Chapter 06

Rivers Again

Llewellyn and the girls visit Miss Lillian Owen about mid-morning of the day after they arrive in Rivers. A maid lets them into the house and shows them through to the ’day room’ where they’re introduced to Miss Lillian Owen. This medium sized room is set up with comfortable chairs and side tables where visitors meet with family members while not intruding on the rest of the family living areas. It’s the outside / inside buffer zone in a lot of the larger Victorian era, and earlier, houses. Once they’re all seated and comfortable Lillian says, “Thank you for coming to see me so promptly, Llewellyn, Gwen, Alice. I hope I didn’t disrupt your plans too much?”

Gwen smiles as she says, “Not really, Miss Owen. We’ve always said we were returning to Australia, but we never set a clear date. So this just helped us set a date.”

“Good! I did worry about that. Please call me Lillian, or Miss Lillian if you want to be formal.”

Llewellyn responds with, “I think calling you Miss Lillian is being more respectful than formal, if we may?”

“I won’t argue with that, Llewellyn. The main reason I want to see you is to do with the family trust which owns and manages the properties set up by my grandfather when he first arrived in this area in the mid eighteen hundreds. Another reason is the Australian Clan leadership.”

There’s a short break while the maid returns with a tray loaded with cups, plates, scones, and the makings for morning tea, then she sets about serving everyone tea and scones. Due to her asking about preferences and the sounds of pouring and handing out the morning tea they all stop talking about the main subjects while the tea is served.

As soon as things settle down again Lillian says, “First and quickest is the head of the Australian Clan is always the eldest male born with the surname of Owen closest to the last Clan Head or the Main Clan Line. At the moment that’s you, Llewellyn, on both counts. The position isn’t much at all now, but if there is a dispute within the clan you get to be the one who arbitrates it and makes a decision on it.” Llewellyn simply nods to show he understands. “Good! The Clan Head is also a member of the Clan Trust Board and is involved in the decisions on how to manage the Trust’s properties and investments. In the past they were more extensive than they are now. Today there’s Owen House, this house, Owen Manor is on a plateau a little north of Wood Valley in the mountains to the east of here, The Plateau School which is on the northern edge of the Owen Manor lands, and some residential properties we rent out here in Rivers. The main sources of income are the school and the rental properties. The main expenses are the operating costs of the school and the rates for all of the properties. I’m the Trust Board Chairwoman at the moment, but I hope you’ll take over as Chairman at the next board meeting. I was also the trustee until very recently, but I’ve passed that duty on to a younger person. One of your cousins, Morgan Murphy, is also on the board. With the loss of Geoffrey Owen it was just Morgan and me. However, with you and the new trustee now on the board we’ll have four on the board.”

“Why is there such a small board,” asks Llewellyn.

“Partly the membership rules, but mostly the fact they’re not paid for their work so few want to be on the board. While the rule discourages a lot of people it does mean those who are on the board are interested in doing their best for the trust and clan as a whole.” Llewellyn and the girls all slowly nod in response. “Any member of the clan can be nominated for the board by a board member, and any clan male born with the family name of Owen can nominate themselves to the board. All board members must be at least twenty-five years of age.”

Llewellyn says, “I bet you’ve got a whole filing cabinet of papers I’ve got to read to get up to speed as the Clan Head and being the Chairman of the Trust Board. I hope I can put that off for a few days while we look into finding somewhere to live and get moved from the hotel. We also have to look into getting the girls into school and up to speed with the classes here before I can get heavily involved in things.”

Lillian says, “Well, you can all move into this big house if you want to go to a school in the city or the girls can board at The Plateau School. It originally taught all grades when it first started, but the many changes to the regulations on schools and the school system has seen a lot of changes to what the school teaches. Now it’s more of a preparation school that only teaches girls in years ten to twelve as it helps to prepare them to do better at university. Since it changed to that format not a single graduate of the school has dropped out of university, but not all of the graduates have gone to university. Some found out they were not interested in that level of study due to how the school prepared them for it. I’d suggest you move to Owen Manor, Llewellyn, except it hasn’t been opened since nineteen fifteen when grandfather sealed it so he and his sons could go away to the Great War. For reasons not noted anywhere they never opened up the Manor again after the boys came back. Two of the boys and grandfather died in the war. I suspect my father and uncles couldn’t face all of the memories it had for them, and none of the Clan Heads since then have bothered with the Manor at all. If you do open it up it’ll probably take a lot of work to make it liveable again.”

