Chapter 15 #2
It was true; normally she didn’t dive alone, but she wasn’t going to allow an inexperienced diver to scold her, not when the reason she had done it was so important.
“You don’t understand.” She willed him to understand.
Mac hadn’t wanted to dive on her own, but no one seemed to believe her that Miles was the bad guy.
She had to get proof, and doing her own investigation had been the only way.
Barry’s features softened; she thought she was finally getting through to him how important this was.
“Then tell me. Help me understand,” Barry said evenly.
It was hard to tell if he believed her or was just humoring her.
Not even the locals seemed to believe her.
She had spoken to other researchers in the area, but none seemed to want to believe one man was responsible for the disappearance of sharks.
Mac pointed in the direction of the hotel. “He is responsible for the death of these sharks.” The bottom trawling explained the shark disappearances but not the trackers going off, unless someone had turned them off or destroyed them.
Barry didn’t shift his focus from her. He knew who she meant. Mac was very vocal about who she thought was responsible. “Do you know they are dead?”
“Well, no,” she hedged, since she didn’t have actual proof.
“But they are disappearing, and it started when he showed up, so what other conclusion am I supposed to make?” Sharks were creatures of habit; they wouldn’t just suddenly stop doing something without cause.
The fact the ocean floor had been dredged would explain why they’d left that area, but they should still be in these waters unless the nets were picking them up by the handfuls.
“Maybe something else happened. Maybe a bigger predator?”
“A bigger predator than a shark?” She arched an eyebrow at his suggestion in a dubious fashion. There weren’t many things bigger than sharks in these waters. They were apex predators and the top of the food chain for a reason.
“I heard in Australia, orcas scare off great whites.”
“Orcas aren’t a concern here,” she replied deadpan, though she was impressed he had done some research given the fact when they’d met, he didn’t even know what a shark biologist was.
“Maybe something else then. Dolphin?”
Mac could tell he was grasping at straws, but he was wasting his time and breath. “Barry, I appreciate you trying to think of other causes, but this is what I do for a living. I research, and everything points to him. I just need proof.”
“And you thought you’d find that at the bottom of the ocean?”
“I found this.” She bent down and grabbed the fish head from her weight belt on her wetsuit and held out for him to inspect.
Barry didn’t take it but looked at it. “Okay.” Barry blinked, clearly not understanding its importance. “It’s a fish head.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
“So what? The ocean is full of fish.”
“Not like this. People use this for chumming.” Again, he stared blankly at her.
So apparently, he hadn’t dug that deep into shark research.
“They are used to lure sharks close. We use fish heads when we need to get the sharks close to the boat so we can put trackers on them. We don’t chum though, just put a fish on the end of a rope and make noise in the water to bring them in. ”
“How do you know this is for chumming? Couldn’t one of the sharks have eaten it and not finished it?” Barry suggested.
Mac sighed, striving for patience. She forgot she was talking to someone who essentially knew nothing about sharks. Mac turned the fish head to show where it had been cut. “It’s a clean cut which means it was done with a knife, not teeth.”
Barry looked at it again as if studying it with new eyes. “Okay, so you found chum, but obviously, they didn’t lure sharks here for research. What else would they lure them here for?”
“I don’t know,” Mac said through gritted teeth. She was so tired of not having answers to the decline of the sharks.
“Could a local fisherman have lured it?”
Mac shook her head. “No, the people here respect sharks and give them distance, not try to capture them. Besides, they don’t have the equipment to tag them or the computers for the research. Doing that would be pointless.”
“So, you think that still leaves Miles?”
“I don’t know who else would.” She threw her hands up in the air.
Barry held his hands up in a surrender motion. “Okay, I’m just trying to talk this out and not accuse.”
Mac threw the head on the floor of the boat and planted her fists on her hips in irritation.
“I know you and everyone else think I’m obsessed with it being Miles, but I will prove it’s him.
I can’t prove it yet, but I know it’s him behind this.
” And she suddenly had an idea on how to catch him in the act.
“I also found signs of bottom trawling; it’s where people have weighted nets, and they drag them across the ocean floor to scoop up fish. ”
“And?”
