Substack Exclusive: The First 2 Chapters Of The New Blake Langford Adventure; Wheel Of Deception
Wheel Of Deception is the fourth novel in the Blake Langford Adventures series and the first to be set across two separate timelines over seventy years apart. These first two chapters set up the storylines and my Substack readers can get an exclusive preview before the book is released on 1st September 2024.
Chapter One
A Mother’s Love
Thursday 2nd October 2008
Blake Langford breathlessly crossed the finish line and glugged a mouthful of water down as his team completed the assault course at RAF Upper Heyford. The cool liquid provided welcome relief as the former air force base provided the ideal facilities for Special Branch to push their agents through endurance tests that would serve them well as they travelled around the world.
“You improved your time from last year,” Alison Pearce smiled as she showed him the times for their team.
Samir and Joe eventually caught up a few moments later. The training facility was just what Blake needed after taking some long overdue leave from Special Branch. His last case, investigating the trafficking of students in and out of London, had taken its toll on him. Having the break allowed him to come back refreshed and ready to take on a new challenge.
“I see you can move your ass when you want to,” Joe laughed.
“Kicking a football around a field with my son keeps me young. Anyway, you’re not doing too bad yourself for being three months out of hospital.”
“It’ll take more than an exploding shed to keep me down.”
“Speaking of which, have you found any leads from Zodiac or Reaper?”
“We’re still looking into it but nothing so far,” Samir replied.
“What about The Crystal?” Blake asked.
“All major operations have been shut down but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any streams going in from the dark web,” Joe replied.
“Keep me posted if you find anything,” Blake said before picking up his towel and heading towards the changing rooms.
Joe and Samir watched him as he left.
“Do you think he’s ready to come back?” Samir asked.
“Grief can change a lot of people but I’ve known Blake for a long time. He’s like a dog with a bone. As soon as he grabs hold, he won’t let go. Come on, two more circuits then we’ll go for a beer,” Joe replied before running back to the start line.
Samir watched Blake and Alison leave before following Joe to the start line. He felt uneasy about their alliance but knew he had to keep them close if he was to find out how much they knew about his involvement in The Crystal.
Alison met Blake outside after he had changed his clothes and returned to the car park. They walked from the main entrance together. “I didn’t want to mention it in front of the other two but I think Joe is pushing himself too hard,” she said as they arrived at Blake’s car.
“In what way?”
“Trying to prove himself again. Samir led him into a dangerous situation that almost cost him his life.”
“You don’t trust Samir?”
Alison sighed. “It’s not that, it’s just…”
“We all have skeletons in our past that we’d rather hide away from. Samir admitted his mistakes. It takes a lot to admit to bribes in front of Eric and not be concerned for your future in Special Branch.”
“Joe told me that Samir and Zodiac were friends. He was willing to cut Zodiac a deal in exchange for information. That deal led them to the house where Joe was almost killed.”
“Do you think it was deliberate or did Zodiac lead them into a trap?” Blake asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading too much into this but something is off. I’m not sure what it is but I just have this feeling.”
“Personally or professionally?”
“What do you mean?”
“Samir and you were close for a while.”
“That was a long time ago, Blake. He’s changed.”
“In what way?”
“The job makes us all a lot harder. It takes a lot longer to let people in.”
“Does having Samir in the team make you feel uneasy?”
“I loved him once. Now he’s more like a brother. He’s good at his job and can be a valuable asset. I just don’t know if I’d trust him to have my back if I was in trouble. He led Joe into that garden and the explosion left him severely burnt. We split when I realised that he’d rather save his own skin than mine.”
Blake thought about that for a moment. “What are you doing this afternoon?”
“I have to visit my mother in Basingstoke. It’s her birthday tomorrow and I promised I’d go and see her.”
Blake thought of his own mother who had died from a stroke only six months ago.
Alison noticed his demeanour change. “I’m sorry Blake, I didn’t…”
“It’s okay, it just doesn’t seem real sometimes.”
“A mother’s love is never forgotten.”
Blake pulled out a photo from his jacket pocket and showed it to Alison. There were two men and two women in the photo which looked like it had been taken on Lepe Beach many years ago. There were also three children playing in the sand in front of them, two boys and a girl. “Soon after Mum’s death, I received a key to a safe deposit box in London. This photo was inside the box.”
“I didn’t realise anyone still used safe deposit boxes anymore,” Alison replied as she looked at the photo. “Is this your grandparents with their children?”
“The two boys are my father John and his brother Fred. The girl is Edith Wise, my mum’s older sister who died in 1956. My father’s parents are there and so is my grandmother on Mum’s side but nobody seems to be able to identify the man with his arm around my grandmother,” Blake explained.
