Hey guys, so I was wondering what ya'll were thinking of the story so far? I hope you're enjoying it!
About an hour and a half, maybe two hours later I had been given a badge, which I now wore happily on my shirt. I was talking to Hendricks, when Frank let out a low whistle. I looked up and saw boats returning, two of them were moving together, towing what looked like a very big prize. "I'll be right back." I said and moved into the office, I picked up the phone and dialed the police station, and Polly connected me to the city morgue.
"Chief Brody?" I asked and the person handed over the phone.
"Caroline, what's up?"
"Martin you might want to get down here. Some men are dragging up a pretty big sonofabitch."
"They caught the shark?" he asked.
"Well, they caught a shark- Shit, I've got to go. Get down here." I said before hanging up. "Hey! "HEY!" I shouted at one man who was pulling into the harbor wrong. "You wanna try that again?" I asked him, and he looked up at me, but did as he was told.
"Hey, baby, did you see it?" Robert asked when he got onto the dock. I was busy trying to get the men to hang up the large tiger shark they had caught. He threw his arm around my shoulders, and I shrugged it off.
"I'm looking right at it Robbie." I said to him.
"Isn't it great?" he grinned. "That poor kid's mom is gonna be real happy." He put his arm around my shoulders again, making me shrug it off again, and step away from him.
"I highly doubt that." I muttered, not paying him too much attention.
"Ben Gardner caught that?" I heard chief Brody ask.
"Nah, nah, we caught it!" It was one of the men from the fan-tail launch. "We got it! We got him!"
"I should have been on that boat." I heard Robbie mumble.
"You shouldn'ta let your girl wear the pants." his friend laughed. I ignored them.
"Matt." I moved over to my old friend. "You know more about sharks. Is it the shark?" I asked and he looked at me, hesitation in his eyes.
"Caroline, it just doesn't add up." he said softly and I shook my head.
"I didn't think so." I said. "I mean, how could those idiots have caught the shark." I muttered. "I've seen this thing kill Matt, there's no way it would have gone down so easy."
"You were there?" he asked, and I nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah, I was there." I said softly.
"Come on!" Mr. Meadows from the town paper was calling. "I wanna take this shot. Kneel down, just like in high school. One row kneeling, one row standing." I looked up as my dad drove the Orca by, he lifted his hat lightly and I could hear him snickering to himself. I shrugged and shook my head as he looked everyone over. Mr. Meadows paused seeing me and Matt standing in the middle of his shot. "Young fella, could you step out of the picture?" several men shouted the order at Matt, and I started to move away from the picture too.
"Carrie!" Robbie shouted and pulled me towards him, he was standing, so I ended up in the picture, Robert's arm around me tightly holding me to him as he stood there grinning like an idiot. I pulled back when the picture had been taken and I looked over to Matt who gestured for me to follow him.
"What kinda shark is it?" one man was asking another.
"Your husband?" Matt asked me and I frowned lightly.
"Hardly." I scoffed.
"I dunno. I think it's a ma-ko." one guy said.
"You got divorced?" he asked and my frown deepened.
"I've never-"
"It's got a deep throat."
"Yeah, but what kind? What kind of shark?" the guy asked again, at the point both Matt and I looked over.
"Tiger shark!" we both said loudly.
"A what?" one of the men- who really didn't sound like a fisherman asked.
"What should we do?" I asked and he looked around.
"Where's Martin?" Matt asked and I shrugged. At that moment Martin walked over and grabbed Matt's arm.
"I want you to meet Matt …. Matt, this is Larry Vaughn, our mayor." the two shook hands. "Matt's from the Oceanographic Institute, and apparently an old friend." Brody looked at me and I nodded to the mayor.
"Nice to meet you," Matt said and the mayor decided to talk to a few men who were standing by. "Can I talk to you for a second?" Matt lowered his voice. "Martin, there are all kinds of sharks in the waters, you know. Hammerheads, white tips, blues, makos, and the chances that these bozos got the exact shark -"
"Oh, now, there's no other sharks like this in these waters!" he grinned, it was obvious- painfully obvious that Martin wanted that to be the shark, even to the point beyond listening to reason.
"Martin, you're not an expert." I said softly. "I know it's scary, a shark like that in the same water at the boys, but really, you need to think about it."
"Martin, Martin, it's a hundred to one-" Matt said softly. "A hundred to one, now I'm not saying that this is not the shark-" Martin looked at him suspiciously. "It probably is," Matt continued quickly, knowing he could lose the chief at any second. "It probably is. It's a man-eater, it's extremely rare for these waters, but the fact is the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim." Martin's face fell, and I could see he was really thinking about it.
"We just want to be sure." I said softly as the mayor started to walk back over.
"I just, I want to be sure," Matt said. "You want to be sure. We all want to be sure." He included the mayor in this last remark. "Okay? Now what I want to do is very simple. The digestive system of this animal is very, very slow. Let's cut it open. Whatever it's eaten in the last twenty four hours is bound to still be in there. And then we'll be sure."
"Maybe the only way to confirm it." Martin said to the mayor.
"Now, look, fellas,' Vaughn closed in, aware that anyone might overhear us. "Let's be reasonable, huh? This is not the time or the place to perform some kind of half-assed autopsy on a fish!' His voice grew more aggravated. "And I am not going to stand here and see that thing cut open and see that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock."
I was about to open my mouth to say something when I caught sight of someone walking towards us. I instantly grew quiet, as did everyone else on the dock when they realized it was Mrs. Kintner. "Chief Brody?" she asked as she approached him.
"Yes." he answered. I practically heard the smack to his face before I saw her hand move, it was loud, and shut up the remaining people talking, as did her sobs.
"I just found out that a girl got killed here last week. And you knew it. You knew there was a shark out there. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway. You knew all those things. But still my boy is dead now..." She stared at him, sniffling, and letting out small sobs. "And there's nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that." she said, then turned and allowed her husband to lead her away.
"I'm sorry Martin," the mayor said. "She's wrong."
"No she's not." Martin said effortlessly, before he walked away slowly.
"Alright fellas, let's cut this son of a bitch down before it starts to stink up the whole dock. Harv, you and Carl take it tomorrow and dump it in the drink." the mayor said, and the men started to cut down the tiger shark.
"Matt," I turned to my friend who looked at me. "Where are you staying?"
"Well, I'm not really sure." he sighed. "I came down here as soon as the institute asked me to, and I haven't been anywhere except with Martin. Know a good hotel where a guy can get a shower?" he asked and I nodded.
"Sure, let's go." I said and gestured for him to follow me. We got to Judy Taft's place, but she said she was all booked up, and according to her, so were the rest of the hotels on the island.
"Well I suppose I could go mainland, but it'd be a hassle." he sighed.
"Matt, why don't you stay at my place?" I asked. "I've got plenty of room."
"You sure?" he asked and I nodded.
"I think we've got some things to talk about." I said and he nodded.