The Stolen Trophies

By Lucidus Smith

Book Three continues with the story of Mac Smith and Carice Offstrop, who have set up an Inquiry Agency together in Auckland, New Zealand. Mac and his wife Deborah, who is pregnant with her first child, have been married for just over a year and Carice is engaged to Desmond who manages a hotel in Auckland.
Their office is located above The Moray Restaurant which is situated in the business centre of Auckland and is owned and managed by Stephen Newn, Desmonds brother. Living in an attic bedroom above the office, with his dog Holborn, is Professor Tymn, who lectures at Auckland University and often assists them with their cases. Mac and Deborah have become friends with a couple named Caspar and Phoebe Primrose who own a small farm north of Auckland and who have involved them in their search for a lost gold mine in South Island. Whilst solving their unusual cases, Mac has been re-united with an old friend from Military Intelligence, who continually attempts to lure him back into the world of espionage.
This book does not contain bad language, gratuitous violence or sex scenes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Feb 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504937788

Lucidus Smith

Lucidus Smith is British and was born in South London at the end of the Second World War. He is the youngest of four children, his father working as a wagon maker on the railways and his mother a housewife. He gave his heart to the Lord when he was eleven and was baptised with the Holy Spirit when he was thirty. He qualified as a Methodist lay-preacher in 1991 and during his years as a Christian has attended a range of churches which include Baptist, Methodist, Church of Scotland, Church of England, Christian Outreach Centre and various other evangelical house churches and fellowships. He left school at sixteen and first worked for a London Stockbroker's as a junior clerk and then joined a City financial group where he qualified as a Company Secretary. He next worked for IBM in a variety of roles for twenty years before going back to being a Company Secretary in 1991 with Lexmark International UK Ltd. He retired in 2001. He married Elizabeth in 1969 and they have three sons, all of whom are married and have children. Lucidus first started writing in 2005 on the premise that 'everyone has a book in them' and his first book, 'Blossom in Winter - Frost in Spring', was eventually published in 2010 and this book is now the twelfth that he has written and published.

Book preview

The Red Rabbit Inquiry Agency

Book Three

The Stolen Trophies

Lucidus Smith

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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any institution or organization mentioned in this book is either fictitious or if real, used fictitiously without any intent to portray actual events or situations.

Copyright © 2015 Lucidus Smith Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/23/2015

Any medical information contained in this book only reflects the author’s opinion and, in no circumstance whatsoever, should be considered as medical advice. If you have any healthcare related questions or problems, please call or see your doctor or other qualified health care provider.

First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-5049-3777-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-3778-8 (e)

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Contents

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 — GONE MISSING

CHAPTER 2 — SILVERWARE

CHAPTER 3 — JUST AN OLD LADY

CHAPTER 4 — SIGNORA MILANO

CHAPTER 5 — TAXI RIDES

CHAPTER 6 — PHOTOGRAPHS

CHAPTER 7 — THE BALA GATE

CHAPTER 8 — LINCOLN GREEN

CHAPTER 9 — BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!

CHAPTER 10 — THE GRAVEYARD

CHAPTER 11 — THE CHAMELEON

CHAPTER 12 — VISITORS

CHAPTER 13 — FLOWN THE COOP

CHAPTER 14 — INGENIOUS

CHAPTER 15 — SYMBOLS

CHAPTER 16 — THE STONE

CHAPTER 17 — THE MINE’S LOCATION

ALSO BY LUCIDUS SMITH

Fiction

The ‘Blossom’ Trilogy

Oh for a Ha’porth of Tar

Blossom in Winter – Frost in Spring

Blossom by the Billabong

The Red Rabbit Inquiry Agency – Books One & Two

The Lost Treasure of Pim de Zwolle

(A 17th Century Pirate)

The Buidhe Galaxy

Non-Fiction

The Business of Waterways Management

(A toe in the water)

DEDICATION

To my mother – Mrs Dorothea Smith

INTRODUCTION

Thirty six year old MacDonald Smith and his wife Deborah, who is a year his junior, emigrated from England to Auckland New Zealand in August 1950, just four months after their wedding in Spain. Deborah had spent six months in Auckland soon after leaving school and had such happy memories of her time there, that she had persuaded Mac (as he was known to his friends), that New Zealand was the place for them to start their married life together.

