Hughie Campbell interrogation transcript, dated 5th June 1982, recovered from the private archives of the Dulse Harbour History Museum (DHHM). Original audio recording is claimed to have been missing since at least 1985 from the Dulse Harbour RCMP detachment. Transcriber unknown, as is their motive for redacting certain information. Detective remains unidentified.

Until his death in 2017, Hughie Campbell maintained that no such interrogation had ever taken place. Jennifer MacIvor, named in document alongside her late husband, Rory, vaguely recalls hosting a single male guest from “away” (read: outside the province) in summer 1982, but maintains that her interaction with him was minimal. No records of the guest’s stay are known to exist. It may be noted that Rory MacIvor was serving as a constable at the time.

The current curator of the DHHM claims to have no knowledge of how the transcript came to be in its archives, though local rumor suggests that it was previously kept under lock and key beneath Saint James Anglican Church, to later be donated to the museum by Reverend Gregory Evans (1939 – 2013). The reverend, however, is not on record as having made any mention of this.

(BEGIN TRANSCRIPT)

DETECTIVE
[redacted]:    All right, Hugh, sorry about the wait. Can I get you anything? Some water? Coffee?

HUGHIE
CAMPBELL:   I’m good, thanks. Wasn’t expecting to be here long.         

DETECTIVE:  Ah, probably won’t take too much of your day.

HUGHIE:        Probably, eh?

DETECTIVE:  Sooner we get started the sooner we finish. But if you do need anything, you just let me know.

HUGHIE:        Uh huh.

DETECTIVE:  So I know we spoke a little earlier when you arrived, but could I get you to tell me again about this monster of yours?

HUGHIE:        It’s not mine, since you say it like that. Doesn’t belong to anyone.

DETECTIVE:  [laughs] Can’t belong to anyone when it’s imaginary, eh?

HUGHIE:        Nothing imaginary about it. Misunderstood maybe.

DETECTIVE:  Misunderstood?

HUGHIE:        The creature. I mean it’s unknown, not imaginary.

DETECTIVE:  And you’re sure of that why?

HUGHIE:        Told you this morning, I seen it twice when I was a kid. Lotta other people did since then too, but they’re not gonna say nothing probably, not when you drive in here from [redacted] all secret agent looking. First time I seen you without sunglasses is right now. Know you got a gun on your hip too, under that coat.

DETECTIVE: Right. Well, I’m not here to intimidate you or anyone else, Mr. Campbell, but I’m sure you see how unlikely this sounds. I mean, do you want half the country laughing at you and Dulls [phonetic] Harbour?

HUGHIE:        Dulse Harbour. Dulse is seaweed. Kind that grows on the rocks down there. Guessing there’s not much of it up in [redacted].

DETECTIVE:  Wouldn’t say so. My question stands, though. You want everyone thinking you’re all some kind of bigfoot nuts or something?

HUGHIE:        I’m speaking for myself here. Not going to say whether anyone else believes it, but others did see it and they’re more’n likely not going to tell you about it. Number two, I don’t know whatever bigfoot has to do with it. We don’t have bigfoot out here on the east coast. Least not in Nova Scotia. No way it’s up in PEI, since there’s nowhere for it to hide there, and never heard of anything like it from Newfoundland.

DETECTIVE:  So you’re saying you believe in bigfoot then?

HUGHIE:        What I’m saying is, if there is bigfoot somewhere, it ain’t here.

DETECTIVE:  But you do believe there’s a monster living in your harbour.

HUGHIE:        Not believe it. I know it. And it’s not a monster. Wrong way to think about it. You call it that ‘cause you don’t understand it. Maybe you think it’s a dragon or something I’m talking about, like from a story. It’s just an animal.

DETECTIVE:  So how’d you first see this animal, then?

HUGHIE:        Well now, like I said, I was a kid. Maybe eight or nine at the time. We were driving down Claymore Road—mum, dad, my sister and me—coming back to town. I was looking out the window, just watching the water, and then I seen something out there. It was sort of a hump, moving along pretty fast. Was bobbing up and down a bit, like this, but staying above the water.

DETECTIVE:  And what colour was this hump?

