Mermaid Reef

With a sullen face, the police officer followed the fisherman and left the tavern.

Plates were askew, and leftover boiled beans rolled on the wooden counter.

The tavern owner didn't clean it up. He was like a petrified statue. From the moment he heard the word "strange reef", he maintained a terrified expression and remained motionless until a biting cold wind blew in from the door.

The tavern owner shivered suddenly, grabbed a rag to wipe his hands, then strode out of the counter, grabbed a tape raincoat hanging on the wall, and was about to go out.

"and many more."

John hastened to speak out.

Only then did the tavern owner remember that there was another person in the "family", his brows furrowed deeply, apparently worried about leaving a stranger in the tavern.

John immediately said: "I want to visit Dr. Abel, or the fisherman who rescued me yesterday. I want to find something that washed ashore. There may be my personal belongings in it."

The tavernkeeper said gruffly, "Come back before dark."

He picked up a pair of rubber rain boots from the door and threw them to John, and pulled an apron-like black felt cloth from the kitchen, which almost covered John's head.

"Put on!"

The attitude of the tavern owner seems to be bad, but he is actually afraid that John will get sick from the cold wind.

John understands the indifferent and "rude" way of socializing of the Nordic people, so after he hugged something, he thanked him sincerely.

On the contrary, the owner of the tavern is a little uncomfortable with the "reasonableness" of foreigners.

"...Dr. Abel's clinic is on the hillside behind the town. It's easy to find, just next to the church."

The tavern owner watched John frantically "put on" his clothes and rubber shoes, then picked up the door panel and stuffed it back into the door frame, and then continued to say while locking the door, "I suggest you go to Dr. Abel, and he will tell you who yesterday Found you at the beach."

After speaking, the tavern owner strode away along the street.

John stood where he was.

Now he has two paths in front of him, one is to follow the advice to find Dr. Abel, the other is to follow the tavern owner to the seaside to see the "strange reef" rising from the bottom of the sea.

In fact, these two options are not contradictory. John can follow the tavern owner first, and then go to the doctor.

but……

John didn't come to solve the case, and there was no client and bank check behind him to force him to find out these abnormal situations.Although this shipwreck was very strange, and the doctor Jason who appeared last night was even more bizarre, but John smelled danger.

An eerie aura.

John used to rely on this keen intuition to avoid some difficult commissions and avoid the bad luck of being involved in the vortex of trouble.

There was even a colleague who took over the commission that John rejected, and disappeared mysteriously three months later. It is still unknown whether he is dead or alive.Anyway, the house rented by that colleague was quickly taken back by the landlord, and his relatives and friends never saw this person again.

That was still in London.

One of the busiest cities in the world.

What now?A seaside town with only one doctor?

John rubbed his slightly painful forehead, and quickly began to formulate goals and plans.

"First of all, go to a person of status in this town. It can be a priest or a doctor. They should be easier to talk to than the mayor and police officer.

"Then ask this gentleman to write a letter confirming that I am shipwrecked, so that I can send a telegram to another town, port, or post office.

"Finally find a way to collect supplies, investigate the situation around the town, and leave here as soon as possible."

John felt that the difficulty was concentrated in the last step. Both Dr. Jansen and the police officer of Arson mentioned that the bridges and roads outside the town were washed away by the flood.

Do you want to borrow a fishing boat and paddle away from here?

No no, next time he must go to a big port and find a big enough ship.

"Crack."

Thoughts were interrupted, John looked up.

A gust of wind blew up the sign at the entrance of the tavern.

It was a sign in the shape of a wine barrel tied with a thin iron chain, and a row of letters surrounded the wine barrel.

"Old Jack's Tavern".

The signboard was blown by the wind, and a yellow leaf covered with rainwater, which was stuck behind the signboard, was swept up into the sky by the wind and flew to the north.

Looking in that direction, John happened to see several buildings on the higher hillside.

One of them is the church, with a gray and white exterior wall and a black cross on the spire.

***

The gray sky, though not raining, was terribly dark.

The hillside is bare, with gray-brown rocks everywhere, and only some weeds grow sporadically in the gaps.

Now these weeds are all wilted, and a layer of hoarfrost has formed on the leaves.

The hoarfrost extended along the windward side of the hillside all the way to the gravel road in front of the church.

A pair of well-made English patent leather shoes appeared very inappropriately on this rough gravel road. Its owner wore a long gray traveling cloak and held a black umbrella in his hand.

The umbrella hides the man's face.

He walked towards the church with unhurried steps.

Hoarfrost spread silently with his footsteps, climbing up the gray-white exterior wall of the church.

This church is not tall, and the outer wall has been mottled and peeled off for a long time, revealing the brown-black stones under the paint. After they are covered with hoarfrost, they actually glow with a sense of rebirth that goes back in time.

