Shark Lover (32 page)

“Animals
are a lot smarter than most people think that they are. A lot of people can’t
pick up on an animal’s intuition as well as you or I can,” he said as he took
the mobile shark tracker out of his pocket. “She’s still in that same area,
feeding probably. Do you want to go back now? We would have a better chance of
catching her. I think the storms have stopped for today.”

“I’m
ready. Let’s go catch a shark.”

*
* *

“I
can’t believe we still didn’t catch her.” Cathy sighed in disappointment once
Chris had parked his jeep back at Shark Savors. They had invested another three
hours in trying to hunt Mandy down, but they still came up empty. Cathy had
thought for sure they would have captured Mandy by now. Her patience was
running out. Even though they had only been trying for a day, it felt like an
entire lifetime. She couldn’t contain her disappointment with the fact that she
couldn’t find the shark that had killed the love of her life.

“I
know it’s frustrating, but don’t worry. We’re not going to give up. We can come
back tomorrow after work and your classes. We’ll go every day until we find
her.” Chris stated firmly with determination. Cathy admired his attitude and
his willingness to keep the fight going. Chris kept her motivated. Without him,
she might have already given up.

“Alright,
so tomorrow then. I will stop by after my work at the aquarium is done. I do
have a night class tomorrow night, so we can’t stay out too late,” She said as
her stomach rumbled. “Wow I guess it’s dinner time already. Who knew that this
search could take an entire day? I’m just upset we didn’t come up with
anything.”

“Sounds
like a plan. I’ll see you tomorrow once your work is over. Just give me a call
or just pop on in. You know where to find me. We won’t give up until she is
captured. I promise you that much. Have a good night.” He got out of the jeep
and started heading in the building.

“Chris!”
Cathy called out as she jumped out of his jeep and started running after him.

He
turned around abruptly. “Yes? Is everything alright Cathy?” He asked looking
apprehensive.  

“Yes,
everything is fine. It’s just I…I…” She stammered as she looked at the ground
sheepishly. “I wondered if you wanted to come over to my apartment for dinner.
It’s the least I can do for you after everything you have done for me. You took
off the entire day to help me search. I would love to thank you with a great
dinner.”

“Thanks
for the invitation, but you don’t have to do that. I would help you anyways.
I’m not looking for any type of reward or payback. I just want to help out a
friend in need.” He put his hand on her arm. “There’s no need to thank me.”

“But
I insist. I really want to do this. Carly is making seafood pasta. I don’t know
if you are interested, but she’s a great cook. I would love for you to meet
her. She will probably be assisting us on tomorrow’s search.” Cathy insisted
with a bargain that was hard for Chris to turn down. He could tell that she was
the type of girl who always got what she wanted and she was about to again
right now.

“I’ll
be there. I just need to check on a few things here and I will swing by your
apartment in about an hour. Should I bring anything? I can bring more
vegetables or some salad if you think it would go with the pasta.” He looked
down at his watch seemingly in a hurry.

“There’s
no rush. We’ll still be there eating,” She said smiling. “Sure, bring a salad.
I would love for Carly to try it. She’s always making fun of me for being a
vegetarian. If she could try some good healthy food, maybe she would understand
it more.”

Chris
laughed. “We’ll show her. I’ll see you in a bit. Bye.”

Cathy
waved as she walked back over to her own jeep. While she was driving back, she
couldn’t help but to still feel frustrated. It had been a perfect day, but they
still hadn’t found Mandy. She didn’t know how much longer Mandy would even be
in the Stinson Beach area. It was frustrating to come so close to her, but
still not be able to capture her. Even if Cathy had the chance to capture her,
she still wasn’t sure what she would do with Mandy. Cathy didn’t really want to
hurt her, but she feared that the evidence would soon be gone if they waited
much longer to get her.