HUGHIE:        Hard to tell from far away, but darkish. Brownish, gray.

DETECTIVE:  You didn’t think it could just be a whale or something?

HUGHIE:        We’ve had whales come into the harbour before. Whales breach quick and spout, but this hump was staying there too long. I yell out to everyone in the car about it, but we were going past some trees by then, so they couldn’t get a clear look. Dad took the next turnoff, which goes down to the wharf, but by then the hump was gone. There was a fisherman coming out of the storehouse, and dad asked him if he’d seen anything out on the water, but he said no. [pause] I see you smiling. Think that’s that, eh?

DETECTIVE:  I’m all ears. Maybe you could tell me about how you know that hump was a mon... was a creature. An unknown animal.

HUGHIE:        I know ‘cause I seen the thing later, but a lot closer. I got curious ‘cause of that hump. Started going down to the harbour all the time. Went whenever I could, keeping an eye out for it. So one day, as I’m walking down to the wharf, I catch sight of something. This time it was two humps. Now I was a kid, but not an idiot. I grew up here by the water. I wondered to myself if I was just seeing two big seals, something like that. But nope, more I watched the more I could tell those two humps was the same animal. They were coming shoreward—right toward the wharf—and then down they went back under the water. Did I ever run, bye [phonetic], you better believe. Flew right down the rest of the hill. I stood there for a while, looking around at the water everywhere, staring, but I couldn’t see nothing. [pause] Sure you want me to go on?

DETECTIVE:  Yeah yeah, by all means. Sorry about the yawn. Haven’t been sleeping well. Unfamiliar bed and all that, down at, uh…

HUGHIE:        The MacIvor’s. You’re stayin’ at Rory and Jen MacIvor’s place, I know.

DETECTIVE:  Word gets around fast [laughs]. Anyway, so you were at the dock seeing nothing.

HUGHIE:        Uh huh. So then, I guess ‘cause it’s a kid’s way of thinking, I got this idea into my head to look right over the edge of the wharf into the water. I could see a little ways down, but not right to the bottom. Water’s a good 20 feet deep or thereabouts. Anyway, could see some fish swimming around the poles, and the poles are all covered in barnacles, so they stand out pretty good. But I wanted to get closer, and it made sense to me to lie right down on my belly with my head out over the edge, so I did that, and right as I get settled I see the fish that’d been swimming around the poles are gone. Geez they saw me quick, I thought. Was thinking they’d gotten spooked, right? And they were spooked, but not by me. Just then, as I’m looking… holy Jesus, Mary n’ Joseph! [pause] You all right there?

DETECTIVE:  Caught me by surprise is all. If you wouldn’t mind staying seated...

HUGHIE:        Sure, yeah. Well, that’s how I felt right then, ‘cause this huge thing swims right out from under the wharf. All of it was underwater, maybe ten feet down, but I could see its shape clear enough. First was its head, and as it came out further I seen more of its body. Had to be a good five feet across at its thickest, at least.

DETECTIVE:  At its thickest?

HUGHIE:        It was real long, but thickest in the middle and narrower toward the tail. Almost thought I was seeing some kinda giant snake. But the end of its tail had fins, y’know, like a whale. Like a whale’s fluke.

DETECTIVE:  And how’d it… how would you say it moved then?

HUGHIE:        Hard to tell. Not side to side like a snake. Think it was kind of that up and down sorta swimming.

DETECTIVE:  So… what? vertical undulation then? Like this?

HUGHIE:        More like that, yeah.

DETECTIVE:  Like a whale.

HUGHIE:        Wasn’t any whale. Said I almost thought it was a snake. Had a snake’s shape to it.

DETECTIVE:  All right. So how long would you say this thing was?

HUGHIE:        Always figured it had to be more’n 40 feet, easy. Even 50. Was coming out from under the wharf for a good while.

DETECTIVE:  And you said you saw its head?

HUGHIE:        Not clearly. Couldn’t see any of it clearly, except the shape.

Sky was reflecting off the water, y’know? But no mistake that it was a real animal. Other thing was, even though it was so big, it wasn’t disturbing the water on the surface none. Figure it could’ve been in the harbour well before I saw that hump the first time.

