The Bone Tiki Read Online Free PDF

Wai’s casket filled his view, and Aunty Hine’s back. But he could see the face of Puarata, looming beyond the table, his eye-sockets black like a skull.
    ‘Grief? I do not believe you grieve for Wai.’ Aunty Hine stepped toward him. ‘Why are you really here? And Tama, what are you doing with these people?’
    Mat heard his father speak up, and felt a quiver of shame. ‘I have been commissioned by Mr Puarata to assist his recovery of a precious artefact, that belongs to him.’
    ‘Wai had nothing that belongs to him.’
    ‘According to these documents, Miss Wai-aroha Terakatini has possession of a traditional bone-carved tiki, made by Mister Puarata, and lost by him some time ago. He has reason to believe this tiki is the one widely observed as being worn by Wai-aroha.’
    ‘She had it for years. It was hers,’ retorted Aunty Hine.
    ‘It was not,’ Tama snapped back.
    ‘Listen to yourself, Tama,’ cried Aunty Hine. ‘Helping this, this…old mad man steal from your whanau!’
    Mat’s father stepped into view. His face was flushed and angry. ‘This is not robbery. My client is the rightful owner and you’ll save yourself a lot of grief by handing it over!’
    ‘You can’t snatch the belongings of dead people!’
    ‘This artefact belongs to my client!’ shouted Tama.
    Mat flinched, and his stomach clenched. He nearly straightened and grabbed the door handle. But then Puarata spoke again.
    ‘Be calm, Tama.’ He stepped in front of Tama and confronted Aunty Hine, his hands spread wide, his voice smooth and almost soothing. ‘This wrangling is disrespectful to the dead. We should not argue here. Of course we could wait, and argue in court instead, but in the end, it will be mine. Because I made it, and I lost it. I knew Wai had it, but I could never find her. And why? Now I find it was because she was locked up in a mental institution, and no one except her father and you knew where. Hidden away with my tiki around her neck for thirty years. I even know why she was locked up, now. But for years it has been a mystery. Where was Wai-aroha? Overseas? Married and under a different name? Dead? Be assured, this thing belongs to me. It will be simpler if you just hand it over.’
    ‘No!’
    ‘Hinemoa.’ His voice became silkier, and somehow even scarier. ‘Hinemoa, this thing will be mine. It is calling to me. Look at me, Hinemoa…’ His hand reached up and stroked the air beside Aunty Hine’s face. ‘Look at me…’
    The silver-haired man leant closer still to Aunty Hine, and though Mat could only see her back, he could feel some sort of conflict—he saw her tense, clench, then heard her sigh, and sag. She nodded, swaying slightly.
    Mat’s hands clenched and unclenched. His breathing felthorribly loud, and when Riki moved he cringed in fright of discovery.
    Puarata stepped past Hine, and put his hands on Nanny Wai’s breast. He pulled the neck of the blouse aside, then started suddenly, his face contorting, his teeth suddenly flashing, as he whirled about.
    ‘Where is it?’ he snarled.
    Mat saw Aunty Hine turn, her face blank, and he had a sudden flash of danger. He straightened. ‘Come on,’ he whispered at Riki. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
    Riki pushed the back door open and they slipped out.
    There was still no one around. Mat led them away from the whare, into the shade of the line of pines on the back fence-line of the marae. Sandflies darted around them, and a cow looked at them disinterestedly from the other side of the fence. The sun was all but gone.
    Riki looked at Mat as if he expected some visible sign of madness.
    ‘What’s going on, man? What’s pissed off the scary dude?’
    ‘I’ll tell you in a minute…can you drive?’
    Riki stared at him. ‘Yeah…but I don’t have my licence.
    If we get stopped by cops I’d be in for it, man.’
    ‘Do you only do what you’re supposed to do?’
    Riki scowled. ‘No, I do what I want. Tell me why I should go for a drive.’
    Mat