Chapter 30 The Note #2
because he ran to the rail, yelled something, and as the boat slammed into a wave he went overboard. It all happened so fast,
and I cut the engine, but it was too late. Sandra jumped in and we pulled him into the boat, but his neck had been cut open.
He was already dead.”
A fever dream. “Devastating. I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “Devastating doesn’t even describe it.
And it was my fault. I knew the kid was a liability and I let him on the boat.
Nice guy. Smart. But super impulsive. He would get so excited whenever we saw anything that you never knew what he might do.
I should have listened to my gut, but I didn’t. You want to know why?”
She wasn’t sure she did, but he continued.
“Because I had a thing for Sandra and I let it cloud my judgment. Hell, she was married. I don’t know what I was thinking.
But I knew she wasn’t happy and I had this fantasy that maybe she would leave him for me.”
He let out a breath and eyed her almost apologetically.
“It still doesn’t sound like your fault,” she said.
“Tell that to Jimmy’s parents. They sued the university and me personally, and I lost my job and had to sell my house to pay
for legal fees. Of course I deserved it, but no one in the Pacific Northwest would hire me, and everywhere I went I got stares
and whispers. His dad was the high school football coach and everyone loved him. Even though the judge ruled in my favor.”
His hand on the cowrie was shaking. “Do you know what it’s like to have someone die because of you?”
“I do,” she whispered.
His eyes searched hers for more. Minnow met his stare but did not give him anything. She was still wondering where all of
this was heading.
“It will live in me forever. I accept that, but it’s been rough as hell. Bad enough that I sold everything and came over here
hoping for a fresh start. Leaving my orca pods was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I knew I had to get out
of there or I might not survive. Sawyer and I were friends from high school and he offered me a room here while I tried to
figure shit out—it’s their quiet season, so there were extra bungalows.”
As he spoke the wind died down and the night turned quiet. He hugged himself as though cold, rubbing his arms and shivering.
“How long ago did this happen?” she asked.
“Last year.”
Although their situations had been drastically different, she ached for him. That kind of guilt would gnaw on your bones until
they were bare and white.
“I’m sorry that you had to go through this, but how does this relate to the sharks?”
“A couple months after I got here, Stuart Callahan died—talk about heartbreak. Then Hank disappeared. Two mornings later,
I was approached by a guy at the Saltwater Bar who asked if I wanted to take a ride on the boat anchored in the bay, maybe
see some whales or dolphins. It seemed a little odd, but the boat was nice and I figured, what the hell. I’d bought a fourteen-foot
Whaler from the dark ages that barely ran, so I was drooling over the Robalo. He let me drive it, then asked if I would be
open to making a deal.”
Oh, hell no!
“Said if I would be willing to land any big sharks in the area, the boat would be mine.”
Minnow stood up and backed away. “What the fuck, Luke? How could you?”
His face turned crimson. “He also offered an extra ten grand for any shark over fifteen feet. And fifteen grand for a white
shark. I had just lost everything, Minnow, and this would have given me the boost I needed. I was desperate.”
Shame and guilt were smeared all over his face.
“So you said yes?”
He nodded.
Minnow wanted him out and away from her. “Just leave now. I’ve heard enough. This is disgusting, horrendous. You study sea
creatures, for fuck sake. You’re supposed to protect them!”
He stood but didn’t move. “Obviously I was conflicted, but I convinced myself that it would be worth it.”
“Go!” she yelled, pointing.
“Please, I need to finish.”
She glared at him but didn’t say anything.
He continued. “As soon as I got out there in the water with all the fishing gear, ready to lay lines and troll, I realized
I may not be able to go through with it. I made up excuses to buy myself time, but I wanted that boat and I was carrying on
this monumental battle in my mind about pulling in one big shark so I could keep it.
“When the guy checked in with me, I lied. I told him I had caught two big ones but they both cut the line and got away. By
then I’d found out he was ex–Special Forces, and he was pretty intimidating. I started hating myself again and I knew if I
actually did catch a shark, I’d have sold my soul.” He looked like someone had let all the air out of him. His eyes watered.
“Then you showed up.”
All this talk of killing sharks caused a cramp in her side and she had to sit back down, this time on the edge of a bed. “So
you never got one?”
“Not one.”
