Treasured Lies by Kendall Talbot Page A

here.’ The last page was at the bottom right corner.
    Archer cut up his mother’s fish cake and loaded a portion onto her fork. So far he hadn’t been able to work out if her reluctance to eat was because she wasn’t hungry or she couldn’t be bothered. Or worse, she just didn’t want to be around anymore. He shoved the unpleasant thought aside. Archer liked to think that finding her again after twenty years was destiny. He was meant to save her from her own living hell, and he was determined to do it. Getting her fit and healthy was at the top of his ever-growing agenda.
    Alessandro tapped his pen on the whiteboard. ‘I have successfully identified nearly all of the items you’ve recovered so far. The descriptions in the diary are quite detailed and each piece is very unique. But—’ he held up his index finger and cocked his head, ‘—a distinct pattern has emerged.’
    Alessandro picked up a sheet of paper. ‘To date, you have recovered sixty-four pieces. Once I established a match with the description in the diary, I highlighted it in yellow. For example, here’s page nineteen.’ He taped the sheet over the top of the original page nineteen. When he moved away, Archer noticed six highlighted lines on the sheet.
    â€˜Here’s another.’ Alessandro taped page after page on the whiteboard. He repeated the process over and over until he had taped up seventeen pages. Then he stopped, turned at them and grinned like he’d solved a complex riddle.
    Jimmy pointed his fork at the board. ‘What about the rest?’
    Alessandro cocked his head. ‘That is exactly my point. There are no others. Every one of the pieces you’ve recovered from the Flying Seahorse are listed in the diary from pages nineteen to thirty-three only. Not one piece from any other page has been discovered yet. You can see them clustered here.’ He waved his hand over the centre of the board.
    â€˜Okay, professor, it all looks very colourful. But what the hell does it mean?’ Jimmy rolled his eyes at Archer. Archer had a bad feeling he knew where this was going.
    Alessandro rolled his eyes right back at Jimmy. ‘What it means is we need to entertain the possibility that the treasure was divided at one point.’
    Everyone sat in silence. Jimmy suddenly slammed his fist on the table and Archer noticed even his mother jumped. Her eyes darted to Jimmy and for a second Archer thought he saw a whisper of emotion. He didn’t care if it was anger, any kind of reaction from her would be good.
    â€˜I don’t believe it,’ Jimmy hissed. ‘I reckon the whole lot’s down there wondering what the hell we’re doing up here blabbering, instead of bringing them up.’
    â€˜The evidence is clear, Archer.’ Alessandro commanded Archer’s attention and he gave it by looking squarely into the Italian’s eyes. ‘I believe more than one ship carried this treasure. You only need to look at the volume—’
    â€˜Three ships.’ Helen’s words were barely a whisper yet the conviction in her voice was stunning. It was a statement of fact. She knew what she was talking about and wanted them to know it.
    â€˜What did you say, Mum?’ Archer wanted her to repeat it, he needed to be sure he’d heard her right.
    She sat back, her shoulders rod straight. ‘Don’t you remember, Wade? There were three ships.’
    Out the corner of his eye, Archer saw Rosalina cover her mouth. And Archer supported that move. To get anything quite so lucid out of his mother was a miracle. But her thinking he was Wade was troubling. He’d already been told he looked like his father, but it was distressing to hear his mother’s confusion. He decided to let it slide this time.
    Archer placed his hand over his mother’s. ‘You think there were three ships carrying the treasure, Mum?’
    â€˜No.’
    Archer shook