The Moho

By Jeff Hunt

Megan Roland is abandoned by her hsuband to run a luxurious motel/hotel on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast.

Mac Lanell is an investigator employed to uncover the crimes of the Roland's, get back stolen money and keep everyone alive while he does it.

Mr Sum will get his money back at any price.

But life at the strangely named Moho must go on.

Where is Hugh? Is Megan implicated?  Can Mac succeed?

Laughs, loves and adventure in a beautifuo setting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Dec 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9783748723134

Book preview

Chapter One

November 2003: Megan tried desperately not to let anxiety dampen the excitement of her first overseas trip. She was 13 now. Other kids flew around the world. She could do it and not act nervous. Besides they were nearly there and she would be met by her parents. The thrill welled up in her. Now that she was grown she could fly from Wellington to Bangkok any time. She had parents; it was just that they worked overseas.

In the airport she followed the crowds. The baggage handling was just like domestic flights. She could do this. She waited for her matched leather case and backpack and smiled smugly at some of the battered packs that were lifted off the belt around her. She was someone. She had parents and nice luggage and travelled overseas to see them. Some of the other passengers were hugging the people who had come to meet them. Megan would do that soon. Her parents would push through the crowd eager to make up for the five years they had been in Thailand without her. The crowds began to thin and then fill out again as more planes arrived. Megan found a corner seat and pressed back into it, fighting tears and humiliation. But then she saw him. The man rushing across the airport lounge was her dad.

Hello Megs. God what was that stupid woman thinking, putting you on a plane here. It's not as if we don't pay her a fortune. Don't worry Meg, there's a boarding school that has agreed to take you tonight and we'll have you back home at latest the day after tomorrow.

For years after, Megan struggled to understand why she answered, Thank you Daddy.

November 2008: Her working holiday in Sydney was fun, but tonight Megan was no longer enjoying herself. The crowd she had been with had drifted away, the band had been too loud for too long and the guy she had been dancing with - Andrew she thought he had said his name was - was deteriorating into a drunken slob. How did she never fail to pick the no-hopers? He followed her towards her table, his hand sliding up and down her back and across her backside. When the other hand began to caress a breast, Megan had had enough. She turned suddenly to take him by surprise and pushed him firmly away. He staggered drunkenly back.

Across the room a tall man pushed his way through the crowd. He placed a firm hand on Andrew's shoulder.

Time to go home, sir, the lady's with me.

That was news to Megan and Andrew, who peered blearily up at the newcomer.

Leave. The ice in the voice cut through into even Andrew's befuddled brain. He set off for the door.

I'm hungry Miss Ambrel, and I hope you are too as I would consider it a pleasure to offer a complimentary meal from the hotel. Megan realised that she really was hungry and this new man was good looking, sober and polite and wore a name badge identifying him as Hugh Roland, manager. The fact that he knew her name was puzzling but when she asked he told her that it was his job to know everything, and she did after all work for the hotel complex even if it was only selling flowers. Megan accepted the free meal.

A Monday in March

Megan was alone again. Megan understood being alone, that was how she had lived her life. There had always been people of course. Care givers, teachers, school friends, groping boys for whom the ultimate prize was Megan Ambrel. If the stories were to be believed she had lost her virginity at least a hundred times before she was fifteen. Actually she hung on to it until a drunken party when she was seventeen, and then she had lost it to a slightly goofy shy boy who didn't boast. Megan surprised herself by thinking of him with affection and wondering where he was now. And then of course there had been Hugh. And Megan ruefully acknowledged to herself that he seemed to be gone as well.

She ran a brush once more through her sparkling long blonde hair. She was ready for the world. She straightened her tasteful, discrete and very expensive necklace. It wasn't crooked, but her life was a little straighter for the effort. She resisted the urge to linger any longer in front of the mirror. The world outside needed her. This was just another chapter of her life. She wasn't alone. She was needed and valued. There were currently fifty-five paying guests to care for, a staff who depended on her, and there was her friend and neighbour Eileen Hammond.

Outside, the sound of the sea and a crying seagull welcomed her. The sun had no warmth yet but the day had promise. Megan walked the short distance to the low part of the fence and glanced around for early walkers or guests, but there were none so she kicked two long and graceful legs up and over to drop into the next back yard.

She chuckled impishly to herself. The illicit thrill of being ungraceful while in charge of a multi-million dollar beach accommodation lodge easily equalled a night on the town. Life was good. She'd had difficult times before and always came out a little stronger than before. She would do that now.

Eileen Hammond would be home at this time of the morning, and at most other times too, Megan thought a little sadly. Eileen was slower than she had been as headmistress to over a thousand teenage girls, but she still had the power in her personality and the awareness of mind to be the woman who had controlled a staff of fifty as well as the students.

Megan pushed open the back door and grinned as she remembered Eileen's comment, Who needs to lock a door when she lives next to the country's leading gangsters? At the time Megan had been hurt and shocked but now she could laugh, if only a little sadly.

