Wesley’S Mine

By Lucidus Smith

This is the final book in the series about two people, 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. Living in an attic bedroom above the office with his dog, Holborn, is Professor Tymn, who lectures at Auckland University.

Mac and Deborah have become friends with a couple named Caspar and Phoebe who own a farm near Auckland and who have involved them in their search for a lost gold mine in South Island, which they believe is located in Skippers Canyon.

While solving their unusual cases, Mac has been reunited with an old friend from military intelligence who continually lures him back into the world of espionage, intrigue, and betrayal, where his life is often at risk.

This exciting finale contains several twists that not even the author saw coming and will keep you reading late into the night.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524661335

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

© 2016 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.

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.

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.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/30/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-6132-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-6133-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 Just Like Your Mother

Chapter 2 The Professor’s Treasures

Chapter 3 Tunnel Vision

Chapter 4 Staff Troubles

Chapter 5 Dory

Chapter 6 Dinner at the Farm

Chapter 7 A Ten Shilling Note

Chapter 8 Hong Kong

Chapter 9 Customs Duty

Chapter 10 Baby Talk

Chapter 11 Hiding Places

Chapter 12 Lyttelton

Chapter 13 Orua Bay

Chapter 14 The Urn

Chapter 15 Anyone for Golf

Chapter 16 Dead or Alive

Chapter 17 New Business

Chapter 18 Skippers Canyon

Chapter 19 No Place Like Home

Chapter 20 Low Value Items

Chapter 21 The Search

Chapter 22 Kill Gate Brook

Chapter 23 It’s Personal

Chapter 24 Avenged

Chapter 25 Back to Normal

Chapter 26 Job Offers

Chapter 27 Travel Plans

Chapter 28 South Island

Chapter 29 Discovery

Chapter 30 All’s Well that Ends Well

Chapter 31 The Gold Recovered

Chapter 32 Good News / Bad News

Epilogue

About the Author

DEDICATION

To our dear friends Len and Terri Harris whose friendship and hospitality has always been so generous and welcoming.

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 been captured and tortured by the S.S. and had received severe scarring to his face and body during a botched rescue attempt.

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 a Professor in Ancient History at Auckland University, who had been on hand to assist Mac and Carice with some of their earlier cases and has recently become engaged to a lady he met during the war, whilst serving in Latvia, called Annuska, who runs a small hotel in Taupo.

Over the first eight months of operation, the agency had tracked down a missing dog and someone’s brother, solved the theft of a valuable painting and some antique silverware and had helped to find some Top Secret documents which had gone missing during World War II. Mac had also come face to face with his S.S inquisitor, which had brought the duo into direct contact with one of Mac’s old wartime buddies, Major Frenchar of Military Intelligence.

Whilst Mac and Deborah (who is just over eight months pregnant with her first baby) live in a ‘second hand’ house in the New Lynn district of Auckland, Carice rents a room from Brock and Rosie Lewes, who are old friends of Deborah and her father 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 owned 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 between them.

On the 16th September 1951 Mac and Deborah invited Caspar and Phoebe to join them for Sunday lunch, where, after a stroke of genius by Deborah, they discovered the exact location of the mine belonging to ‘Wesley the Rabbit’ which made the four friends believe that the end of their search for the lost mine was now in sight.

Four days later, on Thursday the 20th September, they were preparing to drive to Auckland airport to meet Deborah’s father, retired sea captain Bertie Bannister, who was arriving from Sydney on the one thirty afternoon flight, with Victoria, his new wife of just three years, who had insisted that Bertie and herself should be with Deborah for the birth of her first child.

CHAPTER 1

Just Like Your Mother

I knew I should have done it myself, you really are hopeless Mac and why you had to go and see him again this morning, I will never know. If we don’t leave for the airport in the next ten minutes we will get caught up in the mid-day traffic and be late arriving there! Deborah shouted out to her husband, who was standing on the front porch, looking out for the delivery van.

Panic not ‘Oh tetchy one’, I do have a back-up plan, so get yourself into the car while I dash over and chat to Charles, Mac replied and immediately walked over to speak with his next door neighbour, who happened to be the father of their friend Phoebe and was working in his front garden pruning his roses at the time of their conversation.

