Gangland by Jared Savage

Author:Jared Savage
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

8

COMEDY AT SEA: THE AUSTRALIANS ARRIVE

2016

CONSTABLE THOMAS NANKIVELL HAD a very long and very strange day at work on Sunday, 12 June 2016. He worked out of the police station in Kaitaia. They don’t call it the Far North for nothing: the sandy tip of the North Island is one of the most remote regions of New Zealand.

Nankivell was on the morning shift. A worried phone call came in as soon as he arrived. A storm had whipped up the seas off 90 Mile Beach, on the Far North’s western coast, and locals were scouring the shoreline for washed-up shellfish at first light.

They found more than scallops and oysters. On the slick wet sand, stranded high and dry, was a brand-new, 9-metre rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB).

Everyone knows everyone up in the Far North, especially the boaties. But no one recognised this inflatable. It was a distinctive vessel, perfect for navigating the notorious swell and unforgiving currents of the North Island’s west coast.

Such a useful boat was valuable too. By the time Nankivell arrived at the site, near Hukatere, about 45 kilometres from Kaitaia, bystanders were arguing about salvage rights.

At first glance, Nankivell thought he might be dealing with a Search and Rescue mission. His initial instinct was to get a helicopter or plane up into the air. Survivors might be bobbing off the coast, running out of time. Or, in a worst-case scenario, there might be bodies to recover.

Something didn’t quite fit that narrative, though. The boat wasn’t lolling around in the shallows, lying parallel to the shore and buffeted incessantly by the waves, as you’d expect if it’d drifted aimlessly without crew.

Instead, the RHIB looked like it had been driven hard, straight onto the beach, and left stranded as the tide went out. Whoever was behind the wheel hadn’t bothered to raise the outboard motor out of the water. The propeller blades bit deep into the sand.

And those on board hadn’t stuck around to ask for help. They’d just up and left, completely vanished.

It wasn’t long before people started phoning the Kaitaia Police Station with their suspicions. One of those was Leo Lloyd, a mechanic by trade, who had helped a party of seven strangers launch a RHIB shortly after dark the night before.

Lloyd lived in Ahipara, at the southern end of 90 Mile Beach, about 60 kilometres from Hukatere. Sergeant Kevin Anderson returned Lloyd’s call, and later he and Nankivell drove down the coast to meet with Lloyd at his Ahipara home. Lloyd had kindly towed the RHIB there for them.

The three men stood around outside as Lloyd told his story. He described four of the men he had helped as Polynesian but with thick Australian accents. Another two had been Chinese and one, Stevie – with whom Leo had dealt the most – had been Maori. They’d driven a maroon Toyota Prado.

As good fortune would have it – make that extraordinarily good fortune – a maroon Toyota Prado rolled past just as the two police officers were about to take their leave.

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