The Women of Whale Rock

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Whale Rock’s sheriff, Dan Retsler, considers himself a practical man. But he has no explanation for the horrible deaths that take place on his beach. Nor does he know why so many locals fear the sea. The answer lies in legends of mermaids—not the pretty kind, but the kind that lure sailors to their deaths. Retsler doesn’t believe in them, but nothing quite explains the women he sees, near the beach when he investigates a friend’s sudden and tragic death.

“Fantasy creatures and paranormal powers in a great writing style.”
—The Best Reviews on Fantasy Life

Like early Ray Bradbury, Rusch has the ability to switch on a universal dark.
—The Times (London)

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Nov 8, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452329666

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

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The Women of Whale Rock

Copyright © 2014 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

First published first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March, 1999

Published by WMG Publishing

Cover and Layout copyright © 2014 by WMG Publishing

Cover design by Allyson Longueira/WMG Publishing

Cover art copyright © Kathy Gold/Dreamstime

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This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

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THE GULLS SWARMED over the Sandcastle hotel. Whipping and diving and cawing to their fellows, they looked like something out of Daphne Du Murier’s The Birds, a novelette more sinister and terrifying than anything Hitchcock ever produced.

Charles watched from his deck. The morning breeze was harsh and smelled of salt. He still wore his silk pajamas. Rain the night before had left the wood damp and cold. His ancient tattered slippers, the ones Grace had given him before she died, were getting wet.

Grace and gulls. He closed his eyes, knowing what the night would bring. Then he shook off the thought, hoping, this time, he would have the resolve to let it end.

Charles opened his eyes and rested his hands on the damp rail. The swarming had grown worse. Nearly a hundred birds flocked to that tiny section of beach.

There was no way he would go down there.

At least, not alone.

He sighed, went inside, and called Dan Retsler.

***

Dan Retsler was scanning the Oregonian as he stood near the window of the police department. The window overlooked Highway 101, the main thoroughfare down the Oregon Coast. Every morning, Retsler scanned the newspaper and the street simultaneously. In the summer, he would be the primary witness to petty thefts, tourists running red lights, and the occasional fender-bender.

His police department had a staff of three, not counting the dispatcher. He put two officers on at night. During the day, he and a lone officer could handle the problems with the help of the dispatcher. The dispatcher, one Miss Lucy Wexel, had been with the department since Retsler was a teenage hoodlum at Taft High School. He doubted she was any different when she was hired than she was now. She chewed gum, talked tough, and believed her work safe-guarded the mean streets of Whale Rock for yet another day.

The phone rang and she answered. Then she stabbed the hold button with a stubby finger, and paused to take a draw from her cigarette before facing him. Smoke curled around her face, making her look like someone’s kindly grandmother instead of the hardest woman he had ever known.

Charles Bishop, she said, and from her tone Retsler knew what the call was about.

He wound around the gun-metal desks to the small cubicle he called an office. Then he grabbed the receiver