Starlight Peninsula Read Online Free PDF Page A

it completely wrong. Instead of hating each other they’re probably having an affair. I don’t know why I’m telling you this.’
    Nick handed her a cup of tea. He was tall, thin and athletic, with even features, almost handsome although skin slightly rough. Blue eyes.
    ‘Oh thanks. You’ve put sugar in it. What I need to do,’ she said, ‘is get some fresh air. I think I’ll just walk around to the dog park.’ Her voice quavered. She sounded mad and proud and unwell.
    ‘By yourself? In the dark?’
    ‘It’s fine. I do it all the time,’ she lied.
    ‘How about I come with you, Eloise,’ he said.
     
    The lawn next door was harshly lit, with a group of police conferring on the porch. The scene, figures in white boiler suits moving in white light, stirred a memory in Eloise, a feeling of dread that passed and was replaced by a kind of doomed brightness, as if all was lost and any feeling futile. They followed the path along the edge of the creek, where Starlight Peninsula broadened and joined the land, and a bridge led across to the dog park. There was a dull orange glow in the sky over the city, the warm air smelled of dried grass, and tiny sounds came from the estuary, little clickings and rustlings, small creatures maybe, crabs or water rats, scuttling through the mangroves.
    ‘Looks like a spaceship’s landed.’
    Two figures in white shower caps moved silently across the grass. The darkness curved over the bubble of light.
    ‘I saw them arresting the girl, the one who was screaming. She made such a fuss they actually picked her up and carried her.’
    Eloise saw it: the struggling girl, a dynamic, furious thing amid the black-and-white strangeness of the spotlit garden. She rememberedher dream, the shadow of a dog crossing her vision.
    Looking back at her own house she saw that the lighted interior was visible from the park. During the day the glass was opaque, but at night she would be seen clearly as she moved around the sitting room.
    ‘I’ll have to start closing the curtains.’
    ‘But there’s no one in the dog park at night.’
    She said, ‘This area used to be much rougher. It was a bit of a slum apparently. Up the top was the worst pub in Auckland — the Starlight Hotel. There was a murder there. The peninsula only started getting respectable after they demolished the Starlight.’
    They walked to the edge, where the land ended in the estuary and the water lay still and calm, giving off stray flashes of light. Something rose and disturbed the surface, a splash, bubbles. A car alarm started up far away.
    He said, ‘Do you really come out here often? At night?’
    ‘Oh sure. Why not?’
    They headed back across the park, walking slowly.
    Nick said, ‘So, tell me about your job. It must be interesting working for Roysmith.’
    ‘Did I tell you my job? When?’
    ‘At the gate when we first met.’
    ‘Oh? We’ve just done a piece on Andrew Newgate. About Ed Miles turning down his compensation claim.’
    ‘Do you think Newgate’s innocent?’
    ‘Roysmith thinks he is.’
    ‘So you don’t think so?’
    ‘Yes, I do.’
    ‘Most people think he’s guilty as sin. That he’s only got off because of Carstone’s campaign.’
    ‘Not most. Fifty per cent.’
    ‘Anyway. What are you working on now?’
    ‘Well, just between us, we might do the internet mogul, Kurt Hartmann.’
    ‘Isn’t he about to be shipped off to the US?’
    ‘He’s fighting extradition.’
    Nick said, ‘It all seems rather complicated.’
    Eloise stopped and pointed. ‘Did you see that flash? A fish jumping. Quite a big one.’
    They looked out at the estuary, brimming at high tide. A line zigzagged across the water, then the surface went calm, a dull silver, like mercury.
    She said, ‘Kurt Hartmann owned websites where people could store data. He says he was — effectively — operating a big electronic warehouse and it wasn’t his business if people were storing material in it that breached copyright. He