So it’s not arrived yet my friend, said Charles, who was struggling with the desire to add, ‘as I clearly remember warning you on Monday evening’.

Blooming shop, they promised me faithfully that they would deliver that bed first thing this morning, I should have bought a new one from that department store, as you originally suggested Charles.

Not to worry Mac, as I told you earlier, I plan to be in all afternoon, so if they do turn up with it later on, I will let them into the house and show them where you want the bed put and if for any reason they do let you down and don’t deliver it today, well, as Molly said to Deborah only yesterday, your in-laws are most welcome to stay with us, for as long as they want to.

Gee that’s a tempting offer and you haven’t even met them yet! Thanks mate you’re a star and I owe you one, but excuse me if I dash as Deborah is getting agitated.

For goodness sake Mac, we need to be on our way, exclaimed Deborah, from the back seat of her car, where she had taken to travel during the latter stages of her pregnancy. Her car was an immaculate black 1938 Ford Deluxe Convertible and happened to be a lot more roomier and comfortable than Mac’s car, which was a slightly scruffy, dark green, 1934 Austin 7 Ruby, which was parked next to Deborah’s car on the driveway.

Relax Debs, it’s all sorted love, said Mac, as he climbed into the car and started the engine. Charles will let the delivery men into the house when they arrive, so just make yourself comfortable and enjoy the drive, we have plenty of time to get to the airport and anyway, that afternoon flight never arrives on time, does it?

Hello Mac, it’s really good to see you again, said Bertie to his son-in-law, who was standing behind the barrier in the arrivals lounge of Auckland Airport. I hope you haven’t been waiting here for too long as we just sat on the tarmac at Sydney airport for forty minutes before we could even take off, so I had no way of warning you; did Deborah come with you or is she still at home?

No, she is here, I just found a seat in the shade for her outside of the terminal building; where’s Victoria, I thought she was coming with you as well?

She is but she had to make an urgent call at the ladies, so I said I would come on first to let you know we had finally arrived, he explained, before turning round to look for his wife. This looks like her coming along now wearing her new feathered hat, at least it means I can spot her in a crowd, he said, smiling at Mac. Victoria, Victoria, we are over here love, he called out.

Mac, how lovely to see you again, where’s Deborah, is she all right? asked Victoria, after giving him a peck on the cheek.

She’s fine thank you, I just left her sitting outside in the shade; how many bags have you got between you as there are some trolleys over there if you need one?

Just the four, said Bertie with a sigh, but they all weigh a ton and to think that for most of my working life I managed to travel the world with a single holdall or kitbag. If you wouldn’t mind getting a trolley please Mac, we will meet you at the end of the barrier, come on Victoria, you bring the two small ones and I will take the others.

They stacked the bags onto the trolley and slowly made their way outside of the terminal building to where Deborah was sitting on a wooden bench underneath a large tree.

Dad, Victoria, it’s so good to see you both again, she said, jumping up and giving her father a kiss. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have the pair of you with us at this time, thank you so much for coming.

What! Miss the birth of his first grandchild, I don’t think all the pirates in the seven seas could have stopped your father coming here to be with you Deborah, joked Victoria, as she gave her a great big prolonged hug.

Goodness but you remind me of your mother when she was pregnant with you Deborah, said Bertie, staring at his daughter. You know what, I don’t think I have ever noticed the similarity before; how have you been keeping?

Pretty good overall thanks dad, especially since the baby is due sometime in the next two weeks, but let’s get you both to the car, you must be feeling very tired after your long trip.

The journey back to the house seemed to fly by as they caught up on each other’s news and in no time at all they were backing the car into their driveway which gave Mac the chance to see if Charles was waiting to speak with him.

Excuse me for a moment folks as I just need to go and speak with my neighbour about something, said Mac, jumping out of the car and racing over to his neighbour’s front door which magically opened as he arrived there. Did they eventually come with it Charles? he asked.

No more than five minutes after you had left Mac, so I got them to take it indoors and to set it up for you in the spare bedroom as you asked. Molly has already been over with sheets and blankets and made it up for you. Tell Deborah that she can keep them for now and swap them over at her leisure.

