Wyatt - 06 - The Fallout by Garry Disher

not
Flinders Island or the east coast of Tassie?

    Sure. Raymond wound the big car
past the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The big lights loomed coldly like spy
cameras.

    Okay, listen to this. Hobart
Town Courier, 1827. Its what I mean by piecing clues together.

    Vallance waved a photocopy between
the seats, then settled back to read aloud. Blah, blah, blah . . . Captain
Whitby, master of the Government cutter, Swordfish, was dispatched to
make a search among the Bass Strait Islands for tidings or wreckage of the
missing brig, Mary May. Captain Whitby reported on his return that
considerable wreckage from the Mary May had been discovered on Clarke
and Preservation Islands, but no trace of her passengers or crew.

    Nevertheless a curious but
related fact has emerged as a result of Captain Whitbys search. Whilst at
anchor under the Cornwall Group during the term of a powerful gale, Captain
Whitby had occasion to take the ships vessel to the nearest shore, where he
came upon a sealer living with two native women. The sealer, Sydney Dan by
name, was unable or unwilling to provide a satisfactory account for the
presence in his hut of certain items, namely a sea chest, a snuff box, numerous
pistols and a majors uniform. Furthermore, part of a deckhouse had been
converted for use as a pigsty roof. Having ascertained that none of these items
belonged to the Mary May, Captain Whitby questioned the man more
closely. His answers appeared to be most evasive, and Whitby returned to the Swordfish with his curiosity and suspicion considerably aroused.

    Next morning Captain Whitby
returned to the island and, taking the native women aside for questioning,
discovered a cooked leg of mutton, a ham and a cushion. Pursuing his inquiries
farther afield, among sealers, fishermen and sailors from diverse parts of the
Bass Strait islands, Captain Whitby learned that numerous sealers had recently
arrived in Launceston bearing cheques, gold coins and bank notes for which they
could not give a clear accounting. One man possessed a ships studding sail
boom, with the sails still attached.

    The mystery has since deepened.
The Courier has it on good authority that Captain Gibb, Port Officer at
Hobart Town, last month received anonymously in the post the register and other
papers from the Eliza Dean, a barque missing between Sydney Town and
Hobart Town this past half year. Further to this, letters which could only have
been carried by the Eliza Dean recently arrived at their destinations in
Hobart Town, postmarked Launceston.

    Grave concern is held for the Eliza
Dean, if indeed she was lost upon the reefs surrounding the Cornwall Group.
There is a dereliction of duty on the part of the Government if immediate steps
are not taken to unravel the mystery that enshrouds the fate of the thirty
individuals on board. It is a matter of importance to know whether they were
drowned or murdered, and whether they landed alive or if the bodies were
plundered after being washed ashore.

    Raymond frowned. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
but how do we know the treasure is still on the wreck? It sounds as if she was
looted before she broke up. The coins you found could have been a handful that
got left behind.

    He saw Vallance smile complacently. Trust
me, I know. Ive already made several passes with a metal detector and
accounted for all of the ferrous metals. The rest is gold, solid gold, and
silver.

    Gold. The word lodged in Raymonds head.
He found himself braking hard to avoid ramming the rear of a taxi on the
approach to the south-eastern freeway at Hoddle Street.

    As the endless suburbs slipped past
their windows, Raymond asked questions. They were as hard and knowing as he could
make them. He wasnt an easy catch. He didnt want them to think he was.

    Youre looking for investors, fifty
grand each. What does my fifty grand buy me?

    A sixth share in the treasure. Me,
Allie, you, and three others. Equal sixths.

    I dont mean that. I mean, what
kind of expedition are we mounting