“Could’ve been a family friend?”
“Family friends didn’t hold each other like that in 1948.”
“How do you know when it was taken?”
Blake turned the photo over and showed the date on the back.
“Do you think there’s more to it than that?” Alison asked.
“The family solicitor has asked to see Jenny, Steven and myself tomorrow for the reading of Mum’s will. Apparently, there was a delay due to the contents of the will and the need to find out everyone who is due to inherit from it.”
“Surely it should just be you three as Emily’s children.”
“Apparently not but none of us ever knew the contents of my parents’ wills when they wrote them around the time of their marriage in 1977. Anyway, Steven can’t make it so it’ll just be Jenny and me going.”
“I’m sure it’s just a formality. You know how these solicitors like to drag things out for maximum fees.”
Blake nodded. “If you’re concerned about Samir, I could ask Eric Gordon to consider moving him off of the team.”
“If he can keep the partnership professional then so can I.”
“Trusting your team can be the difference between life and death.”
“Then I hope I can trust all three of you when it counts,” Alison smiled.
Blake replaced the photo in his pocket. “I guess you’re right. I’ll see you soon.”
Alison headed over towards her car as Blake climbed inside his. He knew what Alison was saying was logical but something was still eating away at him. He just wasn’t sure what.
***
The following day, Blake and his sister Jenny, arrived at Cartwright And Sons Solicitors on Bond Street, London. After a short wait, they were ushered inside one of the offices and sat opposite a large mahogany desk.
“Here we have the last will and testament of Emily Avis Jane Langford along with a scroll that was given to Cartwright Solicitors when the will was made,” Julia Cartwight explained as she handed Blake the scroll.
Blake unrolled the scroll to reveal a letter dated August 12th 1977. A crumpled piece of yellow paper fell out of it and landed next to Jenny’s foot. She carefully picked it up and noticed that it seemed to form part of a map.
“This was written the day before our parents were married,” Jenny said as she read the scroll.
“Yes, your father, John Langford, was also present at the time. Your mother thought it important that the exact details of her will were kept quiet until she had passed away. Obviously, other interested parties will have been contacted after her death,” Julia confirmed.
“What other parties? Us two and our brother Steven are her only living relatives!” Blake replied.
“That’s not strictly true Mr Langford. You see, the will includes a benefaction that came from her late father. She was entitled to just over sixteen and a half percent of this benefaction if it was ever claimed.”
“I don’t understand. When our grandfather, William Handanowicz, died, the estate was split between the family.”
“William Handanowicz was not Emily’s father. The will contains a HM25 clause in it.”
“What’s a HM25 clause?”
“Harvey Matchbox twenty-five is a clause where a large benefaction is split through several members of the extended family. The benefaction comes from a sum of money that was written off in 1940. That money, if found, would be split six ways between the surviving relatives of your mother, Emily Handanowicz, now Langford, Evelyn Handanowicz, Victor Wise, Frederick Langford, Mary Langford and Patricia Hughes.”
Blake sat back in his chair struggling to piece the information together. “Who put the benefaction in place?”
“Someone by the name of Jack Walter Smith, who died August 21st 1948.”
“Does this mean Jack Smith was our grandfather?” Jenny asked.
“That scroll confirms that when Jack Smith died in 1948, the gold that was robbed from a bank in Portsmouth in 1938 and then written off two years later, was left as inheritance to his children. The problem was, the gold was buried and eight pieces of the map were given to relatives to keep safe. You have the first piece of the map. If you find the other seven pieces, it will give you the location of the gold.”
Blake laughed. “I’m sorry but I’m not buying this treasure map fairytale. What the hell is going on here and even if this is true, how come nobody else has uncovered this in the past seventy years?”
“You’re right to be sceptical Mr Langford but I have been doing some digging myself and it all seems to line up,” Julia confirmed.
“How much gold is there?” Jenny asked.
“Nobody knows for sure, but the estimated value of what was taken by my calculations would be in the region of three million pounds.”
Blake shook his head. “My family come from a long line of law-abiding people, Miss Cartwright. I worked my way through the police force, so did my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather. Are you saying that they covered this all up? And if so, why?”
“All I have is what Emily Handanowicz placed on file in August 1977 right before her marriage to your father, John Langford.”
“Why was this all contained in our mother’s will?” Jenny asked. “Why haven’t the other beneficiaries had the same information that we have?”
“Emily was very protective of her family. She took on the burden to protect not just her three children but the entire family. Now that her secret is out, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the beneficiaries will come knocking. Until then, the estate will be held in trust until everybody’s whereabouts and connection to this benefaction have been accounted for.”
