The Peco Incident by Des Hunt Read Free Book Online Page A

watching.
    Unfortunately, I had to leave Nick to watch by himself, as I was busting to go to the toilet. Then I had to wait for someone else to finish, and, by the time I got back outside, Nick was in front of the camera being interviewed.
    My gut tightened. There was no predicting what he might say. I was too far away to hear what was being said, but I could see that Nick was enjoying himself. He showed none of the nerves I knew I would suffer if I were being interviewed. He chatted away as if he and Jim Black were best mates.
    Then I noticed he had his phone in his hand. The clamps on my gut tightened further. On that phone were the photos he’d taken inside the chook farm: photos that all of the media would love to get their hands on.
    As I watched, Jim Black pointed to Nick’s hand and asked a question. Nick lifted the phone and pressed a few buttons before holding it out towards Jim. I brought my hands to my head, hoping to shut out what was about to happen. Then, without warning, the whole of Portobello resounded to a loud blast from an air horn.
    I jumped, Nick jumped, so too did Jim Black. The cameraman, however, calmly turned his lens towards the source of the noise. A fire engine was coming down the road from Dunedin. It gave two more blasts as it approached the intersection. Then it turned and roared off towards the chook farm.
    No sooner had it gone than the cameraman, interviewer and sound engineer were sprinting towards their vehicle. A moment later it, too, was roaring up the road.
    I let out a long sigh of relief as it disappeared around a bend. I also made a mental note that, in future, Nicholas Clarke and reporters should be kept well clear of each other, or those photos would end up everywhere.

CHAPTER 8
    A s peace returned to the Portobello shops, I noticed Murph sitting in his usual place outside the pub. We wandered over.
    He looked up as we approached. ‘Are you two the cause of all of that?’
    ‘Some of it,’ I replied.
    His eyes twinkled for a moment. ‘You didn’t set fire to Shreeves’s place, did you?’
    ‘No. Nothing was on fire when we were there.’ ‘Somebody needs to set fire to it,’ said Nick, with feeling. Murph shook his head. ‘Not with the chooks in there, mate. If they weren’t there, I’d agree with you.’
    ‘They’ll all be gone soon anyway,’ replied Nick. ‘Half of them are dead already.’
    Murph turned and raised his eyebrows at me. ‘You been inside?’
    ‘Last night,’ I said quietly.
    ‘What was it like?’
    We told him. I knew our secret would be safe with Murph. He rarely spoke to other people, and when he did it was only ever about horses.
    ‘Mongrel!’ he said when we’d finished. Then, after a pause: ‘You know, he tried to get rid of all my birds once. Said they were a possible source of disease.’ Murph let out a humourless laugh. ‘That’s ironic, isn’t it? Accusing
my
birds when now it’s his that are the source.’
    ‘What happened?’ asked Nick.
    ‘Oh,
Councillor
Shreeves turned up at my place with some officials, insisting that the birds be destroyed. We had a real barney, screaming at each other. It was just after protestors had got into his sheds and taken photos. I’d seen them on TV, so I had plenty of shots to fire back at him.’ Murph thought for a moment. ‘I think that’s what it was all about. He was trying to deflect attention away from the problems at his place. Anyway, the officials inspected all my aviaries and made a list of things I had to clean up, and that was the end of it. Fortunately, the only native I had at the time was Harriet and she was asleep in the house. If Shreeves and his lackeys had seen her, I would’ve been done for.’
    ‘Has he ever been back?’ asked Nick.
    ‘Nah. The only times I’ve seen him since have been when he’s posing on TV.’
    ‘You know he might try and blame you again,’ I said quietly.
    Murph stared at me. ‘Oh, shit! You don’t think he would, do you?’
    I