DETECTIVE:  So it was sea serpent then? That’s what it sounds like you’re describing, essentially.

HUGHIE:        Good a name for it as any, yeah. Ships’ve been spotting sea serpents for thousands of years. There were sightings all the time as people came over here from the Old World. Captains saw ‘em. Crew saw ‘em. Pirates saw ‘em. Been recorded all through history.

DETECTIVE:  Uh huh. So, possible you might’ve been influenced by some of those legends?

HUGHIE:        Nope. Had no interest in such things when I was a boy. And they ain’t legends anyway. Not the right word for it. They’re uh, whaddya call ‘em… accounts. All accounts from real people. People that spent their lives on the water. No TV and movies and all that to influence ‘em. You can’t say they didn’t know what they were seeing.

DETECTIVE:  Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable.

HUGHIE:        Is that so?

DETECTIVE:  I can guess what you’re thinking.

[silence]

DETECTIVE:  As it stands right now, you were the last person seen with Rodney Platt, and that’s all there is to it. We need to talk about it.

HUGHIE:        So someone saw me with Rod, eh? An eyewitness.

DETECTIVE:  Well, yes, no getting around that. Not saying we give any more or any less credence to it than your own account.

HUGHIE:        My account of the sea serpent in the harbour? The thing that people here’ve been seeing for decades?

DETECTIVE: We don’t have the names of anyone else who’s seen it. No one’s come forth since I’ve been here, or since the investigation started for that matter.

HUGHIE:        Like I said, doubt anyone will. But me, I don’t care.

DETECTIVE:  Well if you won’t tell me who else saw the thing, why don’t you just make up some names? Change their identities. Let me hear some of these stories.

HUGHIE:        Fair enough. Been dozens of ‘em.

DETECTIVE:  Okay.

HUGHIE:        So let’s see. There was… I’ll call her Alice. Don’t think there’s anyone in town named Alice to get her confused with.

DETECTIVE:  Got it.

HUGHIE:        I’m gonna say this was in ’55, if I’m remembering it correct. Was a year or two after I first saw the thing. She was down at the beach, and her kids were playing in the shallows there. She saw something rise up out of the water, maybe a hundred meters away. Said it was like a horse’s head, or a camel’s. That kinda long head. That’s how she described it. And it had a mane of some sort, like what looked like black hair, going down its neck. I don’t know if it’s really a neck, but I’m calling it that so you get the idea. Now that head was up out of the water a good five feet she says, and it turned right in their direction, and she could feel it looking at them, so she goes screaming for the kids to get out of the water while she runs down to haul ‘em out. By the time she got down there the thing was gone, back under the water. They all ran up the beach a ways, and looked and looked, but there wasn’t nothing in sight anymore.

[silence]

HUGHIE:        So that’s that one.

DETECTIVE:  Right. So let’s, um, break this down. If this thing is a serpent, like you said, how’d it get its head up out of the water so high? I mean, eels can’t do that, as far as I know.

HUGHIE:        Not sure on eels, but snakes can do that. Lift their head up, some of ‘em. Seen a cobra doing it on TV.

DETECTIVE:  But those snakes are on land. How does a snake in the water get its head up like that?

HUGHIE:        Never said it was an actual snake, or an actual eel. Just told you what I saw. Seemed snake-like, that’s all. It was a glimpse.

DETECTIVE:  You’ve been calling it a sea serpent.

HUGHIE:        You called it that and I agreed. Doesn’t mean that’s scientifically what it is.

DETECTIVE:  But you’d say it was serpentine.

HUGHIE:        Serpentine, fine.

DETECTIVE:  I’d like to hear another account.

HUGHIE:        Told you there’ve been dozens of them. I don’t have all day.

DETECTIVE:  Choose the best one. Okay? The best sighting. Most compelling, besides your own.

HUGHIE:        One more and that’s it then.

DETECTIVE:  Good enough.

HUGHIE:        Uh huh. [pause] There was old Gerard. I’ll call him Gerard. Saw the thing from his boat.

DETECTIVE:  Gerard’s a fisherman?

HUGHIE:        Close enough, yeah. But don’t go looking for him, less it’s at Vicar’s Lane.

