I knocked on the door to the kitchen, before I stepped into the house. "Caroline," he hissed and I rolled my eyes at him. "Uh, hi, the door was open. Mind if we come in- Oh." he stopped himself from awkwardly speaking to Ellen who hugged me tightly.
"What is going on?" she asked and I sighed into her shoulder.
"Ellen, this is Matt Hooper, an old friend, he's from the Oceanographic Institute." I turned to Matt.
"Oh hi, Ellen Brody." she introduced herself.
"Your husband's home?" he asked and she nodded.
"Yes, he is."
"I'd really like to talk to him." Matt said and Ellen looked back at the dining room.
"Yes, so would I." she stepped away from the door, and lead Matt back to the dining room where I could see Martin sitting, not looking at us. "Come in, come in can I get you some coffee? Would you like something to drink?" she offered and he held up the bottles.
"No, no. No no no, nothing, thank you, thank you."
"Oh, wine, how nice." Ellen said as Matt moved into the dining room. "Old friend?" she whispered to me and I rolled my eyes with a small smile.
"Old boyfriend." I nodded and she smiled.
"Where's he staying?"
"With me." I admitted with a small blush. She raised her eyebrows and I rolled my eyes, but joined the men in the dining room.
"How was your day?" Matt finally asked and I couldn't help but chuckle at the same time as the two of them.
"Swell." Martin finally said dryly and Matt nodded.
"Yeah. I brought- uh, red and white, I didn't know what you'd be serving." he gestured to the two bottles.
"Oh that's nice." Ellen said and Matt nodded, before noticing an untouched plate of food.
"Is anyone eating this?" he asked and I realized it must have been a busy day for him, running around from place to place; there had been almost no opportunity for him to settle down and get a bite to eat.
"Feeling any better?" I asked Martin who shot me a look that stated obviously no.
"My husband tells me that you're in sharks." Ellen said suddenly and all of us looked at her, before Matt let out a small chuckle.
"Uh, excuse me, well, yes, I-I've never heard it quite put that way. But, yes, I am. I love sharks." Martin reached for the red wine and I slid it over to him, making it less of a reach.
"You love sharks?" Ellen asked as if she had never heard of such a thing.
"Yeah, I love them, I love them." he nodded and looked at me. "When I was, what, twelve?" I nodded.
"Yeah, you were twelve, I was eleven." I nodded.
"Right, when I was twelve years old, my father got me this boat and we went fishing off of Cape Cod. I hooked a scup and as I was reeling it in, I hooked a four and a half food baby thresher shark, who proceeded to eat my boat." he said and Ellen laughed lightly, making Matt chuckle. "He ate my oar hooks and my seat cushions. He turned an inboard into an outboard. He even tried to eat Caroline, she was smaller then, obviously." he said and I rolled my eyes, but nodded. "Scared us to death, we swam back to shore. When we were on the beach, I turned around and actually saw my boat being taken apart."
"Ever since then, he's been studying sharks- Yes, please." I nodded to Martin who had wordlessly offered me some wine.
"Yeah, and that's why I know that I'm gonna go to the institute tomorrow and tell them that you still have a shark problem here." he said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his tie.
"Why do you have to tell them that?" Martin asked as he twisted the corkscrew around in the neck of the green bottle.
"Sorry." Matt said without hesitation.
"I'm sorry, I thought that... You told me the shark was caught," she looked at her husband and I raised my eyebrow. "I- I heard it on the news." she looked back at Matt. "I heard it on the cape station."
"They caught a shark." I said and Matt nodded as he put back on his glasses.
"Not the shark, no." he said. "Not the shark that killed Chrissie Watkins, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together, and looked at Martin. "And probably not the shark that killed the little boy; which I wanted to prove today by cutting the shark open-" he was cut off by Martin pouring the wine into a large glass. "You- You may want to let it breathe for a little- Nothing, nothing." he cut himself off when he realized Martin was filling the large glass to the top with wine. Martin then robotically poured three more glasses of wine, and slid two of them over to Matt, the fuller of the two glasses he slid over to me.
"Thanks." I muttered and he nodded.
"You know," he looked from me to Martin. "You're going to be the only two rational people left on this island after I leave tomorrow." Matt said, almost casually.
"Where are you going?" Ellen asked.
"I am going on the Aurora." he said shortly. His left hand found my right hand and he rested it there on top of mine.
"The Aurora, what is that?" Ellen asked.
"It's a floating asylum," he joked making her smile. "For shark addicts. It's pure research, eighteen months at sea." I laced my fingers through his and he looked at me, and gave me a small, tight lipped smile.
"Martin hates boats." Ellen touched her husband's arm. "Martin hates water. Martin, Martin sits in his car when we go on the ferry to the mainland." she looked from Matt to her husband. "I guess it's a childhood thing, there's a clinical name for it, isn't there, I can't-"
"Drowning." Martin said sullenly as he picked the extra foil off of the bottle. "Listen," he turned to Matt. "Is it true most people get attacked by sharks in three feet of water, about ten feet from the beach?" Matt nodded.
"Yeah." he said.
"And that before people started to swim for recreation, I mean, before sharks knew what they were missing; that a lot of these attacks weren't reported?"
"That's right." Matt looked at Martin curiously, I could see his mind at work.
"Now this shark that- that- swims alone-"
"Rouge."
"What's it called?"
"Rouge." Matt said and Martin nodded.
"Rouge, yeah." Martin nodded and Matt gave me a brief look. I could tell he was slightly impressed by Martin, who had apparently been absorbing everything he read in the books I brought him. "Now this guy, he keeps swimming around in a place where the feeding is good, until the food supply is gone, right?"
"It's called territoriality." Matt explained. "It's just a theory that I happen to agree with." Martin sighed, and looked up from his bottle of wine.
"Then why don't we have one more drink and go and cut that shark open?" Matt smiled, nodded and threw back the remainder of the wine in his glass.
"Martin, can you do that?" Ellen asked and he looked over at her.
"I can do anything. I'm the chief of police." he looked at me. "Right deputy?" Ellen and Matt looked at me and I smiled at Martin.