Maxwell Marlowe, Private Eye...Wayne's Daughter

By Raymond Boyd Dunn

max is distracted in his attempt to find out what happened to the daughter of an old school friend, and the cause of his distraction is the gorgeous georgina; but max is nothing, if not a dedicated super sleuth, and balances his love life and the search for his friend's daughter, but at the cost of his passion for running.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Boyd Dunn
• Release date: May 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476073842

Raymond Boyd Dunn

Raymond Boyd Dunn is a "born and bred" third generation Australian. After his retirement Raymond Boyd became a grey nomad, and, with his wife, spent some time touring this vast country of Australia. He was born in the small Burnett Valley town of Monto, Queensland, and for his entire life has answered to the name of 'Boyd'. Apart from his travels he has lived all of his life in Queensland, and after satisfying his thirst for seeing first hand this wonderful country we live in, settled on the Sunshine Coast to spend his remaining years in the sunshine near the beach.He commenced his working life as a Bank Officer and resigned after thirteen years to become self-employed. At various stages he has owned a Corner Store, a small Supermarket Chain, a Butchery, a Milk Run, a Printery and a Cattle and Grain Farm. He has been involved, in various capacities, in Cricket and Tennis Clubs; Jaycees, Lions and Rotary Clubs and Aero Clubs. He was a Cricketer, played tennis, tried to play golf, and was a keen long distance runner.Upon taking a well-earned retirement he wrote his unpublished autobiography, which was for distribution among his family of six children and numerous grand-children. A visit to Cooktown, where he learnt of the Palmer River Gold Rush, was the incentive to keep writing and produce his first novel 'Palmer Gold' He then settled down to write novels, producing two more books to complete a Trilogy...'An Australian Ranch' and "Carly and Sam...Will and Effie'. There followed numerous short stories, and other novels: 'Lord of the Manor in Australia', and 'The Vintage Years'. He continues to write whilst enjoying life in the sunshine on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Book preview

Maxwell Marlowe, Private Eye

Wayne's Daughter

By Raymond Boyd Dunn

Copyright 2012 Raymond Dunn

Smashwords Edition

Chapter 1

It was a miserable day, raining and cold. Well, cold for this part of the world - the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. We are used to sunshine and balmy weather, but light rain started to fall the previous night, and was continuing right throughout the next day. The temperature must have fallen almost into single figures; Celsius, of course, and there was no sign of the rain letting up. To make matters even worse it was Local Government Election Day, and if you have attained your eighteenth birthday it was compulsory to vote. It was the only reason which would cause me to venture out into it. I'm more than eighteen - in fact, I've seen nearly twice that many summers so far!

My name is Maxwell Marlowe, and I'm a Private Investigator. Marlowe is my real name, and therefore it is only natural that my friends would call me 'Phil' after Raymond Chandler's 'Philip Marlowe, Private Eye'.

I had just finished casting my carefully considered vote, and was exiting the Polling Booth, when I ran into an old mate. When I say 'casting my carefully considered vote', I should explain that there were eight candidates for the vacated chair of the retiring Mayor, and as I didn't have any knowledge of any one of them, except for the political blurb which poured from the pages of the local daily newspaper and every television channel, my 'carefully considered vote' could more properly be likened to pinning the tail on the donkey. I used a similar method for selecting our local Division councillor. It really doesn't matter who gets in; we'll finish up with a politician! I wished I lived in Division 2 where the sitting councillor was unopposed, and there was no need to make a choice, or even Division 12, where only two candidates were vying for a position, and making a selection would involve tossing a coin; heads I vote for him, tails I vote for the other one. Simple, really; you should try it sometime. All you need is a pin and/or a coin, and it takes all the angst out of the chore.

Getting back to my old mate - I was about to head back to my car, when I heard my name called,

Hey, Max! Wait up! You're just the man I want to see!

I had no umbrella, but was wearing my Akubra felt hat and a raincoat. I halted and turned when I heard my name called. Water was dripping from the front of my hat, and I can tell you I wasn't pleased to be standing out in the open when the shelter offered by my car was only a few steps away. However, I forgot my discomfort when I saw it was an old friend whom I hadn't seen in years.

Wayne Andrews rushed forward with hand outstretched to shake mine, umbrella tilted forward splashing water in my direction. I had forgotten what a bone-crushing handshake he possessed, and winced as he caused me to remember it. Many years ago we were best mates at school, and we had kept in touch ever since, sometimes visiting each other, but usually by way of phone calls. We never fail to phone each other on our birthdays. He lives in Brisbane.

Good day, Wayne. What are you doing up here?

I've been casting an absentee vote. I was going to go around and see you at your flat after I finished here. It's lucky I caught you. Could I have a yarn to you now?

Sure, Wayne, let's go down to a coffee shop, and get out of the weather.

It was a Saturday afternoon, and my office was closed, so I was not in any hurry to attend to anything. The last few weeks were a trifle hectic for me. First of all I helped to locate a missing girl (The Case of the Missing Heiress), and almost immediately afterwards was called upon to help solve a hit and run murder (Murder in Maroochydore). In spite of the name on the brass nameplate adjoining the front door of my office stating: Marlowe Private Investigators, which implies more than one of me, I operate with only my Secretary to assist, and it doesn't take many cases to keep me busy.

Dorothy (Doss) is my twenty-year-old Secretary, and I would defy anybody to find a more capable, efficient young lady. I would be lost without her, but I try not to let her know that - she would hit me with an instant request for a rise, despite my having given her an increase only recently.

I used the remote to unlock my car doors, and we both ducked in out