DETECTIVE:  Vicar’s Lane is... that’s the cemetery, isn’t it?

HUGHIE:        Done some exploring, eh?

DETECTIVE:  A bit. So I’m guessing you mean Gerard’s deceased?

HUGHIE:        Yeah, you’d guess right.

DETECTIVE:  Huh.

HUGHIE:        What?

DETECTIVE:  Seems like that bothers you. Were you close to him?

HUGHIE:        Could say that. Lived here my whole life. Close enough to a lotta people.

DETECTIVE:  So what did he see?

HUGHIE:        Well, funny thing about his story. First time he told it, he had a name for the damn thing already. Made it pretty clear, least to me, that it wasn’t the first time he’d seen Dulsey.

DETECTIVE:  Dulsey?

HUGHIE:        That’s its name, far as we’re concerned.

DETECTIVE:  All right, go on.

HUGHIE:        Well, I wasn’t there at the time, but old Gerard showed up at Pitt-Stop. That’s the convenience store down the road there, owned by the Pitts. You get that, about the name?

DETECTIVE:  I got that.

HUGHIE:        The Esso wasn’t there yet, and Pitt-Stop had some gas tanks out in the lot. That was the main gas place, so there was always people about. Gerard walked up there from the wharf, since Pitt-Stop is right near the top of the wharf road. Comes up all wild-eyed, saying by God he was just face-to-face with Dulsey down there. Looked ‘er right in the eyes, he said. And the others, they say to him, “Who’s Dulsey?” And that’s why we think Gerard’d seen it a lot of times already, ‘cause till then no one we know of ever gave it a name before.

DETECTIVE:  You have a remarkable knowledge of which words were spoken.

HUGHIE:        It’s the way the story goes. Nothing remarkable about it.

DETECTIVE:  A story or a legend? Which you would you say?

HUGHIE:        Look, [redacted], I know what you’re trying to do. Those guys George talked to right then are alive n’ well, but I’m not giving you their names either. We know the story from them just as it was spoken though.

DETECTIVE:  Did you say…

HUGHIE:        What?

DETECTIVE:  Who’s George?

                        [silence]

DETECTIVE:  You said Geo—

HUGHIE:        I meant Gerard. Both ‘G’ names. Easy to mix up.

DETECTIVE:  Okay. So what did—Gerard, was it? What did Gerard see?

HUGHIE:        He was out there on his boat, coming back in from hauling traps. He was a lobsterman, see, so he went out early, ‘fore the sun was up. Would’ve come back into the harbour round maybe nine. That’s when he saw the water was moving all strange in one spot. Roiled up. He turned the boat to it and right as he’s getting closer, up pops Dulsey’s head. Had to be four feet from snout to the start of its mane, he said.

DETECTIVE:  And what did he say the head looked like?

HUGHIE:        Likened it to a horse, just like people before, but said it was right scaly.  

DETECTIVE:  So you’re suggesting it may be, what, some kind of dinosaur?

HUGHIE:        Not suggesting anything. Telling you what was seen. But since you said it, why couldn’t there be a dinosaur that lived all the way till now? Crocodiles been around since dinosaur times, right? And sharks? So why can’t something else’ve done the same?

DETECTIVE:  Something that big, with a breeding population? Never seen before?

HUGHIE:        Never seen before? Listen to you.

DETECTIVE:  Okay, never documented by science then.

HUGHIE:        ‘Cause maybe they keep hidden. That’d be why they survived us till now.

DETECTIVE:  Us? Us humans?

HUGHIE:        Yup.

DETECTIVE:  Something to think about, I guess.

HUGHIE:        Uh huh.

DETECTIVE:  Can we get to the rest of the story?

HUGHIE:        Where was I then? Right, so this big head comes up outta the water, and it’s looking right at old Gerard. Gerard’s a might bit scared by that point, ‘cause looking at that head he figured its body must be twice as long as his boat. Still, he goes and kills the engine, ‘cause he wants to hear if the thing’s making any sound, and he doesn’t want to scare it either, even though now he can’t get away quick if it starts toward him.  

