Book 1 - Maddison Fame: Recovery - The Series, #1

MADDISON FAME

When Robbie Kew retired early from a varied working life, which included the duties of Secretary to Members of Parliament, Researcher, Primary School Teacher, and Bank Manager, she began to take writing classes and discovered the joy of writing short stories. At the same time Robbie decided to study for the Bachelor of Arts degree she had always wanted.  This was the start of a new world. She now has many degrees including a Masters in Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism and a Post Graduate Diploma in Writing. Her qualifications provide an excellent background for story writing.

At present Robbie teaches writing classes called Book Writers’ Workshop with the University of the Third Age (U3A) and is happy to have finally completed her first series of novels. Recovery - The Series contains four books. It is the story of a family’s secrets and crimes, and the deceit that follows it through generations.

A second series is underway.

She is also writing a series of small books on a variety of writing topics called - Write a Book Series: A Beginner’s Guide - WRITE YOUR FIRST NOVEL NOW. So far she has published 9 books in the series.

Robbie lives in Australia, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. She is divorced, has one lovely daughter, and three exciting grand children.

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Also by Robbie Kew

Recovery - The Series -

Book 1 - MADDISON FAME

Book 2 - A MADDISON RECOVERY

Book 3 - HEIRS OF MADDISON

Book 4 - LUCKY FOR MADDISON

and

Write A Book Series: A Beginner’s Guide —

WRITE YOUR FIRST NOVEL NOW

Book 1. Start in 6 Easy Steps

Book 2. Motivation, Commitment, and Planning

Book 3. The Outline

Book 4. Getting to know your characters

Book 5. On Chapters

Book 6. On Structure

Book 7. The First Draft

Book 8. On Revision and Editing

Book 9. On Publishing

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Recovery  -  The Series

A Family Saga of Suspense, Crime, and Romance

Book 1

MADDISON

FAME

Robbie Kew

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Copyright © 2017 Robbie Kew

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the owner of the copyright.

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For Warren

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1

The Phone call

As life-changing events go, that phone call was right up there.

The sound of the phone at 11pm immediately made her anxious—a premonition, perhaps, but phone contact at that hour was rarely good news.

Lia, it’s your mother. She is missing, she was told.

Lia took a moment to understand.

She had given a small party for her father’s 75th birthday so she was still up and putting the living room back in some order. It had been a lovely, relaxed and happy night – just Lia’s partner Gordano, her close family and some old family friends. The close family were all staying for the weekend and everyone had gone to bed. For the party she had filled the room with Freesias and organised a continuous background of soft string quartets. These were the favourite things of her father - her mother as well. But Eve, Lia’s mother wasn’t at the party - her parents had divorced many years ago, and her mother was off living her own dreams. Lia was still feeling the sheer pleasure of the perfume and background music, and almost on a high of contentment when the sound of the phone startled her. She turned the music down.

The caller was Clive Hassett, a friend of both Lia and her mother. Clive worked at the university with Eve.

Lia, I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but I know you are strong. We need your help Lia, Eve is missing.

Missing! she repeated stupidly. But ... missing from where? ... How?

Lia, I won’t beat around the bush with you. I know your background and your insights might help. You know that along with what she did at the university, your mother was also in training with ASIS. They think and so do I, that this may have to do with her Intelligence work. After a pause, he said clearly Lia, please listen carefully to what I’m about to say. We are telling you because of your Intelligence background and because you will be helpful to us. But - and this is vital - under no circumstances must you tell anyone else that your mother is missing.

Oh! Not even my ...

No one! Absolutely no one! Do you understand? Promise me! I know it will be hard for you, but you must promise.

Yes, I understand Clive. Yes, OK, I promise.

Lia’s mother, Eve had a Masters degree in Policing Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. She did part-time tutoring and lecturing at the university to keep her up-to-date and give her some income while she worked towards her PhD. Clive was her PhD mentor and he was also an ASIS agent. A while back, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) - Australia’s overseas secret intelligence collection agency - had offered her training, and Lia knew that recently they had given her a specific role. Not bad for a 68 year old, Lia thought - she was so proud of her mother’s achievements.

