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Back The Last Guests Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART ONE
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. DEADLY SAS RAID IN AFGHANISTAN UNDER SCRUTINY
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. PART TWO
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. DANIEL MOORE: ‘A SINGLE BLOKE, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, A BIT OF A DUNCE BUT WITH A GOOD HEART,’ BEST FRIEND SAYS.
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. THIRTY-TWO
  41. THIRTY-THREE
  42. THIRTY-FOUR
  43. THIRTY-FIVE
  44. BREAKING: POLICE CONFIRM DANIEL MOORE ACTED ALONE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. SECOND ARREST MADE IN WESTAY HIDDEN CAMERAS CASE
  50. EPILOGUE
  51. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  52. Discover More
  53. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  54. Also by J. P. Pomare

‘It comes and goes, the guilt, the grief, but I manage it. It’s mostly the fear that the secret will get out, that my world, our world, will come crashing down. I want to control it but I can’t. And now the stakes are much higher, with the baby coming.’

It’s like he’s plucked the thoughts right out of my head.

THIRTY-FOUR

DAYS LATER, CAIN watches the interview when it airs but I can’t bring myself to sit through it. I know it will only confirm all my anxieties, that everything I said and did in that studio would be manipulated, the drama scaled up. I go for a run instead.

When I get back, Cain wears an unreadable expression. ‘They’d edited out what I said about the media, I should have guessed. Except a couple of snippets to make me seem a touch unhinged.’

‘What about me?’

He smiles. ‘You did really well, you came across as a saint standing by her slightly deranged, deeply damaged man. It was perfect.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, I think we did good in the end. We can put this whole thing behind us, and the money has landed,’ he says. I hope you’re right, Cain. He takes me in his arms, my sweaty top presses against his. ‘Cold out there?’

‘It’s fine,’ I say. ‘I was distracted.’

‘I bet.’

‘I can’t stop thinking about the house.’ All the years with Grandpa and Grandma, summers in the sweltering heat, the first time Grandpa took me across to Hot Water Beach, when I wore his too-large life jacket and he didn’t wear one at all. The tiny outboard motor strapped to the back of the dinghy whined the entire trip.

‘It might be time to start thinking about putting it on the market,’ I continue. ‘It’s worth a lot and I just don’t know if this dream of starting a family there will be the same now. We could sell and buy somewhere else.’

He lifts his chin, rests it on the top of my head. ‘Well, it’s your decision, Quin. I’ll do whatever you want.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, squeezing him back. ‘We’re starting a family, Cain. No point holding on to the past.’

Cain nods. ‘Whatever you think is best.’

I swallow. It still doesn’t feel right, it’s a sort of betrayal but what choice do I have?

He releases me. Reaches for the bottle of beer on the benchtop.

‘What’s on for tomorrow?’ I ask him.

‘I’m fully booked,’ he says, taking a swig as he walks to the lounge, settles back on the couch. ‘Can you believe it? Wouldn’t have imagined a couple of months ago I would have a waiting list.’

‘I think we should probably get down to Tarawera soon, check in on the place. Pack up.’