“But my mother, Emily, my uncle Fred and aunt Mary are all dead,” Blake explained.
“That may be so but the remaining few are still alive. Mary and Fred had no children. You are Emily’s children hence the benefaction was triggered after her death and you stand to inherit her share.”
“So what do we do now?” Jenny asked.
“If I were you, I’d speak to as many family members and friends of the family that you can and try to figure out what really happened in 1938 which led to Jack Smith leaving his fortune to your family ten years later,” Julia replied.
***
In a rundown two bedroom basement flat in south-east London, Tom Gibson walked out into the back garden as rain fell heavily. He wandered over to a brick shed and unlocked a silver padlock. He opened the door and tossed a carrier bag of food into the dimly lit space. Pleading eyes came from a young woman caged behind steel bars at the back of the shed. She quickly gathered the food out of the bag and began to eat the stale bread he had given her. Her eyes bloodshot from crying and a combination of sedatives gave her a vacant appearance. Tom closed the door and locked the padlock once again before heading back inside the flat.
He began tapping away on a laptop, connecting investors to crypto-currency in a program known as The Crystal as the front door slammed shut.
A blonde haired woman appeared in the doorway of the lounge. “Any news from Andrea?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Tom lied. “I’m sure she’ll let us know when she’s back.”
“You have a letter here.”
He turned to face her as she handed him the brown envelope with Cartwright And Sons Solicitors printed on it. He opened it and smiled as he read the letter.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Of course,” Tom smiled as he quickly searched for obituaries on his laptop. He turned the screen to face her.
“Emily Langford?”
“Don’t you see what this means Jade?”
She shook her head.
“Emily Langford was the missing piece. She held the second piece of the map. With her death, the inheritance moves to Blake. It was only a matter of time. When he discovers his whole life was built on a lie, it’ll finish him!”
Jade moved towards him. “Don’t you think this obsession with the Langfords is going too far?”
Tom glared at her. “I was never good enough in John Langford’s eyes for his precious daughter. They stole what was rightfully ours. Our inheritance, our futures! How the hell can you defend them?”
“Jenny Langford was my friend in Uni. She’d never deliberately go out and hurt anybody.”
“Yet she failed to tell you that she was your cousin.”
“She probably didn’t know.”
“Probably,” Tom huffed. “That family covers up more than a corrupt politician!”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Money changes people.”
“No, it changed you. If it wasn’t for Samir letting Zodiac go, he’d have taken you down with him.”
“Zodiac knows what to do. If Emily had the declaration in her will then her brother James must have the next piece.”
“Aren’t you getting too old for all this Indiana Jones stuff? How do you know if there really is treasure to be found?” Jade asked.
“Jack Smith was my grandfather. He robbed a bank in 1938 and got away with it. After the war, he planned to give it all to my mother Patricia but he died before he had the chance to. She had to grow up in foster care because Blake Langford’s great-grandfather couldn’t keep his nose out of her business. Those bastards have been corrupting the police force for four generations. Playing the self-righteous detectives and sergeants throughout whilst their wives were sleeping around. My grandfather survived the war, he had his fun and then the Langfords killed him to make sure his secret remained hidden. Not anymore.”
“Your mother was in foster care from when she was a baby. How the hell do you know if she was even telling the truth?”
Tom reached inside a drawer under his desk and pulled out an old metal cigarette case. He opened it and inside was a lock of light brown hair. “When my mother was given up for adoption, Jack gave her a lock of his hair in this cigarette box. It was proof that she was his daughter. It has since been DNA tested. It is our blood line Jade! He planned to come back for her. Then the bombing started. He went off to fight in the war and my grandmother, Ada, was killed in one of the blasts near Portsmouth. When he returned, injured from battle, he found out that she had been killed. He slept with two of the nurses who cared for him before deserting. When he returned to the south coast, he found out what really happened the night his daughter, Patricia, was given up and it cost him his life. It was the talk of the city for many years after. That’s why she came back to London and I vowed to make amends one day.”
Jade watched as Tom held a photo of his mother in his hands and traced the outline of her face with his finger. She turned and left him heading towards the bedroom. She had also received a letter in the mail. She had recognised her grandfather’s writing immediately. She opened it and read the letter before picking up her phone and scrolling through her contacts until she arrived at Victor (Grandad). Her finger hovered over the call button for a moment before she closed it down again. She knew she needed to get close to Tom to find out how much he knew about the family legacy but visiting her grandad would open up a lot of deep wounds from her past that she wasn’t ready to face.
