Jake’s fate would have to remain a mystery. If she asked a follow-up question, Karl would answer it. He seemed to find nothing unusual about carrying on a mundane conversation with her, a person he hadn’t seen in a decade, while he was on the ground and she was on a roof three stories up.

“I don’t see Jake. Mr. Andersen, I need some help. I’m stuck up here. My ladder seems to have gone missing.”

“Missing?” He looked around, again in a comically exaggerated fashion. “How can a ladder go missing?”

“I don’t know. I thought maybe it blew over, but I don’t see it at all. I guess someone took it?”

“Not in Moonflower Bay.”

That was the problem with this town. Everyone acted like it was the magical land of Oz, except with mermaids instead of Munchkins. Eve didn’t bother to rein in her eye rolling since Karl couldn’t see her eyes from down there. “Regardless, I had a ladder, and now I don’t. I’m stuck. Any chance I could borrow one from the store?”

“You’re awfully high up there, Eve Abbott. You’re going to need a serious extension ladder to get down.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “I would be in your debt.”

“I’d better call the fire department.”

“Oh, don’t do that!” She had visions of Moonflower Bay’s single engine pulling up to the Mermaid, sirens blaring. That would be the end of her get-in-and-get-the-hell-out-of-Dodge plan. As it was, she’d been spotted, and Karl’s gossip network would work fast. “They’re volunteers! They don’t need to be pulled from whatever they’re doing when a ladder will—”

“I’ll call the police chief,” he said, more to himself than to her, as he turned away. “Chief Collins will know what to do.”

Chief Collins?

Yes. She could totally see that being a thing.

But also: no. A thousand times no. Eight hundred million times no. In addition to the fact that she was wearing yoga pants so old and ratty that they were almost transparent and a T-shirt that said, “Keep Calm and Ask A Librarian,” there was also the part where she hadn’t seen He Who Shall Not Be Named for ten years.

Also, you know, the part where the last time she had seen He Who Shall Not Be Named, he’d had his tongue down Jeannie Wilkerson’s throat on the Mermaid Christmas float in the parade.

Her hands started shaking enough that she probably should be concerned about her ability to climb down a ladder, but no way was she letting Karl call the police. She would rather have the actual Voldemort rescue her.