We selected what we wanted to eat and drink and found a vacant table. The owner said that his son would bring our order over to us.
'First thing Rod,' I said as soon as I had sat down. 'Have you any news of Brian's son?'
'Yes and, thankfully, its good news. John Griffiths came out of his coma last Sunday morning, and he is doing remarkably well. There also looks to be no permanent damage to his brain so the chances are good that he will make a full recovery.'
'That's great news. Brian must be euphoric.'
'He came and saw me on Monday morning to thank me for all that I had done for John. While he was with me, he donated a large sum of money to the Rehab, which I will use to purchase equipment that we badly need.' Rod looked very pleased.
'What do you need so urgently?'
'I want to have our own resuscitation equipment on site here so as we can deal with young guys who are brought her in an unconscious state. Sometimes the ambulance takes a long time to get here and the addict suffering the overdose can get permanent brain damage while they wait.'
'Brian is obviously very grateful for what you did for him and his son.'
'You know Vince if Brian spent more time with his son and gave him quality time that would be a much better present for me. Parents who get a guilt complex because they have failed their child think that their guilty feeling can be assuaged by money. Their sons don't want money they want the love of a father.'
'I must take that lesson on board myself, Rod. My son Michael is thirteen, and I am seldom at home to keep an eye on him or to give him fatherly love and support. In fact, my wife is insisting that I abandon my job as a Private Investigator as I am away so much and also it is such a dangerous occupation.'
'You know the saying Vince, if the cap fits…..'
'I feel suitably chastised by what you have told me about Brian and his son.' Rod had brought it home to me as to how vulnerable my children were. I was leaving it all to my wife, and that was stupid as she couldn't be a father as well as a mother.
'I am very hopeful that the significant drugs bust that we were part of will help my situation in Melbourne,' Rod continued. 'The drugs squad confiscated a planeload of cocaine at the airport in Peppimenarti, and there were also other items on that flight. That large shipment won't get onto the streets of Australia. They also captured a significant number of hardened criminals who were responsible for the supply chain. Finally, in addition to all that, the big boss, Luigi Bandarella, was killed.'
'In fact, all in all, we did quite a good job,' I said. I felt quite proud to have been a part of it.
'Have you talked to Stuart since we got back?' Rod asked me.
'No, though Tony was talking to him, and we are probably going to see him at his home in Fern Tree Gully on Saturday. He seems to be back on his feet and is spending time getting his family back to normal.'
'It must have been very scary for his wife and children to be abducted and held captive for such a long time,' Rod surmised.
'I was there when they were released from the house in Dromana, and they seemed to be in remarkably good shape. They were naturally worried about Stuart as they had no idea where he was and if he was in danger.'
I spent another half-an-hour with Rod until he received a telephone call from one his staff at the Rehab. The young guy, who I had heard shouting, had gone off the rails again, and Rod was the only person that he wanted to talk to. We shook hands, and he rushed off to deal with his problem child. I went back into the centre of Melbourne and had a wander round looking at some of the sites that I hadn't seen.
Saturday we did go to Stuart's for a barbecue which brought back memories of the previous party that had been held at his house just before the family were abducted. Stuart showed us the extra security he had installed around his property. We also met the large dog he had obtained to protect the family.
'It's like Fort Knox, Stuart,' Tony said having seen the new security arrangements.
'It won't stop somebody who is determined to get in, but it will act as a deterrent which is all that I can do living out in this part of the world.'
'What about the Air King 250, has that been recovered yet?' I asked him.
'You bet your life it has. The Insurance Company was very relieved it had been found, and they actually organized for it to be flown back to our base at Tullamarine.'
'That sounds like a superb end to the whole affair,' I said. I had a strong feeling that this was an excellent way for my trip to Australia to end. I felt that I had now completed the full circle. I had been on holiday with Daphne up until the first barbecue at Stuart's house. I had then switched into Private Investigator mode. With the job finished, I could now switch back into family mode and return to the UK as a retired army officer.
We said our goodbyes. It was quite an emotional time as a special bond had developed between our two families as a result of the stressful events that had occurred. There were plenty of man hugs when we parted.
All too soon it was Sunday evening, and my brother and his family were dropping me off at the airport to catch my flight home. I was flying Etihad Airways, which was a new airline for me, I just hoped that the flight would be to a high enough standard as it was a long way.
It was a sorrowful parting at the security gate into the departure area. There were a lot of hugs and tears. Up to this holiday, my brother and I had not been particularly close. He had his life as an engineer, and I mine in the army. The last few weeks, when we had spent a lot of time together in dangerous situations, had brought us a lot closer. Peter gave me an extra special hug and said that he was coming over to visit me very soon.
I was apparently getting soft as there was a tear in my eye when I parted from them.
The Etihad flight turned out to be excellent, and the fact that we went through Abu Dhabi made the period of each section more suitable for sleeping. I arrived back in London Heathrow at midday the following day. That, of course, was ten hours later in Australia.
