The Last Tuatara by Des Hunt

Author:Des Hunt [Hunt, Des]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Des Hunt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

I NEEDED TO TALK to someone and the person I chose was Bert. Maybe I should have chosen my parents, but I knew they’d be harder to convince. They still thought Shawn Morris was an okay bloke. Plus the money from the oil company was sure to colour their thinking. Nor could I predict what Dad’s reaction would be to a bit of wildlife smuggling. He may well put it in the same category as global warming and the use of agrichemicals.

Seeking help from Jessy was out of the question. In her eyes, Shawn Morris could do no wrong; she was infatuated with the guy.

Bert was not home, but a note told me where he was – down near the mouth of the river hoping to catch some kahawai. I found him sitting in his canvas chair watching his fishing line trail upstream with the incoming tide. I sat on the black sand beside him.

“How’s the thumping going?” he asked.

“Finished.”

“Does that mean Shawn Morris has gone?”

“Yep – but not for long, worse luck.”

“A while away is better than him being here. The valley’s a better place without him.”

“He took a whole lot of geckos with him. I think he’s taking them to America.” I told him about Herpes, the lunch box, and the events in the cave.

Bert listened without comment.

I went on to tell him about the discovery of the tuatara and the conversation I had overheard. When I’d finished, he sat absolutely still and silent.

Eventually he said, “We’ve got to stop this.”

I nodded. “I know. But how?”

“We’ll start with the geckos. If we tip off Customs, they’ll search him as he leaves.” He stood up. “We’ll go back to the caravan and use my phone.”

“I’ve got mine,” I said, pulling it out of my pocket.

“Is that the one he gave you?”

I nodded.

“Then don’t trust it. Don’t trust anything that he does.”

We went back to the caravan where Bert got the number of the Customs Department. We sat and worked out what I would say to them. Basically I would tell them the truth: that I had seen a man called Shawn Morris coming out of the bush with a container full of geckos; I knew he was going to America and thought he might be taking them there.

The phone call went okay. I said my lines and answered a few questions. Bert had said they’d want to know my name and number. I gave them the number of our house. From now on I would be very careful about how I used my phone. While I wasn’t convinced that Shawn could listen in, it would’ve been stupid to take that risk.

I felt a whole lot better as I rode home from Bert’s. Now I was doing something, not just hanging around being scared. Besides, Bert had promised to come up with an answer to the tuatara problem. From now on we would try to meet every day.

***

We were having dinner that evening when the phone went. This was not unusual, as the evenings were the only time someone could be sure of finding Dad in the house.

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