Desert Air - 11. DA Ch 11 - Discovery Below

“Was the cottage I stayed in have any damage?” I asked, as I thought about my laptop computer and all of my university gear that I keep in there, “Not a scratch, and I collected all of that yesterday, including your computer, and it is with Mum,” Dad replied.

“That’s good, I don’t know if they would believe me if I told them a mad man had gone through our home and destroyed everything,” I responded. Once back at the Corunna Downs homestead, I parked my Land Rover in the shed, and we headed to the plane, and we were soon in the air and on our way to Port Hedland, which is a 2 ¼ hour journey.

Once I had made sure that my plane was secured at the Port Hedland Airport, we called for a taxi to take us to our temporary home, and when we arrived, there was just chaos, with younger kids running around, and Mum trying to get settled into the house.

Once we had everything in order, and everyone had settled down, we headed to the shopping centre to get some shopping done, and I elected to stay back at the house, as did Rhodes, and we enjoyed the peace an quiet, that only lasted for just over an hour.

“Jex, I need to borrow you laptop computer, so I can check my emails please,” Dad said as soon as he walked into the house with an arm load of shopping. “Sure thing, it is in the cupboard in our room,” I replied, as Rhodes, Wynn and I, are sharing a bedroom, with a single bed and a bunk bed.

I tried to convince Mum to allow me to have the study as my bedroom, but she refused, and so I retrieved my laptop for Dad and he headed to the study to check his emails, and I soon heard him talking on his mobile to someone.

“Why don’t you move your bed into the study?” Dad suggested when he exited the study about half an hour later. “I did ask Mum and she said no,” I replied, “Well never mind her, I say yes since it is my study, so come along and help me move you bed into there,” Dad said.

“Jexon, I said no,” Mum called out when she saw me carrying my bed linen into the study, and Dad poked his head out of the study, “I said yes dear, after all, he is an adult now and he needs his own space,” Dad said, and Mum said nothing else and returned to whatever she was doing.

Dad was on a call to Hedley when I came in with my last load of personal gear, and I dumped it on the bed and exited the study, “Hang on a sec… Jex, it is ok, you can listen in on this as it affects you,” Dad said, so I walked back into the study and closed the door.

“I have spoken to my other half, she is all for selling up and moving, as we have made some preliminary plans to set up home on the airbase, and I have received an email from the mining company who have agreed to purchase the rest of Panorama Station, so I am giving you first option to buy Hillside,” Dad said over the phone.

“… I see, well I will have to talk to Amanda about that, I had not even considered that option, leave it with me and I will get back to you in the morning… ok bye,” Dad said before ending the call, and he turned to face me. “Hedley has suggested a partnership with the two stations operating as one,” Dad said.

“What are the size differences between the two stations?” I asked. “Good point, well you already know that Hillside is a bit over 1.6 million acres, and I think Corunna Downs is about one third of that size,” Dad replied, “So will it be a 25 – 75 partnership?” I asked.

“No, mainly because the Parkinson’s will be doing the majority of the work of managing the two stations, while we concentrate on the Project, so it will be more like about 40 – 60, but that has to be discussed, when we get into preparing to create the partnership,” Dad replied.

During the next week, every second day I delivered Dad to Corunna Downs Station, so he could have discussions with the Parkinson’s, while I drove over to the airbase to plan out the location of our new home, and Dad informed me that Hedley had received a call from the Marble Bar Police, to let him know that they had caught the escapee, who was hiding in a rock outcrop, half starved, and suffering from exhaustion, malnutrition and exposure to the elements, which I was pleased to hear.

Apart from escaping from legal custody, the escapee was also charged with murder, criminal damage, and stealing a motor vehicle, and that he would be in prison for a very long time. Hedley also told Dad that the police have still not worked out why the escapee was spying on the remote airbase, and they doubted that they will ever find out.

That night, I woke up with a start, and called out Diamonds, a little too loudly, as I retrieved my computer and started it up, just as there was a knock on the door. “Are you ok son, we heard you shout something,” Dad called out from the other side of the door.

“You can come in Dad… I am sorry if I woke you. Yesterday I began to think of why a prison escapee would travel all the way to the Pilbara region, and the answer came to just now when I woke up, diamonds,” I replied softly.

“What about diamonds?” Dad asked, “Remember about seven years ago, it would have been in my second year at high school in Broome, and there was Pearl and Diamond heist in Broome, and they never caught all of those responsible and they never recovered any of the diamonds or pearls?” I stated.

“So you think that those items are buried somewhere on the airbase?” Dad said, “Not just somewhere, one specific place, where seven years ago there was no sheds on the base, just concrete pads, Spinifex and rocks,” I replied smiling. “The bunker, you think they are hidden in there?” Dad said and I nodded my head yes.

