Chapter 36

Chapter

Thirty-Six

It was hard to play it cool when Hatcher showed up for morning quarters, breezing in with a smile and a cup of coffee, like nothing had changed. But Lieutenant Commander Griffin wanted to, one, see if he would even show up, and two, observe his behavior with a CGIS agent present. If Hatcher hadn't checked the news, it was possible he didn't know the game was up.

"Agent Bentley from CGIS is joining us today," Lieutenant Commander Griffin announced, his tone light and cordial as he introduced the man standing next to him. "Just need to conference in his colleague, Agent Burke." He punched a number into the station's landline.

The pocket of Hatcher's utility blues lit up, the telltale sound of a vibrating phone filling the silent room. His face went sheet white.

"Go on. Answer it."

The traitor dropped his coffee and ran, but Agent Bentley didn't waste a second sprinting after him. Hatcher didn't get far. Within seconds, the CGIS agent brought him back into the room, wrists cuffed behind his back.

Reid toed the fallen thermos upright, a pool of spilled coffee staining the drab gray carpet. Watching Hatcher get caught didn't bring him the satisfaction he thought it would. He just felt tired. And kind of sad. The anger was still there, of course, but today it was buried under grief.

Beside him, Perez's impassive act fell. She clenched her jaw so hard he could hear her teeth grinding, and tears welled at the corners of her eyes. They hadn't just lost a colleague today, but a friend. Someone they thought they trusted.

Perez hastily swiped a hand over her eyes, before clenching it in a fist at her side. "Hatcher, how could you?"

"The mermaids, they killed my Uncle Flick."

He sounded so small, so lost.

A pang of sympathy came and quickly went. Yes, Hatcher lost a family member and was grieving, but that family member was one of the fishermen hunting merfolk to extinction. Whatever Hatcher knew and loved about his uncle didn't make up for that evil.

Lieutenant Commander Griffin folded his arms, all amicability gone. "Why didn't you come to me and say you knew the captain?"

Hatcher's shoulders sagged. "I thought if I did, I'd get taken off the case, and we'd waste time getting a replacement."

"And Nautic?" Agent Bentley pressed. "How'd you wind up being their informant?"

"I went to a bar my uncle used to frequent." Hatcher stared at the floor, unable to look any of them in the eye. "Got to talking to some of the guys—other Nautic fishermen—and they told me the mermaids were destroying their nets, losing them catch, but this was the first time they'd killed anyone. I just couldn't stand by and let that happen to more people. I had to do something, and the Nautic guys were the only ones being serious about taking action."

"And then?"

"And then, they introduced me to The Seriphus's captain, and he worked out a way for me to help. Just letting him know what we were putting in our reports, and some evidence tampering, too, but I never told him anything about our assets or where they were. That was a hard limit, I swear." Hatcher lifted his head, finally meeting Reid's eyes. "And I never shared anything personal. I just wanted to keep everyone safe."

Everyone but the merfolk.

Was Reid supposed to be grateful for Hatcher's "discretion?"

Fuck tired, fuck sad. Hatcher was just as complicit as the rest of Nautic. He was on the radio when Reid reported what he saw on Gale's Promise . Maybe he didn't know what fucked up shit Nautic had been up to before then, but he certainly did after, and yet he still continued helping them.

It was all Reid could do to keep his voice calm and his feet firmly planted in place. "Do you know what your new fishing buddies and good ol' Uncle Flick did with the bodies?"

"What are you…"

"After Nautic executed them with cattle guns." Reid spoke more slowly, and it was a test of his restraint. All he wanted to do was grab Hatcher by his collar and wring his worthless neck. "Do you know what they did with the bodies?"

"I don't…what, what did they do?"

Lieutenant Commander Griffin swiped a file folder from the desk behind him. Inside, there were printed out pictures of The Seriphus's fish processing hold. He opened it for Hatcher to see, shuffling photo after photo, and to the guy's credit, he didn't turn away from the truth this time. He looked, really looked, first frozen by surprise, then horror.

By the time Lieutenant Commander Griffin closed the folder, tears tracked Hatcher's cheeks.

For what little it was worth, his reaction seemed real.