I had put the word round, and a few local hotel owners, fishermen, the whalechasers, people who were likely to be affected by it all, were coming. We sat and stood outside MacIver’s, waiting for people to straggle in. A few clutched copies of the newspaper. Some murmured to each other, while a few chatted normally, as if the town weren’t about to be changed completely.
I didn’t talk to Liza when she got there, and she didn’t seem in a hurry to talk to me. But I waved at Hannah, who came over and sat next to me. ‘Your boat’s still in the lock-up,’ I said quietly, because I wanted to see her smile.
‘Will all the dolphins move away?’ she said.
Kathleen had arrived, and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m sure they’ve seen worse than this,’ she said. ‘In the war we had warships in the bay, bombers going overhead, submarines . . . but we still had dolphins. Don’t you worry.’
‘They’re smart, aren’t they? They’ll know to keep out of everyone’s way.’
‘Smarter than most people round here,’ said Kathleen. I didn’t like the way she looked sideways at me when she said that.
Lance got up and began to speak. We’d agreed he’d be better at all that stuff – I was never one for public speaking and we all knew Liza would have died rather than put her face about. He said he appreciated that the development would have some economic benefits for the town, but the watersports school would run the risk of destroying the town’s one area for tourist growth: the whales and dolphins. ‘I appreciate a lot of you guys won’t care one way or the other, but this is the one thing that marks out Silver Bay from a lot of the other destinations, and most of you will know that when the tourists come out on our boats, they’ll often stop off in the cafés or shops on the way home. Or they’ll stay in your hotels and motels.’
There was a murmur of agreement.
‘This thing is foreign money,’ he said. ‘Yes, there will be a few jobs, but you can bet your life the profits won’t stick around in Silver Bay. Not even in New South Wales. Foreign investment means returns to foreigners. And, besides, we don’t even know the full nature of this development. If it has its own cafés and bars, well, hell, you guys will lose as much as you gain.’
‘It might boost the winter trade, but,’ came a voice from the back.
‘At what cost? If the whales and dolphins go, there isn’t going to be any winter trade,’ said Lance. ‘Be honest. How many people would come here in June, July, August if it wasn’t for Whale Jetty? Huh?’
There was silence.
Beside me Hannah was reading the newspaper. I swear that kid’s getting so grown up it’ll be two ticks before she’s driving. ‘Greg,’ she said, frowning.
‘What is it, sweetheart?’ I whispered. ‘You want me to get you something to eat?’
‘That’s Mike’s company.’ Her little finger was on a bit of the print. ‘Beaker Holdings. That’s the one that has his picture on their website.’
It took me a minute or two to work out what she was saying, and a little longer longer to work out what that meant. ‘Beaker Holdings,’ I read. ‘You sure, sweetheart?’
‘I remembered it because it was like a bird beak. Does that mean Mike’s bought Silver Bay?’
I could barely see straight for the rest of that meeting. I just about held it together while Lance organised a petition. I managed to raise my hand when they voted to call up the planning guy and register a complaint. And then, as everyone drifted away, I asked Kathleen if she knew whether Mike was at the hotel.
‘He’s in his room,’ she said. ‘I think his girlfriend’s gone shopping.’ She sniffed. ‘She likes shopping.’ She looked up at me. ‘Greg? You okay?’
‘Can you get Liza?’ I said, trying to keep the edge from my voice in front of the little one. ‘There’s something you need to know.’
It took eighteen months for me to get Liza McCullen into bed and nearly two years more for her to trust me enough to tell me about her daughter.
That was why I couldn’t believe it when, the day after the whale calf died, I drove up to the hotel to bring her keys, which she’d left at mine in her usual hurry to get home. It’s why I haven’t been back to the hotel since – because the image still burnt in my imagination, tormented me no matter how many beers I poured down my throat: her sitting in the car park of the Silver Bay Hotel, soon after she’d got out of my bed, bold as brass, held tight in the arms of that Englishman.
As it turned out, he was sitting in the kitchen – where only Kathleen’s family ever goes, like he had some kind of rights over the place. When we appeared in the doorway he looked up. He had been reading an old guide book and was wearing a smart shirt. Just the sight of him in that space made me want to smack him.
It took him a second or two to register. But Liza didn’t give him any more than that. She slammed the newspaper on to the kitchen table.
‘That how you do your research, is it?’
He looked at the headline and actually went white. I’ve never seen it happen before, but the colour ran out of him so fast that I almost found myself looking down in case a puddle of blood was leaking on to the floor.
‘Sit in our hotel for the best part of a month making friends, asking questions, chatting up my daughter, and all the while you’re planning to ruin us?’
He stared at the front page.
‘Of all people – of all people! Knowing what you knew, how could you, Mike? How could you do that?’
By God, I’d never seen her so mad. She was electric, fizzing. Her hair almost stood on end.
He stood up. ‘Liza, let me explain—’
‘Explain? Explain what? That you came here pretending to be on holiday and all the while you’ve been plotting and planning with the bloody council to destroy us?’
‘It’s not going to destroy you or the whales. I’ve been working on putting all these safeguards in place.’
She laughed then, a hollow, crazy sound. I have to admit she was a little scary at this point.
‘Safeguards, safeguards. How is a bloody watersports park bang in the middle of our waters any kind of safeguard? There’ll be speedboats whizzing around pulling skiers, jet-skis, you name it. Do you know what this is going to do to the whales?’
‘How is it worse than what you do? It’s just boat engines. They’ll know to steer clear of the migration path. There will be rules. Advisories.’