Whilst Deborah had been able to simply change jobs, with the big London Insurance Company she had worked for, Mac, who had been a draughtsman in England, working in the planning department of a local council, had to start all over again, searching for a job which he considered to be appropriate, for his age and experience.

During one of the periods that Mac was un-employed, he had undertaken an investigation for his cousin Arnold, who worked for a bank in Australia. During this investigation, he had met a twenty five year old young lady named Carice van Offstrop, who agreed to go into partnership with Mac to form The Red Rabbit Inquiry Agency which opened its doors for business on the 15th January 1951. Whilst Carice had no previous experience of being an Inquiry Agent, Mac had served with the British Military Intelligence during World War II behind the lines in enemy occupied France, as a result of which he had received severe scarring to his face and body.

Their office is located above The Moray Restaurant which is situated in the business centre of Auckland and is owned and managed by Stephen Newn, who is the brother of Desmond Newn, a hotel manager in Auckland and Carice’s fiancée. Living in an attic bedroom above the office, with his dog Holborn is Professor Tymn, who is 62 and is a Professor in Ancient History at Auckland University, who had been on hand to assist Mac and Carice with some of their most significant cases.

Over the first seven months of operation, the agency tracked down a missing dog and someone’s brother, solved the theft of a valuable painting and a collection of antique jade, broke up a sheep stealing operation and helped to find some Top Secret documents which went missing during World War II. This particular incident had brought Mac and Carice into direct contact with one of Mac’s old wartime buddies, Major Frenchar of British Military Intelligence, who was quick to enlist Mac back into the Service on an ‘ad hoc’ basis.

Mac and Deborah (who is about 7 months pregnant with her first baby) have recently moved house, whereas Carice rents a room from Brock and Rosie Lewes (who are old friends of Deborah and her father Bertie Bannister) and who also now work part-time for Stephen Newn in The Moray Restaurant.

During a weekend trip to Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, Mac and Deborah became friendly with a couple called Caspar and Phoebe Primrose who own a small farm north of Auckland and who told them about their search for the lost gold mine of a man known widely as ‘Wesley the Rabbit’ and who used to own the farm where they now lived. It was believed that Wesley had found gold in South Island, near to a small town called Lawrence, which lies about sixty miles south west of Dunedin and is close to the Tuapeka River. When they discovered that Mac was an Inquiry Agent and an ex-spy, they enlisted his help to crack a code they found in a book which had belonged to Wesley, on the understanding that all expenses and any gold discovered would be split 50:50.

Mac and Deborah eventually cracked the code in Wesley’s old book only to discover that they needed to find the actual house which Wesley had once owned, in order to search for the hidden vault mentioned in the code and which, unfortunately, Caspar and Phoebe had sold to an agent specialising in second-hand houses. After a long search they acquired the house and had it delivered to a block of land they had recently purchased form Phoebe’s parents and on Saturday the 4th of August 1951 they invited their friends round to dinner to discuss how they should proceed with their quest.

CHAPTER 1

Gone Missing

Come in, come in, our very first dinner guests in our new home, you are both very welcome, said Deborah warmly to Caspar and Phoebe, as they stood together on the porch.

Mac, make yourself useful and take their coats from them will you, she added, not quite so warmly to her erstwhile husband who was standing behind her.

So you found us all right then! Mac joked, taking their coats and pulling a face to Caspar, to indicate that he was out of favour, yet again, with his dearly beloved. What’s this, a bottle of Champagne Caspar, that is most generous of you, said Mac, and it feels like it has been chilled already, good man, let’s see about getting it opened. Look what Caspar brought for us Deb’s, will you be able to manage a glass in your delicate condition?

Just a small one please Mac, mind you, considering our home arrived here on the back of a lorry, almost as if it was under its own propulsion, I am not sure if we should drink the champagne or break it over the corner of the house, like you would for a boat, at which point there was a loud pop and Mac started to pour champagne into the waiting glasses.

