The Moa Cave (9 page)

Friday evening at the Woolshed Backpackers was a sombre affair. Normally the place would be buzzing with weekend visitors escaping from the city. Bill and Molly had cancelled all bookings knowing it wouldn’t be fun to be caught up in a search that could quickly turn to tragedy.

Jonno was standing in front of a map marking the places they’d searched. Sitting round the table were experienced searchers from the nearby towns. They were a rugged mix of male and female, old and young, big and small. What they had in common was a love of the outdoors and a strong desire to help anyone in trouble.

Mandy sat amongst them. She was now deeply worried about the safety of her friends. Earlier she had been questioned at length by Jonno. She had told him everything she could remember. He barely raised an eyebrow when she told of their adventures, including the fake twisted ankle. He was more interested in the black ute and its occupants; several times he returned to their encounter at Jacks Bay.

Alice had been there to support Mandy though she hardly listened. Now, she sat at the table looking haggard with worry: a totally different person from the friendly, confident woman Mandy had met only five days before. It was frightening how quickly everything had gone so horribly wrong.

Jonno tapped the table to get attention. ‘Okay, let’s make a start. I want to welcome all those who have just arrived. Thanks for giving up your time. I hope it will not be in vain.

‘Tomorrow we move into a new phase. We started today looking for a couple of naughty kids who had snuck out for a party on their last night of holiday and were just a little late getting back. That’s no longer the case. We now have to assume that something has stopped them from returning. Thanks to Mandy,’ he paused and nodded at her, ‘we have some idea of what they
intended
to do, and that was to spend the night in a cave. Yet the nearest accessible cave is more than twenty kilometres away. It’s possible they may have been talking about a sand cave. Part of the search tomorrow will concentrate on looking for recent erosion or digging on the beach.

‘Another possibility is that they went around the rocks looking for a cave. A magnifying glass was found here. They may have gone further around and then got trapped by the huge seas that came with the storm. A fixed-wing aircraft will be searching the coastline tomorrow morning. The sea is still too rough to safely put out a boat.’

Jonno paused to thank Molly for the cup of tea she had just placed in front of him. He stirred it while looking at his notes.

‘On a brighter note, there is the possibility that the children may come to
us
, or at least tell us where they are. Hine has her mobile phone. Unfortunately communication around here is hopeless. But TotalCom are coming in the morning to put up a temporary aerial that will fix that. By lunchtime tomorrow communications by cellphone should be almost as good as anywhere.

‘Then there is…’ He was interrupted by the outside door opening. A man entered. Everyone turned to look. He seemed
to have come to the wrong place—his neat grey suit and groomed hair didn’t fit in at all. Then Alice leapt to her feet and grabbed him in a huge hug.

When it seemed that the hug was going to last for ever, Jonno smiled, gave a little cough and said, ‘May I go on?’

Alice finally released the man and turned to the others. ‘This is Richard, my fiancé.’ Then doubt swept her face. She turned to him with a pleading look. Richard smiled, nodding his head slowly.

‘Welcome, Richard,’ said Jonno. ‘Good to have your support. Pull up a chair and we’ll move on.’ Alice grabbed a chair and placed it very close to hers.

Jonno continued. ‘I was about to discuss the possibilities that others may be involved. Before they went missing there had already been several incidents involving a group of three people and a vehicle.’ He went on to describe the black ute, its occupants and the boat they had used.

‘The most significant incident was around at Jacks Bay where the children decided to play amateur detectives. While they did get some information, they may have learnt a bit too much. In particular they discovered that several bags of meat were being unloaded from the boat. From their description it seems likely that the meat was from dolphins.’

It took a moment for this information to sink in. The reaction when it came was one of total outrage and disgust, quickly followed by anger.

‘We have no proof of this,’ added Jonno speaking above the noise. ‘But other events suggest that they are deeply into criminal activities.

‘My reason for telling you this is that we have to consider the possibility of foul play. Tomorrow morning a team of police will arrive from Dunedin. They will concentrate on searching cribs and trying to locate the ute and the suspects.

‘The families of Hine and Tyler have been told about this. They are understandably very upset. Hine’s auntie and brother are coming down, as are Tyler’s mum and dad. They will need to be met at the airport in the morning. Alice, would you be able to arrange that?’

Alice looked up when she heard her name. Plainly her mind had been elsewhere. She turned to Richard pleading for help. He squeezed her arm before answering, ‘Yes, we can take care of that. Just give us the times and the flight numbers.’

‘Okay. Then that’s it until the morning. Get a good night’s sleep and let’s hope by this time tomorrow we’ll be sitting here enjoying a quiet celebration for a job well done.’ He looked at Mandy and smiled. ‘And young Mandy here will be with her friends again. I’m sure they’ll have heaps to talk about.’

Mandy tried to smile but it just wouldn’t come. She was still thinking about the talk of ‘foul play’. It hadn’t occurred to her that Shifty and Grunty might be involved. The worst she’d thought of was some sort of terrible accident. Now she had to face the idea that someone might have done something to them. Horrible images flashed in and out of her mind. Oh, if only they could go back and change things. If only they hadn’t played that stupid game…If only, if only, if only…

Hine seemed happier back in the cave; so was Tyler. Now that they had an exit, the cave had returned to being a good place. It also protected them from the ugly scene in the cove outside.

