Free Cry of the Taniwha by Des Hunt Page A

Jackson. ‘What do you think? Dig or let it be?’
    ‘We dig,’ he said, forcefully. ‘I’m not scared of any taniwha.’
    It was easy digging, because this time the object was not covered by roots. A few minutes later the trowel scraped against something solid, and from the sound Matt knew that it was bigger than anything else they’d found. A bit more scraping and the top was uncovered. It was a large metal box, rather like a mechanics toolbox, but made of a much thicker metal. When he went to lift it, he found it far heavier than expected—he had to struggle to get it out of the hole.
    They sat beside it, brushing off the dirt. The thing was in remarkably good condition, suggesting that the metal had been partially resistant to corrosion. The hinged top sealed perfectly with the bottom, and was held it in place by a lock covered by a metal flap. After twisting for a while, Matt got the cover to turn so that the hole was exposed. Inside, it looked clean enough to still work. All he would need was a key, or something else that could open locks. No doubt the police could open it. However, Matt had no intention of letting them try—at least not until he’d had a go. This time he was going to be the one to make the great discovery. Then he’d hand it over to them—or at least he’d think about it.

Chapter 11
    Eve and Matt had agreed to meet at the hotel after dinner each day if they could. If either one couldn’t, then they would send an email; if it was anything important, they’d telephone each other. Matt was disappointed to find that Eve wasn’t there that evening. She had left an email, but Matt found that reading a screen wasn’t quite the same as sitting close to her, listening and looking.
Hi Matt
    We’re heading into town for dinner, so I probably won’t see you. Here’s what I found. It’s all very exciting.
    I began with Louise Miller and started searching the genealogy and family-tree sites. There have been a lot of people named Louise Miller, but only four were around in 1874 and only one of those had a daughter named Mary. In 1883, Mary Miller married an Edward Basham. I couldn’t find anything more about Mary Miller, but Edward is famous, or should I say infamous.
    In 1885 he was Accountant at the Bank of Soho in London, and in that same year they were robbed. The robbers didn’t get into the money vaults, but they did get into the deposit boxes. Nobody knowsexactly how much was stolen, because the owners of the boxes were reluctant to say. There was talk about gold ingots and jewellery, particularly a pendant containing a very large diamond called the Rothery Stone. There were insurance claims for hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of diamonds and jewellery which people said had been in the boxes. It seems like it was really big news at the time, as the insurance companies didn’t want to pay up.
    Then in 1886 a robber was caught doing another bank. He admitted also doing the Bank of Soho job, but said that he’d had help from an insider, who he named as Edward Basham. By then, Edward had gone on leave to look at the world with his wife. Scotland Yard searched for him, but it looks like they never found him or his wife.
    I think they must’ve come to New Zealand. Maybe Edward was a bit strange and liked putting his wife in handcuffs!!!! But something went wrong, and either she died or he killed her. Then he buried her and disappeared. And no one knew anything about it until you came along and dug her up.
    What do you think? Pretty good, huh? You can call me Sherlene Holmes from now on, although I don’t think I’ll take up smoking a pipe just yet. And I’m still looking. Most of what I’ve discovered came from English newspapers. Lots of them have put all their old editions on the web. But there aren’tmany New Zealand ones. The hotel desk people say that the local library probably has old papers on microfilm, so that’s where I’m going to start looking next.
    Life is no