Thanks a lot Charles and thank Molly for me as well please, what would we do without the pair of you?

Mac gave Deborah the ‘thumbs up’ as she was getting out of the car and while she took her guests into the house, Mac retrieved the cases from the boot and carried them into the guest room and laid them on the bed, whilst at the same time complementing himself on his excellent choice of the freshly polished, solid oak, second-hand bedstead.

Put the kettle on Mac, Deborah called out from their bedroom as she continued to give her guests a guided tour of their home, we will be through to the lounge shortly.

Right O, biscuits or cake? he called back, as he walked through to the kitchen, but got no reply to his question, so he got both items out of the cupboard to be on the safe side.

Mac loaded the teapot, cups, saucers and milk onto a tray and carried them through to the lounge just as everyone was making themselves comfortable on the three piece suite. He transferred everything from the tray to the coffee table and then went back for the remaining items which he laid out on the table before sitting down on the settee next to his father-in-law.

What are you dreaming about, you forgot the tea strainer! Goodness Mac, do I have to think of everything around here? said Deborah curtly.

Mac sighed, bit his tongue and walked through to the kitchen to get the aforementioned strainer. Whilst waiting for his anger to subside he stood staring out of the kitchen window which looked out onto the garden and the recently dug vegetable patch where he had planted a couple of dozen seed potatoes and a dozen cabbage plants the previous day. He heard a noise behind him and turned round to see Bertie walking through into the kitchen and then stand next to him.

I see that my daughter’s humour and demeanour have not improved with her being pregnant Mac, I am afraid she really is just like her mother, in more ways than one.

Sorry Bertie, I didn’t mean to let my feelings show like that in front of you, but she really has been hard to bear lately and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see you both, thank you so much for coming.

You are most welcome and I do understand how you feel Mac, why don’t you give me the strainer while you pop next door and see if your neighbour Charles is offering a tour of that enormous shed of his which Deborah tells me you both escape to from time to time.

You are on Bertie, Mac replied smiling, I am sure we would both prefer a beer to a cup of tea anyway.

Bertie and Charles got on like a house on fire and the three men stayed in the shed chatting and drinking until well after seven o’clock when they suddenly realised that they were all famished and decided to return to their respective wives to find out what was being served for dinner.

Mac never did discover what Victoria had said to Deborah while he and Bertie were visiting next door, but she was never rude or impolite to him again until well after the baby was born and then only when severely provoked!

CHAPTER 2

The Professor’s Treasures

Good morning! Who has got a guilty conscience then, for taking a whole day off yesterday to meet their in-laws at the airport? asked Carice, when she arrived at work on the Friday morning to find Mac with his shirt sleeves rolled up and with the day’s mail in neat piles on her desk.

There is a letter here addressed to you from South Africa, presumably from your mother, but why would she send it here rather than to your home? It’s marked ‘Private & Confidential’ so I didn’t open it for you, Mac replied, while passing her the envelope in question and ignoring her jibe about his early arrival at the office.

An interesting observation Mac, but that is not my mother’s handwriting, Carice replied, before putting the letter in her handbag and then walking through to their kitchenette to make a cup of tea. How was the flight from Australia that your in-laws were on? she asked, as she walked from the kitchenette to the small bathroom, both of which they shared with Professor Tymn.

It was just over forty minutes late, some sort of a delay at Sydney. Aren’t you going to open it then?

I am assuming that ‘Private & Confidential’ means just that, but if it is a business matter, of course I will show it to you Mac, she replied, before closing the bathroom door after her.

Mac got up from the desk and walked across to the kitchenette where he finished making the tea and had a cup waiting on both desks when Carice emerged from the bathroom at about the same time as Professor Tymn and Holborn came down the stairs from their attic bedroom and bid them both a ‘Very good morning’ in their own different but distinctive ways.

Hello boy, you are looking very pleased with yourself today, said Mac to the dog, while giving him a pat and then a biscuit from a special box he kept in one of the drawers of his desk.

Good morning Professor, still breaking in the new dressing-gown I see, remarked Carice, as she made her way back to the kitchenette and poured another cup of tea for the Professor and placed a bowl of water on the floor for Holborn.

