The Mystery of the Moving Statue

By Richard Pinkerton

The Rex Cassidy Investigators are on a mission to infiltrate a gang of modern day pirates, led by the imfamous Kid and Fingers McGraw, who terrorise the oceans. They must also investigate an even more bizarre case; that of the statue of buccaneer Bjorn Van Heath, which gets off its pedestal some nights and walks around the square.

The RCI Series = Kid's detective novels for adults!

Book 5 in the series

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Pinkerton
• Release date: Oct 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370644018

Richard Pinkerton

I am in my early 50s and have been writing now since I was 12. I prefer to write light-hearted drama but have written a little fantasy horror and science fiction too.I have an entire series of high school novels (19 of them so far) set in New Zealand (The Mob from TAC series), which I will gradually publish if there is a demand.I prefer to use a mix of quirky and outrageous characters you would never come across in reality and also your every day Joes.My writings are aimed at teenagers mainly, but also young adults.I have also written a series of detective novelettes, most of which can be found on my website. The majority require work, to be able to be published here, mainly due to copyright issues.Please do leave feedback or contact me if you want to know more about my books.

Book preview

The Mystery of the Moving Statue

(Book 5 in the Rex Cassidy Investigators series)

Published by Richard Pinkerton at Smashwords

Copyright 2021 - Richard Pinkerton

CHAPTER 1:

The Pirates of the UK

Plymouth, England

'Geez, Rex, this is bloody impulsive. I've never known you to do anything like this.'

Rex Cassidy stood out the front of a huge old English homestead with his arm around his high school sweetheart, Vanessa Dante. Several of his friends stood with them. The lawns were overgrown, flower gardens full of weeds. The house itself needed a coat of paint and a couple of windows were broken, but Rex found the entire place magnificent. It almost felt like he’d purchased an old English castle that he was going to restore.

Will Ullman, alias Wal had made the comment and he stared at the old rundown building. 'A case brings us to Plymouth England and you decide to purchase an old rundown homestead instead of having us stay at a hotel?' The burly, longhaired Wal folded his arms and shook his head.

'So unlike you, Rex,' Colin Hewes said. 'Although you did just walk into a car yard and buy the latest model Lamborghini on the spur of the moment that time.'

'So what's the big deal?' Rex said. 'This is just a bigger grander purchase.'

'But what will you do with it once we've finished the case?' asked Colin.

Rex shrugged. 'Use it as a holiday home I guess. A seasonal residence? Who knows.'

'You're sounding like that pro-wrestler, the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase. Next, you'll be telling us that everybody has a price for Rex Cassidy.'

'Ahh, come on guys,' Vanessa said and flicked back her long dark locks over her shoulder. 'This place is amazing. We can do so much with it. And besides, Rex has always been unpredictable. He surprises me on a regular basis.' She nuzzled into him. 'Especially when he wants to make love in some really far out place.'

'Hey, you pick some pretty wacky places too.' Rex grinned. 'Like last week when you wanted to get it on in that canoe on the river.'

Her sapphire blue eyes twinkled merrily. 'We were lucky we didn't capsize it. But hey, that's nothing compared to the time we were in Amsterdam and you wanted to do it in—'

'Let's not go into that!' Rex laughed. 'We'll keep that one to ourselves.'

'She laughed. 'Okay.'

'Oh you two, you're making me so jealous.' Vanessa's interior decorator friend, Emma said. She stepped up on the opposite side of Vanessa and put her arm around her. 'I can't wait to see inside. I'm so glad you two picked me to be the one to decorate it. This is like a dream job.' The slender fair-haired woman had known Rex and Vanessa now for several weeks and both of them loved to hang out with her. She was very sweet on Vanessa in particular, which Rex thought was cool because it was usually him they wanted. It meant Nessie got the majority of the attention, which usually wasn't the case.

'Let's go in and take a look,' Vanessa said. She grabbed Rex's hand and gripped it tight.

Inside everything was old and dusty. It was a lot like something out of an old horror movie. There was furniture, covered in sheets, plus a lot of cobwebs.

Tucker Pyles quivered. 'I don't like the looks of this. There'll be ghosts. I'm sure of it.'

'Yeah, whatever,' Pete Cook grumbled. 'The only spooks floating around in this place are between your ears.'

'UURRBBARRRRRRRR!' Tucker replied. 'You better watch it, Cook or I'll be dishing out a few ubberings.'

'Oooooh, now I'm scared.'

'So you should be!'

Emma beamed as she looked around. 'Okay... it's gonna take a lot of cleaning up, but I can just imagine what I can do to this foyer. Wow! This is going to be so much fun. Rex, when I'm done with this place it's going to be fabulous. You surely can't just have it as a seasonal residence. It would be a shame to have it unoccupied for so long. Besides this isn't exactly the part of the world to come for summer vacations.'

'I'll probably rent it out. Even better let one of my friends stay free of charge. Then when we come for vacations they can be our hosts.'

'And cook?' Tucker asked.

'And cook.'

The huge fatty cried out loud. 'UUUUUBBAAAAAA! I'll come for vacations. Even if there are ghosts here.' He stood staunch. 'I'll pulverise those ghosts! They'll rue the day they ever messed with Tucker, Slarty, Zachariah, Augustus, Archibald, Pyles.'