She slipped the letter back into the envelope and hid it in the bottom drawer of the cabinet in the corner of the room. Thousands of questions flooded her mind. If the money really was hidden somewhere, how could they find it and how could she stop Tom from blowing it all on crypto-currency. She opened her laptop and began searching for significant dates from 1938. She needed to go back in time…
Chapter Two
A Time For Letting Go
Saturday 27th August 1938
“For goodness sake Jack, sit down! You’re wearing a hole in the floor!” Charlie snapped as they heard the screams of childbirth coming from the bedroom upstairs.
“It’s the wrong time, Charlie. We’ve got the big one on Saturday and Ada having the baby early has thrown a spanner in the works,” Jack replied as he continued pacing up and down the lounge area.
“We go ahead as planned whatever happens. We have one chance to make this work and I won’t let anything get in the way of our future!”
“And what about Ada?”
“She needs to make a choice. You knew that before you got yourselves into this mess. You take her and live out your lives here or you take a chance and leave a mark on this world.”
At that moment, the sound of a newborn baby crying echoed down the hall. Jack looked over at Charlie who walked over towards the back door.
Jack checked his watch. “Seven o’clock tomorrow night, I’ll be there to set it up.”
Charlie nodded before leaving the house.
Jack took a deep breath before heading upstairs. He stood for a moment outside the bedroom door before gently knocking. A moment later, the door opened and he saw Ada holding a baby in her arms whilst the midwife continued to help her mother, Joan, with the towels and blankets.
Jack knelt down beside the bed and looked at the baby in Ada’s arms.
“She has your eyes,” she smiled.
“She?” Jack asked.
“Yes, Patricia Ivy Smith.”
Jack smiled as he held them both closely to him. He knew they needed to savour this moment as it may well be one of their last together as a family. After a couple of minutes, he excused himself from the room and headed out of the house.
Wandering through the busy streets of Portsmouth, he headed towards The King’s Hat pub next to the guildhall. As he entered, the smell of tobacco and stale beer attacked his senses. He saw a man in a black trench coat standing in the corner drinking beer from an overflowing glass. Jack walked over to the bar and exchanged his money for a pint of bitter before joining the man in the corner.
“Everything as agreed?” the man in the trench coat asked.
“Charlie knows what to do,” Jack replied as he enjoyed a mouthful of ale.
“Bob takes over from the night guard at four o’clock. We’ll have about half an hour to get inside before the rest of them arrive.”
“That should give us enough time.”
The man in the trench coat looked over Jack’s shoulder as two police officers entered the pub. “You ought to be careful about the company you keep,” he snapped before slamming his glass onto the bar and walking out of the pub.
One of the police officers walked over towards Jack who calmly finished his pint.
“You think it’s acceptable to be here when your wife is giving birth do you?” the officer asked.
Jack turned around to face him. “Your wife and daughter are fine without me.”
“Never a truer word said in jest. Get home where you belong Smith or I’ll make sure you don’t get anywhere near my grandchild.”
“Calm down Ern, I was just leaving,” Jack smirked as he pushed his way through the crowd and left the pub.
One week later, just before four o’clock on the morning of Saturday 3rd September 1938, a huge explosion echoed around Portsmouth City Centre. Dust filled the air as the walls of the City Bank fell and shattered into small pieces of brick and concrete. Police cars, fire engines and ambulances arrived to remove people who were caught up in the blast and to extinguish the flames from the explosion. Witnesses claimed that a bomb had just exploded inside the bank and two men and a woman had been seen climbing into a truck and speeding away from the city. In three minutes, it was over and gone. As the dust settled, police officers were left to try and piece together what had just happened.
***
When Joan Hughes entered the grocery store later that morning, she was met with stunned silence by the shopkeeper behind the counter.
“Is something wrong Iris?” Joan asked.
“Where have you been? The police have been trying to find you all morning.”
“I was at home. Nobody came around. Oh no, has something happened? I need to find Ernest….”
At that moment, Joan heard a baby crying. Iris opened the door that led into the stockroom behind the counter and beckoned her daughter to come into the shop. As she approached, Joan looked at the baby in her arms and gasped.
“No! No! Where’s Ada?”
“We were hoping that you could tell us,” Iris replied.
“There must be some simple explanation… Some reason. They would not leave Patricia behind.”
“It’s obvious isn’t it.”
Joan looked at Iris.
“He’s gone back to his old ways. The bank. The explosion. We all heard it on the wireless this morning. You should never have let your Ada hook up with a man like him. You know what they say…”
Joan moved towards Iris’ daughter and took Patricia into her arms. “No, what do they say?”
“Once a thief, always a thief. Your Ada was silly to think that she could change his ways.”