Clive, Lia said, she told me a couple of days ago that she was heading off to Italy as a tourist as her cover. I didn’t know any detail of course. Did she fly to Rome or somewhere further south?

She was booked to Naples, but she didn’t make it to the plane. She’s disappeared somewhere between her last lecture here and her flight. ASIS agents are trying to track her movements. They’re at her house now.

Oh, God! Clive she rang me yesterday from home. She was collecting her stuff and getting ready to leave for the airport. She said an ASIS agent had just been in touch and said he would take her to the airport so he could give her a final briefing on the way.

That’s funny! Clive sounded tense. Hang on Lia! I’ll get my ASIS contact on the line with us. Wait!

Lia had been an Intelligence agent and so had her husband, Warren, before he had been killed five years ago. She took early retirement after his death, but she kept in touch and so she wasn’t suspicious about Eve being driven to the airport by her handler. That was acceptable practice.

Lia, Hi, I’m David. I’m Eve’s section head. Nice to meet you, I’ve long been an admirer of your work. I’m at Eve’s house. Clive just told me about your conversation with your mother. I’ve got her handler here with me. He didn’t pick her up and as far as he knew she was getting a cab. So, Lia, you know we’ve got a problem.

Her mind was racing. Who could it have been, and why? This was her mother’s first assignment and she hadn’t even started.

David, why? She hadn’t started her investigation yet, so what use would she be to anyone. I’m puzzled ... except ... Clive are you still there, did she talk to you at all about Italy?

Not really, but ... Clive hesitated. She often mentioned Italy because that’s where your husband died. She was very fond of him, and I guess you know she still had trouble accepting the circumstances of his death.

Her mind led her further into the mire. That’s a good point Clive. Can I ask you David - was her assignment a Mafia investigation? Was it in any way related to my husband’s death? I know you can’t say much, but ...

After a hesitation, David’s reply was a definite Yes, and yes.

Lia’s husband had been investigating the extent of Mafia money in Australia. He believed that the huge amount of money involved led to heavy corruption in business and financial circles, and this created a threat to the democracy of politics in Australia. He was sent on assignment to Italy to investigate, but he was killed in a horrific road accident.

David, Lia said, there was an investigation at the time, apart from the official Italian police version. I was still an agent then and although I was necessarily excluded from the investigation team, I was kept up with all of ASIS’ findings.

David said softly, Lia, I’m sorry ...

She could feel anger rising. Keep calm she told herself - be professional. The finding at the time, David, was that there was nothing sinister involved, that Warren’s death was purely a very unfortunate accident, she said as calmly as she could.

Yes, was his reply, but nothing else.

So ... What’s this?

The Mafia investigation had to continue after Warren’s death. It has been ongoing.

For five years? she questioned.

Yes, he said placatingly. You know that’s not unusual. You know it’s a big issue Lia. It is an ongoing security problem for Australia.

I understand that, but what about my husband. Was that finding of accidental death a doctored thing for my benefit? Lia was struggling to keep calm as her suspicion grew.

Lia, he said softly.

Clive intervened. Lia, your mother never ... he stumbled over the words, she couldn’t believe ... she didn’t want to accept ...

Now Lia shouted My mother! What about me? Warren was the love of my life. It was terrible. I still have nightmares about how badly he was damaged in the crash. I couldn’t even go and identify him, or say goodbye because he was so torn apart. I still suffer, she yelled. What’s this with my mother?

Lia, David said, everyone in the organisation felt for you at the time. We didn’t want you to go through any more than you had to.

So, was that finding false?

No, not really!

What does that mean?

We could find no evidence at the time ... we were suspicious, but ...  in the end we had to let it go, but we kept an open mind and always kept our eyes and ears open.

Someone should have told me ... she could have cried.

It would have made your pain worse, Lia, you must understand that.

So why now? What’s happened now?

Your mother ...

My mother again! What the hell’s my mother got to do with it?

