“Miles told me himself he plans to turn this island into one like Nassau.Is that what you want to see here?Hundreds of thousands of tourists here?”
“I’ll be able to sell boat rides then,” he countered, pointing to his boats.
“You think Miles is going to let the little people make a profit here?No, he’ll shut your boats down and open his own marina.Everything will be controlled by him.”Mac lowered to her knees to look up at him.“Please, Jacques,” she pleaded, not above begging.“Help me stop him.Tell me which boats Carver is using for the overfishing, or get me in touch with who has the manifests.”
Jacques looked away, thoughtful for a moment.“I don’t know which boats he uses, but I do know one is docked on the north side right now.”
Mac rose to her feet and kissed Jacques on the cheek.“Thank you, Jacques.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t mention it.Ever,” he replied sternly.
“Never.”
Mac raced up the hill to her house.She didn’t know how long Carver was going to be docked for, but if he planned to go out fishing, he’d probably go tonight undercover.She had to move quickly.
Mac called Barry on her way.“Mac, you okay?You sound out of breath.”
“I am, running home after talking to Jacques.You were right; he knew about Carver, and one of his boats is on the island.On the north side.”
“Alright, I’ll look into it.I want you to stay home.”
“I want to come with you and end this,” she insisted.They were so close to ending their overfishing, and she wanted to be there when the cuffs were slapped on Carver and Miles.
“I’m not going to the docks though.”
Mac hadn’t heard him right.“But you said you’d look into it.”
“And I will,” he assured her in a placating tone as if he didn’t mean to.“But I overheard from an audio device I planted in his office that he is meeting with a potential buyer on the west end of the island.”
“The west end?There’s nothing over there.”
“The perfect place for a private meeting.”
“But the boat—” she tried to argue, but he spoke over her.
“Mac, I can catch Miles with the buyer and get him arrested.”
“By then the boat could be gone.”Who knew when they would ever find it again or catch them in the act of overfishing?This was an opportunity they shouldn’t miss.
“And I’ll get a hold of the manifest and find out which boat it was.Or Miles will tell us.But I can’t lose this lead.I don’t have time to do both.We need to get Miles.”
She understood.Miles was the mastermind while Carver was the puppet.He was the bigger target.“Fine, you go after Miles, and I’ll track down the boat.”There were two of them; there was no reason they couldn’t cover both sides.If she caught them overfishing, she could call the coast guard.
“Mac, I forbid you to go.”
“Forbid?”she hissed between clenched teeth.No man could forbid her to do something, especially Barry.She would not be shut out now that they were so close.
“Wrong choice of word, I apologize.Look, I don’t have time to argue.I have to get to the other side of the island.Please, just stay put, and I’ll call you after I have Miles.We’ll get the manifest tomorrow.”
Tomorrow could be too late, but there was no arguing with him.Barry was in his commando mode, and he wouldn’t see reason that they could kill two birds with one stone.“Fine, I’ll talk to you later.”
Barry sighed in relief.“Thank you.”
“Bye.”Mac hung out without waiting for his reply.She was so frustrated with him, she could punch something.
Barry thought he had won because she didn’t argue further, but she was not going to sit on the sidelines and let him waste this opportunity.She was going to end this tonight.
Chapter 36