Minnow flashed back on those first encounters with him. The gold reels and the smell of baitfish. The odd hours. That sense
that something weird was going on with him. Suddenly she needed to know who was behind this.
“Who hired you, Luke?”
He stiffened slightly. “That’s the thing. The guy who took me out on the boat was just the middle man. His name was Bob, but
I think he was working for Callahan. Who else around here has that kind of money?”
It didn’t add up. “Sam Callahan?”
“Yeah.”
“Why wouldn’t he just ask you himself?”
“I’m guessing he was worried about upsetting the Hawaiians.
From what I hear, down at Koholā there’s a cultural practitioner who educates all the billionaires about protocol and what to do and what not to do.
Killing the family guardians is not good PR.
I’m sure you know from Woody that a lot of the locals are not happy about a hunt along this coastline.
Also, Bob told me in no uncertain terms to keep this whole thing quiet. ”
She tried to make sense of this bizarre new turn. “So why are you telling me?”
“Because I walked away.”
“What about the boat?”
“It’s gone. I told Bob I was out.”
Hope nudged at her. “How did he react?”
“Didn’t seem too bothered since a whole fleet is going out tomorrow.”
She glanced over at the note sitting by the telephone just as a gecko on the outside of the screen caught a moth. The moth
was bigger than its mouth, but the lizard hung on dearly and soon swallowed the whole thing. Eat or be eaten—one of nature’s
most brutal truths.
She went over, lifted the note and handed it to him. “When I got back today, this was on the doorstep.”
Luke held it up to the light and read. “What the—”
“Your man Bob?”
“He’s not my man, but I don’t know. Bob knows how to spell. Did you tell anyone about this?”
“Not yet. It’s been a crazy afternoon.”
His eyes flickered. “Where are your two brother friends?”
“They went home for the night. But honestly, I’m having a hard time imagining Sam Callahan as the guy behind this. When I
spoke to him, he seemed like such a reasonable guy. Even in his devastation, he was quite matter-of-fact.”
“I looked into the guy. People say he can be ruthless. It’s why he’s made so much money. In this case that shark took what
was most important from him.”
“That still doesn’t mean he hired you. And if he did, how would you find out?”
“I think Sawyer might know. I went to find him this morning, but I guess he was on Maui for the day.”
“Would he tell you if he did?”
“Maybe. I got a call from the front desk this morning saying I had to move out today.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like
that. No warning. I had kind of wondered about being able to stay here this long. When I first came, Sawyer had told me I
could stay for a week or two max. And then they moved me to a nicer hut and said I could be there as long as I needed. Same
time Bob approached me.”
“Interesting.”
“What Callahan did was shady and self-serving, even if not quite illegal.”
Minnow thought back to her meeting with Sam and the way he so needed to be the expert. The one in charge. She still wasn’t
convinced, but who knew? And then another idea came to her. “If he was paying you, I wonder if he was paying anyone else?
That would be illegal.”
“I’ve thought about that.”
“Woody and Cliff brought it up too.”
Luke leaned back and stretched his arms out, wide as albatross wings, and Minnow felt for him. Coming here to the house had
taken guts after how things had left off between them. There was so much new information to digest, her mind just wanted to
shut down. Stare at the stars. Get in the water and swim away.
“It’s never simple, is it? Life, I mean,” she said in almost a whisper.
A small shake of his head. “Never. Never, ever.”
“I thought I was coming out here to look into a few shark incidents and now everything I knew to be true has been turned upside
down.” She looked into his eyes and was hit with the feeling that he could see right through her. “There are things you don’t
know about me too.”
Maybe now wasn’t the best time to tell him, it was such long story, but she had this pressing need to share what had happened
today, and Luke happened to be sitting here in front of her having just bared his soul.
“Go on, I want to hear everything,” he said.
So she told him about Luna and about Wally, and how everything with Wally still haunted her. Luke was silent as she spoke and even wiped his eyes a few times. When she finished, he stood up and came around the table, reaching a hand out.
“Come,” he said, softly.
Minnow stood and he folded himself around her in a way that made her want to weep. Her cheek fell on his shoulder. Their closeness
was electric, and static seemed to form wherever they touched. In all the years since her father died, she had never allowed
herself to be so fully held, like this was exactly where she belonged—in time and space and heart. Like Luke was the door
she needed to walk through to get to the other side. Or maybe he was the other side.