Headland by John Byrnes

Author:John Byrnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2022-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

19

Watson tried the larger key in the gun safe; it slotted straight home and turned. The cabinet was as big and wide as a standard metal locker and it held two pump-action shotguns and a bandolier of ammunition. He took out the shotguns and handed them to Larissa, who placed them on the floor.

‘Aha,’ he said, once he had lifted the weapons out. ‘What have we got here?’

‘Gimme, gimme,’ Larissa said, grabbing the keys from his hand. She lifted out a grey metal strongbox that the guns had been sitting on and carried it to a wooden workbench running along the back of the garage. She inserted the key and popped it open.

‘Look!’ she said, removing a thick sheaf of documents.

Watson moved over to stand behind her, looking over her shoulder.

‘Incorporation of a Company,’ she read off the first sheet of an official-looking form. ‘Gloster Hydrology Proprietary Limited.’

‘And check out the directors,’ Watson said, pointing at the bottom of the page.

‘Anthony Sweeney and Sam Nefarian. Shit, you were right—dodgy as. And look at all these,’ she said, flicking individual pages from the stack down onto the bench. ‘Invoices, heaps of them.’

Watson picked up one for the supply of twelve hundred metres of a special type of plastic piping. The invoice was for $30,000, and it was by no means the largest amount contained in the thick ream of paper.

‘Christ almighty, look at this one,’ Larissa said, holding up a large, monogrammed invoice for him to look at. ‘Who would have thought hiring machinery was so expensive?’ It was an invoice for more than $600,000.

Next in the pile of paperwork were Business Activity Statements and other tax-related forms, and at the bottom of the pile were bank statements. The most recent balance for Gloster Hydrology Pty Ltd was just shy of $3 million.

Larissa held the statement, her hand slightly trembling.

‘It could be enough to get you killed,’ she said.

Watson had already turned and was walking to the other side of the garage. He pulled the cover off the RAV4. It was missing almost its entire front end. The bumper bar, the grille and the plastic surrounds were all gone.

He took one of the shotguns with them when they left.

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