We parked across the street in a pull off spot, and walked over to the bottom of the grassy hill where Larry Vaughn was standing, waiting for us. He had a pack of cigarettes out and plucked one from it, before he turned and started to climb the hill, the three of us on his heels.
"What in the hell is going on?" he asked, thus opening a door for what we hoped would be a floodgates of revelation when he found out the truth about the shark.
"This is a great white Larry, a real big one. Any shark expert will tell you it's a killer, a man eater." Martin was explaining to Larry who was chewing on the end of his unlit cigarette.
"Look, the situation is that apparently a great white shark has staked a claim in the waters off Amity Island." Matt said pointing to the water. "And he's going to continue to feed here as long as there's food in the water."
"There's no limit to what he'll do." Martin said quickly. "I mean we've already had three incidents."
"Two people killed within a week?" I asked and shrugged. "It's bound to happen again."
"It's happened before, Jersey beach, uh, 19-"
"1916"
"1916, five people were killed-"
"In one week!" Mayor Vaughn closed his eyes, a look of almost disappointment on his face, before he opened then again.
"Tell him about the swimmers!" Martin said to Matt.
"A shark is attracted to the exact kind f splashing and activity that occurs whenever human beings go in swimming, you cannot avoid it!"
"You open the beaches on the fourth of July, it's like ringing the dinner bell for Christ sakes!"
"Look, Mr. Vaughn, Mr. Vaughn," Matt stepped to the side, trying to direct the Mayor's doubtful gaze away from the semi hysterical, and sleep deprived chief of police. "I pulled a tooth, the size of a shot glass out of the wrecked hull of a boat out there." he pointed to the beach. "And it was the tooth of a great white!"
"Mr. Mayor," I said and he looked at me. "I was there, Ben Gardner is dead." I said softly. He looked at me for a long hard moment, before turning his gaze back to Matt.
"It was Ben Gardner's boat, the boat was all chewed up. I helped tow it in, you should've seen it!"
"Where- Where is that tooth?" Vaughn asked. "Did you see it Brody? Quint?" he looked between us.
"No, I didn't see it; he dropped it on the way in."
"I had an accident!" Matt defended himself sharply, still a little sensitive about the whole ordeal.
"And what did you say the name of this shark is?" he turned looking at Matt.
"It's a carcharodon carcharias. It's a Great White." Matt said, his patience obviously growing thin.
"But you- You don't have the tooth?" Vaughn seemed fixated on the whole tooth thing. "Look, we depend on the summer people here for our very lives." Vaughn said in a very patronizing way to Matt who was starting to get agitated.
"You are not going to have a summer, unless you deal with this problem!" he shouted.
"We're not only going to have to close the beach, we're going to have to hire someone to kill the shark!"
"Is that why you brought her along?" Vaughn asked nodding to me. "Win me over so you guys get a cut of that ten grand?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked and Martin waved the question off.
"We're going to have to tell the coast guard!"
"Mr. Vaughn, you'll have to contact the shark research panel." Matt spoke above Martin who was getting slightly hysterical again. "You'll have to rig this entire harbor-"
"I don't think either one of you are familiar with our problems!" Vaughn defended himself.
"You mean familiar with Your problems?" I asked and he shot me a look. "Like the fact that three of your summer lease contracts went down the drain?" I asked.
"Uh, I think I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you in the ass!" Matt screamed at the man. I put my hand on his shoulder. "Now wait a second, wait a second!" I took my hand away quickly. "There are two ways to deal with this problem! You're either going to kill this problem, or you cut off its food supply!"
"Larry we have to close the beaches." Martin said, sounding tired of trying to reason with the man.
"This man is a shark expert, okay, he knows how they think, and he is more than willing to call the institute, go on the record and say the beaches aren't safe!" I said pointing to Matt who looked at me, then nodded.
"Brody?" Vaughn pointed to the billboard, once featuring a pretty girl smiling, riding an inflatable raft, was now being chased by a large black shark fin, her smiling face had been turned into a look of terror as a crude speech bubble came from her mouth, saying 'Help! Shark'. "Sick vandalism!" Vaughn stated, making me let out a laugh, and run a hand through my hair. "That is a deliberate mutilation of a public service message!" Matt turned to look at the billboard, then smiled, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"How In God's Name Can You Manage To See Where You're Going With Your Head Shoved That Far Up Your ASS?!" I shouted at him, Matt held my arm as I took a step towards the mayor, who ignored me.
"Now I want those little paint happy busters caught and hung up by their buster browns!" he declared. Matt let go of my arm and took a few steps away, running his hand through his hair, before walking back.
"That's it." he smiled as he patted Martin's shoulder. "Good bye. I'm not gonna waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch." he nodded, and took my hand. "Come on Caroline, I'm gonna see you later Brody." he said, and started to pull me away. At this point, I was more than happy to follow.
"Please, don't do this." Martin caught Matt's arm.
"Mr. Vaughn," Matt said calmly as he stepped back over to the ignorant mayor. "What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, uh, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all."
"Even when it's asleep, the great white keeps swimming, it's always alert, always ready to feed." I threw in, making all three men look at me. Martin because he had obviously not read that before, Matt because he was probably impressed, and Mayor Vaughn because- Well, probably to just give me the look he gave me which was a look of let the men-folk talk.
"She's right, now, why don't you take a long, close look at this sign?" Matt let go of my hand and stepped closer to the sign, pointing up at it. "Those proportions are correct."
"You'd love to prove that wouldn't you? Get your name into the National Geographic." he smirked and I groaned. Matt looked at Martin, then to me, and started to laugh.
"Obviously when I said you're a shark expert I wasn't clear enough, if I knew I had to mention the number of times you're been featured in Nat Geo, maybe he would listen to us." I said and he laughed, wrapping his arms around me. He sighed as he rested his forehead on my shoulder and I ran my fingers through his hair. "I've read your articles, by the way." I muttered and he sighed before straightening up.
"Maybe we should get copies for Vaughn, it may convince him I know what I'm talking about."
"-If you fellas are concerned for the beaches, you do whatever you have to to make them safe, but those beaches will be open this weekend." I overheard Vaughn state before getting in his car and driving away. I looked at Matt who let out a long sigh, then looked at Martin.
"Did he just say we could do Whatever to keep the beaches safe?" I asked and they both looked at me. I smiled lightly and looked at Matt who was sitting on a rock, thinking. "What gauge, did you say we'd have to line the harbors with?" He looked up at me, then thought, before looking at Martin.
"He said whatever." Martin agreed, and Matt stood up, and followed us back to the jeep. A loud horn blared in the distance and we looked to see the large boat of tourists pulling into the harbor.
"Here they come," I said and the men looked at me. "And we've got to do whatever we can to make sure all of them leave." I sighed.