DETECTIVE:  And did it make a sound?

HUGHIE:        Not like a growl or nothing, but he could hear it breathing. Thing had two big nostrils, and it was breathing in and out through ‘em. He was close enough that he could see ‘em flaring. Big nostrils at the end of its snout, like a horse’s. So what does Gerard do? [laughs] He’s got the lobsters all over the deck, ‘cause he emptied the traps that morning, see? And he picks one up and lobs it to Dulsey. Soon as the lobster hits the water, Dulsey’s head dips below the surface and she’s gone—snatching up her snack, or investigating it anyhow. And that’s it.  

DETECTIVE:  Fascinating.

HUGHIE:        You don’t believe a word of it. Suit yourself.

DETECTIVE:  You’ve been calling him old Gerard, but just how old was he really?

HUGHIE:        Well, let’s see… must’ve been 66 or 67 at the time. When he threw that lobster to Dulsey, I mean.

DETECTIVE:  And so how old was he this year?

[silence]

DETECTIVE:  Hugh?

HUGHIE:        75.

DETECTIVE:  75 at the time of his death?

[silence]

DETECTIVE:  Did he die this past April? [pause] Hugh?

HUGHIE:        He did. Yes.

DETECTIVE:  So he was George, wasn’t he? Not just another ‘G’ name?

HUGHIE:        Yeah, he was George. Okay.

DETECTIVE:  And how did George die, Hugh?

[silence]

DETECTIVE:  If you could just tell me, so we’re clear. It’s all right.

HUGHIE:        Was murdered.

DETECTIVE: By who?

HUGHIE:        No one knows.

DETECTIVE: Not by Rodney Platt?

HUGHIE:        Said no one knows.

DETECTIVE: How was George Cavendish murdered?

HUGHIE:        You hear what I just said?

DETECTIVE: I mean in what manner. I have to assume you’re aware?

HUGHIE:        I’m aware. Was found dead on his boat. Down at the wharf. Stabbed I don’t know how many times.

DETECTIVE: Any motive, as far as you can tell? [pause] I mean is there any reason someone would’ve killed him?

HUGHIE:        There have to be a reason?

DETECTIVE:  There almost always is. Pretty often it’s related to robbery. Sometimes it's over a dispute. Someone snaps and someone else ends up dead.  

HUGHIE:        [inaudible]

DETECTIVE:  Come again?

HUGHIE:        Said something was stolen all right.

DETECTIVE:  I wasn’t aware of that. What was stolen?

HUGHIE:        Camera. George kept an old Kodak on board. Instamatic, it was called.

DETECTIVE: How do you know it was stolen?

HUGHIE:        ‘Cause I was one of the first people down to George’s boat that day. I know right where he always kept that camera, and it was gone. Wasn’t anywhere else on board neither.

DETECTIVE:  You know that was a crime scene. It’d have been better not to go poking around, getting your fingerprints on everyth—

HUGHIE:        I know all that. Jesus Christ. Well I was on board anyway, looking for that camera, and it wasn’t there.

DETECTIVE:  What made you look for it then?

HUGHIE:        Figured it might be gone.

DETECTIVE:  Why? Was it expensive?

HUGHIE:        Not so far as I know.

DETECTIVE:  Were there, uh, particular photos on it or something?

HUGHIE:        Yeah, there were photos on it.

[silence]

DETECTIVE:  You want to tell me what kind of photos?  

HUGHIE:        Sure you can guess.

DETECTIVE:  I want you to tell me.

HUGHIE:        Old George’d said he’d gotten snaps of Dulsey, maybe a day or two before. Was telling people in town.

DETECTIVE:  And you think the… that film was still in the camera?

HUGHIE:        Might’ve been, might not’ve. But whoever killed him must’ve thought so.

DETECTIVE:  Killed him for photos of the creature? Dulsey?

HUGHIE:        Whoever had photos like that, they might make him a rich man. If they were clear enough. Told you already, George’s the one who named it. He saw it a damn lot. Probably got close. Those photos could’ve been clear. Could’ve been irre…er…

DETECTIVE:  Irrefutable?

HUGHIE:        That’s it.

DETECTIVE: So where do you imagine that camera might be now?

