Under Hidden Skies (Shadows Between Lies Book 3)

by Nicky Webber

  ‘Now, you’re talking!’ laughs Peter. ‘That’ll get your parents off their chuff and over here for a holiday, too. We still miss them.’

  Two hours later they arrive at the compact timber bach. The corrugated iron roof and wrap-around wooden deck make it the perfect holiday retreat. Within minutes Peter slides the worn Toyota key into the ignition of the unlocked car parked beside an adjoining woodshed. The old white sedan starts immediately. It surprises all three, especially as the battered old vehicle has been under a large tarp inside the carport for the past four months.

  ‘Here you go,’ Peter says, handing over a bunch of keys. ‘We’ve gotta get back before nightfall. Anne’s sister’s coming over for tea tonight.’

  ‘Tea?’ Hawke asks, looking confused. ‘You’ll need more than a mug of tea after all that driving today.’

  Anne and Peter chuckle. ‘No, mate. Tea means dinner. We eat ‘tea’ at night, and we’ll all be hungry enough to eat a horse by the time we get home.’

  They smile and hug their tall American guest. Hawke waves them goodbye from the small wooden gate in the surrounding low timber fence adjoining the dirt driveway. There is a compact, basic kitchen at the far end of the old cottage with several cupboards stocked with the tins, boxes and jars of food. Hawke could easily survive a couple of weeks on the supplies. He builds a massive sandwich, layers of cold meat and salad with cheese from the small fridge before showering. The timber-lined cottage is warm and cozy with selected pieces of 1960s furniture. A two-seater floral sofa dominates the open-plan living room. In front of the sofa is a low Formica-topped coffee table with two Ratan-woven armchairs angled on either side. A small rectangle wooden table and four turned wooden chairs sit to one side, dividing the lounge space from the kitchen.

  After finishing his sandwich, Hawke washes it down with a soda. He unpacks his luggage as dusk falls outside. He slides the closet doors open, revealing six wire hangers. By the time he hangs his clothing and shoves the rest in the squat white painted chest of drawers he is ready to sleep. After a quick shower, he brushes his teeth and heads for bed. Hawke quickly falls into a deep, exhausted sleep.

  In the middle of the night, he drifts awake. He could hear a gentle breeze in the tall native trees surrounding the house. In the distance, the unmistakable rhythm of the ocean waves beating along the shoreline reassured his spirit. He is home.

  He opens his eyes in the blackness, taking a few seconds to orientate himself. In the dim light from the full moon shining through a break in the green bedroom curtains, he makes out the chest of drawers opposite the headboard, and the doorway to the bathroom in the narrow hallway opposite. The old cottage has timber beams, framework holding up the tongue-and-groove ceiling boards with woodgrain appearing in the darkness like a series of distorted faces. The dark circular knots in the timber panels with open mouths in various states of unrest silently shout and sing at him. He turns away, contemplating his state of mind.

  Hawke has been dreaming again. He can still faintly hear Sacha’s glittering laughter, giggling with her sister Suzie. The girls were Logan and Mila’s daughters. But it was Sacha, after all these years, melding into his imaginings. He grew up with the two girls and thought of them as his sisters. Yet in the past few months, he found himself drawn to Sacha, the eldest of the pair.

  He talks to them every week. Hawke rubs both hands over his face and shakes his head, but Sacha’s smiling eyes remain. He checks his cell phone. 3.37am. It’s too early to go to bed and now wide awake, with only his thoughts for company. Did Sacha have thoughts like this, too? He sighed and rolled over again. Jet lag will scramble his mind for a few more nights.

  But is it more than that? He closes his eyes and remembers Sacha kissing his cheek when he said goodbye in those last few days back home. He breathes in the smell of her. Enticing and exciting. How had she suddenly become like this? He imagines her naked body. He’d never seen her naked, but he now felt drawn to the remnants of his dream. The sensual feel of her porcelain skin and the soft breath of her scent torments him as he imagines burying his face amongst her long blonde hair. After all these years, playing brother and sister, he is awkwardly aware of this slow, insidious, and repetitive fantasy. It’s strange, almost unnerving. Could he be falling in love with her? No way. Ridiculous!

