The words scraped hard against Minnow’s cold skin. “Jawsdid sharks a huge disservice. And they are still paying for it. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel terribly for the victims and their families—of course my heart goes out to them. But the answer is not a shark hunt, I promise you that.”
Linda nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Gray.”
Mayor Lum was nowhere to be seen.
On the way in to see Angela, Minnow stopped in the bathroom. In the mirror she looked less like a scientist and more like a woman who’d been adrift at sea for a week. But that didn’t bother her. What bothered her most was the fact that right now, regardless of what the state was doing, anyone could be out there hauling sharks out of the water. Senselessly, ruthlessly, brutally. For some reason she had assumed everyone would wait until an official hunt was called. The inside of her cheek burned when she thought about it, and her skin crawled.
Nalu was waiting for her out in the hallway, shivering. “Did you hear what Lum said about a Shark Task Force?” she asked him.
“News to me.”
“Me, too, especially since I’m apparently on it.”
“There was a shark task force a few years back, maybe 1992? Woody might know more,” Nalu said.
“Or Joe. But I don’t want to bother him.”
According to Nalu, there had been complications with the birth, so Joe would be on O?ahu at least another week.
She added, “I’ll call Lum after we’re done with Angela.”
The guard at the door to her room looked at Minnow and said, “Just you.”
Nalu stopped. “I’m with her.”
“Not in there, you aren’t. Ms. Crawford was clear—only Dr. Gray.”
Minnow shot Nalu a sympathetic look before he turned and headed to the waiting room. As she walked through the door, she noticed Angela seemed to have more color this morning. But there was a sweet, almost fleshy smell hiding behind the antiseptic hanging in the room.
“Hey,” Angela said with a smile.
“How are you doing?” Minnow asked.
“Hanging in there. My mom came last night, so that helps. Moms are the best that way, aren’t they?”
Minnow sidestepped the question. “Where did she fly in from?”
“London. A beast of a trip to get here.”
“Must be hard to be halfway around the world and get that call.”
“She fainted, poor thing. I’m still just her wee baby girl,” Angela said with a hitch in her voice. “So, Zach should be here any minute with the tooth. I mean, if he can manage to sneak past the cameras, which I’m sure he can because he gets off on that kind of thing.”
“I suppose you’d have to if you want any kind of privacy.”
What a crazy way to live.
“I hear the media is piling up outside. Bloody paparazzi soon to follow, I’m sure. I don’t have the energy for it, so let them speculate. But while I have you all to myself, I want to hear about your father,” Angela said.
Minnow winced, and Angela caught it.
“Please?” the actress said.
It was hard to say no to a woman who had just lost her arm to a shark. So Minnow told her what she knew about the day she lost her father, at least what she’d been told. And when she finished unspooling her story, she thought about the fragment of memory that surfaced yesterday. Maybe talking about it would jar something else loose, perhaps provide an answer to the question at the center of her being.What really happened that cold, foggy morning?
“What a thing for a child to go through. Hell, I wish I could hug you right now.” She nodded down at her arm with its IV lines and her bandaged body. “But you know, these things that happen to us, they aren’t accidents.”
A sentiment Minnow had mixed feelings about. “I’m not so sure.”
