Mark’s daring prison escape was headline news. It was Amy’s suggestion that a very public meeting would arouse less suspicion. So she had gathered all the props of a picnic where they could sit in full view to discuss their next move.

With his hoodie covering his head and most of his face Mark’s identity was well hidden. Amy also tried to avoid attention as they had an intense conversation totally forgetting to even attempt to prepare any food.

“Now this is close enough to the prison. Nobody would suspect that you would stay nearby.  Was that van easy to find.”

“Yeh, the farmer had no idea that I came over the fence … would be a real give away if I’d had to drive in.”

“Now you can take all these groceries when you leave, that should do you a while.”

“I do need to get to my stash but I can’t be seen in your car coz the police might be watching.”

“Not anything I want to get involved with so you will have to sort that out yourself.”

“That’s fine, I’ve got an idea which I might be able to pull off.”

Part 2

Mark and Amy are so engrossed in their conversation that they completely overlooked the spectacular view right in front of them. So they also missed the red-shirted man ambling nearby with his face averted and who looked so perplexed.

Seeing the lean hidden man chatting to Amy had raised his suspicions. Having heard about the break out he suspected that it might be Mark and that he had probably come looking for his stash.

Trev was torn between turning Mark in or following him to try and get his hands on the stash. But he also knew that Mark was quite ruthless and had never understood why Amy stood by him. They’d all attended the local school together and the police would never think that Mark would hang around locally.

Did he take his chance to even the score or be a law-abiding citizen?

Well Amy and the other girls had always ribbed him for being a loser, would he take this chance to change his habits …

Part 3

Now Mark may have been hiding his face but as an escapee he was on full alert … nothing was going unnoticed. Especially Trev’s presence pacing around them, Mark could feel his animosity. But he also knew that as Amy wouldn’t help retrieve his stash he may well need Trev’s help, it would take two!

How ironic, needing help from your enemy. But Mark also knew that if he included him Trev would not dob him in and that was paramount at this stage.

So Mark waited for Amy to leave taking away their ruse picnic and then pinned Trev against the wall.

“You going to help me or what?”

“ugh, how did you know it was me?”

“Mate you have an odd walk and we did grow up together so how could I miss you”

“All right then but only if I get half” … this was what he’d really wanted and fancy Mark asking him!

“You gotta be jokin, ten percent is fair”

They argued a bit but Trev knew he had the upper hand if Mark needed his help so he stuck out for thirty percent. But Trev also knew Mark couldn’t be trusted, he just had to find out where the stash was and then make his move …

Part 4

The boys were to meet at 2am, the designated time when they could be sure that the car park and beach would be completely empty.

Trev knew the beach well, as they all did, so he had already checked around the surf club, picnic table, sign posts, etc … anywhere that he thought could possibly mark the stash. But he’d drawn a dead end each time so he had no choice but to await Mark’s enticing invite at such a odd hour.

Mark arrived slouched in his hoodie looking for the spades he’d told Trev to bring and immediately headed onto the beach. Trev twigged that it was also low tide and Mark must have stashed it right in the open! Wow this would be something to see …

“Now we need to lift this together, I can’t do it alone”

“But this is covered by the surf in high tide, how could you stash cash here?”

“Just shut up and lift with me, then we have to dig … damn shine your torch on this … is that rust I see?”

“struth mate, you didn’t leave it in a tin?”

“Come on lift and dig, we need to find out what’s rusted”

“geez” …. Lifting the pool edge together was not an easy task.

Then digging in wet sand was a real challenge coz the sand kept collapsing into the hole as fast as we could dig. Trev could see Mark getting agro and he was not a nice guy when he erupted!

Finally Mark threw his shovel aside and got down on his knees to scrape the sand back with his arms ordering Trev to hold the wet sand back. What a task, Trev wondered how Mark had buried it in the first place when almost as if reading his mind Mark said
“Well there was a few of us doing this when it was low tide”.

Finally Mark dragged a very rusty tin up and collapsed in exhaustion. Trev gazed dumb struck, this didn’t look good.

When suddenly they were both blinded by powerful spot lights … crime doesn’t pay …

first posted in 13/7/2018