You can do what you like with yours, said Mac, but I am most definitely going to drink mine.

What about a toast? said Phoebe.

Quite right my love, said Caspar. Please raise your glasses ladies and gentleman and we will drink a toast to Wesley and his lost gold mine, may it soon be found again!

Hear, hear, they all replied.

The meal, which consisted of roast New Zealand lamb with all the trimmings followed by fruit and custard, all passed off very amicably after which the two gentlemen went outside into the garden to drink a glass of beer with Phoebe’s father, in his well appointed shed, the practice having become a pleasant daily ritual for Mac and his neighbour. After the ladies had cleared away the dinner things and put the coffee pot on the stove, they sat down in the two available armchairs (which had actually been donated by Phoebe and Caspar) and chatted about the house, Phoebe’s parents and of course the baby which was due to be born on the 1st of October, which was now just a couple of months away.

Am I imagining it Deborah, or isn’t Mac’s birthday some time in early October? asked Phoebe.

That’s right, the eighth and as Mac was born a week later than predicted, he is hoping that our baby will be born on his birthday, but I am not sure I really want that to happen, to be honest with you.

Why ever not? enquired Phoebe.

I had a friend at school whose birthday was the same date as her mother’s and she always felt she was having to share her birthday with someone else, rather than have her special day all to herself.

That makes sense I suppose; have you decided on any names for the baby yet?

Apart from its surname which is going to be Smith, no we haven’t, we both want to wait until it has been safely delivered.

Oh come on Deborah, you must have had some ideas by now.

My mother took a fall just before she was due to give birth for the second time and her little boy was stillborn, he was given the names Roberto Bannister Chavez, so if I should have a son, I would like one of his names to be Roberto, in memory of the brother I never knew, but promise you will not mention this to anyone, as I have not even discussed this with Mac yet.

You have my word on that, well to change the subject, have you started looking for Wesley’ secret vault yet? I bet Mac can hardly contain his excitement!

No we most definitely have not Phoebe and neither will we until the baby has been safely delivered. The house had barely been placed in position before Mac was tapping all the walls with a little hammer, trying to locate the vault. I said to him, ‘Mac, if you so much as make one hole in the wall, I am out of here and will rent a house on my own. You are not going to turn my house into a building site until well after my baby has arrived, so there!’ You should have seen his face; it was all I could do not to burst out laughing.

Meanwhile, next door in the spacious shed of Charles Trigg, Phoebe’s father, a similar conversation was taking place.

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when she came out with her ultimatum of ‘either you stop looking for that damned vault, or I will go back into Auckland and rent a place of my own’, after having spent so long in first finding the house and then in acquiring it without raising any suspicions, I thought she would have been as eager as I was to start looking for it, said Mac.

I certainly didn’t see that one coming, said Caspar, good job I didn’t present you with the little gift I got for you yesterday and which I left in the car by mistake.

Why, what is it?

A club hammer and a three inch cold chisel.

It doesn’t bear thinking about my friend, my dear wife managed to incapacitate my cousin with a bar of soap and a wooden spoon, so what she could achieve with a club hammer and a three inch chisel is anyone’s guess.

So if you have been banned from searching for that vault, what was that tapping noise I heard the other day when I was pruning my roses? asked Charles.

Goodness, I thought I was being quiet, I am surprised you could hear that from the garden Charles. Was Molly with you by any chance?

No, she had gone shopping with Deborah if you remember, so you are still looking for the vault then.

Of course I am still looking for the vault Charles. I purchased a small rubber headed mallet from a medical supplies shop in town and every time I am there on my own I carry on the search.

Good on you Mac, so how much have you done so far?

Well as you suggested Caspar, I started in the back right hand corner and have now worked my way round the four walls in the kitchen and found nothing.

Forgive my ignorance Mac, but what did the hidden code actually say, asked Charles.

Mac looked at Caspar to make sure it was all right to tell Charles what they had discovered and after getting the ‘nod of approval’ said, My, own, house, vault, bed, chamber and mine.

