Danger Down Under: Another Vince Hamilton Investigation

by Patrick Slaney

  'So are you telling me that you would prefer not to help me in the future, because of the possible danger?'

  'Yes, Vince; you have been operating on a wing and a prayer, and it is only by the grace of God that nobody has been killed. You tend to go ahead thinking that you have a brigade of troops from the British Army to support you when, in fact, there is only you and a few friends. I think that it is better if you take me off your team.'

  'That's a big blow to me Willem, but thanks for all your help to date; I couldn't have solved the cases without you. I hope that if I need advice at some future date, that I can still contact you to get your input.'

  'By all means as long as you realise I may not be in a position to help you in a physical sense.'

  I put the phone down. I was totally stunned. The last person I expected to opt out was Willem. It was almost as if there was a conspiracy to force me to retire gracefully from being a Private Eye.

  Disillusioned, to say the least, I telephoned an old military friend of mine and asked him to meet me at the local pub for lunch. As an ex-military man, he would understand where I was coming from in my depressed state. Reggie Talbot had risen to the elevated level of Colonel before he retired. He was a bit older than me, being in his fifties, but we got on well together, and he was good company in small doses. He seemed to sit at home all day reading the newspapers and watching sport on the Tele. If you wanted to know the cricket score in the latest Test Match all you had to do was phone him. He was also a certainty to accompany me to lunch as long as I paid!

  He was already sitting at a table beside the window overlooking the Thames when I finally got to the pub.

  'High Reggie, how are things with you?' I shook his hand and sat down opposite him.

  'Couldn't be better thanks, Vince. I am as busy as I usually am.' He smiled at me.

  'Thanks for coming to have lunch with me; I need a bit of cheering up as I am under attack,' I said. 'What would you like to drink?'

  'I'll have a pint of Watney's Red thanks.'

  I went up to the bar and placed my drinks order. I told the barman that we were having lunch, and he opened a tab for us.

  'What have you been up to recently Vince?' He asked me as soon as he had taken his first mouthful of beer. 'I haven't seen you around for quite a while and you usually contact me at least once every two weeks. I was starting to believe that you had found somebody else to have lunch with.'

  'I was working on an investigation that took me to the western end of the Mediterranean, so I haven't been in the Putney area for a while.'

  'Lucky you; I wish that I was involved in something that gave me a bit of excitement instead of being stuck in this part of London every day. By the way, what do you want to talk to me about?'

  'I have been doing the Private Investigator job for two years now and I am starting to have doubts as to whether I am being successful or am just a liability.'

  'From what you told me some time ago, you appeared to destroy that diamond-smuggling cartel without too many problems and the person who hired you was very pleased.' [Details of this case can be found in the book: The Diamond Chain.]

  'On reflection, I can see that I was extremely lucky and could have been killed on a number of occasions. On top of that Willem van Grimbergen, who was helping me to corner the gang in La Rochelle on the west coast of France, was shot, damn nearly fatally. The gang escaped with the diamonds, and we were very lucky to track them down in London after that.'

  'How about this last case that you seem to have just finished? Did that have a satisfactory conclusion?' [This case is covered in the Curse of Thieves.]

  'We managed to find and destroy the heavily fortified hideout where they were storing all the stolen goods in Marmaris in Turkey. We also dismantled their safe houses and garages in various locations on the route to Greece. Unfortunately, I can't say that it is a total triumph as we still don't know the identity of the mastermind behind the whole operation. Those in the know are confident that the big chief, whoever he is, will establish a new operation in some part of the world. All we have done is disrupt their business for a few months.'

  'Was anybody shot in the latest adventure?'

  'Yes, four of our team were shot and injured at various stages of the investigation. Firstly Inspector Baird of Hampstead CID was shot and severely wounded carrying out observation duties in Marmaris harbour. Then in the attack on the gang's headquarters, a soldier, who was one of our team, was shot in the leg. Lastly when we arrived in Rhodes harbour, with two of the stolen luxury motor yachts, an owner and a crewman were wounded. Thankfully they all survived and are on the mend.'

  'That sounds like some battle Vince and I can understand your wife's nervousness.'

  'It was quite hairy, and this brings me to my big problem. My wife wants me to retire gracefully from my job as a Private Investigator. She would prefer that I play golf or follow some such docile pursuit. She thinks that my present role is far too dangerous, and I am putting myself in hazardous situations when I don't have to.'

  'She has a point, Vince. After all, you are mortgage free on your home and have a good pension coming in each month that covers all your costs. In addition to your pension, I think that you mentioned before that your wife has a part-time job in a Boutique.'

  'That's right, she doesn't make much money from her efforts, but it gives her an interest.'

  Reggie tipped his glass up and made a sucking sound. I assumed he was giving me a subtle hint that his glass needed replenishing.

  As I sat down with the full glasses, our food arrived. As we ate, the topics we discussed were more general as we concentrated on the excellent fish and chips. We recommenced our conversation on my future when the plates had been cleared away

  'Has your wife been supportive of you in your new job since you left the army or has she always been against it?' Reggie asked.

