Aaron shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. He had taken one for the team and the coach still chewed him out in front of everybody.
Sneed ignored the grilling. He had focused on Trainer’s reaction the whole time. The Lagoon Watcher didn’t appear outraged at Aaron’s theory. He looked amused by it. Sneed’s eyes widened when he spotted the Watcher sending Aaron a nod as if he knew he had caught onto something.
“I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve seen an animal with a purple mark act out,” Sneed told Trainer. Furrowing his sunburned brow, the scientist crossed his arms and offered nothing. “Come on, Watcher, you’re out there more than anybody. Don’t hold back on me, now.”
“Hold back?” he asked. “What more do you want? I told you everything that happened there three times. I’ve done plenty.”
“Everything, huh?” Sneed huffed. “I still ain’t heard a good explanation why you were out checking for sea turtle nests in the middle of the night.”
“Because I care about the creatures that share this earth with me,” the Watcher said. “You protect people-supposedly you do. I protect the inhabitants of this planet. In case your officers haven’t noticed while they’ve set up speed traps along every causeway over the lagoon, Central Florida’s treasured estuary is on the verge of ruin.” Trainer ran through every pollutant in the environmental science textbook, and a few that had Aaron scratching his head. He gave the old-timer speech about how the lagoon used to be so clear that they could see the bottom and dive after lobsters. “I’ve been telling people for years that they should close all the wastewater dumping pipes and clean up the farm runoff. Have they listened? Not one bit. And now, surprise, surprise, we have highly deadly mutated bacteria. Sort of poetic justice, isn’t it?”
He didn’t get a single nod from the men in the room. They weren’t on the same wavelength as the Lagoon Watcher. He operated on a channel straight out of Neptune.
Aaron stocked his DVD player with flicks like Endless Summer instead of crime thrillers, yet even he saw the Lagoon Watcher’s motive. Sick and dying animals wouldn’t sway politicians-after all, dolphins couldn’t pay lobbyists with sardines. But an ecological catastrophe killing several people a week would light a fire under their asses. If the media picked out pollution in the lagoon as a reason for the headline-grabbing deaths, they’d cork every toxic spigot the next day.
He studied his professor’s expression for a sign of the same revelation, but Swartzman had his forehead in his hand as he shook his head. He looked bummed that his old friend had pretty much handed the detective the key to his cell.
“So you wanna tell me how you killed all those folks?” Sneed asked. Trainer hollered denials, but the detective pressed on like a steam train running the frantic scientist over. “You made the bacteria to terrorize this community so bad that we’d leave your precious lagoon alone. You think some fucking fish are more important than people?”
“I made it? That’s impossible!” He sprang from his seat. Sneed rose with him so their eyes stayed level. “I had nothing to do with that purple gunk. I’m being framed over my political views!”
Aaron didn’t think an extreme shade of green existed that could represent the Lagoon Watcher’s one-man political party. Not much for free speech inside his office, Sneed let his hand linger over his revolver-and not one of the antiques in the glass cases.
“Sit yer ass down,” the detective growled. “I’m not done asking questions.”
A swollen vein on Sneed’s forehead nearly burst like a knotted hose when the haggard scientist blew him off and spun Swartzman’s chair toward him. Peering down on the professor’s receding hairline, Trainer couldn’t even draw eye contact from his former research partner.
“I could use a little backup here. What gives? Shouldn’t you return the favor?”
Swartzman’s face twisted sour. It reminded Aaron of the look he had seen on the professor’s face when Trainer bought up some incident about NASA. He couldn’t let it slip by this time.
“Whoa dude, you better have one killer favor in mind that your bro owes you here ‘cause you’re asking a lot,” Aaron told Trainer.
“How about saving his career?” The Lagoon Watcher faced Aaron with a smart Alec grin. “That’s how it went with NASA.”
“That’s not what happened,” Swartzman said in a lame attempt at convincing Aaron. Instead, his pathetic squeak amplified the truth in Trainer’s story.
“Oh, sure it is,” the Lagoon Watcher said. “You don’t have Alzheimer’s yet, do you buddy? Here’s a refresher for your friends: You discovered the rocket tests at NASA were polluting the lagoon and wrote up this whole paper on it. The night before your deadline to turn it in for a feature story in the nature journal, a brute in a suit knocks on your door and threatens to knock you out. You were ready to toss the envelope in the mail and run, but I talked you out of it. Not only did you have more hair back in that day, you had that rebellious streak in you. You thought your work could change the world. But you forgot that our government keeps a whole range of people on the federal dime so they can support the status quo.” Trainer flashed a taunting grin towards the simmering Sneed. “If you had mailed that letter, they would have canned your ass. You would have been done. Maybe you’d have ended up a bum on a meager pension like me.”
“I doubt that, Harry,” Swartzman said. “But it’s funny you went against your own advice and wound up here. That doesn’t make you a killer, though.” The professor rose from his chair and stepped between Sneed and his old friend. “He’s not capable of this, sir. I hate to be derogatory, but he’s not nearly a good enough scientist to manipulate the genetic code of bacteria by himself.”
Trainer rolled his eyes, but he didn’t contest the knock on his skills.
Shaking his head, Sneed didn’t relax his menacing pose in the slightest. “I wouldn’t put anything past anybody. I can’t tell you how many street thugs had set up sophisticated boiler rooms or smuggling operations. I think me and him need some alone time. I’ll see what he’s really made of.”
The Lagoon Watcher backed toward the door and wagged his finger at the detective. “I don’t see a warrant and you’re not paying me to clean this dust bucket. That means I’m outta here.” He reached behind his back and grabbed the handle.
Apparently, Sneed didn’t have enough on the Watcher to claim reasonable cause because he didn’t make a move for him.
“You drive a blue pickup, right son?” Sneed asked. He got no reply. “I hear one of those has been on the prowl lately ‘round the schools. What for?”
The Lagoon Watcher left without saying another word. Sneed turned his video monitor toward the scientists so they could see him leaving the parking lot in his blue pickup. He had a Marlins ball cap on the dashboard. Aaron didn’t understand the significance, but the shit-eating grin on Sneed’s face coupled with the devastated puss of his professor told him plenty.
Chapter 13
Moni paced past the crime lab a few times until the professor had left, leaving young Aaron without his chaperon. The student studied the photos of the beheaded body and the floating lumps of guts and bones that had once been fish. When she slipped behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, Aaron nearly jumped out of his skin. “Whoa!”
Then he turned around and must have realized that those gruesome scenes were only photos. When Aaron blushed, Moni knew how much he cared about impressing her. “Hi Moni. This stuff is pretty intense. I’ve sliced open animals before…” She gave him a mocking glare of disgust. “You know, like for dissection in class. I don’t enjoy it or anything. But this guy, he’s straight up psycho.”