It was a no-brainer to take the luxury of a Taxi from the Airport to my home rather than face the ordeal of the London Underground. I was quite sore from the twenty-three hours of sitting in one place on the flight.
I decided to surprise Victoria and go and pick her up from her school. A very surprised look greeted me when she came out and saw me standing there. We went home via the boutique where Daphne worked and also paid a visit to the sweet shop. I also bought a treat for Michael at the sweet shop so as he wouldn't feel left out when he got home. It was good to be back with my family, but how different the cramped streets of Putney were compared with the vast open spaces of Melbourne. It was also a typical London day with drizzle moistening the greyness.
'Well, Vince you had plenty of thinking time on the long flight from Australia to consider your future?' Daphne said when we sat down for a chat in the front room later that day, each with a glass of wine in our hand.
'I learnt a lot of lessons while I was in Australia. The most important of which was that teenagers need their fathers around.'
'Don't forget your wife also needs her husband around.'
'I was going to get to that bit,' I replied. 'I have left you to bring up the kids on your own and haven't been around. I thought that you preferred it that way. But I now realise that I left you with no option, you just had to get on with it.'
'So are you saying that you have decided to retire gracefully from your role as a Private Investigator and find something that will keep you at home?'
'I have decided that I will be here all the time when Michael and Victoria are not in school and that I will take them to and from school as long as they want me to. I will also be here to help them with homework.'
'I don't believe what I am hearing Vince. I am delighted that we are actually going to experience family life for the first time in our married lives.' Daphne leant over and gave me a hug and a kiss. 'What brought about this significant shift in your priorities?'
'I met a guy called Rod Ch
arlesworth who runs a Drug Rehab centre in St Kilda. He convinced me that my most important role in life was to be a proper father, and he spelt out what that meant.'
'Good for Rod; he must be quite a guy to have done such a good job on you.'
'I was so impressed with the work that he is doing that I have decided to see if I can get involved in a similar centre around this area of London.'
'Now, that sounds like an excellent idea and you will at last be able to operate on a daily basis from your home.' Daphne was euphoric. She could hardly believe what she was hearing.
'I'll take Michael to school tomorrow morning and see where he is at. I am looking forward to being a stay at home Dad.'
'Have you any loose ends to tie up in England as a result of your case in Australia?'
'I have two things that I need to do in the next few days. After that, I will be finished.'
'What have you got to do?' she asked me.
'I have to give Inspector Baird of Hampstead CID some information that he may find useful. I also promised Clive Newsome that I would contact his wife for him to tell her how he is. She knows that he has been arrested, but she doesn't know what for and how long he will be detained.'
'I will expect you in full family mode after that.' She smiled.
My telephone conversation with the Inspector was interesting to say the least. In fact, he insisted on meeting me for a pint so as he could hear the full story. He said that he would do a follow up on the three names that I had given him. One was already known to him, but the other two were new.
'So are you available to give me a hand if I need your skills, Vince?' the Inspector asked me when we met in the afternoon in the pub in Parsons Green.
'No, definitely not. I am retiring from my role as a PI with immediate effect. I am strongly thinking of offering my services to a local drug rehab centre if I can find one so as I can do some good and still be at home to be a good Dad.'
I then told him of my involvement with Rod and the work that he was doing in Melbourne. I also told him about Brian Griffiths and his son.
'I am sorry that we won't be able to work together again Vince, but I fully understand why you are organizing your life to better look after your family. I will give you a call if anything develops relating to these names you have given me as no doubt you would be interested to hear.'
We both stood up and shook hands. I would miss the Inspector as he had become a friend.
I set off for the tube back to Putney, and he left to return to Hampstead in his car.
The following day I phoned Clive Newsome's wife Carol to find out if I could visit her. She sounded very upset on the phone, but she agreed to see me. I was not looking forward to the meeting as I hadn't worked out exactly what I was going to say. She lived in a townhouse in St John's Wood close to where her husband had his business. We made an appointment for the following morning when she said that her one child, who was still living at home, would be at school. The other two she said were at boarding school
She lived in number 32 Cochrane Street, which was a short walk from St John's Wood underground station. Our appointment was for eleven o'clock.
It was with a lot of trepidation that I pressed the doorbell. Much to my surprise the door was answered by a matronly Philippino lady dressed in a maid's uniform.
My second surprise came when I was shown into the front room where Carol Newsome was seated at a coffee table. She got up to greet me.
As soon as she turned her face towards me I realised that I knew her. It was an older version of the girl I had known, but this was definitely Carol Knowles. I had lived two doors away from her in Rainham where I had been brought up for the first eighteen years of my life with my parents.
She was the first to speak.
'Vince Hamilton it is you; this is an extraordinary coincidence. I thought that it was you on the phone when you rang me, but you introduced yourself as Vince Hamilton and not with an army rank.' She didn't look as surprised as I was.