By
the time she knew it, she was already back at her apartment. She saw the lights
on and figured that Carly was still cooking. She was happy that her sister had
decided to move in for a while, but she knew the space was small and Carly
would want her to move back home again. While Cathy did seek comfort from her
mother and her sister, she really didn’t want to move back into her old house.
She hadn’t lived there since high school for a reason. The house reminded her
too much of her father.

Having
an apartment seemed to distance herself from all of the memories that haunted
her. She had told her mother for years to sell the house. Cathy figured they
didn’t need that much space anymore since her father was no longer with them,
but her mother had insisted on keeping the house. Her mother saw it as more of
a sentimental keepsake. For Cathy, it was a place of broken memories that she
dreaded going back to.

Putting
the past aside for a moment, she put the key into the door of her apartment and
pushed her way inside. She could smell the seafood pasta the moment she walked
into the door and she could feel herself fuming with hunger. Putting her
backpack on the hook, she took her shoes off and started walking towards the
kitchen. She hoped Carly had made enough for Chris. She hadn’t had a chance to
tell Carly that Chris was coming over for dinner yet.

“Carly?”
Cathy called out from the hallway, wanting to get her sister’s attention.

“I’m
in the kitchen still! It’s done. Come in and eat with me.” Carly responded
cheerfully. She was always cheerful when she was cooking. To her cooking was an
art. It was something that she did when she wanted to relax and feel better
about life. It was also a great way to take the stress away. With everything
that was going on with Cathy, Carly was really feeling the stress and cooking
dinner had eased some of it away.

“Thanks
for making dinner, I really appreciate it. Everything smells so good,” She said
grabbing a bowl of the pasta and sitting down at the table. “Did you make
enough for three?” She asked as Carly took the other bowl and sat down next to
her.

“I
made enough for like six,” She said as she grinned. “Why? Is someone going to
be joining us?”

“My
friend Chris from Shark Savors. He’s coming over. He’s a vegetarian too, so
don’t make fun of him. I invited him over since he helped me search for Marc
all day and I am so grateful for all of the help that I can get.” Suddenly a
knock at the door interrupted their conversation and Cathy got up to get it.
She opened it and saw Chris with a big bowl of salad. He looked as if he had
cleaned up since she last saw him on the boat. He was now wearing a collared
shirt and khaki pants. Cathy had never seen him dressed up before. Usually he
was always wearing sweats at Shark Savors.

“I
don’t know if I brought too much or not,” He said responding to the odd look
that she was giving him. He probably thought it was referring to the giant
salad bowl that he had brought over. “I just didn’t want to come empty-handed.”

“Oh
don’t worry about it. You’re fine. We eat a lot of salad anyways,” She said
smiling. “Come in. We have the pasta. I’ll introduce you to my sister.” She led
him back to the kitchen table where Carly was sitting. “Chris, this is my
sister Carly.”

“It’s
nice to meet you. Thanks for making the dinner. It looks great.” Chris politely
shook her hand before sitting down at the table to his bowl of pasta.

“It’s
nice to meet you as well. Cathy talks about you all the time,” Carly simpered.
She took the salad back to the kitchen while saying, “Thanks for the salad. It
looks delicious.”

“No
problem. I have so many vegetables and fruits back in the lab. If you ever need
any, just let me know.” He started cutting up his pasta with a fork and a
knife.

Carly
made a motion for Cathy to follow her back to the kitchen. Cathy excused
herself and went through the double doors to the kitchen. She loved the way
that her apartment was set up. Even though it was small, she loved the privacy
that each room offered. There was only one bedroom but it was off to the side
of the apartment. The rest of the space was wide and open, just the way that
she liked it with features that added privacy to each room. She didn’t want to
leave this place. It was her home.

“So
who’s Mr. Military Man?” Carly whispered to her in the kitchen. “He’s quite a
hunk. He’s so into you.”

“Carly!
You’re horrible. He’s not into me, he’s just trying to be nice. He knows Marc
meant a lot to me and we have been spending the last few days trying to find
him. We’re just friends. He understands what I am going through. When he was in
the marines, he lost a lot of his friends.” Cathy explained with a sense of
truth, but Carly was not backing down.

