Free Maid of the Mist by Colin Bateman

then Madeline nudged him and nodded up to the far end of the bar. He saw only a large TV, up in the corner, showing cartoons, but then he realized there was someone sitting both beneath and behind it, almost hidden in the shadows, a position that suggested an enjoyment of the privacy the distraction of the cartoon violence above allowed. They walked a little further up the bar until they were sure it was him. He was nursing a bottle of Budweiser and staring into the distance, at the whisky bottles stacked out of his reach on the other side of the bar.
    Corrigan ordered three beers, then they took seats on either side of him. Corrigan put one of the bottles down before the old Indian. Tarriha's head nodded slowly and he looked wearily at Corrigan, then around at Madeline.
    'What I'm thinking,' Corrigan said quietly, 'based on what little I know about you, is that you're a greedy, grasping old Indian, only interested in where the next dollar is coming from. So what I need to know is why you would disappear when there was six hundred dollars coming your way.'
    His lips barely moved. 'Have I disappeared? I don't think so.'
    Madeline put a hand on his arm. 'Madeline Hume, Channel 4 in Buffalo. Can you tell me what happened to, uh, this Lelewala? Do you know where she is? Why she went over?'
    Tarriha looked to Corrigan. 'Tell your friend to get her hand off my fucking arm.'
    'Get your hand off his fucking arm.'
    Madeline moved her hand. 'I'm sorry, I. . .'
    'Just tell me what she said,' Corrigan said. 'Then I'll give you the cash.'
    'I don't want the cash. I want nothing to do with it. I want to be left alone.'
    This time Corrigan put a hand on his arm. 'We had a deal. If you don't want to be paid for it, fair enough. But we still had a deal. Tell me about Lelewala. Tell me her real name . . .'
    'It is her real name.'
    'OK. Tell me where she lives. What she does. Why she . . .'
    Tarriha pulled his hand away. When he spoke his voice was cold, old, and something about the way his eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed sent a shiver up Corrigan's back. 'She doesn't live anywhere, she doesn't do anything. Don't you understand? She is Lelewala. She's come back.'

16
    It really wasn't any darker in Whiskey Nick's, but suddenly it seemed to be. The air drew in around them, the sports chatter failed, the mad colours reflected off the Bugs Bunny cartoon faded to grey; there was only Madeline and Corrigan and Tarriha. His voice was no longer that of the money-grabbing old cynic Corrigan had first been annoyed by, it was deeper, wiser, age-soaked but not dulled by the march of time. His eyes were focused not on the bar, nor on his small audience, but on the past. His fingers traced invisible outlines on the stained wood of the bar, as if he was dipping his fingers into a pond of memories.
    'She has come back,' he said slowly, 'because there is a great evil abroad.'
    'Evil as in . . .' Madeline began.
    'I don't know. She doesn't know. She is scared. Scared of you, scared of me . . . scared of everything.'
    Madeline leaned forward, catching Corrigan's eye, then looked at Tarriha. 'You don't mean she's literally come back. She hasn't just stepped out of the dark ages.'
    'The dark ages?' Tarriha growled. 'What do you know about dark ages? These are the dark ages.'
    Madeline shook her head. 'I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem that dark in Buffalo.'
    'You do not know the legend of Lelewala?' he said.
    Madeline shrugged: 'Native American Princess goes over Falls. I don't know why.'
    'I will tell you the story.' Madeline started to speak, but Tarriha raised a finger to shush her. 'Sometimes,' he said, 'it is good to listen.'
    Sometimes, Madeline's look said, it is good to meet deadlines. But she shut up. Corrigan took a drink. Tarriha lifted his own bottle and drank. He didn't swallow. Just poured it straight into his stomach. Then he set the bottle down and closed his eyes.
    'Many years before you stole our land,' he began, 'Lelewala lived with her family