Dinner was chippies and chocolate, washed down with some water Tyler had collected from the dripping rocks in the cove. He calculated they had enough food for another couple of snacks. After that they would need to look to the sea for their meals. When the tide was out he’d seen kina and mussels in amongst the rocks.

Hopi arrived soon after dinner and went straight to the nest where Mopsie had waited so patiently. She moved to one side to let him in. Immediately two furry balls started squawking. The eggs had hatched and the chicks were demanding their first feed.

Hine and Tyler moved onto the ledge for a closer look. Hopi was leaning over them with his mouth so wide the chicks almost disappeared inside. Each looked like a crazy soft toy: a fluffy ball with a large mouth at the top and two stupid wings stuck on the side. They were adorable.

It was a happy moment at the end of a horrible day, a moment that was over far too soon. After a couple of minutes the chicks stopped their noise and wriggled back
into the warmth of their mother’s feathers. Hopi settled beside his mate and quickly went to sleep.

‘Hopi’s leg seems to be better,’ said Hine as they returned to the floor. ‘What do you think would have happened if he’d been killed?’

‘The chicks would have died,’ replied Tyler. ‘There’s no way she could get food and keep them warm.’

‘Shifty and Grunty wouldn’t have cared. Those two are evil.’

Tyler simply nodded. Evil and dangerous, he thought.

She continued, ‘Did you see the dolphin we played with?’

He looked at her sharply. ‘I didn’t think you knew.’

‘When we got out and looked down at the beach, she was the first one I saw. That’s why I vomited. I couldn’t control myself.’

‘You acted weird all day.’

She nodded. ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about what they had done to her. I couldn’t get it out of my head. You see, the story I wrote for the magazine was about a dolphin just like her.’

Tyler remained silent, hoping she would say more.

After a while she went on. ‘It’s the story of a boy having a summer holiday with his mum at Porpoise Bay. On the first morning he gets up really early to walk along the beach.’ She looked at Tyler. ‘Just like you do. It’s a boy thing, isn’t it? Girls prefer lying in bed.’

‘We do it because there’s no other people around to annoy us and we can do what we like.’

‘You mean no girls, don’t you?’ Tyler just smiled. ‘Well, my boy is like that,’ Hine continued. ‘His name is David, and on that first morning he sees the dolphins swimming not far from shore. He climbs onto a sand hill to get a closer look. That’s when he sees one of them is in trouble. It seems to be caught in a net.

‘At first he looks for help, but there’s nobody around and he’s a long way from any houses. He soon realises that he must save the dolphin himself. So he takes off his clothes and runs into the water. He’s a good swimmer and it doesn’t take him long to reach the dolphins. The one in the net is almost dead. The strings have cut into her snout just below the eyes. Already there is bleeding. One of the tail flukes is also caught. The other dolphins are obviously upset. David can hear their high-pitched calling to each other. Three of them are pushing with their noses to keep her afloat.

‘David tries to rip the net apart, but it’s far too strong. Then he tries peeling the strings back from the snout. It’s slimy with blood and cuts into his hands, yet he begins to make progress. Eventually it comes off and he turns to the tail. Soon it is free and the group turn and swim off leaving David with the empty net and a feeling of relief that he’s saved the dolphin; yet there’s also a feeling of disappointment that they’ve gone so soon. Finally, he too turns and swims back to the beach.

‘Later that day, when his mother gets up, he tells her about the rescue. She plainly doesn’t believe him, though she doesn’t say so. All she says is, “David, how many times have I told you not to go swimming without supervision? Now don’t you do it again or we’ll have to go home.”

‘And then, that afternoon he’s playing in the sand with a bunch of other kids and he tells them about the dolphins and how he saved one from drowning. They don’t believe him either and call him a liar. So David decides never to mention it again, not to anyone. It will be his secret memory.

‘On the last afternoon before their holiday finishes David and his mother go to the beach for one final swim. She sits on the sand reading a book while he goes into the water.

‘The surf is really big that day and David has great fun. Then a huge wave catches him unawares, dumping him on
the bottom. His head hits the hard sand at a crazy angle and knocks him out. He floats to the surface but his head is face down. Slowly he drifts out to sea. His mother is so involved in the book that she doesn’t see any of this.

‘Then an amazing thing happens. The pod of dolphins arrives. They quickly turn him so that he can breathe. Then with two on either side, they start swimming to the shore. By that time other swimmers have seen the dolphins. His mother finally realises something is happening and joins the crowd that has formed on the edge of the water.

‘Carefully the dolphins guide him through the surf and into shallow water where they can barely swim. Only when people have hold of him do they turn and head back to sea. But one waits behind for a moment, nuzzling the boy’s face. It has a distinctive circular scar around its nose. Eventually, it too turns and swims away.