Llewellyn replies, “I think we’ll have to visit the school to check it out and talk about what the girls want to do. Then we’ll make a decision. If I decide to live at the manor I can always camp out up there until it’s cleaned and I fix it up to a suitable standard.”

“Remember, the trust won’t have much money to pay for work at the Manor, so you’ll probably be very dependent on what you can do to fix it up by yourself. Even materials will be limited,” is Lillian’s response.

Gwen says, “I suppose he’ll be allowed to pay for anything he wants to do out of his own money, won’t he?” Lillian frowns a little as she nods yes. “Lew, you can use some of my music money to fix the manor.”

Llewellyn says, “We’ll see what’s needed first. We’ve still got the US money to be transferred over. That gives me time to look into things and to do some proper planning. However, I think we first need to get you girls settled, then I can renew my licences and get a camper of some sort to live in on the site.”

Alice declares, “No! The camper first then look at the school. If we all agree on a camper then we can use that if we don’t like the school.”

While looking at Lillian he says, “I think I just got told,” and they all laugh about the situation.

They talk some more before making arrangements for them all to move into one wing of Owen House today, then they’ll go looking for a camper as well as getting Llewellyn’s licences renewed.

Transport

The taxi trip to the hotel to pack up and move their gear is very quick as they don’t have a lot to move. Then a walk down the road to get the newspaper to read the classified advertisements about campers for sale. They read the paper while they have a light lunch in the shop beside where they buy the local newspaper.

They discuss the campers for sale while they walk to a driving school so Llewellyn can study the current road rules and practice driving on the private road course they have on the edge of town.

At the driving school Llewellyn goes through the Road Rules booklet and then sits a practice test before an instructor takes him out to the track to practice driving. Normally they’d insist on him doing a long course of theirs. However, the fact he used to have local licences and he still has US ones allows him to talk them into doing it quickly. He does have to pay for a full course before they agree to do what he wants to do. On the track his old skills and experience quickly come through as he switches back to driving on the left as against driving on the right side of the road. From the school he goes to the Roads and Maritime Services local office where he renews his old licences as they expired less than five years ago.

While Llewellyn is getting his licences the girls are buying them all new cell phones from the latest list of phones approved by the security firm they seek advice from. Alice buys the latest approved 4G network phones with a lot of data download. The salesman doesn’t ask why she needs three new phones with the same service, but he sells them to her and they go on her debit card on the trust account Will manages for her. It just works out Alice is ready to pay for them and they get a discount by having them all on the one account, so she buys them all on her card. This does have the security effect of not showing anywhere as a sale of phones to Llewellyn or Gwen.

Once they have the phones connected the girls start calling the people in the paper with campers for sale. The phone calls help them to narrow the list a lot due to having more details of the campers. One of the units sounds very interesting to them because the lady, Lorna, says, “It fits four adults with comfort, has the usual amenities, and it’s a single cabin unit with a sliding door behind the driver area. It’s a diesel-electric with a generator to create direct current power to run everything, including the electric motors on the wheels. The camper is built on the chassis of a crashed eight and a half metre long medium truck badly damaged in a roll-over accident. Uncle Joe got the wreck for free and he stripped it back to the chassis on which he built a six and a half metre long camper. I’ve had it for sale since I inherited it two years ago, but few people are interested in it after I tell them it’s diesel-electric. Are you interested?”

Gwen replies, “Yes, we are. Give me the address and we’ll phone you again before we come out to see it. My brother will decide once he’s seen it.” They chat a bit more and Gwen writes down the address. In the end they have only three to look at, and that one is on the edge of the city.

Llewellyn hires a rental car for the next two days and they go to check out the camper leads. The first two turn out to be a lot more cramped than described over the phone, so it’s on to the rebuilt truck camper. When they get there they find the vehicle is longer than the others they’ve had a look at, it’s also a little wider and taller, and it sits a bit higher off of the ground. The original vehicle was a cab over the motor and this looks a lot like it, except the engine is now at the rear of the vehicle with a level floor for the full length of the vehicle in front of the engine area.

