“I’ll be right there.” He hung up the phone.
He felt flushed, almost feverish. Fear and guilt and fury blended in a thrust of gut-wrenching pain. He felt at once betrayed and betrayer, deceived and deceiver. He was a criminal forced into crime, an unwilling whore. He had to take the blame, but it was not rightly his. It belonged to Larry Vaughan and his partners, whoever they might be. He had wanted to do the right thing; they had forced him not to. But who were they to force him? If he couldn’t stand up to Vaughan, what kind of cop was he? He should have closed the beaches.
Suppose he had. The fish would have gone down the beach—say, to East Hampton—and killed someone there. But that wasn’t how it had worked. The beaches had stayed open, and a child had been killed because of it. It was as simple as that. Cause and effect. Brody suddenly loathed himself. And just as suddenly, he felt great pity for himself.
“What is it?” asked Ellen.
“A kid just got killed.”
“How?”
“By a goddamn sonofabitch of a shark.”
“Oh no! If you had closed the beaches …” She stopped, embarrassed.
“Yeah, I know.”
Harry Meadows was waiting in the parking lot at the rear of the station house when Brody drove up. He opened the passenger-side door of Brody’s car and eased his bulk down onto the seat. “So much for the odds,” he said.
“Yeah. Who’s in there, Harry?”
“A man from the
Times
, two from
Newsday
, and one of my people. And the woman. And the man who says he saw it happen.”
“How did the
Times
get hold of it?”
“Bad luck. He was on the beach. So was one of the
Newsday
guys. They’re both staying with people for the weekend. They were onto it within two minutes.”
“What time did it happen?”
Meadows looked at his watch. “Fifteen, twenty minutes ago. No more.”
“Do they know about the Watkins thing?”
“I don’t know. My man does, but he knows enough not to talk. As for the others, it depends on who they’ve been talking to. I doubt they’re onto it. They haven’t had any digging time.”
“They’ll get onto it, sooner or later.”
“I know,” said Meadows. “It puts me in a rather difficult position.”
“You!
Don’t make me laugh.”
“Seriously, Martin. If somebody from the
Times
gets that story and files it, it’ll appear in tomorrow’s paper, along with today’s attack, and the
Leader
will look like hell. I’m going to have to use it, to cover myself, even if the others don’t.”
“Use it how, Harry? What are you going to say?”
“I don’t know, yet. As I said, I’m in a rather difficult position.”
“Who are you going to say ordered it hushed up? Larry Vaughan?”
“Hardly.”
“Me?”
“No, no. I’m not going to say anybody ordered it hushed up. There was no conspiracy. I’m going to talk to Carl Santos. If I can put the right words in his mouth, we may all be spared a lot of grief.”
“What about the truth?”
“What about it?”
“What about telling it the way it happened? Say that I wanted to close the beaches and warn people, but the selectmen disagreed. And say that because I was too much of a chicken to fight and put my job on the line, I went along with them. Say that all the honchos in Amity agreed there was no point in alarming people just because there was a shark around that liked to eat children.”
“Come on, Martin. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s. We came to a decision, took a gamble, and lost. That’s all there is to it.”
“Terrific. Now I’ll just go tell the kid’s mother that we’re terribly sorry we had to use her son for chips.” Brody got out of the car and started for the back door of the station house. Meadows, slower to extract himself, followed a few paces behind.
Brody stopped. “You know what I’d like to know, Harry? Who really made the decision? You went along with it. I went along with it. I don’t think Larry Vaughan was even the actual guy who made
He felt flushed, almost feverish. Fear and guilt and fury blended in a thrust of gut-wrenching pain. He felt at once betrayed and betrayer, deceived and deceiver. He was a criminal forced into crime, an unwilling whore. He had to take the blame, but it was not rightly his. It belonged to Larry Vaughan and his partners, whoever they might be. He had wanted to do the right thing; they had forced him not to. But who were they to force him? If he couldn’t stand up to Vaughan, what kind of cop was he? He should have closed the beaches.
Suppose he had. The fish would have gone down the beach—say, to East Hampton—and killed someone there. But that wasn’t how it had worked. The beaches had stayed open, and a child had been killed because of it. It was as simple as that. Cause and effect. Brody suddenly loathed himself. And just as suddenly, he felt great pity for himself.
“What is it?” asked Ellen.
“A kid just got killed.”
“How?”
“By a goddamn sonofabitch of a shark.”
“Oh no! If you had closed the beaches …” She stopped, embarrassed.
“Yeah, I know.”
Harry Meadows was waiting in the parking lot at the rear of the station house when Brody drove up. He opened the passenger-side door of Brody’s car and eased his bulk down onto the seat. “So much for the odds,” he said.
“Yeah. Who’s in there, Harry?”
“A man from the
Times
, two from
Newsday
, and one of my people. And the woman. And the man who says he saw it happen.”
“How did the
Times
get hold of it?”
“Bad luck. He was on the beach. So was one of the
Newsday
guys. They’re both staying with people for the weekend. They were onto it within two minutes.”
“What time did it happen?”
Meadows looked at his watch. “Fifteen, twenty minutes ago. No more.”
“Do they know about the Watkins thing?”
“I don’t know. My man does, but he knows enough not to talk. As for the others, it depends on who they’ve been talking to. I doubt they’re onto it. They haven’t had any digging time.”
“They’ll get onto it, sooner or later.”
“I know,” said Meadows. “It puts me in a rather difficult position.”
“You!
Don’t make me laugh.”
“Seriously, Martin. If somebody from the
Times
gets that story and files it, it’ll appear in tomorrow’s paper, along with today’s attack, and the
Leader
will look like hell. I’m going to have to use it, to cover myself, even if the others don’t.”
“Use it how, Harry? What are you going to say?”
“I don’t know, yet. As I said, I’m in a rather difficult position.”
“Who are you going to say ordered it hushed up? Larry Vaughan?”
“Hardly.”
“Me?”
“No, no. I’m not going to say anybody ordered it hushed up. There was no conspiracy. I’m going to talk to Carl Santos. If I can put the right words in his mouth, we may all be spared a lot of grief.”
“What about the truth?”
“What about it?”
“What about telling it the way it happened? Say that I wanted to close the beaches and warn people, but the selectmen disagreed. And say that because I was too much of a chicken to fight and put my job on the line, I went along with them. Say that all the honchos in Amity agreed there was no point in alarming people just because there was a shark around that liked to eat children.”
“Come on, Martin. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s. We came to a decision, took a gamble, and lost. That’s all there is to it.”
“Terrific. Now I’ll just go tell the kid’s mother that we’re terribly sorry we had to use her son for chips.” Brody got out of the car and started for the back door of the station house. Meadows, slower to extract himself, followed a few paces behind.
Brody stopped. “You know what I’d like to know, Harry? Who really made the decision? You went along with it. I went along with it. I don’t think Larry Vaughan was even the actual guy who made
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