“So you see, the giant blue cryptid turned out to be a really big human with blue painted toenails. Uncovering this, I hightailed it out of there via the rope I came down on because, you know, they were still *Big Feet*. Case closed. I file that one under Solved like all the rest of its kind.
“And so, Ms. Brown, I can tackle any case like that, debunk it in, say, 3 days tops. Like yours. What was it, underwater sighting in that tunnel over in the inland sea? 2 days for that. First off, it was probably a costume, probably someone you even know. Who reported this to you?”
“Well, um. My brother actually. He’s a, er, shapeshifter himself.”
“Shapeshifter, phtt,” Roberts dismissed the word outright. “No such thing.”
“I’ve seen him — it.”
“People see many things and interpret it their own way. The planet Venus becomes a UFO, The Moon turns into the face of a vanilla rapist hiding behind some trees. It goes on and on. I hate to be the one to burst your bubble–.”
“About Bigfoot, then,” hastens Charlene, having to get back to the records store by 3 when assistant Devon’s shift is over. “The Nawt Vaya one.”
“Ah, Nawt Vaya,” Roberts mouths the location. “Forgot the name for it. Clever.” She thought of Alamo and Arizona, smelly, salty inland sea transmuted to clean, freshwater one. Probably worth it despite the lowering of resolution.
“How much to, er, find out the truth?”
Roberts thinks of Wanda’s boat that must remain afloat, along with the business itself. Cases were kind of coming in slower than usual right now because of the aftermath of the flood. She reviews what Charlene Brown has told her. She runs a records store in a place called The Burg. Doesn’t sound like much money in that. But before, she says she worked as an adjunct faculty member of a local university. Studying cryptids of all things. Her research parallels some of mine. No real proof for any of it. She’s thinking about making a film of the subject to reenter the field, mostly emphasizing the debunking, throw in some loose ends here and there. Loose ends, she would admit if pressed, that she too has about the existence of bigfoot. Could this particular one — represent a loose end? After all, Charlene is pretty seasoned on the subject. In all likelihood not, but…
“No charge,” Roberts decides, making Charlene crack a smile. She’d have to sell a lot of records to level up to her standard fees, Roberts thinks. But the movie — she could ask for a role in it, recoup the cost that way and then some; help emphasize the debunking aspect as most paying customers would expect; help organize the financial backing along those lines. “Now: tell me more about this film.”
(to be continued)
Sunklands 