Page 26

Day Four

I was utterly fed up. London Isla, locked in her closet with her white shirts and black suits, was raging to be let out.

We surfed again with Snow that morning. He didn’t mention the winery once, never mind reveal anything that advanced our case.

Declan and I did agree on one thing—it didn’t add up that Snow spent all his time in the ocean—how did he run the winery?

Declan’s reaction was to wait and watch, his opinions in a steady holding pattern. This seemed contradictory to his time pressure of two weeks and desire to earn his promotion.

I was about diving in.

Hosing off our wet suits at the side of the house, I gritted my teeth. “It feels like we’re treading water,” I told Declan. “And we have such a short time to solve this. You didn’t get me in just to sit on the beach.”

He hung up his wet suit and gave me his full attention. It was slightly hard to focus with him in only swim trunks. He was getting tanner, which highlighted all his muscles even more. Water dripped a trail over his pecs… like my fingers itched to do. No, they didn’t. I was annoyed with him.

“I know this is challenging for you, but we must be patient. In my experience, we have to allow him to become complacent. He’s getting used to us, relaxing. He’ll make a false move, wait.”

I almost turned the hose on him . So. Exasperatingly. Reasonable!

To get some sort of forward movement, after visiting Dad, who seemed in good spirits, I popped into Ruby Dunes to try to convince CeeCee to invite us to dinner so we could check out their cottage, but she wasn’t biting.

To make it look like I’d come in to shop, I splurged on a small pink backpack to tote my dad’s mystery novel and my notebooks to the beach.

But I didn’t back down on our walk to yoga. Mum and Rosemary were ahead of us, safely out of earshot.

“Finding Kingi is a priority,” I said to Declan. “I can’t leave Dad so soon after surgery, and I can’t leave Mum alone while Dad’s in hospital. But you could go.”

Seeing Kui setting up under the palm trees, I felt a pang of disloyalty.

She didn’t want me tracking down Kingi, fearful I might lead the police to him.

My stomach tightened. She didn’t want to involve the police, and she didn’t know Declan was police.

I wouldn’t risk it only for a story, but it was a risk I had to take to rescue my parents.

“Kingi must know more than he’d revealed in the tip-off note,” I said.

“Even if he doesn’t know he knows something.

Snow has a helicopter. Maybe Snow picked up the tip-off note from Kingi?

Kingi and his mum communicate somehow, and if Snow is the go-between, he might have inadvertently told Kingi something useful. ”

Declan considered this for a moment, raising my hopes. He shook his head. “That’s a major expedition into the mountains, hauling tents and sleeping bags and water and food. I could be gone for days on what might be a wild-goose chase. And everyone would wonder why I’ve left.”

At yoga, all the deep breathing and stretching did nothing to calm my frustration.

Afterward, I gave Declan a quick peck on the cheek. “Hey, meet you at home. Just wanted to chat with Kui.”

He headed off with Mum and Rosemary, casting back a nervous eye.

I took Kui’s elbow. “I need to ask you something.”

*

I wanted to be honest with Kui that I needed leads.

“Snow’s never going to let me into the winery. I’ve hit a bit of a wall.” My stomach went tight. “Any update from Kingi? Or from Rangi about the winery?”

We were knee-deep in the ocean. After yoga, she suggested we talk while I help her dig for pipis, white shellfish buried in the sand. She’d changed into her swimsuit. I was still in yoga gear.

“No, nothing, sorry.” She looked anxious as the waves whipped around us.

“I need to talk to more people, but as you say, do it naturally.”

“Hmm.” She dropped her head thoughtfully. Something in her bucket made her face light up. “Look, I’m collecting pipis for the hāngī at the marae tonight. Why don’t you come?”

Despite the cold wind, my heart heated at the thought of a traditional meal at her tribe’s meeting house.

“Oh, Kui, thank you. This is such an honor.” I bit my lip—Bevan’s words about taking advantage prodded me.

“It feels a bit duplicitous, somehow, that I’ll be at your marae as a sort of cover for the investigation. ”

“You’re doing a good thing for this town. You still think of yourself as an outsider, but you’re part of us. You need to believe that. People will see they can trust you like I trust you. But don’t let me down, girl. None of your journo questions.”

The noonday sun blasted through the chill warming me through.

Kui thinks of me as an insider . I’d been so sure that staying an outsider was the only way I could be a successful journalist, because that way you saw with fresh eyes, beyond what other people accepted.

But now I wondered if I’d just convinced myself of that.

Grinning, I gave her my promise. I followed her lead, rotating my heel into the sand, feeling for the sharp edges that marked out a clutch of buried pipis.

Mid-twist, I caught a familiar profile beyond the beach. My smile dropped. Sarge, still hanging around his car after yoga. I cried out at a sudden prick under my toe, bent into the sea, tore the pipis from the sand, and threw them into the bucket.

Was he watching me or waiting for Kui?

Kui must have seen my worried face. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I told Kui about my conversation with Snow, and how Sarge had bad-mouthed me after Janey died. And that Sarge had dismissed what Janey’s dad told him about the shoes.

She nodded and gazed off into the distance. “Do you remember the rāhui for Janey?” Rāhui was a sacred Māori rite restricting swimming and fishing in an area where there’d been a drowning.