“The nets don’t care if a shark or a turtle are in its way. It will pick them up and kill them. That’s why they are banned here.”
Barry eyes widened in final understanding. “And you are sure that’s what it’s from?”
“Yes, and when I did my research here months ago, it wasn’t here.”
“Which means recently…” Barry filled in the rest.
“After Miles bought the water rights.” This was the proof she needed, only she couldn’t prove it was him behind it since she wasn’t supposed to be here. She needed to find the boat that had caused it.
“Let me help you with this,” Barry offered.
“Why?” Mac looked at him wearily; no one had ever offered to help her before.
“Do I need a reason?” Barry asked, looking baffled by her lack of ‘yes’ reply.
“Yes.”
Barry shook his head in confusion. “You’re not making any sense. I need a reason to want to help you?”
Yes, because she didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust anyone. “Why did you follow me?”
“I already told you.”
“No, you said Jacques gave you the coordinates. You must have said something or offered something for him to do that. He doesn’t do anything for free.”
“I was worried about you.”
“Or are you working for Miles to keep me off the trail?” she asked, narrowing her eyes into slits. It made sense. He’d immediately sought her out as soon as he’d arrived on the island. He was traveling alone and had no plans to see anything. Too many things weren’t adding up about him.
“Do you hear yourself? Talk about paranoid.” Barry scoffed, looking offended at the mere suggestion that he worked for Miles.
Deflection and avoiding the question. Mac knew he was doing it because she used to do it with her sister and now with Burt when he asked probing questions she didn’t want to answer.
“There’s something you aren’t telling me, Barry.
I hardly know you, and you’re trying to convince me it’s not Miles, and then in the next breath, you’re all like ‘I’ll help you,’” she said in a deep voice, trying to mimic his.
“One, I don’t sound like that.” Mac rolled her eyes. “And two, I do want to help you.” He ticked off his fingers. “If only so you have the answer whether it is him or something else and not put yourself in danger.”
“Why do you care? Tell me the truth.” She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him. She wasn’t going to accept his help until she knew the reason. It was one thing to trust him with her body. It was another thing to trust him with her sharks’ lives.
“Because it’s important to you.”
“And why do you care that sharks are important to me? Because we’re sleeping together?” That was a poor reason.
“No.”
“Then why are you here?” Because she knew it wasn’t for a vacation to get away from things. He was here for a reason.
Barry scowled, looking more agitated at himself than anything else. He probably hadn’t expected her to be so perceptive and see through his ruse of a vacation to spy on her. “Your sister sent me. She was worried about you, and I volunteered to come.”
“Emma sent you?” Mac questioned hollowly, her mind reeling that her sister was behind this.
Barry nodded, looking sullen. “She mentioned you might be in trouble, and I volunteered to come and check in on you.”
“Was sleeping with me part of the plan?”
“No.” Barry moved toward her, but Mac stepped back out of reach. She didn’t want him touching her right now. She felt violated on so many levels.
Barry had lied to her; her sister was spying on her. Even Burt and Jacques had ratted her out. Could she trust anyone anymore?
“I had planned to stay in the shadows and only make myself known if you were in trouble, but from the moment I saw you, I wanted to be close to you.”
Mac snorted, not believing a word he said any longer.
“It’s the truth,” he insisted venomously.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
Barry reached for her again, gripping her biceps. “Believe I will do all in my power to keep you alive. I’ve been doing my own research on Miles.”
Mac shrugged off his touch and moved toward the wheel of the boat to turn it on and hit the button to raise the anchor. “And?”
“I can’t find anything concrete about the sharks, but there is something off about him.”
“I could have told you that.”
“He’s not a man you want to cross.”
“I don’t care about crossing him. I’m trying to prove he’s killing my sharks.”
Barry followed her; his steps sure. He had obviously been on his share of boats. “Mac, even if there is proof, he will kill you before you can expose him.”
“So, I should do what? Let him get away with it? Not happening.” Even if it killed her, she would protect these sharks. But before she died, she would expose Miles for the fraud he was.
“I didn’t say that. What I’m saying is, we have to be careful with our research. Do it quietly. Then when we have the proof we need, we’ll turn him over to the authorities.”
“Was that the deal you made with my sister?”