Starlight Peninsula Read Online Free PDF

didn’t know what was in there and he didn’t care. But the Hollywood studios and the US Government say he knew he was storing copyrighted material, that he’s a pirate and that he’s ripped off the movie and music industries five hundred million US dollars.’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘And then it was discovered — actually it was leaked by someone — that he’d been spied on here illegally, also at the behest of the US. Illegally because he’s a New Zealand citizen and the GCSB can only spy on foreign nationals. Although Ed Miles is working to change that rule. Scott wants to find out who leaked it that Hartmann was spied on illegally. The word is there’s a faction in the PM’s own party who are leaking against him. An Ed Miles faction, probably backed by the old guard, by people loyal to Sir David Hallwright.’
    ‘Hallwright’s in the South of France. I read an article about his house,’ Nick said.
    ‘That’s right. Lounging around the Med. In St Tropez or whatever. On his millions.’
    ‘Are you going to the Hartmann mansion?’
    ‘I hope so. It’s meant to be unbelievable. Anyway, what do you do, Nick?’
    ‘I used to be a teacher. Then I started working for NGOs. Aid work. Save the Children.’
    ‘That sounds very worthy.’
    ‘I grew up in Cape Town. My father’s South African, he’s a newspaper editor, and my mother was a Kiwi. They split up and she came back here. I’d been working in Africa, various countries, and my expartner and I decided to try Auckland. My ex is a New Zealander. I like Auckland, less crime. You don’t have to live in a fortress.’
    ‘Carjackings,’ Eloise said vaguely.
    ‘Places over there, you need to own a gun. Although, I’m a black belt in karate.’
    ‘Really.’
    ‘It’s a discipline. It’s a way .’
    Eloise looked sideways.
    ‘I inherited the house from my mother when she died, some other property, too, so now I’m a landlord. At this point I’m not sure whether to sell up and go back to Cape Town, or stay here.’
    They crossed the bridge and followed the path back to the sections. A man in white overalls was kneeling on the lawn in front of the stucco house, photographing something.
    She watched Nick leap neatly over a low fence. A ‘way’. He was good-looking. Was he slightly weird?
    He said, ‘I do volunteer work, for search and rescue. I used to do it in Cape Town, so I signed up here. We look for demented old people, kids gone missing, trampers lost in the bush. Also corpses. Last week they rang me — did you hear about the woman’s body found in a drain in West Auckland?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Actually they only found half of her in the drain. It had washed inthere from a stream. I got the call, they wanted us to come out and help find the other half.’
    She stopped walking. ‘Did you find it?’
    ‘No. We were looking for bones. Clothes. Got nothing.’
    ‘Had she been sawn up?’
    ‘Maybe.’
    ‘Why do you do it?’
    ‘Look for people? I enjoy it. I love tramping, going up in the helicopter, scouring coastlines. Slogging through the bush. And to give back, obviously.’
    They walked on. Eloise hesitated at her gate.
    He said, ‘I’ve got some brandy at my place.’
    She followed him round the side of his house and in through the back door. They entered a hall smelling of floor polish and then a spacious room with glass doors opening onto a deck, a view of the estuary and the city beyond. There was a sofa, one armchair, a glass coffee table, a flat-screen TV and a couple of prints on the walls.
    ‘All my books are in boxes still. I need shelves.’
    Eloise sat on the sofa and looked at the city buildings against the night sky. He handed her a glass and she drank, the alcohol hit her, waves travelling down her body.
    ‘Want to know something funny?’ she said. ‘On the subject of looking for people.’
    He sat down beside her.
    ‘Ever since my husband left, there’s something I can’t stop doing. I go looking for him. It’s some