The front two seats are over the front wheels so the driver and front passenger sit over the wheels with their feet in the small area at the front of the vehicle between the wheels and the front panel. The camper has a strong brush-bar fitted that covers the front and wraps around the sides a little. The bar is like an oval with the ends bent back and a middle bar added along with five uprights across the front of the camper. The bars are five centimetres in diameter and only a couple of centimetres in front of the front body panel, so they don’t look like they’ll be much good in a bad crash. When Llewellyn lifts and pushes on the bars he finds them to be strong and attached to the chassis, he’s also sure they’re made from some strong alloy instead of the usual steel tube bars for such extras. A similar brush-bar is attached to the rear of the vehicle, but it’s made in three sections with the outer sections and bottom bar attached to the chassis while the middle of the upper section is attached to the body. The rear wheels are twin axle dual wheels that make the camper a three axle vehicle with ten wheels. The rear wheels are fifteen centimetres from the back of the camper, thus it’s only a little longer than its wheelbase.

The back of the vehicle looks to have a compartment between the two sets of rear lights, but they can’t see any way to open it. Lorna says, “That compartment got me too. When I checked the notebook Uncle Joe left I found it unlocks from inside the camper. In it are four spare wheels with the tyres already mounted and a tool kit. The tyres are a special type that doesn’t use air, so they have to be bought from the manufacturer on a special order.” Llewellyn simply nods in reply.

The vehicle has a high security lock on its only door located behind the front seat on the passenger side. From the outside the vehicle looks to have no windows except the front windscreen and the two windows beside the front seats. However, when they enter the body of the vehicle they find there are several windows and three one metre by one and a quarter metre skylights along the length of the camper. All of the windows in the main body of the camper are double glazed with a very thin Venetian blind between the layers of glass. The vehicle side in front of the windows has a bunch of fine holes to let people look out and to let the light in. The skylights are also made in the same way as the side windows, but the outer panel is attached to the window frames which are hinged so they can be opened to the sides as exits in an emergency.

The rear two metres of the vehicle is a huge bed as wide as the camper that sits one and a quarter metres above the floor. On the passenger’s side in front of the bed is a small cupboard, then a one and a half metre long shower, a toilet unit, the sink, and the side door. Opposite them are more cupboards, the stove area, fridge, a bench seat, and a captain’s chair behind the driver’s seat. Lorna points out where the table is stored then at a section of floor to cover the side door entry steps clipped to the side of the sink. She says, “Between the floor and the ceiling is two metres. The bed is over the diesel generator, the fuel tanks, and the batteries as well as the rear wheels. The engine area is fully sealed and the only way to work on it is to raise the mattress and unlock the cover. Everything is direct current electric powered by the generator or a wind turbine on the roof that can be raised when you want to use it. The power motors on the rear wheels are from old train drives that were fully serviced and rewired before Uncle Joe installed them. I’ve not tested it, but the notes from Uncle Joe say the vehicle will float in water that’s too deep for it to wade through. It’s also water tight if you close all of the air intakes and outlets which are in the roof area. Everything is also waterproof. I’ve all of the paperwork and books on the camper if you want to study them.”

Llewellyn looks at the girls and asks, “Is the layout OK with you if the mechanicals are OK with me?” They both think for a moment, then they nod. He turns to Lorna and says, “I want to give the vehicle a close check and look over all of the paperwork, but I think you have a sale. Why is the price so low?”

Lorna shrugs as she says, “I never found what Uncle Joe paid for it or for the materials so I tried to sell it at a price I got from a local camper sales yard, but no one showed any interest after finding out about the drive system. So I kept lowering the price to try and get a sale.”

Gwen asks, “What happened to your uncle?”

“He was in Sydney to see someone when a bunch of goons jumped him. They did kill him, but the police found five bodies at the site and a lot of blood trails leaving the site of the fight. Four more bodies turned up over the next two days. Their knife wounds matched his knife.”

Llewellyn says, “Your Uncle Joe sounds like a man I’d have liked to have known. He sounds like he was a lot like my father was. They both went down taking a lot of their enemies with them.” They talk as they go inside the house so Llewellyn can go through all of the papers.

One oddity is the original truck was a seven tonne Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) and now it’s rated as four and a half tonnes. Llewellyn can’t see how it could be that reduced in weight. A closer examination of the old and new registration papers shows the truck chassis and body is shorter than it originally was, but it shouldn’t make that much difference.

