Moon Cursed by Lori Handeland Read Free Book Online

words could have come right out of her mouth. Kris felt again the tug of a kindred spirit. She scooted her stool closer to Dougal’s. “For a skeptic, you put forth a pretty good front.”
    “I don’t have a choice. You think anyone would come to a museum that explains all the reasons there isn’t a Nessie?”
    Probably not.
    “You’re familiar with the history of the loch?” Dougal asked.
    She was, but she wanted to hear what he knew. “Enlighten me.”
    “Twenty thousand years ago a glacier skidded through this area.”
    Skid might be pushing it. Glaciers moved pretty “glacially.”
    “Dug quite a few holes and when the ice melted, about ten thousand years later, the land rose and the new waterways separated. Where once Loch Ness may have been part of the North Sea, it was no longer.”
    “Any proof of that?”
    “Remains of sea urchins, clamshells, and the like have been found in the deep sediment of the loch, despite its being a freshwater lake.”
    “Go on.” Kris was intrigued.
    “Some theorize that Nessie is a sea creature that was trapped here when the waterways separated and she’s evolved, adapting to the freshwater.”
    “How could a single creature live that long?”
    “Couldn’t,” Dougal agreed. “Unless there was something supernatural about it.”
    Kris lifted her brows. “You think there is?”
    “No.” Dougal grinned. “But it makes for a very good story.”
    “What about the idea that a herd of these creatures was trapped in Loch Ness?” Kris asked. “A breeding population.”
    “In theory, that would explain the issue of life expectancy. However, a trapped breeding population would end up so inbred that they’d eventually be unable to procreate.”
    “And you’re right back to the life expectancy problem,” Kris said. “What else?”
    “Some say that down where the depths of the water are unknown and uncharted there’s a way out of the loch. That Nessie is, in fact, a group of ancient sea creatures that has adapted to live in both salt and freshwater and despite the extreme cold of the loch they thrive here.”
    “That would take care of the argument that several animals of such size couldn’t survive on the amount of food contained in Loch Ness without significantly and obviously depleting it.”
    “Exactly!” Dougal exclaimed, obviously thrilled that Kris was familiar with all the Nessie factoids. “If there’s a way out, there’s no need to feed while in. ”
    Someone jostled Kris, and she glanced around. The pub was filling up. All the seats were taken. Though Dougal had said this was a local watering hole, quite a few tourists seemed to have found it, too.
    Which might explain why Kris had the sudden sensation of being watched. In a crowd like this, someone had to be staring. She took a surreptitious glance around and caught the gaze of an elderly man at the end of the bar.
    He was tall and very thin, his once-blond hair faded to white. His skin was lined from a lifetime spent outdoors, and his pale blue eyes shone.
    He lowered his chin, an acknowledgment that he’d been staring, then returned his attention to his drink.
    Probably lonely, she thought. He’s gotta be two or three decades older than anyone in here.
    “The passage to the sea creates the possibility of a large breeding population, which also gives an explanation as to why the sightings of Nessie can vary from ten to twelve feet in length to other reports of a thirty- to forty-foot creature,” Dougal continued.
    Kris turned back to her companion. “Baby Nessies.”
    “Yes!” Dougal punctuated his exclamation by downing the rest of his whisky. Kris had given up on hers.
    She cast another glance at the old man, thinking maybe she’d ask him to join them, but he was gone.
    “Sounds like a solid theory,” Kris said.
    “If creatures the size of Nessie can get in, then why haven’t others? Sure, they’d die in the freshwater, but then there’d be bodies. Somewhere. Sometime.”
    “And