Silver Bay(83)
Author: Jojo Moyes

Hannah was grinning widely, and my heart sank. I hoped it wasn’t another boat.

We didn’t have long to wait. Nino stayed up at the hotel with Hannah, but the rest of us strolled slowly down the sea path, enjoying the sun and watching, with mild surprise, the crowd swell outside Greg’s lock-up. There were reporters and photographers, I noticed, and wondered how it would feel to have the cameras trained on me. I had seen the films: would there be a scrum of journalists on the courtroom steps? Would I be hounded? I shivered, despite the warmth of the day, and tried to push the thought away.

‘Yoshi?’ I said, but she pretended not to hear me.

I had tried to get her to say something earlier but she had tapped her nose and Lance adopted a theatrically blank expression.

‘I hope Nino’s okay by himself,’ Kathleen fretted. ‘I don’t like leaving him.’

‘He’s probably enjoying five minutes’ peace,’ said Mike. ‘He might be a little tired.’

‘You think I should go back?’ she said.

‘Hannah will fetch us if there’s a problem.’ I nudged her. ‘He’s having the time of his life. Happy as Larry.’

‘He does look good, doesn’t he?’ she said, gazing up the coast road to the distant hotel. And then, awkwardly, ‘Daft old fool.’

Greg was standing in front of his lock-up, smoking a cigarette. He was gazing at the crowd, as if he was waiting to ensure that everyone was there. A couple of times he exchanged a muttered joke with one of the fishermen near him. His truck was no longer outside.

I tried and failed again to work out what this might be about. It was uncharacteristic behaviour, for sure.

Finally, he spat out his cigarette and ground it into the dirt with his heel. Then, he slid his key into the padlock and, with a grunt of effort, opened the two weather-beaten doors and flicked on the light. As we stared into the darkened interior, he whipped a tarpaulin off the back of his truck to reveal his prize: an enormous tiger shark, its eye still clear, its mouth slightly open in blank outrage, revealing angled, pointed teeth. There was an audible gasp. Even dead, immobile and trussed up on a winch, that creature was terrifying.

‘Went out fishing early this morning,’ he said to the reporters, patting its skin. ‘Just to the mouth of the bay, like. You can often get a good catch there. I thought I had a blue marlin at first – but look at the bugger I hauled in on my line! Dragged me round the cockpit like you wouldn’t believe. Tony, back it up!’ he called, to the man in the cab. As he stepped aside, the truck reversed out into the light. A few cameras clicked.

‘I’ve called you guys out because we’ve not had tigers this close before and I want to tell everyone in the bay to keep their kids out of the water. You can’t trust these monsters not to come in. You know the tiger shark’s a mean old bugger, and we’ve seen from the ruddy ghost nets that pretty well anything can get right in to shore.’

He slapped the shark appreciatively.

‘I brought it into the fish market and the guys there identified it and weighed it for me. I’m told it’s not the only one that’s been seen in our waters.’

The sight of that shark sent a chill down my spine. I kept thinking of Mike and Hannah in that dark, churning water, of the things he told me had bumped against his legs.

It’s possible he felt the same: he reached behind my back for my hand and squeezed it.

Yoshi stepped forward and began to reel off information to the reporters. ‘Tiger sharks,’ she said, ‘are known as the dustbins of the sea. This one may have been attracted into the bay by the ghost net and the sheer number of dead creatures attached to it. But that means there’s a good chance this big guy wasn’t alone, and others might be hanging around here for some considerable time. They feed on anything, fish, turtles, humans . . .’ She let that word dangle long enough for people to glance at each other nervously. ‘But don’t just ask me,’ she added. ‘The Department of Environment and Heritage will tell you that they’re not great creatures to have around.’

‘We need shark nets,’ said someone in the crowd. ‘They’ve got them at other beaches.’

‘How are you going to have shark nets in a bay full of dolphins?’ said Greg, sharply. ‘They trap whales too. There’ll be shark nets in this bay over my dead body.’

‘That’d be right.’ Someone laughed.

‘Sharks are smart,’ said Yoshi. ‘If we put them in the mouth of the bay they’ll just swim over or round them. If you check out the figures, shark-death rates stay around the same whether the beaches have nets or not.’

‘I reckon you’re making something out of nothing.’ I recognised one of the hoteliers. He wouldn’t be happy, I knew, about this sort of publicity just as the spring season was about to take off. ‘Everyone knows you’re more likely statistically to be hit by lightning than killed by a shark.’

‘You think this old fellow worried about statistics?’ Greg leant against the shark’s torpedo body. ‘He probably reckoned he had a one in a million chance of swallowing someone’s fishing line.’

The crowd laughed.

‘You want to watch out for the tigers, because they’ll come close to shore to follow the sea turtles,’ said Yoshi, earnestly. ‘And they’re persistent. They’re not like the great whites – they’ll keep coming back to chew up whatever they’ve taken a bite out of.’

The hotelier shook his head. Greg saw him and raised his voice. ‘Fine, Alf,’ he said. ‘You go swimming, then. I just thought it was my duty to let you guys know what’s out there.’

‘Shark attacks are on the increase,’ said Yoshi. ‘It’s a well-known fact. There are some possible solutions. We can maybe mark off safe swimming areas with buoys and nets. I’m sure the coastguard can fix that up. They just won’t be enormous.’

‘In the meantime, as I said,’ Greg had pulled his cap low over his eyes so that I couldn’t see them, ‘I’d advise you to keep your ankle-biters out of the water. We’ll alert the coastguard if we see any others in the bay, and the fishermen will do the same.’

There was a murmur of concern. Several people turned away, mobile phones at their ears, and others moved closer to the truck, wanting to touch the shark. I thought about Hannah and the conversation we had had about me getting her a boat. I didn’t think anyone would let their children take boats out around Silver Bay while there were sharks in the water. But telling her that after what I had promised wouldn’t be easy. While I was mulling this over, Kathleen stepped forward and stared at the dead creature in the back of the van. ‘Shark, eh?’ she said, frowning, her arms crossed across her chest.