by Jon Zackon
Theo thought for a moment and said, “The only way to work it out is by the number of skulls – and we found thirty-six. Let’s add three or four that might have been incinerated. I think forty sounds about right.”
I said, “Plus the two Indian boys, the African witness, the four or five bodies at the Transvaal farm, Marty and Ruth ... he’s killed forty-nine people.”
“Those are the ones we know about, Danny. Who’s to say there weren’t more? But we’ll never really know, will we?”
And then there are Theo’s very last words to me. I suppose it’s only right that I should also remind myself of them from time to time.
“Danny,” he said, “I’ve noticed that you can be hard on yourself. But you came to SA to take on an ex-cop who was a killer. A fucking serial killer. That took balls, man. So do you want to know what I think, Danny? I think you can be bloody proud of yourself.”
Apology
CONSERVATIONISTS bent on saving the world’s dwindling number of sharks will doubtless be appalled by Eric Bergow’s “exposition” on ragged tooth sharks. They will say his description of these much-maligned creatures – including his simplistic explanation of their extremely complex teeth – is so much nonsense. But most of all they will dispute the tenor of his remarks, which suggest that the ragged tooth is somehow a terrible threat to human life.
Fifty years of research have revealed that the ragged tooth, while not exactly cuddly, does not pose the sort of threat that was once feared. Indeed, experts now claim that while ragged tooth sharks did indeed wound some bathers, some of the attacks originally attributed to them may have been carried out by far more dangerous species, such as the Zambezi shark, the tiger shark and even the Great White.
In Eric’s defence, his attitude towards the ragged tooth accurately reflected opinions that were prevalent in the Fifties and early Sixties. The author himself was witness to the sort of hysteria that once gave this shark such a bad name.
Finally, it should be emphasised that shark attacks are incredibly rare. In this light, it is difficult to understand the sort of terror they evoke in the human psyche. Instead of being hunted by the million, sharks should be seen for what they are – an essential part of the eco-systems that govern marine life in all of the seas and oceans.
J.Z. April, 2013
Acknowledgements
FOR their help and unflagging encouragement, the author would like to thank Anne Zackon, Aubrey Lentin, Dr Kevin Stoloff, Ian Stoloff, Alastair McIntyre, Susan McCall, Martin McCall, Michael White, Jeff Zackon, Bill Dickson, Mark Hoey, Greg Schlosberg, Bruce Turner and Laura Julius.
Special thanks are due to Christopher Roberts, who read the manuscript professionally for an agent. His upbeat report made me determined to get the manuscript published.
While hard at work writing and researching, I made a small donation to Wikipedia. With luck, this most useful of websites will benefit further from any success this novel might achieve.
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