The wind blowing from the sea was stronger.

A yellow leaf, a leaf from a tavern sign, fluttered here and fell straight on the black umbrella.

The umbrella tilted slightly, revealing a handsome and impressive face.

Had John been here, he would have recognized immediately that it was "Dr. Jansen" whom he had met in the tavern last night.

Jason walked into the church.

***

on the streets of the town.

John wrapped himself tightly in the black felt the tavernkeeper had given him.

Strange, it wasn't so cold when I went out just now.

Although this is Iceland, the temperature should not be so low. You must know that it is September.

John was on his way while observing the surrounding situation.

The town is full of stagnant water, the houses are old and the shops are basically closed.

Because of the higher terrain, the blocks near the hillside have the deepest water only reaching the calves. The water is very turbid and has a biting chill.

No one can be seen on the street at all.

Several times John has caught himself being watched from behind the curtains.

When he looked over, the people hiding in the room just stared at him without covering up.

"..."

This is strange.

From what John knew of Icelanders, they didn't care who you were or where you came from, seeing a stranger was like seeing air.

Although they don't welcome foreigners, they don't maintain much hostility either.Except, of course, the police officers in charge of law and order.

The behavior of hiding in the house and peeping like this is very bizarre.

More often than not, they have absolutely no interest in strangers.

John thought as he walked.

Those eyes were glued to him, and he could distinguish the emotions of doubt, vigilance, and scrutiny from the faces of those people. He was like an uninvited guest, breaking in at an inappropriate time, arousing the owner's attention and displeasure.

Since it was not a malicious stare, John could only ignore these gazes as much as possible.

The town seems to have been lively in the past, with all kinds of shops, and a lot of warehouses.

The streets are also wide enough for two horse-drawn carriages to drive side by side, which is rare in the same town.

The bustle and bustle has become history. The shops facing the street were either abandoned or transformed into residential houses. The original glass windows were nailed with wooden boards, and the signboard at the door was removed, leaving only an empty pole.

John turned his head suddenly, waded through the standing water, and came to the door of a shop that was still open.

A handwritten poster was pasted on the glass window:

“Best meatloaf in Black Lagoon, limited supply.”

John was not hungry, he had no money in his pocket, and it was the words on the poster that caught his attention.

Black Lagoon.

John's expression became very ugly.

He hurried forward, focusing on the signboards and posters with handwriting.

However, half of the shops in the town do not have names. They only hang signboards in the shape of wine barrels, bread, scissors, and hammers at the door to indicate the business scope of the shops. The other half have names, and they will not write the name of the town on purpose. .

After running for a long time, John finally saw a large iron sign at the door of an old warehouse, which clearly said, "Black Lagoon Fisheries and Trade Council".

John stared at the sign as if doubting his own eyes.

He took a deep breath, and subconsciously reached out to touch his pocket, wanting to light a cigarette, but it was a pity that he couldn't find it.

In the pocket of John's original coat, there were a pack of cigarettes, a knife, a piece of wire, and a letter from the client to Mr. Conor.

The recipient of this letter lives in Black Lagoon Town.

That's right, the place John was supposed to come to was precisely this small town that was hard to find on the map.

John didn't find out until now.

Because since he woke up, no one has mentioned this matter.

Old Jack, the owner of the tavern, didn't even intend to introduce himself. He promised Dr. Abel to take care of John, just to take care of John, not to chat.

Police officer Arson is not a hospitable person either, he will introduce the local customs to John, and he will only warn foreigners to be quiet.

As for that mysterious visitor, Dr. Jason...don't mention it.

"It's impossible. When I accepted the commission, I didn't feel any danger."

John has a headache.

Could it be that Iceland was too far away, and when he received the commission in London, his intuition alarm failed?

The West Wind was supposed to dock at High Light Harbor 50 nautical miles (note) away from Black Reef Town, and John had to take another public carriage to reach this remote seaside town.

As a result, the storm tore up the entire ship, and John was sent directly to the terminal by the waves?

John: "..."

Saved on the stagecoach fare, but lost all his luggage and almost drowned in the sea.

Totally not worth it!

And this is not an ordinary town at all, from the mysterious visitor in the tavern last night to the weird atmosphere in the town today, and the strange reef that the fishermen talked about, it makes people feel chills down their backs.

Do you want to give up this commission?

No, John thought bitterly, he needed the money.

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The author has something to say:

Note: nautical mile, a unit of distance, here is about 90 kilometers, but the sea route distance≠land distance

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John Pain: I'm so hard, I'm so poor

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The Three Misconceptions of Investigators

1. It's all a coincidence

2. I still have a chance

3. I will not be so unlucky