“
No one knew,” Pink whispered. “No one else could have known.”
“Somebody knew. I’m thinking the Huntsman.”
“I am the Huntsman!” Pink leaped to his feet and nearly overbalanced. His leg irons were fastened to the floor. He steadied himself on the steel edge of the table, breathing hard. “I am the Huntsman. Me. There is no one else.”
The guard had buzzed open the door, but Jason held up a hand. He threw over his shoulder, “We’re okay here.”
Pink sat down in the chair. He began to rock in a tiny, tight, agitated motion.
“Why mermaids?” Jason inquired.
Pink flicked him a peculiar look but did not answer.
“Well, you probably don’t know that either.”
This time the look Pink cast suggested Jason would be dead if things were different. They were not different, so there was more rocking back and forth.
“Because you’re not the Huntsman,” Jason pressed harder.
“I saw a mermaid once.” Pink stared down at the table.
“Where?” Jason was thinking of Rexford. Pink, who had extensively hunted and fished the area around Kingsfield, would almost certainly be familiar with Rexford. Maybe he’d seen the Fiji Mermaid. Maybe the sight of that grotesquery had sent him off his rocker.
Or maybe he was born with it.
“She had long blue hair,” Pink said. He smiled at the memory. “Down to her waist. And blue and gold scales on her tail. Cute little fins. And her boobs were covered by these two gold shells.”
“Where was this?”
“She stuck her tongue out at me.” Pink was still smiling. “And I thought…some day I’m going to cut that cute little tongue right out of your big mouth, you fucking fish cunt.”
Pink leaned forward to spit out the last three words with unsettling viciousness. Jason didn’t move a muscle, didn’t let anything show on his face.
What he was thinking was, they should have put you down when they had the chance.
“I bet you got that a lot,” he said.
Pink tilted his head. “What’d you say your name was again? Agent North? South? East? West.”
“That’s right,” Jason said. “Special Agent West. I’m in the phone book under F.U. So how do you think this copycat found out about your mermaid? You must have told someone.”
Pink rolled his eyes. Was he being devious, or was he just trying to look like he was being devious? Mostly he just looked unhinged. Granted, that went with the territory.
“He promised,” Pink mumbled. “No one would know. It was our secret. Only the two of us. No one else would ever know.”
Jason asked skeptically, “Who would never know?”
“Him. My disciple.” Pink rose. “Guard!” He thumped the table with his manacled hands. “Guard! We’re done here. Guard!”
Jason stepped away from the table as the guard entered the room.
As Pink was led away his eyes met Jason’s. There was an unholy gleam of laughter in his gaze.
Chapter Eleven
“You think Pink had an accomplice?” Kennedy asked.