guard’s on it.”
“They might be able to find Bark, but they won’t stand a chance against the kraken.”
Miriam’s single-minded focus made Tommy uncomfortable. Was she any better than Bark or Newt or Joe? Maybe she’d never been influenced directly by the kraken, but it just didn’t make sense to him that someone would be so foolhardy. The coast guard had guns and training. Miriam Brooks seemed to have nothing but tenacity.
“It’s late,” Tommy said with a sigh. “I’m tired. You’re tired. You and Macy go back to the hotel. Get some sleep. I promise, I will let you know the minute I hear something.”
Miriam stood and glided out of the office without a reply. Though he’d only been a detective for a little while, Tommy could tell when someone meant to break the law. Miriam would go for Tanner at whatever the cost. He figured someone should probably stop her.
As he filled up a second cup of black coffee, Tommy decided that it wouldn’t be him.
