With a flick of her mermaid's tail, Shelly surfaced from the deep coastal waters holding the dead body of victim number two.

Black garbage bags, held together with yards of duct tape, wrapped around the dead human like a macabre gift package. A cement block dangled from the rope attached to the body. Shelly removed a knife from the leather pouch belted at her waist and sliced through the rope, releasing the block. She plunged her long, sharp nails into one end of the garbage bag, ripped open a layer of plastic and stared into a pair of empty eye sockets.

The killer's signature calling card. News of the previous dead body with missing eyes, dumped weeks earlier in the bayou, still dominated the news media as an unsolved case.

From the tip of her fin to the top of her scalp, an electric surge of fear blazed through her body like a burn. This could have been me. Whether she was on land in human form, or at sea as a mermaid, both worlds were filled with danger.

Miles from shore, she kept afloat by swishing the tail fin beneath her torso. Her gaze froze on the maimed body as her heart pounded in time with each rise and fall of the waves. Seawater pooled in the victim's empty eye sockets like wells of tears. The placid mood of the ocean shifted, as if it resented the violent encounter it was asked to hide. Shelly's arms ached as she struggled to hold the slippery plasticencased body in the turbulent water. Against the waves, the plastic wriggled and slithered like a monstrous black eel.

The abrupt rumble of a boat engine sliced through the humid night air. Shelly jerked and the victim's body skated from her grasp and bobbed beside her in the water. She thought the killer had left, but panic and surprise at the unexpected encounter during her swim had made her careless.

Earlier, she'd been close to her human home, finishing her evening's swim, when a sudden splash sent screaming vibrations rippling through the sea. She'd heard the boat above her on the ocean's surface and watched as the long, cylindrical object sank like a torpedo not twenty yards away. She should have left at once. But she had suspected the foreign object was human, and hoped the human might still be alive.

So Shelly had watched and waited at first. Through the dark ripples, the full moon illuminated a man peering over the side of an old johnboat. She couldn't move as he'd stood there, waiting. Probably making sure the weighted-down corpse wouldn't pop back up, and then the boat had sped away.

Now he was back. estow some dignity and kindness on the dead woman. I'll come back for you, she promised as she placed the body in a wedge between a large outcropping of limestone rocks.

The sharp pain from the tip of her tail fin broke through the shock and grief. She looked down and saw a small stream of blood oozing out in swirling, crimson eddies. The killer's knife had stuck into her fin. Damn. In the split second her tail had been exposed, the killer had managed to stab her. She pulled out the knife and this time the pain was excruciating. Had this been what he used to kill his victims?

I have to stop him.

She forced herself back up through the black depths of water, gripping his weapon in her right hand. Nearing the surface, she found the rusty boat still rocking from her downward dive. Flat-bottomed and only fourteen feet long, the rusted aluminum boat was not the best choice for anything but the calmest of waters. Although the style was popular in the bayou for leisure fishing, and easily navigable in the winding backwaters threading along the bayou shoreline, the killer was out of his element so far from land and with the increased wave action of the sea.

His engine sputtered as the killer tried frantically to restart the old worn-down motor. He was on the scrawny side, but his biceps bulged as he yanked the pull cord over and over.

As the boat's motor sprang to life, the waters churned and roared around her. Too late to knock him overboard now. The motored blades could slice her to pieces if she came too close.

Her fingers gripped the knife's handle in frustration as the boat raced off.

She fought against the instinct to fling it away and leave it on the ocean floor. Maybe the killer's identity could be traced through the weapon.

Certain he was gone, Shelly lifted her torso higher out of the ocean and spotted a dingy white baseball cap floating on the boat's wake. She grabbed it and submerged undersea again.

Home. There she could think, form a plan. And get her cousins' advice.

""Anybody out there?"" Shelly pushed air out of her lungs, sent the vibration of her voice in a compressive wave motion, similar to the high-frequency elocution of dolphins but minus the clicking sound. ""Lily? Jet? "" If they were anywhere near, they'd pick up her message and respond. Underwater sound traveled twice as fast as on land and four times as far.

Shelly strained to hear an answer but only caught the snapping of crab claws and a few toadfish whistles.

She swam home, each flick of her fin sending shooting sparks of pain through her body. Please, no sharks. .