"Huh?" I pushed through the crowd to take a closer look. "Ladies an' gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure tae introduce tae ye, Dr. David Caldwell o' Boca Raton, Florida."

Had I been hooked to Angus's EKG monitor, my thundering heart would have exploded the graph. There was David, waving from behind the podium like some conquering hero, using my accomplishments as his proverbial pedestal.

"Thank you, thank you… my God, what a nice welcome. It's truly an honor to be here in Scotland, working with the Highland Council, and… well, what can I say, I'll do everything in my power to resolve this mystery, once and for all."

"We'll take a few questions, an' then Dr. Caldwell's off tae his hotel."

"Dr. Caldwell, wasn't it, in fact, Dr. Zachary Wallace who caught the giant squid on film?"

"Damn straight," I mumbled, pumping my fists.

David grinned his Cheshire cat smile. "Certainly my former colleague played a role on our team, but I was head of the mission, the one responsible for its success. Dr. Wallace, unfortunately, was more responsible for sinking our submersible."

You son of a—

"Yes, the young lady in that attractive blue blazer."

"Dr. Caldwell, have ye ever even been tae Loch Ness?"

"Not per se, but hey, water's water. If we can find a giant squid in the Sargasso Sea, then we should have no problem finding your plesiosaur."

Idiot …

"How do you know it's a plesiosaur?"

"Well, I—"

"What proof do you have?"

The provost took over before David could shove his other foot in his mouth. "We'll, ah, hold yer questions there. Dr. Caldwell's had a long flight an' needs his rest. Tomorrow mornin', Council will be meetin' tae discuss what we'll do wi' Nessie once we—"

"Hey, David!" My body trembled as I pushed toward the front of the stage.

The crowd encircled me, their cameras still rolling.

David looked down from the podium. "Zack? Jesus, what, uh, what're you doing here? Ladies and gentlemen, my, uh, my colleague and good friend, Dr. Zachary Wallace."

I leaped onto the stage in one adrenaline-enhanced bound. "You mean former colleague, don't you, asshole?" Before he could respond, my right cross smashed him squarely in the face, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

Camera strobes lit the night as I stood over him, my teeth grinding my father's grin. "Welcome tae the Highlands, ye bastard."

It was about 7:30 in the evening and my son, Jim, and I were working in a loch-side field about two kilometers south of Dores when we noticed something moving about halfway across Loch Ness. It was big and black, and I realized after fifteen years of farming I was finally seeing the monster. The Loch was calm and everything was quiet, not a noise anywhere, just this thing moving steadily forward. It was quite eerie.