Well surely it would make sense to start your search for this vault in one of the bedrooms, the kitchen is the last place I would have started the search.

No dad, the house had been remodelled by the folks who had it before us, so we could not know for sure, which room was actually Wesley’s bedroom, so I told Mac to start in one corner and just work his way round the house.

When you and Phoebe owned the house, which room did you use as a bedroom Caspar?

The front room at the right of the house dad; the one which backed onto the chimney.

And why was that?

Because the fireplace had an old stove in it, so Phoebe kept it burning for most of the time and did some of her cooking on it, which meant that the chimney radiated some heat and kept that front room warm over night.

So why wouldn’t this Wesley character have done the same thing as you and slept in the room which had the chimney in it, I doubt if that part of the house has ever been remodelled.

You make a good point Charles, said Mac, it is, after all the reason that Debs and I sleep in that room as we still use the little stove to keep the kettle boiling. I will just have to be a lot more careful with my tapping in the future, we don’t want your Molly asking my Debs what that funny noise is all about.

You two had better get back to the ladies or we will all be in trouble with our wives, said Charles, getting up and opening the door of the shed for them.

Mac and Caspar wandered back to the house just in time for Mac to be asked by Deborah if he would be so good as to pour everyone a cup of coffee, which he happily did and then sat down on the settee next to Caspar, which had also been donated by their two guests.

I was just telling Phoebe that we still use that old stove to boil a kettle Mac, but she said it was a different stove to the one that was there when they owned the house, so your two ‘turkey farming’ friends must have replaced it and Phoebe was wondering if they might have discovered the vault in the process. What were their names again?

Harry and Mivvi Carter; good point Debs, I must find some pretext to go and see them and try and find out if they did discover anything hidden behind the stove.

Have you organised the food for the ‘Young Farmers’ shindig we are hosting next week Phoebe? asked Caspar.

No love, I was going to do it on Monday, why?

Why not get Mac here, to order a couple of turkeys from the Carter’s and then one of us can collect them later in the week and have the opportunity to discuss the house with them.

What a good idea, is that all right with you Mac?

No problem Phoebe, I will do it first thing Monday morning, Mac replied.

Wesleys House C

Plan of Wesley’s House – Lucidus Smith

When Mac arrived at the office on Monday morning he found Carice and the Professor discussing wedding arrangements and looking at a stack of catalogues and travel brochures. Carice and her fiancée Desmond Newn planned to get married on the 16th February 1952 in Auckland, whereas the Professor and his wartime friend Annuska, who was in the Latvian Resistance during the war, planned to get married on Christmas Day in Taupo, along with Annuska’s childhood friend Vita and her fiancée Fred Cheeseman.

Cheer up Professor, it might never happen! No Holborn today?

Good day to you Mac and I fear it already has happened! Annuska now says that if Vita can have two bridesmaids, then she must have two as well and alas, young Carice here has been ordered to spend Christmas with her mother in South Africa, so it just leaves Stephen’s little girl Martha to be our bridesmaid, who will be just six at Christmas.

Well that’s it, you have cracked it old chap, you have found one bridesmaid, the other is down to her; but you didn’t tell me where your dog had got to today.

Holborn is with Martha. Her school is holding a ‘Pets’ day today and since she does not have a pet, I had to agree to let her take Holborn to school with her this morning, in exchange for her agreeing to be my bridesmaid. Can you believe that?

I hope her mother is going with her, as I have a problem controlling Holborn when he has a mind to be difficult, I hate to think how a six year old girl will manage with him.

Don’t worry, Stephen’s wife Helen is going to be there as well, but Holborn is just amazing with children and Martha seems to have a very special place in his heart, so I am sure he will be as good as gold for her.

You never told me you would be away for Christmas Carice, how long are you going for?

At least a month Mac, there are some family matters mum wants me to help her with and as I haven’t been to see her for so long, I could hardly refuse, could I?

I guess not, I will just have to try and manage on my own somehow, don’t you worry about me!