'I gave up my rank when I was invalided out of the army and I am just plain old Vince Hamilton now.'
'I remember that you moved away from our street when you were nineteen, and I only saw you very infrequently after that. You used to come home from leave dressed in your uniform looking every bit the dashing soldier.'
'Yes, I remember those times. I used to hope that you would be around as I think that I fancied you then.'
'And then you married a girl from Maidstone if I remember right, breaking all the local girls’ hearts including mine,' she said.
'Anyway Vince, you are here to tell me all about Clive and what he has been up to. We can discuss Rainham later.'
'How much do you know about the trouble that Clive has got himself into?'
'Assume that I know nothing, and then you won't leave anything out,' she replied.
'Are you aware that Clive's business was having financial problems over the last couple of years?'
'No, we always seemed to have plenty of money and he never mentioned that he had financial problems. Two of the boys are away at an expensive boarding school, and we have a Nanny to help me with the youngest one.'
'Well his outgoings far exceeded his earnings, and he borrowed a large amount from a Mafia boss named Luigi Bandarella. He was unable to pay back the money, and he was then made to carry out tasks for the Mafia. He was trapped in a vicious cycle.'
'I knew he used to meet an Italian quite often and he seemed to be very agitated after each meeting. He said that the Italian was the boss of Maserati and, of course, Clive sold their cars through his dealership, so I wasn’t suspicious.'
'When all the luxury cars were being stolen about nine months ago he contracted me to do some private investigative work for him. It now turns out that he was behind the thefts, so I am feeling a bit of a fool. That's when I got to know him.'
'So you knew Clive before you met him in Australia?' she asked me.
'Yes, and then I bumped into him at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. He was with Luigi Bandarella when I met him.'
'What happened then?'
'He was involved in the abduction of a pilot called Stuart Smith and his family. In fact, he was responsible for guarding the wife and the two children who were imprisoned in a house about fifty kilometres from Melbourne.'
'Clive was actually responsible for keeping the family hostage.'
'That's right; so he is in deep trouble now. In fact, if anything had happened to Stuart Smith he would presently be on a murder charge. He is a very lucky man that he isn't facing a twenty-five-year sentence.'
'My God how terrible, how could have done such a thing.’ She couldn’t believe what she was hearing about her sedate husband. ‘So how long is he likely to be put away for?'
'I would think around ten years. In his favour is the fact that he gave up without a fight, in fact, it was quite comical as his accomplice in the kidnapping ran away leaving Clive to face a vast number of armed police on his own.'
'So you think that he could get about ten years,' she offered.
'With good behaviour he might be out in five or six years. He told me that he was going to apply to be transferred to prison in the UK so he can be closer to his family for visits etc.'
'You must be joking; I never want to see him again. He has left us penniless. I am going to have to sell this house, which luckily is in both our names. Both the boys who are at boarding school will have to leave and come home. They will have to go to a local state school.'
'One thing that you have to remember Carol is that he borrowed the money for you and your boys. Once they had him, if he hadn't agreed to work for Luigi he would have been killed. That fact will help in his defence when the case comes to court. Please don't give up on him as he has suffered enough,' I pleaded. I had a lot of sympathy for Clive Newsome even though he had been a bloody idiot.
'Will you help me sort all this out Vince. I can't do it on my own, and you are the only one who knows what has happene
d who I can trust. I don't want to tell people of my changed circumstances and that Clive is in prison.'
'It is best you tell people Carol, they will find out anyway.'
'Will you please help me Vince just for old time's sake?'
I actually was feeling quite emotional about what had happened to her. We had been close friends when we had both lived in Rainham. I had been a little older than her, and she had always looked on me as she would an elder brother.
'I'll do what I can Carol but only on the understanding that you talk to the rest of your immediate family and inform them what has happened.'
'So if I do that you will support me through this.'
'Yes, I will act as your big brother as I used to do before.'
'The boys are coming back from their boarding school on their half term break on Friday. Will you come and explain to them what has happened to their father. I don't think that I could do it.'
'Yes, I'll do that for you. I will phone you tomorrow to fix a time when you want me here.'
'Will you stay for some lunch, Vince?'
'No Carol, I need to get home as I have things to do.' I thought it better that I get out before we got too close as we were currently both very emotional.
'Thanks for coming to see me.' She leant over, put her hands on my arms and kissed me on my cheek. She started to cry. I had two options open to me, comfort her with all that entailed or ignore her tears and leave. It was safer that the nanny looked after her.
As I walked towards St John's Wood tube station, I wondered what I was getting myself into. Supporting Carol through the trauma she would have to go through over the next few months certainly hadn't been on my agenda and had a degree of danger in it.
BOOKS BY PATRICK SLANEY
Historical Romance
The Smiles and Tears of Love
Family/War
Danger Down Under: Another Vince Hamilton Investigation Page 22