  CHAPTER 4

  A Tourist’s Life

  During the following weeks, as late spring warms the clear blue summer skies, Hawke gets up every morning, thankful for the surrounding peace and beauty of his private slice of seaside paradise. Anne and Peter had called several times, and he had also been online to his parents and Uncle Logan. His excited voice is all they need to hear to know the holiday move had been the best thing for his recovering health.

  Hawke had already developed the routine of getting up at sunrise and jogging down to the old timber wharf, following the curve of the estuary towards the wide-open surf beach of Whangamata as streaks of sunlight glistened across the cyan blue Pacific Ocean. The crashing waves and the gentle offshore breeze uplifted his spirits as he ran past the Life Saver’s Club. Soft gray and white seagulls, too lazy to fly, moved out of Hawke’s way as his bare feet hit the damp sandy shoreline. He picked up the pace, wanting to be back at the cottage in time to call his parents and tell them about this magical holiday spot.

  The Coromandel area endured from intermittent internet disconnections, making the use of his laptop a real frustration. Hawke eventually resorted to tethering it to his cell phone, a costly option, but it smoothed out online communication. His laptop flickered into focus.

  ‘It’s been two weeks today,’ he announced to his parents.

  ‘You already look fit and well. How are you feeling?’ asked his mother, Maddy.

  ‘Is that a Kiwi tan already?’ Uncle Logan chuckled.

  ‘I love it. The Swansons have been great and left me to my own devices,’ Hawke explained. ‘I could live here for the rest of my life,’ he breathed.

  ‘Maybe so,’ interrupted his father, Fred. ‘But at some point, in the next few months, you need to think about earning a living to pay off that expensive degree of yours.’

  ‘Oh Fred,’ Maddy said, ‘let the boy settle in and get back on his two feet first before harassing him.’

  ‘It’s okay Mom. I already feel I can take on life again. But I want to enjoy the summer here first. Where are the girls?’ Hawke asked, hoping for a brief chat with them both.

  ‘They were asking after you, too,’ said Logan. ‘I’ll get them to contact you. They’ve been talking about coming over for a few weeks with Bruno in tow.’

  ‘Right.’ Hawke sounded noncommittal, not sure if Suzie’s boyfriend would blend in with the relaxed atmosphere. ‘Get them to call me online. It’s cheaper, and we can talk all we want. Remind them about the 13-hour time difference. I’ve only just got used to living a day ahead of you guys. It’s good living in the future as long as I get uninterrupted sleep.’

  His three parents chuckled. ‘Yeah, some things never change!’ said Logan.

  Instead of the sisters calling, Sacha is the only one calling him online the following evening. She’s eating a bowl of fruit and muesli in the apartment’s kitchen she shared with her sister and boyfriend, Bruno, who waves a quick hello at Hawke on-screen as he scuttles past before leaving for work.

  Finally alone, Sacha talks privately to Hawke. At first, they exchange pleasantries and joke around with one another until Sacha blurts out how unhappy she feels. ‘It’s all getting too hard for me over here.’

  She leaned into the dining room chair, pulling her long blonde hair back into a ponytail as they chatted. The laptop rested on the glass-top dining table. It’s the same table her parents, Logan and Mila Jones, had in their home years ago, before her mother’s death. Several painful months after that, her father had moved into a shared living arrangement with his best friends Fred and Maddy Davis. It seemed like a perfect situation and an obvious solution to all four offspring.

  Initially,
Logan struggled with depression after losing his wife and the sisters’ mother. Both Logan and his daughters were grateful to the Davis family, allowing him to avoid his ongoing misery of living alone. This suited Maddy, too. Constant memories of Mila allowed all three friends to assuage one another’s heartache and grief over the ensuing years, while their collective children grew into young adults.

  ‘To be honest…’ Sacha’s smile abruptly changes, her face growing somber, ‘I’m sick of studying. I’ve had enough. I almost feel I’ll never complete my degree.’

  Hawke looked concerned. He was five years younger than her and knew she had gone back to get a master’s qualification in business management.

  ‘But you’re so close to finishing. I thought that’s what you wanted?’ he asked.

  She sighed heavily. ‘Yeah, I did too, but now I feel overwhelmed.’ Sacha hated sharing an apartment with those two as well. ‘I need some space so I can concentrate. With the textbooks, then the assignments, I feel like screaming.’