“Vaguely, not the details,” I said, swirling the pipis into the bucket. “Why? Did something unusual happen? ”

A stealth wave crashed on Kui. She stumbled back, and I grabbed her.

“I led the prayers on the beach,” she said, once she’d righted herself.

“Next thing you know, the newspaper turned up, like it was some sort of photo op. Sarge was with them, and he admitted he’d given them a call.

I was not happy about it. Nowadays, young kids think you should publicize these things like it’s entertainment, but I considered it sacred, and I definitely didn’t want my photo on the front page of the newspaper.

And it was out of character. Sarge had never been much interested in our culture before.

He kept saying to the newspaper reporter that Janey was killed on the rocks and the sea took her, and we must honor her for the sake of her family and community. ”

She didn’t need to remind me that no trace of Janey’s body was found. Nothing. No limbs or pieces of clothing washed up on the beach.

“So he was driving it home that she’d jumped off the cliff and—” I took a deep breath and shuddered.

“This is tough to say… that sharks had eaten her?” My eyes were drawn to the point, the rocks high and jagged.

I pictured Janey falling—I knew she had to have been pushed—down onto the rocks, dropping into the cold, shark-infested waters.

I thought about the terror that gripped her as she fell.

A giant hand seemed to squeeze the air from my lungs.

Surely she didn’t survive to see and feel the sharks circling?

“Yes,” she said, crouching in the water. “I would have understood if it was Janey’s dad—but why Sarge?”

I glanced at him again. He was walking towards us. The wind whisked up the skirts of the sea, spraying water at us. I shivered, but it was at the thought of him. “He had so much power, and everyone was too scared to challenge him. He’s still all ego and elbows. ”

“I can’t write him off as easily as that,” she said, rising out of the water with a handful of shellfish.

“After Janey died, he was very good to my boys. They didn’t have a consistent father figure.

But even Sarge couldn’t turn Kingi around.

Of course, we had no idea why Kingi was rebelling.

Later, when the court case against that evil priest was publicized, and Kingi told us what happened, Sarge was the one who encouraged Kingi to give evidence.

Didn’t make the pain go away for Kingi, didn’t bring this closure therapists always talk about, but at least he felt he was taking some sort of action. ”

I pulled up some pipis, fighting to keep a footing as the waves sucked at my legs. Mum had told me about Kingi coming forward. But I was stunned to hear that Sarge had encouraged it.

“It’s the same with CeeCee. He wants to give her the world,” she said.

“He wanted to set her up with the boutique. But Snow did so well so quickly with the winery that he was able to fund her. Clarebear finds it hard to accept, because sometimes Sarge spends more time with CeeCee than their two boys. I mean, they’re grown men now, but, you know.

” She swished a hand through her bucket of pipis.

“Did you know Sarge was the one who asked your parents if they could take in Snow?”

What? Shaking my head, I threw a handful of pipis into the bucket with a thwack . Sarge was limping faster towards the water, as though he knew we were talking about him. But he couldn’t.

“He started all this after Janey died… that’s interesting.” Slowly, I rinsed my hands in the sea. “What was it about Janey’s death that suddenly motivated him to look out for kids he hadn’t shown an interest in before?”

Her eyes clouded. “Maybe after Janey’s death, he realized how fragile and vulnerable our kids were. And because he was in a position of power, he could help them.”

For the first time today, I felt I was getting somewhere. I’d thrown a stone into still water, and it didn’t just ripple; it was flaring into pounding ocean waves.

“I’m wondering if it’s more specific,” I said, picking my words carefully. “It’s almost as if Sarge felt responsible for Janey’s death in some way, and he was trying to make up for it.”

She pursed her lips. “You’re an investigative journalist, and in your profession, you have to be skeptical about Sarge’s behavior. I get that. But linking him to Janey’s death? I think that’s going too far.”

Sarge was wading through the water towards us, stony-faced.

But this wasn’t about speculating and considering all possibilities, which journalists also had to do.

This was a logical step. Sarge seemed to be making up for something.

And, like Snow, he was popular when he should have been shrouded in suspicion.

Seagulls swooped sharp and close, scoping out our bucket.

I ducked and warded them off with a free hand.

He was in front of us. I had to appear to consider her reasoning.

“Hmm,” I said. “Just a thought.”

“What thought?” Sarge thrust himself between us and snatched the bucket. “Kui, this is way too heavy for that back of yours.”

There was no point in staying any longer.

When I got back to the house, Mum was holding a chocolate cake, straight from the oven. “You were out getting pipis with Kui.” Her forehead crumpled, disappointed, and her obvious hurt seared my conscience. “I would have come.”

I took my cue from what she was holding. “Oh, sorry, Mum. I thought you wanted to bake a cake. ”

Normally, I would have mentally high-fived my quick save, but instead, a pressure mounted behind my eyes.

I’d spent most of my time fobbing her off.

I shrugged away the constant creep of regret.

We couldn’t let her in. I told her about the invitation to the marae tonight.

Mum grinned with pleasure, but as I hurried toward the bedroom to tell Declan, I caught her giving me a suspicious glance.