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2

Lia and Warren

Lia was shaking after the call.  She had agreed to calm herself and await their call in the morning. Clive was going to act as liaison between the investigators and Lia and promised to let her know everything they did.

She knew she must be calm in order to operate effectively, but she also knew that she needed to think through past events now, as painful as it might be. The music was suddenly annoying. She turned if off, poured herself a glass of wine and sat by the fire and stared into it.

Lia and Warren had met when they were teenagers, still in school. They were instantly in love and inseparable, even though Lia’s mother disapproved. The relationship survived everything. Just as Lia finished school she discovered she was pregnant. Eve’s anger was clear and the young couple made plans for a hurried wedding. Lia miscarried, but they went ahead with their plans. Soon after the wedding they both began their university courses. As time passed both were separately recruited to the Australia’s intelligence services. Lia had initially been active in ASIO operations. Warren went to ASIS - the overseas collection arm - for training. After some years, Lia found that her real skills were in investigation and analysis and she accepted the offer to join ASIS as a senior analyst.

It was Lia’s work that uncovered much of the information related to the involvement of several Mafia families in business and political dealings in Australia. Mostly, heads of these families had migrated to Australia many years earlier and established themselves, predominantly based in Melbourne. Unfortunately, more was known about their dealings than their actual identities. The Mafia code of silence protected the top figures, in particular the Don and his Consigliere, or right-hand man. However, it appeared that the dominant family was still led, to a large extent, by a Godfather in Italy. Much of that family’s money from illicit dealings was being channelled back to Italy.

Warren was the agent chosen to meet with undercover ASIS agents in Italy in an attempted ‘sting’ to trap the heads of the Australian Mafia, both at home and in Italy. He had been there for two months feeding back information, when his car was caught between the crash of two petrol tankers. The car was torn to shreds. What remained of Warren’s body was returned to Australia for burial. At the gravesite Lia was inconsolable. Hours later she had to be physically lifted off the mound of soil that covered the coffin.

Thereafter, Lia struggled with her work. Her concentration was poor, as was her detachment. She was seeing the Mafia in everything. She still felt that the Mafia was responsible for Warren’s death, even though she kept being reassured that it was simply an unrelated accident. Her pain made her doubt her judgement, and she was still realistic enough to know that she was probably just trying to find someone to blame. Lia was a professional, she was at the top of her field and highly respected as an analyst and because of her professional devotion, she realised that she could not safely carry out her work while in this state of mind.  Her superiors offered all kinds of help, including counselling, generous time off to recover, or should she choose, a generous early retirement package.

Hector, Lia’s father was a very wealthy man. He encouraged Lia to retire now. This was partly for selfish motives since he had never liked her chosen area of work. With her own money and the proceeds of Warren’s estate she could be comfortable, but just to be sure Hector signed over to her a property portfolio that made her a very wealthy woman. He wanted to make sure she didn’t want for anything. But all that she really wanted was Warren, and that Hector couldn’t help with.

Lia retired, and after a long holiday in the sun, she returned and began life as a case handler in an agency dealing with immigrants and refugees. She came to enjoy the work and to feel that she was doing something good in the world. In her capacity she had often to deal with legal people and it was in this capacity that she again met up with Gordano Lucini. Lia had first met him when the firm he worked for was handling Warren’s settlement. Simpson, Slater & Murtagh was a prestigious law firm and later, Hector chose them to represent Lia’s side of the transaction when he transferred the property portfolio to her. Gordano handled the matter on the firm’s behalf and he was kind, respectful and easy to deal with.

So when they met up again a year or so later, it seems they slipped easily into a friendship that quickly developed into a love affair. Lia needed to be loved as much as she needed someone to love. Gordano was absolutely smitten, while Lia was flattered by such attention from a younger man. She was 43 and Gordano was 37.

Thinking about it now as the fire flickered, she needed his support. She felt that she was lucky to have found him when she did. He made life bearable at a time when she was still suffering. He had always been so kind, so attentive, and so ... well he had that Latin romantic