“I only had a quick look at it once, and I thought nothing of it, as it looked like it hadn’t been touched since it was abandoned after the war, but now I think that it could be the right place to hide it, but they can’t find it because of all of the changes we have done,” I stated.

“Right, first thing in the morning, we are going to fly down to the airbase and check the bunker out, but we will have to check that there is no one else hovering around the place,” Dad said before he headed back to bed.

“Back again?” Hedley said when he met us at the end of the runway the next morning, “Yes, my son woke up in the middle of the night, with what could be the answer to a seven year old mystery, if you have a bit of spare time, would you mind joining us at the airbase with your front-end loader,” Dad responded.

“Now this sounds very mysterious, does it have anything to do with the escapee?” Hedley responded, “Yes indeed it does, but we will tell you more when you get there,” I replied smiling.

A short while later, Dad and I were at the operations shed, as we watched the loader driving along the number two runway, “If it had wings, it might fly,” Dad commented, which made me laugh, “Yeah right Dad, as if,” I replied.

When the loader arrived, Dad instructed Hedley to lift and move the jeep wreck about ten metres from its current location, which he did, before shutting off the engine and climbing down.

“You know, I was thinking about what you said earlier, what does this have anything to do with the escapee?” Hedley asked, “It is about a seven year old police case that was never resolved, and today, we may just do that for them,” I replied. Grabbing the shovel out of the back of my vehicle, I began to clear away the rocks and dirt that covered the hatch to the bunker.

“Did you bring a torch from home?” I asked, as I began to sweat from all the manual labour. “Yes, I remembered,” Dad replied, “I have one in the glove box too,” I said just as the shovel hit the metal, and I continued to clear away the rocks and sand, until the whole hatch was visible.

“A secret bunker, this is interesting,” Hedley said, “We thought just us and any remaining service men knew of this bunkers existence, but we may be wrong, if we find what we think is hidden in here,” Dad said as I lifted the hatch and climbed down the ladder.

With my torch in hand, I did a quick sweep of the first room, before heading to the back of the bunker, where the Commanding Officers office is located. After doing a basic look around, and didn’t see anything standing out as obvious, I began to take a closer look, starting from the ground, and after about five minutes on my hands and knees, I felt the ground give way a little.

Using my bare hands, I dug the ground around the area, which was not compacted hard, and I eventually came across a wooden box, and I scaped away some more until I could pull the box out of the hole, and it was a large table salt box, according to the very faint printing on it.

“Dad, I think I have found it, far back room on the left,” I called out, and Dad and Hedley soon appeared, as I placed the box on the table and took a step back. For a few moments we all stared at the box, wondering what is inside. “Go on son, you found it, open up and see what is inside,” Dad said to me.

I carefully lifted the lid, and inside, I found two tobacco tins, and a cigar box, which I lifted out of the box and placed on the table, and once again we stared at the three items. “Ok you open the bigger one first,” Dad said to me.

I lifted the lid and found a thick oil cloth inside, that had something wrapped inside, and I carefully unrolled it, until we saw a group of metal things and another piece of cloth, which had writing on it. “In memory of those who never returned from missions based at Corunna, 1943 – 1945. Lest We Forget. December 25^th 1945,” I read out loud.

“Well son, you have just discovered a very valuable piece of history, as the base was closed just here weeks after that date, which we will make sure that it is kept safe, put it back in the cigar box and we will take it with us,” Dad said to me.

Dad picked up one tobacco tin and handed it to Hedley, before picking up the second time, “Ok, lets see what these two reveal, one, two three,” Dad said and together they opened the tins. Both had a material of some kind in it, and both were lifted out carefully and placed on the table, before they were unwrapped.

Hedley’s bundle contained lots of Pearls, while Dad’s bundle contained uncut diamonds. “Wow, so I was dead right with my guess,” I stated as I stared at the items, “You certainly were, and you have also solved a 7 year old robbery mystery,” Dad said.

Once we had taken a few photos of the pearls and diamonds, the bundles were returned to the two tins, and we headed back to the homestead, and after some morning tea, and Making sure that Mrs Parkinson would not breath a word about our find, Dad and I climbed back into the plane, to make the two and a bit hour journey back to Port Hedland.

From the airport, we caught a taxi to the hardware warehouse, where Dad bought a safe that is big enough to hold the cigar box, which cost over a $1,300 which I was a little surprised by.

Back in a taxi, we stopped briefly at a newsagency, where Dad bought a picture from, before we headed back to the house, and once there we headed straight to the study, with both of us carrying the safe, and the other items sat carefully on top.