She winked at George, then half turned. “Oh, you’re talking to me, sorry. What if I am?”
He dropped a card on the bar in front of her. “I’m Josh Brown, journalist with CNN. I’m covering the Angela Crawford shark story. Can we talk?”
When she thought about it, turning him down would be stupid. “I have a few minutes to talk, but no cameras right now, okay?”
He glanced down at her chest, then caught himself. He pulled out a notebook. “Fine. So tell me, have you seen Angela Crawford’s injuries in person?”
Was that all he cared about? “No comment. Ask me about the sharks.”
“Three attacks in a short period of time, same stretch of coast. All by a great white shark. Coincidence?” he said.
“That I can’t tell you, but for future reference, we refer to them asincidents, since the shark bit and released the victims. Had it actually attacked, there wouldn’t be anything left of either of them. And the third case, we have no evidence that says he was killed by a shark.”
He scribbled, then said, “But we do know that two of them were white sharks, correct?”
“Correct.”
“How big exactly?”
The size of this animal was going to wreak havoc in the American psyche, but she had to be honest. “Between eighteen and twenty feet.”
Josh slowly looked up at her. “Jesus Christ. A monster.”
She shrugged, trying to downplay it. “Not a monster. It’s not uncommon for mature female white sharks to get that large.”
A bit of a stretch but not entirely wrong.
“Is it normal for a great white shark to be hunting in Hawaiian waters?” he asked.
George produced her cup of coffee, and she took a sip before answering. “White sharks are seasonal visitors to the islands, so it’s not unusual at all. But we can’t say for sure if they come here to hunt.”
“Aren’t they always hunting? I mean, they have to eat, don’t they?” he asked.
“We believe they can store food, so if they’ve recently had a seal or part of a whale carcass, say, they may not need to eat for a while.”
“You see any seals or whale carcasses around here?”
“No.”
“So the shark is hungry.”
“I’m not going to bother guessing.”
“So, as a shark expert, what is your recommendation on holding an international swimming race in these very waters in less than two weeks? Will the shark hunt make it safe enough?”
“The shark hunt is still on the table, but I strongly discourage it.”
She told him why, in detail.
“Why so willing to go to bat for these killing machines, Miss Gray?” he asked.
A term she intensely disliked. All predators were designed to kill efficiently, but the killing did not define them. “Because I’ve seen a different side to them and know they have been grossly misrepresented by the media. When a man in a neighborhood shoots someone, do we then go hunt and kill all the men in the area? It’s a senseless and outdated way of handling the situation.”
He stared at her for a moment and she thought he was going to counter her, but he said, “Point made. So if not a hunt, then what? You’re here investigating, but to what end?”
“I still believe there’s a reason the sharks—or shark—is hanging out here, and once we find that reason, we can act accordingly. In the meantime, I’m collecting data to further our understanding of them and the conditions surrounding these incidents. The more we know,the more we may be able to prevent future tragedies from happening. And to quote me, please useDr.Gray.”
He nodded. “I’m curious, what got a young woman such as yourself so interested in sharks?”
