The old souvenir stall by the quay was gone now, but its faded signboard still leaned inside a shed: Serpent Line Keepsakes. Even after all these years, the sight of it filled Nora with disgust and anger. It reminded her how eagerly some people had dressed grief up as folklore, at the cost of other people’s misery.
That history was why she nearly dismissed Eli Mercer the moment he came to Maggie’s door with his drone footage. For one hard second, she thought this was just another version of the same ugliness—another trick, another thrill, another excuse to wake up the village’s old appetite for the gruesome.