“I’m
just being honest. He’s into you, I can tell. No guy comes over dressed up in
his Sunday best if he’s not serious about a girl. Plus he brought that huge
bowl of salad. It’s not even what he brought that is giving me that idea. Can’t
you see the way that he looks at you? He wants you. Anybody could see that.”
Carly simpered again.

“Carly,
it’s not like that I swear. We’re just friends, he’s probably just being nice
because he feels bad for me. He’s been nothing but understanding. It would be
terrible timing, Marc just lost his life a few days ago. He hasn’t even been
gone a week. Do you know how wrong that just sounds? Plus we are being rude.
We’re leaving Chris all alone out there.” She pointed towards the kitchen door
and started walking out as Carly grabbed her hand.

“I’m
just saying the truth. I can’t help that you don’t want to hear it. And hey, if
a guy like that was into me, nothing would stop me. And see you have thought
about it. I know I would have.”

“I’m
going out to go sit with Chris,” She said ignoring her sister’s comments. She
didn’t want to think about any of that right now. Cathy knew for herself that
Chris wasn’t interested in her anyways. He could have any girl he wanted, he
wouldn’t want to be with her. Besides, he was one of her best friends. It
wouldn’t feel right if they started dating, especially under these
circumstances. Cathy knew where her heart was and it was with Marc. She loved
him with all her heart and she wasn’t going to give up the fight until she
brought him justice. “Come join us.” She said to Carly before leaving the
kitchen.

“Nope,
I’ll let you two love birds do the talking.” She laughed as Cathy threw the
door in her face.

“I’m
sorry about my sister. She’ll be in the kitchen cleaning up.” Cathy sighed as
she sat down next to Chris. “She’s being difficult.”

“Believe
me I understand. I have a little sister of my own. Sometimes she was just a
pain.” He smiled pushing away his bowl of pasta. “That was good, thanks for
inviting me. I figured out some new tactics we could try to capture Mandy.” He
said changing the subject rapidly.

“You
know how it is then,” She laughed. “I’m glad you could come. Spill out those
ideas. I’m curious to know.”

“I
was thinking we could try the cage tactic again. It seemed to work before,” He
said as his tone turned serious. “That’s how we got her to come close a few
weeks ago. I do also have another idea, but I don’t know if you are going to
like it. I really don’t like the idea much myself.” He looked down into the
table as his cheeks flushed. She couldn’t help but like the way he looked when
he was embarrassed. It was the only time that he had ever let her see him
vulnerable.

“Oh,
what did you have in mind? I’m up to try anything at this point. I’m starting
to get desperate. I don’t know how much longer that we have. This is the time
period that Mandy always disappears isn’t it? I don’t want to miss out on
catching her. She won’t be back for months and we will have missed the perfect
opportunity.” She looked into his eyes and found hope. She knew he wouldn’t
give up easily.

“We
could get one of those long fishing lines that fisherman use. We would bait the
hooks with fish and it would basically just be the waiting game. The only
problem with using a fishing line is that we are probably going to end up
catching other marine animals and I know you don’t want to do that.” He looked
at her expression as if he was trying to figure out how she would react or what
she would say next.

“I
think those ideas would be effective, but I think we should wait awhile until
we try them. I love animals too much to injure more of them. When we
accidentally caught that seal today, it nearly broke my heart. I was just glad
that you were able to heal him. Let’s just stick it out and see if we can catch
her on the line. Maybe if the weather is clearer, we will have a better chance
of capturing her. I’m not ready to give up yet.” She stated with decision.

“I
had a feeling you would say that.” He gave her a warm smile. “I figured you
wouldn’t want to hurt more animals. I feel the same way. I didn’t even want to
suggest the other ideas, but I figured why not just throw them out there and
see if we come up with something else. We’ll keep trying the line. I’ve got
everything ready for tomorrow.” He looked down at his watch. “I should probably
get going. I have classes early tomorrow. I will see you tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks so much for dinner. I had fun.”