‘David recovers and when he hears of his rescue, he knows that the dolphins have repaid him in the greatest way possible. However the story doesn’t end there. When newspapers and TV hear of a boy being saved by dolphins they make big news of it. The story is spread around the country and even to other parts of the world.

‘When he returns to school after the summer holidays, David’s class starts a petition to ban the use of nets in the area where the dolphins live. Eventually they have enough signatures to go to Parliament. The politicians decide to do more than just ban nets; they declare the whole area to be a marine reserve, so that all sea animals are protected.

‘The story ends with David returning to Porpoise Bay to do the official opening of the marine reserve. He unveils a plaque and there at the bottom is a bronze picture of a dolphin. It’s his dolphin, the one that he saved; the one with a circular scar on its snout.’

Tyler sat thinking about the story. He now understood why Hine was so upset by the killing of their special dolphin. It had a scar that could have been caused by a net. Maybe someone had saved it and that was why it was so friendly. It had learned to trust humans, and that was its downfall. It didn’t know that there are some humans who should never be trusted.

The other thing about Hine’s story was the choice of a boy as the main character. At school, all the girls wrote stories about girls, and the boys—if they wrote at all—wrote about boys. Yet Hine wrote about a boy as if she knew all about them.

‘How come you know so much about boys?’ he asked.

Hine smiled. ‘Remember, I have six brothers.’

‘I thought they were much older.’

‘Auntie says that males never stop being boys, even when they grow up.’

‘Doesn’t she like that?’

‘She loves it. So do I. They’re great fun to be with.’ She paused. ‘Actually, my brother Jack’s like you.’

‘How?’

‘Oh, he’s interested in rocks and things. And he used to lose his temper a lot.’

Tyler went red. He didn’t like her talking about that.

‘But,’ she continued, ‘he doesn’t any more. We all helped him get over it.’

Tyler wanted to know how, but couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Hine must have sensed this. ‘About a year ago, he really lost his temper and bashed a guy up. He almost went to prison. He got a hundred hours’ PD and a big fine. That’s when Auntie decided to do something about it. Jack had always wanted a boat, so we all put in money and bought
the Aqua-air 50. We’re all owners, but Jack’s in charge of it. Auntie got a local jeweller to make a small model of it for a key ring, so Jack would have it with him all the time.

‘Then we helped him deal with his anger. Whenever he started to get angry we would mention the boat and how great it was to be on it, diving and fishing. Each time it seemed to work and he’d calm down. When we weren’t around the key ring did the same thing. He’d fiddle with it and keep calm. Auntie says he’s a steam vent now, not a volcano. He sometimes lets off steam, but never explodes.’

‘He’s lucky to have a family that cares so much.’

‘Your family probably worry about your anger, but aren’t sure what to do.’

‘They’re too busy to worry about me.’

Hine looked concerned. ‘That can’t be true.’

‘It is.’

‘Do you think they’ll be worrying now?’

Tyler hadn’t thought about it. ‘They’ll know, won’t they? Know that we’re missing?’ Hine nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said eventually, ‘I think they’ll be worrying now.’

‘My family will be worried sick. It’s worse for them than for us.’

‘How come? We’re the ones that are trapped.’

‘Yeah. But we know we’re alive. They don’t. They’ll be thinking all sorts of things.’

‘Oh! I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘We’ve got to get out of here as soon as we can. I don’t want to cause them any more worry.’ Her voice showed she was close to tears.

Tyler wanted to reassure her, but the right words wouldn’t come.

‘Mandy will be worried too,’ Hine added.

‘Mandy! She’ll only be worried about losing the dare.’

‘You’re wrong. She’ll be as much upset as our parents. She likes you, you know.’

‘Ha! She’s got a funny way of showing it.’

‘That’s just her way. You’re not very good at showing your feelings either, other than anger.’

This was a direction Tyler definitely didn’t want to explore. He said nothing and Hine let it drop. A few minutes later they climbed into their sleeping bags, said their good nights and turned out the torch. Tyler lay thinking for a long time. It was still less than twenty-four hours since they had set out on the adventure, yet it seemed so much longer. He had been buried alive and saved, and then had escaped from the cave only to find the slaughtered dolphins in the cove. However, his thoughts did not dwell on these things. They lingered more on Hine and their conversations last night and again tonight. She was so easy to talk to. Never before had he talked to a girl for so long. Most of his talking with girls had been nothing more than a series of put-downs that never lasted more than a minute. Hine was different. She made him feel important and she seemed to understand how he thought. He was pleased she had come. It would have been much harder if he’d been by himself. In fact, he’d probably be dead.

He fingered the pendant in his hand, wondering if Hine knew he was using it to control his anger. Probably—she seemed to understand things like that. She understood about Ata. To most girls the skeleton would have been a scary, ugly thing to be avoided. But Hine treated it with respect and accepted that Tyler felt the same way. He looked over to where she was lying. His mind filled with concern for her, and her wish to get out for the family’s sake. There had to be some way he could do it. In his games there was always some way out. It was just a matter of finding it. He smiled to himself
in the darkness. That’s what he would do tomorrow: start thinking of their situation as a game. Then he would know how to deal with it. With that thought he drifted into a dreamless sleep.