Shark Lover (29 page)

She
bent her head underwater one last time, hoping to get a glimpse of the evil
killer that had brought Marc to his death. Looking at her straight in the eyes,
was a great white shark. Her eyes didn’t look evil, she looked like a creature
who had eaten something by mistake and was sorry. Cathy felt a twinge of
sympathy, but that soon went away when she recognized that Marc was gone and
was never coming back all because of this creature’s mistake.

The
shark stopped looking at her and turned away. She started swimming away
quickly. As she turned, Cathy saw her crooked fin. It was shaped just like a
key. Could it really be Mandy? Cathy started to think. It just couldn’t be who
she thought it was. That shark was her friend. Mandy was not a killer or was
she? Cathy came up for air and then went back underwater to catch a glimpse of the
shark one last time. It wasn’t there anymore. She wondered why the shark hadn’t
attacked her too. This was starting to be the strangest dream she had ever had.
Cathy was almost one hundred percent sure that it was Mandy who killed Marc.
This only meant one thing. Revenge.

Cathy
sat up in bed breathing hard. She couldn’t believe that she had just dreamed
about Marc’s death. She wondered if it had really happened that way. If he had
just been surfing and then a creature had attacked him so carelessly. She
didn’t want to think about it any longer, but it was engraved in her brain. She
was still breathing hard just thinking about it. It was the worst dream she had
ever had. The worst part about it, was that it wasn’t just a dream. It was real
life.

She
looked over at her sister who was still sleeping. Cathy didn’t want to wake up
Carly again. Her sister needed her sleep. She felt bad enough that she was
pulling Carly through this. Plus there was only one person she could really ask
for help. One person who would be able to help her solve all of this. She
looked inside her drawer of her nightstand. It was late, but she knew that he
would answer. She knew just who she would call.

            “Cathy?”
He asked practically speechless as he answered the phone. “What’s going on?” He
sat up in bed, trying to comprehend what time it was. There wasn’t any lights
shining through the window, so he figured it was still late at night. Possibly
it was the middle of the night. He wondered why she would be calling him so
late. It had to be an emergency.

            “Hey.
I need your help. Something horrible has happened. I tried sleeping but I just
had a terrible dream about it. I’m really sorry to wake you up, but I just had
to talk to you. It’s important.” She whispered quietly into the phone. The last
thing she wanted to do was wake Carly up again. She loved her sister, but
sometimes when she woke her up she did get cranky. Cathy knew she had to do
this on her own this time. She had to be strong and face her toughest fears.

            “What
happened? Is everything okay? I can come over there if you want me to.” He said
fully awake now.

            “It’s
Marc. I don’t know if you heard, but a missing person’s report was filed a few
days ago. Officer Sanchez called me and he said Marc was attacked by a shark on
Stinson Beach three days ago. He died right after he was attacked and they
can’t find the body. That’s at least what they told me. I need your help to
find the shark. I just had a dream that it was…it was…oh I can’t say it, it’s
too bad.” She let out a small sob as she silently remembered her horrible
nightmare.

            “Cathy,
I am so sorry. What a terrible loss. Marc was a fantastic person. He will be
missed. What were you going to say? You can tell me I am here for you. I
understand that this is a tough time for you.”

            “He
was a great person, I miss him so much already. Since they haven’t recovered a
body, I still believe that he might be alive somewhere. I haven’t lost hope
just yet, but it’s looking like he’s gone. And I think it was Mandy. I just had
a dream that it was Mandy who attacked him. Can you meet me at our regular
place? Thanks so much for understanding. You are truly an amazing friend.”

            “Of
course. I will be there right away. I will see you in ten minutes. Be careful
driving, it’s late. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.” He said with
caution.

            “I
will be very careful. Once again, thanks so much. You are the best.” She said
getting out of bed and throwing a sweat suit on. She wanted to be comfortable
for what she was about to do. Having to face Marc’s alleged killer could be a
touchy thing to do. She wasn’t really looking forward to it, but it had to be
done.

            “No
problem. Bye.” He ended the call as quickly as it had been started and Cathy
knew he had been the perfect person to ask for help.

            “I
just have to write a note for Carly, pack my book bag and get another jacket.”
She mumbled to herself. She picked up everything she needed and gently closed
the door to her bedroom. Carly appeared to be sound asleep and Cathy let out a
sigh of relief. Heading into the kitchen, she poured herself a cup of coffee. The
warmth of the drink lit her up inside. She could feel herself and her body
regaining all of the strength it had lost in the past forty-eight hours. Taking
another sip, she set it back on the counter and went out the door. She was
ready to face the morning and bring Marc righteousness. No matter what it took.

*
* *

            “Thanks
so much for coming,” She said giving him a quick hug as she followed them into
the lab.

            “It’s
not a problem at all. I know this is a tough time for you. I want to help you
through it.”  He answered with sympathy.

            Chris
had always been a great friend to call upon. Ever since Cathy had joined Shark
Savors, she knew that Chris would be someone she could trust. She never had a
difficult time making friends, she just had a hard time finding ones that she
could count on. So far, Chris had never let her down. She could safely call him
one of her best friends. Without Chris, she didn’t know what she would do. He
really was the only one who could help her.

            “Just
let me boot up the computer here. Once we get this going it should be pretty
easy to track the sharks. Do you have any idea what type of shark it would be?
That would help us to narrow down our search. I have the great white sharks
labeled as yellow, the tiger sharks are orange and the bull sharks are purple.”
He said explaining the data on the screen once the computer was on.

