AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They carried the containers into the building and had set down the last one when Devine appeared in the doorway.
“Hey, guys, nice gloomy night for some smuggling.”
Both men whirled around and Hal’s hand went to a pocket on his coat but then he was staring down the barrel of Devine’s Glock. He let his hand drop to his side.
Dak barked, “You’re trespassing, Devine. You have no business or right to be here.”
“I saw a suspicious act take place in a public area, and the fruits of that act are right behind you in those containers.”
“There’s nothing illegal with what we’re doing,” exclaimed Dak.
“As though all legal business is done in the middle of the night on deserted beaches and involving boats coming into shore with a payoff for whatever’s in those containers?” He pointed at one with his Glock’s muzzle. “What is it? Drugs?”
“We’re not drug dealers, for God’s sake,” blurted out a surprised Hal.
“What, then?”
Dak looked at Hal and then back at Devine. “It’s unagi.”
“Come again?”
“Unagi. It’s made from elvers.”
Devine cocked his head. “Elvers? Sounds like something fromThe Hobbit.”
“We’re buying and selling glass eels,” said Hal. He pointed behind him at dozens of large tubs set up on low tables. Devine could now see that they were all hooked up to aeration equipment. He assumed that was what Dak had been carrying on the beach.
“Is it illegal?” asked Devine.
“Not if you have a license,” said Dak.
“And do you?” asked Devine.
“Um, yeah. I do,” said Dak nervously.
“Bullshit. Then why the middle-of-the-night shipment? Why hide your operation here?”
“Do I need a lawyer?” said Dak.
“I didn’t come up here to bust illegal ‘elvers.’ I came up here to find out who killed your sister. So, did Jenny know about all this?” said Devine, pointing his gun around the room.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’tthinkso?” Devine shook his head. Had he been focusing on completely the wrong thing this whole time? He looked at Dak. “Tell me how this all operates. You tell me the truth and I’m not going to come down on you like a ton of bricks. But you lie to me, you’re done and your ass is going to jail. And his, too,” said Devine, indicating Hal, who seemed to be attempting to shrink into the floorboards.
Dak started talking fast. “Elvers are a huge market. The Japanese eat tons of eels. But overfishing depleted the Japanese populations. And there was an earthquake there about a decade or so ago that wiped out most of their aquaculture operations. So they turned elsewhere.”
“To Europe and America,” chimed in Hal, who now also seemed eager to explain things to Devine. “But the European elver population nosedived, and the eel was listed as an endangered species and exports from the EU were banned. So that left us and a few other countries in the Caribbean as the primary sources. And the prices skyrocketed. And that made for a big black market. Then that all came crashing down because the feds and the states stepped in. Most states banned the fishing. Here in Maine they started issuing licenses and imposing quotas and arresting and fining people.”
“Eels don’t breed in captivity,” explained Dak. “So all farm-raised eels have to be first caught in the wild. And there are lots of them in Maine.” He pointed behind him. “It takes up to two years to grow an eel to harvestable size. That’s normally done in an eel fishery.”
“How’d you two hook up?”
“Hal and I were in the Army together. He moved up here from South Carolina and told me about the eels. I researched it and we put a business plan together.”
“Where was the boat tonight coming in from?”
“New Brunswick,” said Dak. “Canada also has a lot of elvers.”