  'That's what makes it so puzzling. I thought that she was delighted I had a job that kept me out of the house and from under her feet.'

  'It sounds as if she didn't realise that it would be so dangerous, and you are sort of on your own now as a lone ranger. You don't have the might of the military behind you.'

  'She is clearly anxious about me, and she doesn't enjoy being left on her own not knowing what is going to happen next,' I added.

  'What you are doing now Vince is very different to the role that you had in the army. The risk you endured there was much more controlled, and also your wife had people that she could contact for support. There were even other wives she knew who she could talk to in times of crisis.'

  'I have done a lot of thinking in the last day or two, and I am now starting to have self-doubts,' I added. 'Perhaps I am a loose-cannon and am putting people into unnecessary danger.'

  'The fact that so many people in your team have been seriously injured is probably all the proof you need to support that statement.' Reggie commented.

  'But, what will I do now. I can't become a house husband or whatever they call it, and I don't fancy playing golf every day or even fishing.'

  'Unfortunately we are both in the same boat. Nobody wants a self-opinionated ex-army officer who has been giving orders all of his life. We are useless for all the jobs in civvy street, in fact, we are worse than useless as we were raised on a pedestal in the army.'

  It was three hours later that I realised we had been sitting there chatting for a considerable amount time. I would now be very late getting home and in deep trouble. I was also a little inebriated after drinking for the entire afternoon. I struggled home having said fond goodbyes to Reggie.

  My wife could see the state that I was in and left me alone, just putting a rather dry dinner in front of me.

  'You've obviously been doing a lot of deep thinking,' she commented giving me a rye smile. 'But I would also like to remind you that you didn't pick Victoria up from school, and she is none too pleased with her father.'

  'Whoops! I am sorry. I will take her to school in the mornin
g.'

  'You might also like to know that Michael came home a different boy. The bullying situation has been very cleverly resolved, and he was smiling when he arrived home. 'You did a good job on that, so I will forgive you on the other one.'

  'Sorry, I was drowning my sorrows with Reggie Talbot and have drunk too much. I'll go to bed after I finish this food.'

  I had a very restless night having to get up a number of times to relieve myself of the large quantity of beer. I had just slipped into a deep sleep when I was woken up by my daughter shaking me.

  'Come on Dad. You have to take me to school, and you left me standing outside school yesterday afternoon when you didn't arrive.'

  'I'm sorry Victoria; I got tied up in a meeting and couldn't get to you.'

  'Mummy said that you were in the pub and drank too much.'

  'Yes, I did have the meeting in a pub. I'll just have to make it up to you if that's alright.'

  'I'll forgive you this time Dad. I'll wait downstairs for you provided you hurry up.'

  'Bye Dad; thanks for sorting that out for me yesterday,' Michael called cheerily from the landing.

  'Have a good day in school Michael; I'll talk to you this evening when you get home.'

  I looked at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was only 7.45am; I wouldn't have to leave with Victoria until a quarter past eight, so there was no real rush.

  I pulled on a tracksuit, leaving my ablutions and breakfast until I came home and walked with Victoria to her school. Daphne was working in the boutique in Putney High Street today, so I would have relative peace at home. Her mother had stated that she was returning to her house in Maidstone today that would increase the level of peace I would have. Perhaps my life could return to normal, and I would be able to take some decisions about my future based on the verbal attacks I had received from various people over the last few days.

  Chapter 3

  I spent the day in a depressed state, mulling over all the possibilities for the way forward in my life. Clearly the biggest task I had ahead of me was to reassure Daphne that I wouldn't always be involved in investigations that were life threatening. Since I had been invalided out of the Services, I had hardly been at home and hadn't been much of a husband to her. Other than a family holiday we had taken in Cornwall we hadn't spent quality time together. She had seen no benefits from my lucrative investigative business.

  I had a brilliant idea. Why didn't we go and visit my brother in Melbourne, Australia for a few weeks? It was term time so we couldn't bring the kids with us, but Daphne's mother could come and look after them while we were away.

  The time in Melbourne was ten hours ahead of England, but I just managed to get an email through to my brother before he went to bed. He replied immediately stating that if I were planning on going in March I should time my trip to coincide with when the Formula One Grand Prix was bing held. He added if I couldn’t arrange to be there for the Grand Prix that I would be very welcome anytime.

  I decided that I didn't need to take a decision on the future of my career as a Private Investigator until I returned to the UK after our trip. I also wouldn't take on any further work until the Australia trip was behind us. Let's hope that Daphne went along with my plans. My spirits were restored, and I felt a lot better.

  To increase my stock of Brownie points I went to pick up Victoria from school, and we returned home via the sweet shop. When Michael got home, I spent some time with him finding out how the housemaster had resolved the bullying problem. He told me that the bullies had been hauled before the headmaster and told that if they ever harassed him again they would be expelled from the school. The headmaster had brought Michael into his study while he was confronting the bullies. In front of the culprits, he told Michael that if they bothered him again, he must come straight to his office and tell him. He made them apologise for what they had done and how they had treated him.

