“The healing has begun,” she said softly.
“Tane now says this healing is our greatest taonga. I didn’t understand him before, but now I’m learning.”
“What happened to Sir Charles?”
“The staff at the Mountain who got out said he would probably have tried the underground exit to Pataratara, but I guess he didn’t make it when the tunnel collapsed.”
“What about the other members of The Brotherhood in New Zealand?” she asked.
“The Hollow Mountain defence force and scientists are all going to be sent back to their own countries. The army didn’t want the defence force. Quite a few prominent professional people, civil servants and Parliamentarians have been arrested, including Randall Richardson, Dr Holcroft and Kevin Carr. It appears that the anthrax attack was ordered by Sir Charles alone, so there will be some mitigation.”
“It’s a pity they can’t let them all go free,” she said.
He looked at her in surprise.
“I suppose they’ve made mistakes, but so have we all. I mean they just got angry, didn’t they?”
He knew she was also talking about him. “Fortunately, some of us can change,” he said.
She smiled and took off her glasses. Her eyes twinkled in the same way as they had when he first met her on One Tree Hill. “I’m glad you’ve changed.”
“I need a lot of help. I mean I still get angry.”
“I’m sure you’ll work things out on your own.”
There was a pause. “What about you? What are your plans?”
“They were going to fire me, but now it’s back to the balance sheets and the profit and loss. It all seems a bit boring after this.”
A longer pause. “We were a good team, weren’t we?”
Her eyes twinkled again. “The best.”
A third pause even longer. “I was wondering if we could continue – er – to be a team.”
She gave that rippling laugh. Then she came to sit beside him on the settee and somehow her fingers became entwined with his. This time she kept them there. “Mr Professor, when will you ever say what you mean?”
David and Kate’s wedding was duly held at the Church of St Peter-on-the-Hill, where Harry Mountjoy, reinstated as vicar with a public apology from the bishop, officiated together with Kate’s pastor.
When Kate came alongside David in front of the altar, she smiled that beautiful smile and whispered “Hi, Sir Galahad.”
Kate’s father, a ruddy-cheeked farmer from the Kaniwhaniwha, gave her away. Her mother had been delighted to make Kate’s wedding gown, and her two brothers were ushers. Mr John Corbishley was present and expressed to everyone his opinion that his son who was a quiet worker had somehow discovered the best wife any man was ever likely to find. He also confided that he had found “just the right house” for the young couple and it was “a great buy”.
The occasion was also marked by a notable Raukumara reunion. Tane was talking with Eruera who was representing Te Whanau-a-Apanui. Matthew, now Detective Inspector Piriaka, attended without a police cordon. Stan McTaggart’s baritone voice could be heard in fullest flight, and Eleanor was at his side, together with John and Leone. Dick Burton and his wife were there, Dick already speaking of his plans to rediscover the huia. Bill Weatherley and his wife were there, with Bill waiting to get outside to light up. Johnny Matiu and Tom his pilot flew up in the helicopter with their wives and were in no danger of being hijacked. And many were the tales of the Raukumara told and retold with much wine, laughter and good fellowship.
Healing has come also to the Waitoa. Over the wounded, violated land – the burned ground, the broken trees, the slips – the bush begins to grow again. In the Valley of Peace, the river sings softly through the flat below the Hollow Mountain to a glorious symphony of bird song. On its banks may be spotted at certain times a familiar ginger-haired figure with a tape recorder in his hands, listening for the calls which all New Zealand is waiting to hear.
“Hui! Hui! Hui!”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following for their help in writing this book. My apologies to any whom I have unintentionally omitted.
Pat Barfoot (editing)
Dr Nicola Barfoot (expert editing)
The late David Simmons, MBE, former Ethnologist, Auckland Museum (Maori culture)
Dr Stephen Prest, inorganic chemistry (uranium and assistance with plot)
Kaumatua, Te Whanau Apanui, Te Kaha
Revd Anne Moody, former chaplain Mason Clinic (mental health)
The late Dr Michael Taylor, Ornithological Society
Dick Veitch, Wildlife Service
Ian Bradley, Department of Conservation
Shona Gibbs, Department of Conservation
Rau Kapa, Department of Conservation
The late Dr Les Kermode, Geological Survey
Dr Phil Shone, Department of Geology, University of Auckland
Susan Minchin, pharmacist
The late Dr Murray Johns, Department of Physics, University of Auckland
Terry Mutton, Senior Technician, NZ Police
Inspector Mike Rusbatch, NZ Police
The late Brian Middleton, formerly CIB, NZ Police.
Revd Dr Jonathan Hartfield (anthrax)
Brendan Cahill, pilot, Helilink
Sam Walter (helicopters)
The late Neil Clarke (rifles)
Roscoe Tait (search and rescue)
Ross Thompson (search and rescue)
Stephen Barfoot (information technology)
Raewyn Chaplow (dialogue)
Kiri Barfoot (dialogue)
Luke Barfoot (cars and legal advice)
Bruce Anderson, retired motor mechanic (cars)
Copyright
Copyright Chris Barfoot August 2019
ebook edition
Frontispiece: plate of a painting by J.G Keulemans of the huia, both male and female.
Reproduced by permission of the British Library from Walter Buller’s Birds of New Zealand, the complete work of J.G Keulemans, printed in 1888.
J.G Keulemans was a Dutch artist commissioned by Buller. Birds of New Zealand reprinted by Te Papa Press, a subsidiary of the Te Papa National Museum, 2013.
Cover design: Bev Robitai
Fiction: thriller, New Zealand, Maoritanga, conservation