Mark Hayes

Season 1 · October 2026

1. 

   E1 · 30 Sep 2026

   The Locked Container

   Mark takes kitchen work at a fishing wharf after seeing a steel container door injure him and three supposedly drowned crewmen's belongings disappear inside.

   Read what Mark says

   Tully Pike, the wharf chandler, hired me for a week at Bellwether. I came for cash work, so I parked my old ute behind the eastern wharf and took the kitchen shift.

   This town lives on fishing boats. Three crewmen are supposed to have drowned, and everyone is still carrying flowers down to the harbour.

   I watched a private crew move Ben Cato's sea boots, lunch tin and tool bag into a locked steel container beside the crane.

   The hatch swung back and hit my shoulder. I dropped the boot and stayed still while Rhys Kato, Lyle Kato's son, watched me.

   Ben's family was grieving, but his gear was being moved. I copied the container number onto my hand and walked away.

   I took the kitchen roster from the line cook. It let me hear which boats left, which engines stayed cold and who was too scared to talk.

   Nia Frost, the wharf mechanic, said that container opens only when Lyle Kato is aboard the old dredger.

2. 

   E2 · 4 Oct 2026

   The Bollard Test

   Mark tries to earn enough quiet trust at Bellwether wharf to learn who disappeared when the Kato family arrives, and his help with a falling crate turns one hard watcher into a cautious ally.

   Read what Mark says

   I needed the crews to trust me before I could learn who disappeared whenever Rhys Kato came near. So I carried bait and watched the boats.

   A young deckhand slipped, and a tackle crate was heading onto his foot. I caught him and stopped it.

   I steadied the crate without shouting. The crews noticed, and the young deckhand trusted me enough to nod.

   Dain Rusk, the former police volunteer who guards Rhys Kato, put me in charge of the eastern bollard. That gave me a reason to watch every boat.

   Joonie Ellis, the scarred deckhand from the crane office, looked relieved when Dain left. He vanished again when Rhys arrived.

   At the end of the shift, I found Joonie beside the fish boxes and learned the missing men had taken work on 3 separate boats.

3. 

   E3 · 6 Oct 2026

   Keys Behind the Bait

   Mark uses an antique fishing reel as bait to escape a trapped confrontation with Rhys Kato while Dain Rusk watches the Boathouse from a grey sedan.

   Read what Mark says

   Tully Pike, the Boathouse owner, hired me to reset his antique fishing reels before a tourist coach arrived. Rhys Kato walked in before the display was finished.

   Rhys called me a drifter and told everyone I worked only with wharf approval. Dain Rusk, the former police volunteer, watched from a grey sedan outside.

   Rhys backed me against the counter and reached for the keys. I put one brass reel into his hand and told him the shop was finished.

   I walked out with the keys while Dain stayed beside the sedan. Rhys had to choose between following me and keeping his dignity in front of Tully.

   I hid the keys inside a bait float in the rear lane. A vehicle was faster, but it would also show every Kato watcher exactly where I went.

   The sedan stayed at the front. I returned the keys to Tully and watched him carry them away from the street.

4. 

   E4 · 8 Oct 2026

   Three Sets of Scratches

   Mark moves a refrigeration unit through a locked wharf lane with Joonie Ellis, then survives a rifle shot when a truck marked by the missing crewmen reveals the danger around the old dredger.

   Read what Mark says

   Tully Pike paid me to move a refrigeration unit after closing. Joonie Ellis, the deckhand who knew the missing men, agreed to show me the sealed net-shed lane.

   A locked truck backed into the lane. Joonie stopped dead when I saw 3 sets of scratches on its side.

   Those were the missing men's initials. My hand shook once, but I told Joonie to breathe first and kept the trolley moving.

   The shot hit the metal beside my head. I pulled Joonie behind the freezer and did not return fire.

   The truck stayed still, so we stayed behind the unit. I could hear the crewmen's initials being cut into its side and nothing else.

   Joonie had not left me. He told me the old dredger was where one of the men was being kept alive.

5. 

   E5 · 10 Oct 2026

   Knelt Down by Fuel

   Mark is attacked beside Bellwether's fuel tank while Dain holds Joonie Ellis, forcing him to choose between fighting and finding another route.

   Read what Mark says

   I was moving storm fuel drums at Bellwether wharf when Dain Rusk, the former police volunteer guarding the dock, put me beside the tank and drove his knee into my back.

