“Not now, Burt.”
Burt stepped closer, not willing to let the issue drop.“If ye ned hel, ye owe I hel ye.”
“I don’t need help, Burt, but thanks for the offer.”She wouldn’t risk her teammates for her investigation.Mac headed out onto the main deck to speak to the crew.It was time to get underway.She needed to keep her mind off Miles right now, as well as Barry’s impending date tonight.
“I hope everyone got a nice relaxing day yesterday, but now it’s time to get back to work.Today we’re heading to the north side of the island.”
“North?”Julie, who had been bent over a bucket of supplies, stood up looking shocked.Mac couldn’t blame her.They had never gone on the north side since that was where all the fishermen congregated, but Mac wanted to get a look on that side.
“Yes, the north.Obviously, we’ll have to be out a little ways due to fishing boats.”They had a wide circuit on that side where research teams weren’t allowed to go since it interfered with their territories.
“We’ve never gone there before; why now?”Monte asked, looking just as confused as the rest of her team.
“Because we’ve checked other areas for sharks and have come up empty.”She also wanted to do some spying and see if any boats stood out as potential trenchers.
“But we found one the other day,” Julie argued.
“And it was on the west side, so there is a chance they are working their way up the island toward the north where all the fish are.”
No one looked convinced about her decision, but since she was the leader, no one could tell her what to do.
“Hi u owe wha ur doi, bes,” Burt mumbled as he passed her and headed for the quarterdeck.
So did she.
Chapter 21
Barry listened to the audio from last night for what felt like the hundredth time.He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night.Every time he’d shut his eyes, all he could see was Mac’s look of betrayal that he was going out with Annabelle.
Barry had nothing to be guilty about.He wasn’t doing anything wrong.He wasn’t cheating.He and Mac weren’t even in a relationship.The woman had even taken sex off the table, something he hoped to rectify, but going out with Annabelle wasn’t going to score him any points.
Instead of dwelling on it, he focused on work.He tuned out all possible background noise to focus on the other person.Barry couldn’t tell a lot about the person by the few sentences other than they were money-hungry.
There had to be a paper trail.Miles wasn’t going to make it easy for him to follow it, and he didn’t think Annabelle was going to give him any help in that department.
The man sounded to be in his forties to fifties.Decently educated.Not college, but they had schooling based off their cadence and word structure.
Again, not a lot to help him.What he needed was a list of all the fishermen and to cross-check the captain with what he knew about the voice, and try to limit the possible number.Part of the problem with that was there were hundreds of boat captains that matched his criteria.If only he had more than a few-seconds-long audio.
He didn’t even have a visual.So he didn’t know skin tone, if they had tattoos or scars.If they had facial hair.He knew nothing about this person.
Were they rich, looking to get richer or poor, looking to make more?What was their motivation to trawl the ocean floor?
Barry looked up the people Mac had suggested who could be responsible.On paper, they all looked like good, upstanding people.Brought in a decent number of fish.Not an overabundance to raise eyebrows but routinely made their quota.
He delved deeper to look into their financials.When in doubt, follow the money trail.He couldn’t do that from Miles’s side, but maybe he could do that on the other end.Nothing stood out though.At least not working with Miles wise.Not even any off-shore accounts.
He had to think about facts.The person would need a decent-size boat capable of trawling.The only problem was, he knew next to nothing about it or the boat size needed to do it, but he knew someone who could help.
Barry grabbed his phone and headed down the road for Jacques’ stand.Elsie saw him passing by and waved him over.
“Barry, I thought you left already.I haven’t seen you in a while,” she called out to him.Her grandson, Jalen, who was cleaning dishes, looked up to glare at him before looking back down at his work.The kid was just as friendly as last time.
“Hi, Elsie.I’ve been busy taking in all the sights,” he said, stopping to talk to her.“It’s better than overstaying my welcome, right?”
Elsie shook her head, knowing whom he was referring to without saying Miles’s name.“You, I’d welcome.Him, he can leave on that jet he came in on.”
“Grandma,” Jalen hissed in a low warning whisper.