Emma snorted and stared at Tucker. ‘Is that your name?'

'Yep,' Tucker's pudgy faced beamed. 'Cool names, eh? Hey Nessa, who's doing the cooking here this week?'

‘Me. But only because you guys are going to be out on a case... and if not on a case, put to work around here doing other stuff... except for Rexy, because I have other tasks for him of a more... intimate nature.'

'That's not fair.' Pete flashed a cheeky grin. 'Why does he get all the good jobs?'

Vanessa bobbed her eyebrows up and down. 'Because he’s my special handyman.'

They went for a tour of the house and in one of the rooms, Vanessa turned to Rex. 'This is ours. It's perfect.'

'It'll do the trick once it's set up.'

She cuddled up to him. 'Thank you, Rexy for letting Emma and I come along on the case. It's so neat to know that even though you and the guys will be out rounding up pirates, that you'll be back regularly.'

Rex touched the side of her face, caressing her flawless smooth skin. 'It will be handy having you here. This can be like our headquarters.' He planted a kiss on her full lips. 'But mainly it will be great just having you here to cuddle up to at nights.'

'Oh, I will make this place really cosy for you. Especially this particular room. Oooh, la la.'

They spent some time getting some of the area suitable for living in. They'd brought along a truck and offloaded some furniture including beds, lounge furniture and kitchen items. They had more stuff due to be delivered over the next few days.

'We're going to be so busy,' Vanessa said.

'But it will be so much fun,' Emma said. 'We'll have to hire some cleaners though because I do not want to have to end all my time doing that.'

'We will. There's some scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning. We'll have a lot of people here doing stuff.'

After several hours of hard work, they all sat down for a cold drink.

Pete Cook sighed. 'You know, sometimes I think all the hard work we do as detectives is a big waste of time. I mean we catch these criminals and then the next thing they're on the loose again, doing their dirty work.'

Rex could understand the frustration of his short, but stocky companion. 'It can seem like that, for sure, but someone has to do it. And on this occasion, we were asked to be the ones and we've been offered a very substantial fee to do it.'

'But isn't it just incompetence, really?' Pete said after downing a mouthful of beer.

‘Amen to that!' Wal said, thumping his big fist into his palm. 'I mean, hell... we catch Fingers McGraw on an island in the middle of Bermuda. Practically guilty of bringing down planes and sinking aircraft... at least in league with those in charge of the operation and what happens? They let him out on bail. So he skips bail...'

'As criminals like that often do,' Pete said.

'...and he goes and starts up a cattle rustling operation in Colorado!'

'And we round him up and send him back to jail...'

'And then next thing, him and his brother Kid McGraw are on trial and armed gunmen come in and bust them both out of there.’ Wal seethed. ‘How the hell can someone get away with something like that? Someone's head should have rolled!'

The RCI’s second in command, Colin Hewes, grunted. 'Now they're out again. And we just have to accept that.'

Wal huffed. 'Yeah and now they're out on the Atlantic ocean invading ships like modern-day pirates. Isn't this more a job for the navy or the coast guard or something? Why bring us in?'

Rex rubbed the rim of his glass with his finer. 'Because we've had experience dealing with the McGraw brothers, that's why. We know how the McGraws operate.'

'Well I think it's cool,' Colin said. 'Imagine the look on Fingers and Kid McGraw's faces when we bring down their operation yet again. They're gonna feel like they're cursed.'

A few of them laughed.

'Yeah,' Pete chuckled. 'Always destined to be foiled by the Rex Cassidy Investigators.'

'We've got them running scared,' Colin continued. ‘They're thinking that coming all the way to the UK they’ll be able to avoid us this time.'

'No chance,' Pete said.

Wal poured himself another beer from a bottle. 'So where do we start with this case? We're not gonna just be able to get ourselves press-ganged and join a pirate crew.'

'That remains to be seen,' Rex said. 'We'll play it by ear, but our first lead is a pirate tours operation going on in a small town named Billington Cove. They take people on so-called pirate adventures, sort of like a touristy type thing, but there has been talk about people not returning from these so-called tours and staying on board permanently. The claims are that they're now working as part of the experience for tourists. Others, however, claim it's a lot more sinister.'

'Sounds freaky,' Emma said. 'Are you going to go on one of these tours to find out?'

'I intend to,' Rex said.

Vanessa looked with concern at him. 'What if something bad happens?'

'That's the risk we have to take,' Rex said. 'It's our job.'

'Relax, Nessa,' Emma said. 'This is Rex we're talking about here. And Wal and Colin and all the others. They'll be fine.'

Rex knew how much Vanessa worried about him on cases like this and he hated her having to worry. He'd do all he could to assure her he'd be okay. 'Yeah, it'll be fine. We'll make sure we take safety precautions. We'll have people on the outside and in.'

She smiled. 'I know. I believe in you, Rexy.'

A knock came at the front door. Colin went to answer it and returned moments later with a buck-toothed middle-aged man with greying hair.

'Good evening,' said the man. 'My name is Professor Cameron Buck. I live in the house next