HUGHIE:        Not my business to guess.

DETECTIVE: Not hidden somewhere by Rodney Platt?

[silence]

DETECTIVE: Hugh?

[silence]

DETECTIVE: It’s okay, Hugh. Let’s talk this out. If you think it was Rodney Platt, that’s fine. That’s okay. He wasn’t a good guy, was he? Not from what I’ve heard.

HUGHIE:        Rod wasn’t a good guy, no.

DETECTIVE:  I’m sensing you’re angry.

HUGHIE:        Yeah. Fine. I’m angry. That a crime?

DETECTIVE:  Certainly not. Why’re you angry?

[silence]

DETECTIVE: Level with me here, man to man. I get it. There are people I hate too. There are people I wouldn’t be a bit sad to see bite the dust. Might even do a little dance.

[silence]

DETECTIVE: Lay it on me. I know you’re a good guy, Hugh. This town, everyone I’ve talked to, knows you’re a great fella. Trustworthy. Pillar of the community. I want you to act in line with that. I want you to be as honest as they believe you are. Can you do that for me?

[silence]

HUGHIE:        I was angry enough to kill him. I wanted to. But I didn’t do it.

DETECTIVE: Why were you angry enough to kill him?

HUGHIE:        [inaudible]

DETECTIVE: Going to need you speak up a little.

HUGHIE:        He killed old George. For that camera.

DETECTIVE:  How do you know that?

HUGHIE:        I found it. In his kitchen.

DETECTIVE: The camera?

HUGHIE:        Yes sir.

DETECTIVE:  How’d you get into his kitchen?

HUGHIE:        Was drinking with him. Had my suspicions already. No one else around fit the deed. In Dulse Harbour you get to know people different from [redacted] or whatever, where you got millions of people.

DETECTIVE:  Right. I get that. So what happened?

HUGHIE:        Brought him some rum. Bottle of Captain Morgan. Suggested we drink the whole thing. Guy was a borderline alcoholic. Devil himself coulda offered him a drink and he’d take it. I drank slower than him. He was greedy, got loaded. Was going to wait till he passed out, but soon as he went to take a leak I started searching. Didn’t even have to look that much. The camera was on top of his fridge, in a carboard box. Instamatic.

DETECTIVE:  It couldn’t have been Rodney’s own camera?

HUGHIE:        George’s had spots of salt dried all over it, from the spray off the water. You could see it on the black parts, and the lens. He never cleaned it. That was George’s camera.  

DETECTIVE:  So you knew George pretty well. Spent a fair bit of time with him.

HUGHIE:        Knew him well as anyone, I guess.

DETECTIVE:  Okay. So you saw it was George’s camera. What was your plan at that point?   

HUGHIE:        Plan… [pause] Don’t really know what I planned to do. Something bad. Won’t say I was gonna to kill him, even if I wanted to. But something bad. Something that’d hurt him. So I say to him, let’s go down to the water, Rod. Nice night for a swim. He thinks that’s the funniest thing ever. Plastered right out of his mind. He says let’s go, and we go. His house is just down off Claymore. Not a long walk to the harbour. And yeah, people saw us. Couple cars passed. Think I even gave ‘em a wave.

We get down there to the beach. Rod was stumbling the whole way. Couldn’t walk a straight line. I’m thinking ‘bout picking up a rock and hitting him with it. I dunno. But while I’m thinking, I seen something out there in the water. Was a full moon, or near to it, so the water was all bright. It was right still too. Calm, no wind. Harbour gets like that sometimes, ‘specially when the tide’s just changing. And what I see, right then, is this little... this dark shape bobs up in the water. Like a tiny hump, size of a seal’s head maybe.

DETECTIVE: Like a…what? A baby serpent?

HUGHIE:        Wasn’t any baby, and wasn’t a seal neither. ‘Member I told you about how George saw Dulsey’s nostrils that day? How it was breathing heavy through them?

DETECTIVE: Yeah.

