Chapter 27 #2
He was in his third year of school and already had a knack for this line of work. Mac enjoyed every season when he came out. He had a thirst for knowledge and an eagerness to get his hands dirty. Even if it meant chum duty.
“Morning, Monte. This is Barry, a friend of mine.” She didn’t know how else to introduce him. My lover and private investigator?
Monte didn’t even blink at the intro. “Nice to meet you, Monte.” He held his hand out for Barry to shake, which happened to be his prosthetic.
Barry took it and shook. It amazed Mac how realistic it looked. She forgot it was a prosthetic most times until she saw where it reached his real shoulder.
“Morning, boss.” Julie came to the side of the boat, a hand over her eyebrows to shield her from the sun’s glare.
“Julie. This is Barry.”
“Hi.” Julie shook his hand as well. “Are you coming out with us?”
“No, he’s not,” Mac answered for him. “He’s just seeing us off.”
“Well, we have a few minutes until we have to leave if you want a tour,” Julie invited.
Mac raised a questionable eyebrow at that. If Mac didn’t know and trust Julie, she would say the girl was flirting with Barry. The truth was, Julie was just overly friendly. Just another reason Mac didn’t want her team involved in the investigation.
“I’d love to,” Barry answered Julie while looking at Mac with a wide grin as if to say ‘ha-ha, I got on your boat anyway.’
“Julie, you can do the tour. I have some things I need to discuss with Burt for the plans for today.”
Barry stepped over the railing without aid, and Julie started showing him around. Mac stepped on and headed for the quarterdeck. Burt was already in there with a clipboard and running a system check.
“Burt.”
Burt glanced up at her. “Moin, bes,” he greeted then went back to scribbling something on paper.
“How are things looking?”
“Shi s go. Ha er u?”
“I’m good.”
“Is ta e er ma en da bo?”
“He wanted to walk me to the boat, and Julie offered him a tour. What?” she asked when he just started laughing.
“Mackenzie Grant,” a male voice boomed.
It wasn’t often Mac heard her full name. Only her mother did that when she was in trouble. Or the higher ups in her company. Well, her mother wasn’t here, and it was male, so that left only one choice. And it couldn’t be good.
Mac ducked her head out of the door to see Alan Prince, the head director of her company, standing on the dock. He wasn’t a fieldman but an academic, so he looked out of place in a business suit standing in front of her boat.
“Mr. Prince, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“We need to talk,” he said in place of greeting. So not a social call to see how their research was going.
“Alright, well, come on aboard and we can sit down.” She waved him on.
Alan eyed the boat as if it were the Loch Ness monster about to devour him. The man didn’t like boats and always got sea sick when he was on it. “If you’ll come here, please.”
Mac came out of the quarterdeck and stopped at edge of the boat. “What is it?” She wasn’t getting off of her boat.
“I got a very upsetting phone call last evening. Want to take a guess from who?”
“Miles Banks,” Mac guessed, though it wasn’t a hard one.
“Yes, do you want to take a guess at what the conversation was about?”
“Why not just tell me, Alan? I have a team ready to go. I don’t have time for guessing games.”
Alan’s face turned red, indicating he was angry. She had just talked back to her boss. If he was angry enough at her, he could fire her. If he was going to do that, he would have already though. “He said you had an altercation.”
Mac snorted. “Hardly. We had a conversation.”
“In which you accused him—without evidence, I might add—” He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “That he is harming sharks.”
“It’s not a stretch since the sharks have been disappearing, and it started when he arrived.”
“Need I remind you, Mackenzie, your job is to research sharks, not accuse good-standing people of crimes without proof.”
Good-standing? That was a bit of a stretch for Miles, but snorting and arguing with the director was not a wise decision, so she stayed her tongue.
“It’s hard to research sharks when they aren’t here,” she countered.
Alan had access to all of her research. He could see with his own eyes their numbers had greatly depleted since last season.
“Then it is your job to find out why they are leaving and not by accusing people as the cause. There has to be a natural reason,” Alan said sternly.
“Since when does the company care that I accuse Miles Banks?” Mac asked, folding her arms over her chest and staring at her boss defiantly.
The man may sign her paychecks, but never had the bigwigs cared what she did so long as it was within her job.
Which this was. Research into the disappearance of sharks.
Alan stood up straighter. “Since he has become one of our number one benefactors.”
“Since when?” That couldn’t be right.
“Since last evening.”
Ah. “Right after he claimed to me, he is donating millions of dollars to aid in saving the sharks.” She unfolded her hands and air quoted, as if that could be believed.
“Mackenzie, what he said is true. He’s donating a lot of money to help us.”
“I don’t believe him. He’s all about making money. Why spend it on sharks? I don’t trust him.” And neither should he, not that she could say that to her boss.
“Regardless of his reasons, he said if you don’t drop this, he’ll have your funding dropped.”
Mac’s eyes widened in shock. All her years here, years of research taken away from her in the blink of an eye. Without researchers here, no one could track the migration pattern. “See, even more proof of his guilt. He doesn’t want me here snooping into his business.”
Alan pointed a warning finger at her. “Do not provoke him again, Mackenzie, or I’ll have no choice but to shut you down.”
Mac bit her lip before she could let lose another slur at the man. “Yes, sir,” Mac responded through gritted teeth. The asshole had bought his way into her company just to keep her quiet.
“E ota, bes?” Burt asked as soon as Alan left.
“I’m just great.” It wasn’t a complete lie. In doing this, Miles had just given himself away. She was getting closer to the truth. That’s why Miles was trying to shut her up.
“E ha tis tran lo en ur eh.”
Mac turned to look at Burt. It was on the tip of her tongue to confess everything. If there was anyone she could trust with their investigation into Miles, and Barry’s involvement, it was Burt, but there were too many ears. “It’s a look of determination.”
Burt didn’t look happy about that. “Jes e erful, bes. Mon lig da don et’n jus bea.”
She knew that. Miles would be on the lookout for her now. “I’ll take precautions.” She had Barry helping her. She would talk to him about it when she saw him later. He was supposed to be following Miles on the island. Maybe he’d learn something.
“Wha er e uzen en of?”
“Nothing that bears repeating.” Mac turned away from the dock to face Burt. “Let’s get Barry off the boat and go find some sharks. Have the cage ready. I want to go near where we did yesterday but not as far north and to the west in the deep pools.
“E da, bes.”