  ‘Hey Sacha,’ Hawke said. ‘It can’t be that bad, surely? You’re doing so well.’

  ‘I got a Fail for my last assignment,’ she announced. ‘I almost knew it before I handed it in. The entire scene makes me feel so down. I still miss Mom and feel that I didn’t mourn her and now years later, as soon as I feel under stress, I get overwhelmed.’ She stopped, but Hawke remained silent, trying to assess the situation and what he could do to help her from so far away.

  ‘Hey, why don’t you come and stay with me?’ he blurted, giving himself a shock as soon as the words escaped from his mouth. Had he said it in his outside voice? He waited for Sacha to burst into hysterical laughter.

  Hawke heard her gasp as she raised her eyebrows in surprise, leaning in closer to her laptop screen.

  ‘Really? You wouldn’t mind?’ she asked, trying to gather her thoughts. The mere suggestion immediately supercharged her senses. It’s simply the most brilliant idea she had ever heard, but her facial expression didn’t change.

  Hawke had known her all his life, and held his breath, but could see a minute subtle shift in her expression. Excitement and adrenalin flooded his body. ‘Why don’t you all come over?’ he quickly exclaimed, attempting to camouflage his pointed invitation to her. ‘Suzie and Bruno too. You know, for a few weeks in the winter break when it’s summer here?’ This scrambled response seemed to clarify things and mask his desire to spend time alone with her. A good save, and he felt proud of himself.

  ‘Hey, what a great idea!’ she openly smiled. ‘We can all spend the Kiwi summer together. Wow! Wait until I tell Suzie!’

  Hawke smiled, too. It would be worth putting up with Bruno if he could have time alone with Sacha. Who knows? Away from LA might be the tonic to kick-start a genuine relationship with her.

  ‘New Zealand better watch out with the sisters-in-the-hood,’ he laughed, referring to the jokes they shared in the past and making Sacha erupt into spontaneous laughter.

  He had transformed himself from feeling like the youngest boy in the foursome to becoming a fully-fledged man that the sisters deferred to occasionally. Hawke couldn’t quite put his finger on when this elusive shift in their attitude towards him had changed. His older brother, Blake, often out of the picture in recent years, preferring to spend his spare time with his fiancé, Kyra, a tom-boyish girl with wild sandy hair that curled and camouflaged her flat chest. Kyra’s infectious laughter dazzled the attention of most onlookers when she walked into any room.

  Without Blake competing for the Jones sisters’ attention, Hawke could step up and take charge when they were out together.

  He preferred being alone with them but often had to tolerate the boyfriends. Only four months ago Sacha broke off a long-term relationship. Since then, he paid more attention, trying to shake her out of her malaise over the rocky breakup.

  ‘So,’ Hawke said with authority that belied his age. ‘Go to it and get those plane tickets organized. Text me the flight number and arrival time, and I’ll pick you guys up at Auckland Airport.’

  Sacha clapped her hands together and squealed in delight. ‘Brace yourself, Bud!’

  CHAPTER 5

  Floundering

  On arrival, Bruno and the two sisters took over the small two-bedroom cottage. Hawke didn’t mind, as long as he could stay in his own room, while Sacha elected to sleep on the old sofa in the living room. During the first week of their stay, the foursome enjoyed local forest walks, fishing, surfing and spent long summer afternoons swimming and lazing on the beach, reading or dozing.

  They talked non-stop, surprising Hawke with how they all got along effortlessly. Bruno and Suzie took turns to prepare meals together, so it fell naturally to Hawke and Sacha, as the second couple, to share cooking and kitchen chores on alternate days. They took the simple way out of evening meals several times a week by enjoying barbeques on the old wooden veranda, sipping a few cold beers while the sisters prepared salads.

  The cicadas chirped in the warm evening light as the men stood together at the barbeque, turning the sausages and lamb chops. The conversation turned from how long they needed to cook the meat to fast cars, a safe topic they both shared.

  ‘Someone raced past me today in a Stinger, revved to the max down the main road,’ Bruno said.

  ‘Sounds like you’ve got sports car envy,’ grinned Hawke, prodding the chops with a long-handled pair of metal tongs.

  ‘Crazy name. Aren’t Stingers Australian jellyfish?’ Bruno asked.

