by Les Shipp
car at the petrol station he noticed his back tyre was nearly flat. He quickly went to work changing the tyre, and all went well until he retrieved the spare out of the boot. Damn damn damn he muttered to himself as he was confronted with the flat spare tyre. After considerable effort and a lot of frustration he managed to get himself out of the jam he was in. He was in such a rush to continue on his way he had forgotten to fill up with fuel, which resulted in him running out eight kilometres out of town. He rang the R.A. C. Q. for help and it took them ages to bring him enough fuel to get him to the next petrol station.
At last having filled up with fuel he was on his way again. He thought to himself,” I’ll have to put my foot down now or I will be late. As he sped down the highway at a cracking pace the inevitable happened. A police car was on his tail indicating for him to pull over. The sergeant wasn’t all that impressed by his reason for speeding, and proceeded to give his car a thorough check over, and a long lecture about the foolishness of speeding. Do it again the sergeant warned and you will most likely lose your licence. Finally he was on his way again minus demerit points and a hefty fine.
He was making good time after that but keeping an eye on the speedo, until he rounded a bend in the road, and there to his amazement was a road block. Some fool had been speeding and had crashed. The road wouldn’t be open for an hour. This was almost too much for Joe, but he kept his cool and sat it out.
Finally on his way again he reached the town where Shirl lived. With a sinking feeling he remembered Shirl had moved house since he was last there, and he would have to find her new address. He drove round for half an hour before locating her new home, and it was with relief when he drove up to her front gate.
As he walked to her front door several hours late and frayed around the edges, he thought to himself, Shirl will soon cheer me up. When Shirl opened the door her countenance wasn’t one to cheer anybody up.” What took you so long she demanded?”
WALK ON THE WILD SIDE.
Alf worked in a factory on a production line. His wages paid the bills but wasn’t in the least exciting. His only excitement was down to the pub on a Friday night with his mates for a few beers.
This Friday night he had more than a few beers and he had wobbly legs as he made his way back to his flat where he lived by himself. He collapsed into bed once he reached home and fell into a deep sleep.
The next thing he knew he had bought a plane ticket to New York and was on his way. He had never been past Brisbane and knew he was in for an exciting time with lots of new experiences and he planned to make the most of them.
In New York he met up with an Italian named Mario in a café while having a cup of coffee. He was very impressed with Mario Fontele’s name so when he was asked what his name was he said Alfredo Buchely. Close enough to Alf Bucknel. He told Mario his parents had migrated from Calabria when he was a baby. They got on very well and Mario offered Alf a job as a courier. He told Alf there wasn’t much to it, just delivering parcels around the city. Alf thought, how much easier could it get.
He was very successful with his deliveries and Mario was pleased with him and said he would probably have more interesting jobs for him later on. Alf wondered about some of the people he delivered his parcels to as some of them looked a bit shady, but then he felt that was none of his business.
He didn’t put much thought into it until a dodgy character caught him by the scruff of the neck and warned him to keep off his patch. Alf reported the matter to Mario who said not to worry about it as he would sort the man out. A couple of days later Alf was looking through a local paper and there was a picture of the shady character having just been pulled out of the river dead. Alf in his naivety thought, well I won’t have any more trouble with that goon.
After a while Alf had an uneasy feeling that he was being watched and at times followed. He discussed this with Mario and Mario said he had better take a rest from being a courier and he had another job for him as a barman in his night club. Apart from serving drinks he had the responsibility of unobtrusively handing out small packages to selected clients. Alf thought this was a bit different but it was his job and as usual he minded his own business.
It was not all work and no play however as he started dating a dancer from the club and they moved in together. All was well until she started talking about rings and marriage. This scared the hell out of Alf as she had two burly brothers who would not be amused if he let her down. Perhaps he would have to make a run for it at some stage.
It never reached this dilemma however because one evening as he was working at the bar two official looking men came up to him and said they wanted to ask him a few questions. They were from the F.B.I. and wanted to know what his immigration status was, and what exactly was his connections with Mario Fontele, and what did he know about the man who was pulled dead from the river. Alf was too frightened to give a plausible answer so the agents said you had better come with us. He was unceremoniously carted off to the lockup and there he was roughly shoved in a cell. He tripped as he entered the cell and landed on the floor rather hard, knocking himself out.
As he came too and looked around he found he was on his bedroom floor in Brisbane. He must have been having a nightmare and fallen out of bed. On the Monday morning he gladly went off to work vowing he would never walk on the wild side again.
A GRAVE MATTER.
All the boys knew that Jake had taken the money that was stolen from the bank job. He had gone into hiding soon after the job and try as they might they could not locate him. They even put up a reward for anyone who could find him and they weren’t going to mess around when they did catch up with him. He had very much done the wrong thing by the code of the gang and he was going to pay for it when they caught up with him.
Jake Mulligan was no fool and knew he would have to watch his back for a long time. Leaving the country until things cooled down was his best option and this is what he did. He had some mates in the Bahamas so this is where he went to lose himself. He had smuggled his stolen money out of the country and he now had it safely with him. He would need some of it to fund the lifestyle he was planning on.
He was able to set himself up as a respectable business man and with the backing of his loot he became very successful. Eventually he bought several hotels with honest money he had earned from his business. Life for him was looking good, so good in fact he decided it would be safe enough to settle down with a wife and start a family. He had his appearance changed with plastic surgery and had acquired a new identity when he left his old life.
He was however ever mindful that the boys would not forgive him for taking the stolen millions from the bank job and would be forever wanting to retrieve it and give him his just deserts. Keeping his stolen fortune became an obsession for him, and the plan he devised to hide it had to be foolproof. Even if the boys did catch up with him they wouldn’t get the cash.
As the years rolled on the gang thought Jake must have died as all there searching so far was in vain, but they still had him on their hit list.
Although Jake was obsessed with keeping his loot safe, he didn’t want it to go to waste when he passed on. He now had two fine sons and wanted them to access the money when he died. He had to hatch a plan that only they would be able decipher the cryptic message he would leave behind for them to be able to find the money.
His two boys as they grew up often wondered why Jake took them so frequently to one spot and talked to them about finances. He talked to them about how they should keep an eye on family business and the need to have funds available in case of hard times. The boys thought he might be losing it as he became old and more frequent with their visits to the one spot and talking about hiding finances.
The light bulb went off in their heads when the old man died and in his will he mentioned his old mate Jake Mulligan who had died some years before. The boys were to take good care of Jake’s tombstone and make sure the foundations under the headstone was inspected for subsidence. The sons knew about ther
e being a fortune hidden somewhere and their father’s odd behaviour and their visits to the one spot. It dawned on them that this was indeed a grave matter.
MAN HUNT.
The American, whose name was Mark, had gone to Alaska to explore avenues for a new tourist trade he had a vision of creating. The night before he was due to fly out with a guide to explore the region he met his guide at the pub. He wondered how he would get on with his guide as he was a silent unfriendly type of enquete who without saying anything made him feel that he was being looked upon as an inferior being. The enquete had his own agenda. He needed the fee he was to get from the guiding to help his people but he did not want tourist destroying his wilderness.
The next day they boarded the light cessna with a pilot that gave Mark further reason for concern as the pilot seemed to be a bit of a muddler. Before they reached the outpost they were heading for, the plane ran into difficulties and crashed. The pilot was killed and Mark suffered a wound to his leg. Neither he nor his guide had any idea where they were and the plane did not have any maps or a compass. As it was getting dark they decided to bury the pilot under a pile of rocks. They then emptied all the fuel they could from the plane into bottles