Free Jaws by Peter Benchley Page A
Authors: Peter Benchley
this century. Dr. Dieter attributed the attacks to "bad luck, like a flash of lightning that hits a house. The shark was probably just passing by. It happened to be a nice day, and there happened to be people swimming, and he happened to come along. It was pure chance."
Amity is a summer community on the south shore of Long Island, approximately midway between Bridgehampton and East Hampton, with a wintertime population of 1,000. In the summer, the population increases to 10,000.
Brody finished reading the article and set the paper on the desk. Chance, that doctor said, pure chance. What would he say if he knew about the first attack? Still pure chance? Or would it be negligence, gross and unforgivable? There were three people dead now, and two of them could still be alive, if only Brody had...
"You've seen the Times," said Meadows. He was standing in the doorway.
"Yeah, I've seen it. They didn't pick up the Watkins thing."
"I know. Kind of curious, especially after Len's little slip of the tongue."
"But you did use it."
"I did. I had to. Here." Meadows handed Brody a copy of the Amity Leader. The banner headline ran across all six columns of page one: TWO KILLED BY MONSTER
SHARK OFF AMITY BEACH. Below that, in smaller type, a subhead: Number of Victims of Killer Fish Rises to Three.
"You sure get your news up high, Harry."
"Read on."
Brody read:
Two summer visitors to Amity were brutally slain yesterday by a maneating shark that attacked them as they frolicked in the chill waters off the Scotch Road beach.
Alexander Kintner, age 6, who lived with his mother in the Goose Neck Lane house owned by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Packer, was the first to die --attacked from below as he lay on a rubber raft. His body has not been found.
Less than half an hour later, Morris Cater, 65, who was spending the weekend at the Abelard Arms Inn, was attacked from behind as he swam in the gentle surf off the public beach.
The giant fish struck again and again, savaging Mr. Cater as he cried for help. Patrolman Len Hendricks, who by sheer coincidence was taking his first swim in five years, made a valiant attempt to rescue the struggling victim, but the fish gave no quarter. Mr. Cater was dead by the time he was pulled clear of the water.
The deaths were the second and third to be caused by shark attack off Amity in the past five days.
Last Wednesday night, Miss Christine Watkins, a guest of Mr. and Mr. John Foote of Old Mill Road, went for a swim and vanished. file:///C|/My Documents/Mike's Shit/utilities/books/pdf format/Benchley, Peter - Jaws.txt (27 of 131) [1/18/2001 2:02:21 AM]
file:///C|/My Documents/Mike's Shit/utilities/books/pdf format/Benchley, Peter - Jaws.txt Thursday morning, Police Chief Martin Brody and Officer Hendricks recovered her body. According to coroner Carl Santos, the cause of death was "definitely and incontrovertibly shark attack." Asked why the cause of death was not made public, Mr. Santos declined to comment.
Brody looked up from the paper and said, "Did Santos really decline to comment?"
"No. He said nobody but you and I had asked him about the cause of death, so he didn't feel compelled to tell anybody. As you can see, I couldn't print that response. It would have pinned everything on you and me. I had hoped I could get him to say something like, 'Her family requested that the cause of death be kept private, and since there was obviously no crime involved, I agreed,' but he wouldn't. I can't say I blame him."
"So what did you do?"
"I tried to get hold of Larry Vaughan, but he was away for the weekend. I thought he'd be the best official spokesman."
"And when you couldn't reach him?"
"Read."
It was understood, however, that Amity police and government officials had decided to withhold the information in the public interest. "People tend to overreact when they hear about a shark attack," said one member of the Board of Selectmen. "We didn't want to start a panic. And we had an expert's opinion
Amity is a summer community on the south shore of Long Island, approximately midway between Bridgehampton and East Hampton, with a wintertime population of 1,000. In the summer, the population increases to 10,000.
Brody finished reading the article and set the paper on the desk. Chance, that doctor said, pure chance. What would he say if he knew about the first attack? Still pure chance? Or would it be negligence, gross and unforgivable? There were three people dead now, and two of them could still be alive, if only Brody had...
"You've seen the Times," said Meadows. He was standing in the doorway.
"Yeah, I've seen it. They didn't pick up the Watkins thing."
"I know. Kind of curious, especially after Len's little slip of the tongue."
"But you did use it."
"I did. I had to. Here." Meadows handed Brody a copy of the Amity Leader. The banner headline ran across all six columns of page one: TWO KILLED BY MONSTER
SHARK OFF AMITY BEACH. Below that, in smaller type, a subhead: Number of Victims of Killer Fish Rises to Three.
"You sure get your news up high, Harry."
"Read on."
Brody read:
Two summer visitors to Amity were brutally slain yesterday by a maneating shark that attacked them as they frolicked in the chill waters off the Scotch Road beach.
Alexander Kintner, age 6, who lived with his mother in the Goose Neck Lane house owned by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Packer, was the first to die --attacked from below as he lay on a rubber raft. His body has not been found.
Less than half an hour later, Morris Cater, 65, who was spending the weekend at the Abelard Arms Inn, was attacked from behind as he swam in the gentle surf off the public beach.
The giant fish struck again and again, savaging Mr. Cater as he cried for help. Patrolman Len Hendricks, who by sheer coincidence was taking his first swim in five years, made a valiant attempt to rescue the struggling victim, but the fish gave no quarter. Mr. Cater was dead by the time he was pulled clear of the water.
The deaths were the second and third to be caused by shark attack off Amity in the past five days.
Last Wednesday night, Miss Christine Watkins, a guest of Mr. and Mr. John Foote of Old Mill Road, went for a swim and vanished. file:///C|/My Documents/Mike's Shit/utilities/books/pdf format/Benchley, Peter - Jaws.txt (27 of 131) [1/18/2001 2:02:21 AM]
file:///C|/My Documents/Mike's Shit/utilities/books/pdf format/Benchley, Peter - Jaws.txt Thursday morning, Police Chief Martin Brody and Officer Hendricks recovered her body. According to coroner Carl Santos, the cause of death was "definitely and incontrovertibly shark attack." Asked why the cause of death was not made public, Mr. Santos declined to comment.
Brody looked up from the paper and said, "Did Santos really decline to comment?"
"No. He said nobody but you and I had asked him about the cause of death, so he didn't feel compelled to tell anybody. As you can see, I couldn't print that response. It would have pinned everything on you and me. I had hoped I could get him to say something like, 'Her family requested that the cause of death be kept private, and since there was obviously no crime involved, I agreed,' but he wouldn't. I can't say I blame him."
"So what did you do?"
"I tried to get hold of Larry Vaughan, but he was away for the weekend. I thought he'd be the best official spokesman."
"And when you couldn't reach him?"
"Read."
It was understood, however, that Amity police and government officials had decided to withhold the information in the public interest. "People tend to overreact when they hear about a shark attack," said one member of the Board of Selectmen. "We didn't want to start a panic. And we had an expert's opinion
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