Treasured Dreams by Kendall Talbot Page A

ensuring he had all their attention.
    â€˜With the help of my colleagues at the war museum, we traced the movements of the Kawasaki Ki-56 planes. There were only 121 of these planes built during 1940 and 1943. But by 1945, only thirty-four were still operational.’
    â€˜Come on, Alessandro, you’re really dragging this out.’ Jimmy was becoming impatient now.
    Alessandro pursed his lips and glared at Jimmy. ‘Do you have somewhere you need to be?’
    â€˜No. But we don’t need to know all the boring details.’ Jimmy huffed.
    â€˜They’re not boring to me,’ Ginger said.
    â€˜Nor me,’ Rosalina agreed.
    â€˜ Precisamente . Shall I continue?’ He waited, and Rosalina had the feeling he could do this all night long.
    Jimmy rolled his eyes, and his shoulders sagged. ‘Whenever you’re ready.’
    â€˜Okay, so the Awa Maru , with Kimoda Yukimura as the captain’s steward, was in Saigon for three days from 25 th February to the 28 th February 1945. Nine Kawasaki Ki-56 freight planes were also there on 27 th of February. I have no indisputable proof that Hiro Yukimura was flying one of those planes.’ He paused for effect.
    â€˜But?’ Rosalina proffered.
    â€˜But only one of those planes was also in Singapore on the 28 th March, 1945. That’s the day the Awa Maru left on its final fateful voyage.’
    â€˜That’s brilliant, Alessandro,’ Archer said. ‘So what happened then?’
    â€˜The plane was next documented in Munda in the Solomon Islands.’
    Rosalina snapped her fingers. ‘Oh Jimmy, do you remember we found that gold star on Wade’s globe, right over the Solomon Islands?’
    Jimmy beamed. ‘Sure do, and that’s why we’re heading there.’
    Archer huffed and shot a glance at Jimmy. His clenched jaw showed his annoyance.
    Rosalina folded her arms across her chest and turned her attention to Archer. ‘Oh, we are, are we?’
    Archer placed his hand over hers and sighed. ‘I was going to talk to you about it in private later.’ He glanced sideways at Jimmy.
    â€˜Whoops.’ Jimmy took a large gulp of his wine.
    â€˜We think this is worth looking into.’ Archer’s brow furrowed as he gazed at Rosalina with pleading eyes.
    â€˜What? We’re just going to sail into the Solomon Islands and find forty tonnes of gold sitting right there on the beach?’ Rosalina ran her clenched fists over her thighs. ‘So far our treasure hunting has scored us nothing but bullet wounds, knife injuries, broken ribs, broken legs, and a ruined yacht. We have nothing else to show for it.’ She hoped they heard the fury quivering in her own voice.
    â€˜Not nothing. We have the monkey statue. And the cannon.’ Archer cocked his head, and the lights highlighted the gold flecks around his irises. His signature move annoyed her this time.
    She’d forgotten all about the monkey statue. It was the only piece of treasure other than the cannon that hadn’t been stolen from them. They’d found the one-metre statue at the bottom of the ocean, and rather than hide it with all the other pieces, they’d positioned it at the end of the lower bar. It was a miracle it wasn’t stolen. Although it was heavy, Ignatius had enough men to help him lift it, so the only reason they could work out as to why the precious piece had been left behind was because Ignatius simply didn’t notice it. He must’ve walked right past it several times when he stole all the other treasure. The cannon, on the other hand, was definitely too heavy to move.
    â€˜What’s happened to the monkey statue and the cannon anyway?’ she said.
    Alessandro sat down beside Ginger and their fingers immediately intertwined on her lap. ‘The cannon is in storage at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and the monkey statue is sealed up in a crate,’ Alessandro said. ‘We were waiting to