  Hawke snorted. ‘Yup. Show us your Stinger!’ they chuckled. ‘Must be a prick like any other racing around the main street like that. Idiot. Hey, how’s work going?’

  ‘Really want to get into the FBI and be in the forensic investigations team,’ Bruno replied. ‘But it’s hard work and takes a lot of influence to get in.’

  ‘Competitive, eh?’ Hawke commented, rolling the sausages as more smoke rose from the grill.

  Bruno nodded. ‘Back to basics have to work my way up. My father knows a few key people, so when we get back, he’ll pull a few strings.’

  ‘Handy,’ Hawke responded, turning to look at Bruno. He could tell he was serious and always had that no-nonsense, do-it-my-way attitude, which used to irritate him. He seemed to always take charge when Sacha and Suzie were around. Hawke thought about his grand-standing at clubs and meals they had shared with his family. Maybe he had misjudged Bruno? Although, now on holiday, he had eased up and was a bit more compromising and reasonable to live with.

  ‘Yeah, it’s who you know that makes a difference,’ Hawke said, preoccupied.

  ‘For sure, I’ll drink to that!’ Bruno clinked his beer bottle to Hawke’s, and they both smiled at one another.

  ‘You up for a serious hike tomorrow?’ Hawke asked. ‘I hiked halfway before you guys arrived, it’s a fascinating area but the walk is pretty laid back. No hectic rock climbing.’

  ‘Thank God for that,’ laughed Bruno before he strode into the kitchen to tell the sisters that the meat was ready.

  They rose early the next morning, loaded the car for the drive to the forest reserve. Parking their vehicle in the designated clearing where the trail started, they realized they were the only vehicle in the parking area.

  ‘I guess it’s a bit early,’ observed Hawke as they unloaded the car.

  Each person carried a small bottle of water and a windbreaker jacket in their compact backpacks, as advised by tourist information the day before.

  ‘You need to take safety into account in case,’ said the elderly tourist advisor, from behind the long, varnished timber countertop.

  ‘In case of what?’ asked Hawke, frowning. ‘We’ll follow the trail, so what can go wrong?’

  The assistant pursed her lips. Another young tourist who knows it all, she thought. ‘The weather can go from mild to monstrous in a heartbeat. So, best be prepared and make sure you’ve all got good hiking boots and warm clothing with you.’ She peered more closely at the skeptical look on Hawke’s face. �
�Just in case. Remember, we’re a few narrow islands and pretty exposed to temperature shifts.’

  The following day, Sacha and her sister had split the picnic food among all of them before they set off on the day-long hike.

  Bruno led the way through the native forest reserve along the Te Wharekirauponga Trail in the Parakawai Valley. It relieved the girls to see it was a well-worn dirt trail, effortlessly traversing through the dense undergrowth. Hawke and Sacha had already walked the first section of this old horse-drawn wagon trail a couple of weeks before Bruno and Suzie arrived.

  The hiking trail naturally wound its way through the contours, past unusual rock formations to the former gold miner’s camp at the 1897 Royal Standard Goldmine. This time they planned to go the full distance, hiking through the tunnel. Fortunately, Hawke remembered to pack two long-life waterproof flashlights on their walk to the Wharekirauponga Waterfalls. They planned to stop and picnic, swim and enjoy the adventure of being in such an intriguing spot.

  After the first 30 minutes, Bruno asked Hawke, ‘How far does this trail go?’

  ‘It’s a reasonably easy walk of about 10km.’ Hawke answered without looking around at him. ‘It’s a big loop, so we end up where we started back at the pathway to the carpark.’

  ‘Easy,’ Bruno responded.

  ‘I want to see the waterfalls,’ Suzie said. ‘Do you think we can swim in them?’

  Hawke glanced at Sacha’s anxious face. ‘Ahhh… we’ll have to see when we get there. Sacha and I haven’t gone the full distance before, but Pete told me there were some good swimming holes along the way.’

  ‘We can look inside some of the old gold mines,’ Sacha suggested. ‘They were mining here in the late 1800s, but it didn’t last more than a couple of years.’

  They continued marching on in single file as the track narrowed at a bend before widening again at a timber slatted bridge straddling a shallow river.

  ‘As long as we head back by 2 pm at the latest,’ Hawke said. ‘The weather around here can change in a flash.’