The sun had come out and driven the fog from the land. It seemed like bitter mockery for the day to be such a pleasant one. On the other hand, the weather had made it easier to get Maude’s body out of the stone fissure. Alistair along some of the other more nimble men of Harren had carried her onto the shore and laid her down on the soft sand. Some of the others who had accompanied them immediately covered her with a linen sheet and spoke prayers for her soul.
Once she was played down with the necessary dignity, the mayor of Harren inquired Alistair as to how he had found the body. Truthfully, he told him everything right before the two priests arrived at the scene. The bystanders, all of them longtime residents of Harren, immediately ceased their murmur and made way for the brothers. Alistair froze up as much as everyone else.
“This is a matter for the bishop now!”, announced the younger of the brothers, called Hamish, with overbearing fervor while his brother Iain kept behind shaking his head.
“The bishop has more important things to do”, the mayor replied stern. “We people of Harren have always dealt with our problems ourselves, and we don’t intend to change this on the whim of two outsiders.”
“This sounds almost like you know the one behind those murders and want to protect whoever it is”, he asked, his cold blue eyes almost bugging out of his skull.
“We still don’t know whether it was a murder or just an accident”, he replied, almost sparking fire from his brown eyes. “Beyond that, I can assure you that no one living for generations here in Harren would hurt one of us!”
“So are you insinuating that an outsider was the culprit? You are hiding something! Maybe it was you?”
“Brother, please calm down”, Iain said tired and placed his hand on his brothers shoulder with an exhausted look. “Nobody gains anything by throwing around baseless accusations.”
“Brother…”, Hamish replied hollow and almost snarled.
For a moment, he looked like he was about to dig his bare hands into his brother’s chest, but after a second, he backed down surprisingly quick. A strange callous smirk played at the corner of his mouth. At the same time, Alistair couldn’t help but smell some strange herbs coming from him. Still, this ought to just be the smell of incense.
“Before we can draw any conclusions, we need to take a look at the body”, Iain continued unbothered and looked over at Maude while pushing his glasses back up his nose.
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“Still, I dare say that she’ll show the same wounds and will have her heart cut out as the others”, his brother continued. “I told you by the time the second death occurred that this was the work of some inhuman beast. It’s beyond time to inform the bishop and call for aid.”
“One step after the other, brother”, he replied calmly and walked over to the body.
With cold detachment, he pulled the soaked cover-up and looked at her. Alistair felt that this was inappropriate and wanted to stop him, but before he could make a single step, he felt the mayor’s hand on his shoulder.
“Come along for a bit”, he told him. “We need to talk.”
“Yes, uncle”, he replied and went long underneath the burning calculating gaze of Father Hamish, while the others remained at an uneasy distance.
“We can’t no longer ignore them, boy”, the mayor told him once they were out of earshot. “If we want to not doom the whole village, we need to play along.”
“But then it will be known that we… You know”, he said, after another uncomfortable glance towards the young priests.
“Yes, there’s the danger our secret will come to light, but this murderer has to be stopped. Besides, if we allow them to inform the bishop without putting up a fight, then we’ve time to prepare and hide the skins. We don’t have any options left. I suspect them to inform the man regardless of our wishes, so all we can do is avoid having them ask further questions.”
“They’re already asking more than I’m comfortable.”
“I understand, but, please, boy, do you want to make them suspicious of you?”
“I didn’t kill anyone!”
“I’m not saying that, but they might think of it. After all, you were the one who also discovered Catriona. And you can’t mention that Aila was the one to find her cousin and led you to her.”
Alistair lowered his eyes to the tips of his boots. To mention, Aila’s involvement in finding Maude was beyond insane. It would immediately show those two that the people of Harren were involved with Selkies. Not to speak of the suspicions, which would fall on her because she wasn’t human and because of what clearly looked like animal bites on the victims.
“Alistair, you may be off age, but you are still like a son to my wife and me since your parents died”, the mayor said with a warm smile and placed his calloused hand on his shoulder. “I’ll see to it that nothing bad will happen to you.”
“Thank you, uncle”, he replied meekly, and looked over to the priests and the body.
“It seems it’s about time we return”, the old man mused as he frowned at the glaring Hamish.
“This is beyond anyone here in Harren”, Father Iain said sternly as they approached him. “The wounds seem to point to something inhuman. We’re going to inform the bishop of this. No matter if you want to or not.”
“This was to be expected”, the mayor said in an agreeable voice. “I, too, wish to find the culprit, but are you certain it is something inhuman?”
“There are wounds that can’t be explained easily, as they point to a large animal like a seal”, he explained. “And I never heard of such animals wielding a knife either.”
That moment, Aila, and her aunt and uncle arrived at the scene. As her aunt saw the covered body, she let out an animal-like cry and ran to the body of her daughter. Alistair went to Aila, whose hair was still wet and smelled like salt and seaweed. She immediately threw herself against him and allowed herself to openly weep. He held her close and shielded her from the all too curious gaze of both priests.