Thank you my dear, most kind of you, I am certainly ready for this, replied the Professor, taking the cup from Carice and then plonking himself down in an armchair before taking his first sip of tea. What a terrible night I had last night, I didn’t get to bed until gone three this morning.

Oh dear, not another university ‘Dining Club’ outing Professor? I know that Desmond said that those sorts of events can go on until quite late, but three in the morning sounds a trifle excessive, especially for someone of your age, observed Carice.

Alas no, that is not the reason this time Carice; we had a break-in at the university over Wednesday night. Unfortunately for me the thieves happened to target my office along with the ancient artefacts I had collected over the past twenty five years from the various ‘digs’ in Egypt, Greece and Italy that I have undertaken. I spent the whole day and half the night sorting through my papers and making an inventory of everything they had taken.

I am so sorry Professor, said Carice, how awful for you, did they get away with much?

Yes they did. Half a dozen ancient pots and jugs, some weapons and armour, a collection of Roman coins and some Egyptian jewellery, some of which was very rare and extremely valuable. It’s insured of course, but quite irreplaceable as far as I am concerned.

What rotten luck, do you think it was just a random burglary or do you think that you were specifically targeted? asked Mac.

The latter I fear, which makes it particularly worrying as it could point to an ‘inside’ job!

Just then the telephone rang and everyone stopped talking as Carice picked up the receiver and said, The Red Rabbit Inquiry Agency, Carice Offstrop speaking, how can I help you? Mr. Stewar, she continued, I am so glad you rang as I had an application in yesterday from a very experienced lady, who on paper, would make the perfect secretary for you. No, she is a single lady who has just moved here from Christchurch where she worked for a shipping agent. She just says ‘family reasons’ in her covering letter. Yes of course, I can do that right away and then I will ring her and arrange for her to see you on Monday morning, goodbye Mr. Stewar, she said, before replacing the handset back onto the receiver and then looking at Mac.

I expect Frank was wondering if we had forgotten he was still after a secretary; you didn’t tell me that we had an application in yesterday, said Mac, who had stopped making a fuss of Holborn and had started to play with the papers which were on his desk, while the Professor and his cup of tea had disappeared into the bathroom.

Well actually, you were not in the office yesterday, if you can manage to think back that far Mac, otherwise I would have done.

Good point, what did you just agree to with him?

I told Frank that I would ring her last employer in Christchurch to make sure she is authentic and then contact the lady in question to arrange for an interview on Monday.

Very good, Mac replied absentmindedly, as he stared at the contents of one of the letters. What’s this lady’s name?

Hazel Henderson. Do my eyes deceive me or is that a cheque you are staring at Mac?

Yes, it’s from Major Frenchar for two hundred and fifty pounds.

That’s nice of him but he doesn’t actually owe us any money at the moment; does he say what it is for?

Mac read the covering letter and then he informed Carice, It appears that the Major has been instructed by his superiors in London to increase the retainer he pays us to one thousand pounds a year, so therefore this cheque represents the balance of what he now owes us.

Well, how generous of his superiors in London, does he say why they have increased the retainer by this amount, as knowing the Major, there has to be a catch in it somewhere?

Let me see, no not really, but he does go on to remind me that I am not allowed to work for any other agency, apart from his.

Why would he remind you of that? No-one else has approached you to work for them, have they?

Not directly, but indirectly I did receive a sort of an offer to that effect, which naturally I turned down without a second thought. Look Carice, I think I will pop out and bank this cheque right away, you know how fickle the Major can be, in the meantime, why don’t you ring that outfit in Christchurch which the applicant for Frank’s job worked for. We really owe it to him to find him a decent secretary as soon as possible.

Mac picked up the paying-in book from the safe and then headed off in the direction of the bank while Carice gave Holborn a biscuit from Mac’s secret store and then rummaged through her copy of the Christchurch telephone directory to find the number of the Shipping company that Hazel Henderson had claimed to have worked for.

And a very good morning to you too, said Carice to the operator who had answered the telephone at the Shipping Agent’s offices, at least it will be if your Miss Henderson is at her desk this morning and is able to speak with me straight away.

"Oh I am sorry, but Miss Henderson no longer works for us, can I