HUGHIE:        Well that’s what I was looking at. Tip of its snout, with those nostrils. It was getting a breath. And that’s when I realize, that’s almost all it ever puts above the water. Just the tip of its snout. It doesn’t breach up like a whale. No spouting, no splashing. It just sticks its nose up, gets a breath quick, and back down it goes. That’s why seeing Dulsey is so rare. Sometimes it humps its back up a bit at the surface, or sticks its head up for a look—but maybe that’s just ‘cause our Dulsey is a careless one, or curious. Maybe that’s why it’s in our harbour in the first place. Otherwise, who’s going to notice that bit of snout bob up outta the ocean, just gentle like that, and disappear a second later? Who’s going to recognize it? You’d think you’re seeing things.

DETECTIVE:  And you don’t think, then, that you could’ve just been seeing things?

HUGHIE:        I wasn’t. ‘Cause our Dulsey, it’s not out there in the wide ocean, is it? It’s in the harbour, and the harbour was calm right then. It wasn’t even far out. You coulda swam to where it was in a minute or two. And that’s when I got my feeling, that Dulsey knew who killed old George. Old George that threw it a lobster. Dulsey and George, they knew each other in some way, and Dulsey knew the murderer in some way too. Maybe smelled him. Heard him. Animal senses.

DETECTIVE:  Are you going to tell me that the sea mon... that this creature is responsible for Rodney Platt’s disappearance?

HUGHIE:        I’ll tell you exactly what happened. Wanted me to be honest, you said. Well I’m being damn honest. I say to Rod, “Let’s go for a dip, find us some mermaids. Should be a laugh.” And I start taking off my clothes. He strips down to his underwear, having a good old time now, and I say I’ll race him to the water—and Rod jumps in, all sputterin’ and floppin’ around, ‘cause like I said he could barely walk and now he’s tryna swim. But he kept afloat, and I stand there just up to my knees, watching him swim out, and he’s going out farther, and Dulsey’s snout isn’t there anymore. It might’ve been going for him right then.

DETECTIVE:  Going for him?

HUGHIE:        Rod, he turns back, treading water, and his head’s just bobbing there, and the water’s all milky and bright from the moon, and he calls out to me, asks me aren’t I comin’ in? Then alluva sudden he goes, “What was that?” And I see him looking down at the water, but ‘course he can’t see nothing, and then shwoop [phonetic]! Under he goes. Just like that.

DETECTIVE:  Shwoop. So that’s it?

HUGHIE:        That’s it.

DETECTIVE:  Rodney Platt hasn’t been seen for a month because he was sucked underwater by… something?

HUGHIE:        By Dulsey, I’m sure. Less it was a big ol’ shark got into the harbour. Doubt that.

DETECTIVE:  You know, you could’ve just contended that he up and left town without telling anyone. Started a new life. People do that all the time—no law against it.  

HUGHIE:        But that’s not what happened. I watched him get taken, like I just told it. If he came back up from underwater, I didn’t see.

DETECTIVE:  Just going to tell you flat out, Hugh. I’ve got a lot of resources behind me. You’re telling me, then, that if I have this entire fucking harbour dragged—and we can do that—we’re going to find us a monster, and maybe some chewed up remains of Rodney. And what you’re also telling me is that what I’m not going to find are Rodney’s remains showing signs of homicide. Not a trace of human doing.

HUGHIE:        Not tellin’ you you’d find a damn thing. Think that creature’s stupid? That it doesn’t know how to avoid a dragnet?

[silence]

HUGHIE:        Awfully quiet in here.

DETECTIVE:  [sighs] Tell you something. I said to you before we don’t know of anyone else who’s seen the creature. Truth is, I’ve talked to… must be a dozen people already, that told us about some sighting they had at one point or other. Most of them are glimpses, but anyone who got a clearer look… [pause] Well what they say matches close enough to what you’ve described today.

HUGHIE:        Huh.

DETECTIVE:  Everyone else I’ve talked to, ones that say they’ve never seen so much as a weird ripple out there, say they believe in the damn thing too. That’s what they’re telling me. So the way I see it, there’s three possibilities here, Hugh. One, this whole town’s covering up the murder of a bad egg, making this the weirdest fuckin’ corroboration I’ve encountered in 23 years on the job. Two, you offed Rodney unbeknownst to anyone, thinking you could bullshit someone like me by co-opting the local monster delusion. Or three, there’s a sea serpent or some other fucking prehistoric shit swimming around in that harbour.

