Silver Bay Read Online Free

nursing. He had finally taken off his dark glasses, and the shadows under his eyes betrayed the events of the previous evening.
    ‘I heard you needed your stomach lined,’ she said, thwacking a napkin in front of him.
    ‘He tell you four of his passengers asked for their money back when they caught sight of his hull?’ Lance laughed. ‘Sorry, Greg mate, but what a damn fool thing to do. Of all the things to write.’
    ‘You’re a gent, Kathleen.’ Greg, ignoring him, reached for the bread.
    My aunt gave him one of her looks. ‘And I’ll be something else entirely if you write those words where young Hannah can see them again.’
    ‘Shark Lady’s still got teeth.’ Lance mimed a snapping motion at Greg.
    Aunt Kathleen ignored him. ‘Hannah, you dig in now. I’ll bet you never had a bite to eat for lunch. I’m going to fetch the salad.’
    ‘She ate the biscuits,’ said Yoshi, expertly undressing a prawn.
    ‘Biscuits.’ Aunt Kathleen snorted.
    We were gathered, as the Whale Jetty crews were most evenings, outside the hotel kitchens. There were few days when the crews wouldn’t share a beer or two before they headed home. Some of the younger members, my aunt often said, shared so many that they barely made it home at all.
    As I bit into a juicy tiger prawn, I noticed that the burners were outside; few guests at the Silver Bay Hotel wanted to sit out in June, but in winter the whale-watching crews congregated here to discuss events on the water, no matter the weather. Their members changed from year to year, as people moved on to different jobs or went to uni, but Lance, Greg, Yoshi and the others had been a constant in my life for as long as I had lived there. Aunt Kathleen usually lit the burners at the start of the month and they stayed on most evenings until September.
    ‘Did you have many out?’ She had returned with the salad. She tossed it with brisk, expert fingers, then put some on to my plate before I could protest. ‘I’ve had no one at the museum.’
    ‘ Moby One was pretty full. Lot of Koreans.’ Yoshi shrugged. ‘Greg nearly lost half of his over the side.’
    ‘They got a good sight of the whale.’ Greg reached for another piece of bread. ‘No complaints. No refunds necessary. Got any more beers, Miss M?’
    ‘You know where the bar is. You see it, Hannah?’
    ‘It was enormous. I could see its barnacles.’ For some reason I’d expected it to be smooth, but the skin had been lined, ridged, studded with fellow sea creatures, as if it were a living island.
    ‘It was close. I’ve told her we wouldn’t normally get that close,’ said Yoshi.
    Greg narrowed his eyes. ‘If she’d been out on her mother’s boat she could have brushed its teeth.’
    ‘Yes, well, the least said about that . . .’ Aunt Kathleen shook her head. ‘Not a word,’ she mouthed at me. ‘That was a one-off.’
    I nodded dutifully. It was the third one-off that month.
    ‘That Mitchell turn up? You want to watch him. I’ve heard he’s joining those Sydney-siders with the big boats.’
    They all looked up.
    ‘Thought the National Parks and Wildlife Service had frightened them off,’ said Lance.
    ‘When I went to the fish market,’ Aunt Kathleen said, ‘they told me they’d seen one all the way out by the heads. Music at top volume, people dancing on the decks. Like a discothèque. Ruined the night’s fishing. But by the time the Parks and Wildlife people got out there they were long gone. Impossible to prove a thing.’
    The balance in Silver Bay was delicate: too few whale-watching tourists and the business would be unsustainable; too many, and it would disturb the creatures it wanted to display.
    Lance and Greg had come up against the triple-decker catamarans from round the bay, often blaring loud music, decks heaving with passengers, and were of similar opinion. ‘They’ll be the death of us all, that lot,’ Lance said. ‘Irresponsible. Money-mad. Should suit Mitchell down to the