  After the meeting they, thankfully, left him alone and stayed well away from him. They obviously didn't want to have to tell their parents that they had been expelled.

  Michael said that today had been wonderful and at the end of the school day his housemaster had checked with him to see if he had been bullied. He was in great form and a different boy.

  After dinner, I asked Daphne to join me in the front room. I mentioned to her that I had done a lot of soul-searching during the day and wanted to discuss what I had come up with.

  When we were both seated with a cup of coffee in the front room, our discussion began.

  Daphne started things off by saying, 'I hope that you are not going to give me two hundred and one reasons why you want to continue with your investigation work.'

  'Believe or not I agree with you and I am willing to give up the job if you think that it will be in the best interests of the family.'

  'I can't believe what you are saying,' she exclaimed. 'What has changed your mind?'

  'Basically, there are two things. The first is that Willem's wife has told him that helping me is too dangerous, and he must stop. The second is that I feel very guilty about what Michael has had to suffer in his school because I wasn't around.'

  'You haven't mentioned the dangerous situations that you keep putting yourself in and the fact that your opponents have tried to kill you on a number of occasions.'

  'That's because I suppose that I accept the danger as part of the role,' I replied.

  'Well, Vince I am very relieved that you have come to that conclusion. What will you do now?'

  'I have plenty of money in the bank so I thought that we could visit my brother in Australia. I sent him an email asking him if that was possible, and he replied and said that it was fine with them.'

  'Are you suggesting that we bring Michael and Victoria?'

  'I don't think that would be feasible as they would be at school. Tony has suggested that we travel out there in March, and we can then get the last of their Summer. The Australian F1 Grand Prix is also on, and he suggested that we might like to go to that.'

  Daphne didn’t look too pleased with my suggestion. 'I think that I will give that a miss as I would be bored stiff; I will go shopping with Sally while you and your brother are at the Grand Prix.'

  'So you think the holiday is a good idea?' I was encouraged by what I was hearing.

  'It sounds like a good way of getting you off the whole investigation train and onto a different track. I will get my mother to come and stay to look after the kids. They will be off one week over Easter, which is on the 23rd. March so that will help. She will enjoy fussing over them and will spoil them rotten while we are away.'

  'Do you think that we could be away for three weeks as it is a long way to travel,' I asked with my tongue in my cheek.

  'That's a bit long. Why don't we leave on a Monday, spend two weekends away and then fly back to the UK on a Thursday? In that way we will be back for the third weekend,' she suggested.

  'That sounds perfect; I will try and book us out on Monday 10th March with the return flights on the 27th March.'

  'Don't do anything until I have talked to my mother, and we also won't mention it to the kids until she has agreed to the idea.'

  'Don't be too long confirming it with your Mum as I need to book the flights and it will probably be fairly booked up with the Grand Prix taking place.'

  'I'll telephone her tonight after Michael and Victoria have gone to bed.'

  Much to my relief Daphne's mother was delighted to be asked to look after the house for the time that we would be away. I was able to go into Putney the following morning to the travel agent and sort out our flights. With my bank balance in a very healthy position, I decided to treat us to Business Class on British Airways. As an ex-military man, I still liked to fly the flag.

  I found that most of the flights gong to Australia departed in the evening, and we would lose nearly two days in the travelling including the time difference. I decided to fit another day in by leaving on the Sunday night so as we would get to Mel
bourne early on the Tuesday morning. Coming back was much quicker as we would recover the ten hours' time difference lost on the way out. We would leave on the 9th March and be back in the UK on Friday the 28th March at the finish of the kids’ holidays. The flight would be British Airways as far as Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific on the Melbourne leg.

  I felt delighted with myself as I walked to Victoria's school to pick her up. Needless to say, we visited her favourite sweet shop on our route home.

  I had just sat down to read the newspaper, with a mug of tea, when my mobile rang.

  'Hi Vince, it is Clive Newsome here. Would you be able to come in and see me at my office on Monday morning?'

  'That shouldn't be a problem. What is it about?'

  'It's a bit complicated so I'll tell you all about it on Monday.'

  'What time could you get to me by? How about 10.00am?'

  'That should be fine; the rush hour should be over by then.'

  'I'll see you on Monday then.' He rang off.

  Clive Newsome had been one my clients on the last investigation. He was Managing Director of a large luxury vehicle dealership in London and was also Chairman of an association of luxury car dealerships. As far as I knew he owned the dealership and made good money from it. I had been called in when there was a spate of expensive vehicle car thefts. Together with the police I had helped smash an international syndicate who were shipping the stolen cars over the channel and across Europe. Unfortunately, despite breaking the chain, we hadn't been able to uncover the mastermind behind the whole operation. Most of the stolen cars had been recovered in a major operation involving Interpol that covered many different European countries.

  As well as cars, luxury motor yachts and valuable paintings had been stolen and shipped to Turkey for re-distribution to very wealthy clients.

  My curiosity was aroused. What did Clive want to see me about? I decided that it would be better if I didn't tell Daphne about the proposed meeting with Clive. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, and I wanted her to believe that I was having nothing more to do with my previous cases.