            “Well,
the attack happened on Stinson Beach. I believe it was three days ago. The
attack happened around three in the afternoon. I would assume it would have
been a great white shark, but I am not certain. Is there any way that you can
change the map back to three days ago and we could see which shark was near
that area?” Cathy asked as she ran a hand through her hair. She never figured
she would have to go through something like this and she wanted to be smart
about it. Going through the records seemed like the best idea.

            “Yes,
I believe I can do that. Give me a minute while I try to process that feature.
I don’t think I have ever used that back-tracking feature before. There’s never
been a need for it up until now, but there’s always a first time for
everything. I’m just glad the option is available.”

            “Me
too, you have no idea how much of a help this is to me. I’ll give you a minute
to look at the program if you need to.” She said as she looked at his intent
glaze focused on the computer screen.

            “Don’t
worry. You’re not bugging me. I can multi-task,” He said smiling briefly at her
while peering away from his computer screen for a few seconds. “How have you
been? I know it has probably been pretty rough for you.”

            “I’ve
been okay, it’s been really hectic these last few days. I feel like they have
thrown everything at me at once. Ever since Officer Sanchez called a night ago,
my life has been non-stop. Of course I have been really upset about the entire
thing. I just wish it wouldn’t have happened this way. I blame myself for
getting him back into surfing like I did. I shouldn’t have told him to get back
into it. He would still be here right now.” She wiped her eyes quickly, not
wanting Chris to see the tears coming down her face.

            “I
completely understand. That has got to be so hard to get through. I know in the
Military, every time a guy would die, it would just crush our entire unit.
Losing friends never got any easier, no matter how long that I served. I look
back and I don’t even know how I made it through those tough times. It had to
have been the strength of God. If you ever want to talk about it or if you need
something feel free to get ahold of me,” He said as his blue eyes showed his
true kindness. “So I have the screen up now,” He said changing the subject. He
could tell from her expression that she wasn’t in the mood to talk about Marc
anymore. “This was Stinson Beach three days ago. We can look at the specific
time slots and see what is occurring at each time. This is noon on the beach.”

            “Wow,
this is interesting. Thank God for technology being so advanced. I don’t see
any sharks near the shore at this time. There are a few yellow dots pretty far
out there though,” She said pointing to the yellow dots that were further out
in the ocean. “Do you think one of these came into shore a few hours later?”

            “Let’s
check. This is the screenshot at one. I don’t see any sharks at this time
either. I’m just trying to get a feel of what the water was like at that time.”

            “I
understand. It’s good that we track every hour leading up to the attack as well
as a few hours after the attack. Did you check the early morning yet?” She
paused. “Well maybe we should check three in the afternoon first. I’m pretty
curious to see what happened at that time.”

            “Good
thinking. We’ll go back to the morning hours in a bit. Okay so this is at two.
We can see the great whites are coming in closer to the shore here. There’s one
great white who is leading the path. This is probably the shark that attacked
Marc.”

            “Keep
going. Let’s check to make sure. We don’t want to make assumptions yet,” She said
as her eyes were glued to the screen. He moved the screen to three and her
mouth opened in shock. “That’s the shark that attacked Marc. That’s it. See the
shark is right in the spot where he was surfing.”

            “Good
eye. Now let’s go around the hour and see exactly what happens. This is about
three-thirty in the afternoon. The shark is roaming and then it stays in place
for a while. This is probably when the attack occurred. Would you like me to
find out the exact identity of the shark and where it is now?” He asked seeing
if she was okay to continue.

            “Yes
of course. I need to know who this shark is and I would really like to capture
it. If we catch it soon, we might be able to find evidence inside of it that
would prove that it attacked Marc. I would like for his mother to at least have
a piece of him she could bury. It’s so upsetting for her. Her husband died from
a shark attack in the same area.”

            “I
didn’t know that. That poor woman. I couldn’t imagine being her right now. That
must be awful. I understand wanting to capture the shark. I do believe that we
could catch it, especially since you believe that it killed Marc and we have
substantial evidence that this attack happened. I’ll help you catch the shark,
I’m afraid I won’t be able to harm it though. It goes against my organization’s
policies, but I understand completely if you would like to have it euthanized.”

            “I’m
not completely sure what I want to do yet, I know for sure I would like to
catch it and search for more evidence inside it. If we find more evidence, that
would be great for the case. I really just want justice for Marc. If this shark
took his life, I’m not sure if we should let it live. I know that if we do
decide to euthanize it, I would like it to be unpainful to the animal. I still love
animals and don’t want them to suffer,” She stared at the computer screen in
thought. “Chris, I just don’t know what to do. If we keep the shark alive, I
feel like we are keeping a killer alive. But then on the other hand, I don’t
want to kill an animal. It’s still a living creature, who probably only killed
Marc on accident thinking he was a seal.”

            “You
don’t have to decide today. You have time, don’t think too much about it right
now. I think you have a lot on your plate already as it is. I still didn’t get
a chance to tell you who the shark was. You might be a little shocked by this,
but it was Mandy.” He said looking directly at her with wide eyes.

            “No
way. It can’t be. I just dreamed that Mandy killed Marc right in front of my
eyes. I wonder how it could have happened. Mandy seemed harmless, she was
comfortable around him. I just never pictured her as being a killer. It just
doesn’t seem real to me yet. None of this does really.”

            “It’s
going to be okay, Cathy. Don’t worry. We’ll go catch her. I have her on my
screen. I think she’s still around the Stinson Beach area. She’s probably
hunting seals. It’s that time of year. Do you still want to see the morning
hours or do you think we should go ahead and get the hunt rolling?” He asked
with authority. Cathy could see his military leader side coming straight out of
him again. She liked his authoritive side. He was really the only person she
knew that could keep her in line. Even though they had only been friends for a
few months, she felt like she really knew Chris. She could tell from his heart that
he was a good person.