   My shoulder hit the steel rim. I nearly went down, but I kept my hands off him and watched his face instead.

   Joonie Ellis, the scarred deckhand who knew the dredger route, hung from a tow rope behind the winch. Dain made me look at what he would do next.

   I backed away. I could not free Joonie by charging Dain, so I left with the dredger in my head. At the Boathouse, a fuel blacklist was waiting.

6. 

   E6 · 12 Oct 2026

   The Blacklisted FUEL Run

   Mark tries to continue useful work at the Boathouse while a false blacklist blocks him, then finds proof that the Kato salvage crew is moving stripped copper in daylight.

   Read what Mark says

   I took a compressor job at the Boathouse, the town's chandlery, because it gave me a reason to watch the Kato salvage crew. The fuel supplier made me sign a theft charge I had never earned.

   I broke the blacklist and carried the compressor inside. Nia Frost, the wharf mechanic, took the other end instead of leaving me to do it alone.

   Three heavy Kato salvage drums went through the Boathouse in daylight. Nia said they held copper stripped from wrecks beyond the legal drop line.

   So the blacklist was not about fuel. It was meant to keep me away from what the Katos were moving. At the empty yacht club, one of their crewmen left a warning under my wheel.

7. 

   E7 · 15 Oct 2026

   Float Under the Wheel

   Mark receives a direct threat against Ben Cato at the empty yacht club and must mislead the Kato watchers without exposing his route to the missing crewman.

   Read what Mark says

   I was securing the shutters at the empty yacht club when a Kato crewman held up Ben Cato's blue float and warned he would drown before high tide.

   The truck left. The same float was tied beneath my steering column, with fresh Kato diesel darkening the rope.

   So they could reach the ute and wanted me running straight to Ben. I laid wet tyre marks toward the empty ramp as a false route.

   I hid inside an old racing dinghy under the club shed and let them watch the wrong place. At Mara Quill's boatyard, a storm-surge rescue was waiting.

8. 

   E8 · 18 Oct 2026

   Locked Out by Fuel

   Mark wins a storm rescue contest at Mara Quill's yard, only for Lyle Kato to stop his pay and lock the fuel, but the defeated rival offers a useful secret.

   Read what Mark says

   I was at Mara Quill's boatyard to free her skiff before the surge tore its cradle away. I had to beat Silas Cade, the rival deckhand helping Mara, before dawn.

   Silas dropped his bar and shoved me. I caught it, kept the skiff level and won the lift by one hand's width.

   Then Lyle Kato, the owner of the wharf salvage licence, stopped my pay and locked the yard fuel. Mara was left with a broken launch and neither of us could work.

   I had lost the money, but Silas told me the outer chain rises at first light. He showed me where the eastern mooring was. I trusted Nia next.

9. 

   E9 · 20 Oct 2026

   Nia Led Him Straight

   Mark asks Nia Frost to divert Dain while he reaches a guarded prisoner, but she brings Dain to him and Mark escapes under the public alarm.

   Read what Mark says

   I asked Nia Frost, the wharf mechanic who had helped me with the salvage drums, to draw Dain Rusk toward the empty ramp while I opened the crane office.

   Nia walked Dain straight to me and pointed at the office. I had trusted the wrong person in full view of the wharf.

   Dain grabbed my throat. I hit the diesel alarm and released the pressure valve, so foam covered the scales and forced him to let me go.

   I escaped toward the crane and heard Rhys Kato order Joonie Ellis moved at high water. I put on Nia's coveralls and went in disguised as a mechanic.

10. 

    E10 · 22 Oct 2026

    Coughs on the Radio

    Mark waits to intercept the prison boat but receives a radio threat and hears chained prisoners while fresh tracks suggest the transmission is bait.

    Read what Mark says

    I was waiting at Bellwether wharf to intercept a prison boat when a cut-off radio said Joonie Ellis would die when the eastern mooring emptied.

    It played Joonie Bell and Darcy Pike, the crewmen everyone believed drowned, coughing in chains. I started toward the outer water.

    Then I found fresh sea-boot prints and a cut rope smeared dark, both pointing toward the crane. The eastern mooring was bare, so the radio was meant to move me.

    I spilled diesel across the outer mooring and lit a flare to force the prison boat into the public channel. When Bellwether looked, I was still beside the crane.