“Jack Smith is a most respectable man and he has always provided for my daughter in their marriage. This is just a misunderstanding. Good day to you…” Joan snapped before storming out of the shop.
“What did I say?” Iris asked after she had left.
“Some people just don’t want to hear the truth mama,” her daughter replied.
Joan stormed back into the family home and found her husband Ernest standing in the kitchen still wearing his coat as he looked out at the back garden.
“You knew, didn’t you!” Joan snapped.
“It’s just part of our inquiries for now…”
“You were out all night! Tell me Ern, where are they?”
Ernest turned to face her and saw Patricia in her arms. “Where was she?” he asked.
“Where are they? Why aren’t you out there looking for our daughter and Jack?”
“My superior thinks that because I am Ada’s father, I should be excluded from the investigation. Where was Patricia?”
“Iris Jones had her in the grocery shop,” Joan admitted as she tried to fight back her tears.
Ernest thought back to the previous weekend when he saw Jack Smith in the local bar drinking with someone he didn’t recognise. Surely they couldn’t have been planning the bank robbery whilst Ada was having the baby, could they? He battled with himself weighing up whether to tell Joan about their short exchange but decided to keep that information to himself.
“What can I do to help?” he finally asked.
Joan looked at him through tear-filled eyes. “Find our daughter,” she replied before heading upstairs with the baby in her arms.
Ernest watched her leave before picking up his hat and coat and leaving the house, looking for answers but not expecting many to arrive.
One Year Later…
Joan and Ernest Hughes were sitting at the dining table with their one year old granddaughter Patricia when a message from the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, interrupted the music that was playing on the radio. As he told the nation of Hitler’s failure to respond to British demands to leave Poland and that the UK will be at war with Germany, a feeling of dread overwhelmed them.
“Do you know what today is?” Joan asked.
“Sunday,” Ernest sighed as he tried to lose himself in the headlines of the newspaper he was reading.
“It’s been one year since Ada and Jack went missing.”
Ernest’s face turned red. The lines of too many red wines traced a roadmap on his cheeks. “I think we have bigger things to worry about than some small-time crook and our selfish excuse of a daughter running away from their responsibilities!”
“How can you be so cold?”
“I’m forty-five years old Joan! I should be enjoying the fruits of my labour. Playing bridge at the Golf Club, going fishing down on the beach and now it looks like we’re about to head into another battle that nobody can win. I had enough of that when I was a young man.”
“Well I’m sorry that the world didn’t ask for your permission before joining a fight for freedom!”
Ernest stood up from his chair. “Any more lip like that and I’ll…”
“You’ll do what? I’ve had it with you Ern. Ever since Ada disappeared you’ve changed.”
“What do you expect when your only daughter runs off with some low-life and you’re powerless to stop it?”
“And why do you think she ran away with him in the first place?”
Ernest raised his hand and struck Joan across her face, sending her into the dining chair before she regained her balance.
“You have no right to speak to me like that! All I’ve ever done is work hard to provide for this family and for what?”
“There’s more than just you hurting in this family, remember that before you lash out again,” Joan replied before picking up Patricia and heading out of the house.
She had been planning this moment for a while. Ernest’s outburst had finally given her the courage to follow it through. Joan had already packed a small suitcase full of clothes for herself and Patricia and had taken it to a friend’s house the previous day. She walked towards Southsea seafront before heading down Palmerston Road towards the shops. She turned into a sideroad where her friend, Florence and her husband, Ron, lived.
Joan entered the house with Patricia in her arms. As the door closed behind them, Ron led her to the dining table where three sheets of paper were laid out.
“Are you sure about this?” Florence asked.
“I can’t keep her in that environment and with the war starting, she has a better chance away from here,” Joan sighed as she signed the papers.
Ron collected the signed documents from the table and placed them into an envelope.
“What now?” Joan asked.
“You’ll stay here for tonight, there is a train leaving for London at ten minutes past nine in the morning. We need to be on that train. We will head towards Hammersmith to finalise all of the details. It’s a time for letting go, Mrs Hughes,” Ron replied.
Florence led them both to a spare bedroom with a double bed that had been made up with soft blankets and a selection of cuddly toys laid out on the bed. For the rest of that evening, Joan played and held her granddaughter close before they both fell asleep together as night fell. The following morning, Florence waved them goodbye at the railway station as Ron, wearing a long trench coat, joined them both on the train to London. From that moment on, Joan knew that their lives would never be the same again.
You can catch up with the Blake Langford Adventures at most local bookshops and online at www.CorneliusCone.co.uk
Until next time, write on.
John Roberts