Well just look at you. The lone and lovely business woman. Are you sure you'll be safe with me for a crack of dawn date over a cup of coffee? Eileen chuckled.

Beware the septuagenarian gay school ma'am, Megan laughed back. Anyway. I just happen to have a reliable loving husband who has neglected to remember he has me for a little while, and as a punishment I am going out with an alternate date.

Eileen was too fond of Megan to take the raillery any further. But a man who says he cares deeply but may not be able to return for a long time, if at all, and then is unheard from for weeks did not suggest to her a loving future.

The two women took the more sedate route out to the road and into the inviting, neat drive leading to the office, restaurant and manager's accommodation at the Moho. Megan and Hugh had originally affectionately called it the MoHo because they couldn't decide whether it was really a Motel or Hotel. The name stuck, and when in September of 2017 the grand new Kapiti Coast Accommodation opened to general acclaim and awe, its registered name was the Moho.

Angela, arriving early at work as usual met the other two women. Greetings were exchanged, promises to get right on to preparing rooms and cabins for new guests were made, and most importantly there was an undertaking to find Tony and stir him into life for early breakfasts. Megan knew that Angela's life had become the Moho. Its successes were Angela's successes and she took any failure as a personal shortcoming. Megan wished she had more like Angela.

As Megan organised the day ahead, Eileen watched her friend for signs of the feelings she knew must be there, and although she was a master of reading the unsaid, she saw only an occasional glimpse that Megan felt her life was no longer an unbroken stream of playful adventures to be enjoyed and wallowed in.

First person in makes the coffee, Megan called to Eileen, this is not a bloody restaurant you know, and then clutching her forehead in mock dismay added, "damn, I keep forgetting. It is a restaurant." But Eileen was already heading for the coffee maker, grimly aware that the Moho could run perfectly well without her, but also aware that Megan was quite bright enough to see that a bored old former administrator needed work. Eileen was being organised into busy-work just as surely as she herself had struggled to give thousands of young listless girls activities to keep them involved in life. Although the coffee would be made whoever did it, and she wouldn't presume to touch any real catering in a place like this, what she could do was keep an eye on her friend, and be there for her if ever she was needed.

A young man scurried into the restaurant and faltered when he saw Megan there. Tony, the clock. What time is this? Megan called.

Twenty to seven. Look I'd love to stay to chat but you see I'm a bit late and you have no idea what a dragon my boss is.

Megan and Eileen exchanged a grin as the irrepressible Tony disappeared into the kitchen.

Chapter Two

Mac Lanell was having an early start to his day. A clandestine meeting with two of the top bank officials in New Zealand and some sort of police minder in an out of the way coffee shop was not the way he had come to do business. Although he operated slightly beyond the fringe of the completely polite side of the IT banking industry, these days he expected to be able to go to the manager's office to get his assignments. But the 7am appointment was made by a bank underling who assured him it would be worth his while. Several banks, and the police would be depending on him. Well, he owed his present success to at least one of those banks and although he was tempted to tell them to come to him if it was that important, he was straightening the tie he seldom wore and feeling uncharacteristically apprehensive.

Mac was army at heart. He had lived the SAS life as a young man until he found a niche in computer security. The thrill of searching and probing amongst unknown software and concealed files had caught him the way physical attack and jumping from planes had previously appealed to him. Once the computer bug had him in its grip he had moved into intelligence and code cracking. By the time he was 28 he had pined for the riches that his newly discovered skills opened to him and he rejoined civilian life and a bank. Within a month the manager had him in his office deploring his methods. Mac tried to explain that it was much quicker to check out a customer's credentials by simply looking at all their personal files, both up-front and secret, but the bank was adamant that they had to have a veneer of legality over their security department. There was a solution, and management was quick to point it out. As a private investigator he could charge more and the bank was not responsible for any dubious techniques. And so with generous start-up money from his former employer, Mac set up shop doing the same job he had done the week before for twice the money.

And now, rather too early to be comfortable, he gave his tie one last jerk and started for the door.

Chapter Three

Eileen peered at Megan through her steaming coffee and waited. Megan, preoccupied with the food orders looked up and caught her eye and smiled at the steady look.

What?

What yourself, Meg. It's time you learned to talk about your private life, and if not to me then who?

I have nuthin' to say miss. It was her what dun it.

Eileen, obliged by smiling softly but reached across the table and rested her hand lightly on Megan's. You're a busy woman Meg. You're hurting and you're a little afraid. And you're rather alone. I may not be able to do much, but I'm here and I listen. Spill it.

Nuthin' new miss. Lost me hubby. That's all. Her voice faded as she continued to meet Eileen's now steely gaze.

"Megs, the reminiscences of old busybodies are painful to the senses but you remind me of a brat of almost 30 years ago. I had to