                        [silence]

DETECTIVE: So what do you have to say about that?

HUGHIE:        Glad to know people aren’t so afraid of being laughed at. Glad to know they value the truth. Truth is, [redacted], there’s an animal unknown to science in the harbour. Don’t know if it lives there all the time, or just visits. But there you have it. Number three was on the money, though it coulda done without your swearing.

DETECTIVE:  I’d almost say you look proud about that, even when you’re telling me that it took a man’s life.

HUGHIE:        It’s a big animal. Sometimes big animals kill, whether they mean to or not. I don’t feel bad for Rod, if that’s what you’re wondering.

DETECTIVE:  We’ve been all through his house. No camera turned up there.

HUGHIE:        All right.

DETECTIVE:  Did you take it?

HUGHIE:        Nope. Never went back to his place.

DETECTIVE: Do you know where it is then?

HUGHIE:        No idea at all. Don’t care.

DETECTIVE:  Don’t care, even though you think there might be photos of the creature on the film?

HUGHIE:        No telling if the film was even in it. Didn’t check.

DETECTIVE: So you don’t need to have photos of Dulsey, then? You don’t want the world to know the truth about your creature? You wouldn’t care if someone else makes a fortune off it?

HUGHIE:        Not a care in the world. Seen it myself when I was a boy, with my own two eyes, and it was wild and free and where it wanted to be, not some pool in a zoo. That’s all that matters to me, that I know it’s out there. You n’ everyone else believing it or not doesn’t change that.

                        [silence]

HUGHIE:        So am I free to go?

DETECTIVE:  Yeah. Yeah, you are. You’ve been free to go the whole time.

HUGHIE:        Good enough. Be on my way then. Enjoy the rest of your stay in town.

DETECTIVE:  Hmm? Ah… okay. Thanks, or whatever... [pause] Hugh?

HUGHIE:        Yeah?

DETECTIVE:  Far as I’m concerned, we never talked just now. You came into the station on your own business and that was that. Up to you whether you want to be concerned in the same way. No one in the building today has to say a thing. I can take care of that, all right?

HUGHIE:        Something for me to think about. 

DETECTIVE:  Good enough. Off you go then.

                        [silence]

DETECTIVE: Stop the recording. [sighs] Jesus Christ.

(END TRANSCRIPT)

News clippings dated 6th June 1982, provided courtesy of Dulse Harbour Library, reveal that several fingerprints positively identified as Rodney Platt’s (matched to those taken upon a prior DUI charge) were found on an inner windowpane of George Cavendish’s boat. It was also published therein that RCMP investigators had recovered a hunting knife buried in Platt’s backyard, its blade indicated by the coroner to be consistent with the size and shape of the wounds on Cavendish’s body.  

No remains were ever found belonging to Rodney Platt, and a nationwide manhunt failed to locate him.

There are no records indicating that Dulse Harbour was dragged in the summer of 1982, nor any time before or after, and it can be safely concluded that such an operation has never occurred there.

The sealed envelope in which the above transcript was found contained a strip of nine film negatives, determined by an expert to be Kodak 126 film. A commercial photofinisher with the means to process it could not be located, but in August 2021 prints were developed with the aid of a local film photography enthusiast. Though the negatives had been scrutinized and were known to feature images predominantly of water, the full-colour printed photos were deemed necessary to properly discern their content.

The water is widely concluded to be Dulse Harbour, due to nearby land features visible at the top of two of the photos. While it bears nothing striking, it is noted that in four of the images there appears to be a slightly dark mass below the surface. Whether these are indications of a submarine object, film artifacts, or merely a result of natural lighting in the outdoor environment (e.g. cloud shadows) is a point of some debate between those who have analyzed the photos. All in all, they are considered largely unremarkable.

While this archivist makes no claim as to the origin of the negatives, she does note that 126 film was historically available only in 12, 20, and 24 image lengths. It can, therefore, be said that a minimum of three images from the original strip are missing. For what reason or by which set of circumstances they were removed is unknown.