In the papers are photographs of the old truck being taken apart and the new truck being built on it. One photograph is of the old truck with a twist in the chassis and a note with an arrow marking part of the chassis as being cut out to remove the damaged area and shorten the chassis. A test report on the chassis strength test is included, and it shows it’s better than the required standards for use on the road. However, when Llewellyn checks that against the original vehicle specifications he finds it was stronger after the repairs were made, which is very strange. He borrows a bright torch and he goes out to look at the vehicle itself. He finds the entire underside has a skid plate sealing the entire bottom of the vehicle. After another check of the papers he goes out to lift the sections of floor that allows access to work on the cables and mechanical parts of the camper. One of them is right where the chassis should have been welded together, but there’s no repair weld there at all. The stamped chassis number is visible in another section so he photographs it.

Back inside the number checks with all of the registration papers and the other details stamped into the chassis match those in the photograph of the chassis number before it was cut up. However, while the numbers and the words are the same not all of the characters in the photographs match. He smiles, as it’s now clear Uncle Joe scammed the registry people by using a new chassis and passing it off as the old, but why?

Llewellyn looks up and asks, “Lorna, do you have any other old bills and receipts from when your uncle was working on the camper?”

She says, “Yes. I needed them for the tax man. I’ll get them for you.”

About half an hour later Llewellyn smiles when he looks at a receipt for the payment of a large bill from a specialist metalwork company in Melbourne. He calls them and asks to speak to someone about the details of an old bill. When he’s put through to the head accountant he says, “I’m sorry to trouble you, but I’m helping to resolve the estate of a Joe Wilkins who paid a bill of yours a few years ago. We’re having trouble relating the bill to the assets of the estate. If I give you the receipt number can you tell me the details of the work involved?”

The accountant replies, “Do you have access to a fax machine to send us a fax of the death certificate and the receipt? We need proof of what you say before we can discuss a client’s business.”

“Give me the number to send it to and I’ll have the executor of the estate fax you the documents,” is his reply. A moment later he has the fax number and he’s asking Lorna to fax copies of the death certificate, the receipt, and a request for the information to the fax number he has. She frowns, but does as he asks by using the multi-function fax / scanner / printer she has attached to her computer.

An hour later they have a return fax with the plans for the chassis and the cage of the camper as a single construction made of a titanium alloy that’s extremely strong and lightweight. Llewellyn goes through the stats for the unit, then he grins as he says, “According to these specs the truck will survive being hit by a semi at high speed. The frame is stronger than a lot of military armoured combat vehicles. Also, the alloy is so light the full chassis and cage is a third of the weight of the old chassis alone. Your uncle built a brand new super strong chassis of metals the transport people don’t usually approve of, and he passed it off as a standard metal. I’m beginning to really like your uncle. Now I know how he got it down to be a four and a half tonne GVM truck. I’ll double the asking price, and I’ll still be getting a damn good buy.” Lorna is stunned he’s prepared to pay her double of what she asked for it, but that will give her enough to pay off the mortgage on the house, so she doesn’t argue with him.

In the end Llewellyn writes two cheques, one for the asking price for the camper, and another for all of the documents about it. That way the value on the registration transfer will not raise concerns about the price.

A phone call to Will Dunn gets the vehicle insured and paperwork to register it to Llewellyn’s main trust account because the cheques are drawn on that account. Then he drives the rental car to the motor registry to get the transfer done. He returns the rental car and he gets a taxi back to Lorna’s house to collect the camper. While he’s gone Lorna and the girls are in the camper giving it a very thorough cleaning. Then they return to Owen House for the rest of the day and the night.

The next morning is spent in preparing to go visit Owen Manor. While the girls shop for bedding and food for the camper Llewellyn buys an enclosed dual axle trailer, lots of tools, and a cheap used off-road motorcycle. The bike can’t be used on the road or registered for road use but he wants it for use on the Manor lands, so that isn’t a problem. Some basic tools, cans of fuel, and lanterns are also bought and stored in the built-in lockable steel container at the front of the trailer while the bike is secured with tie-downs and chains in the main body of the trailer.

When Llewellyn picks up the girls he’s soon very busy loading the many bags and boxes of purchases into the camper while the girls put them all away in the various cupboards, then he discards the packing into one of the large rubbish skips at the back of the mall they’re at. When he enters the camper he’s surprised to see everything has been put away in its right place because he thought they bought more items than the camper had storage space for in the cupboards. Not only is it all put away there’s enough storage space left for their personal items.

The next stop is for some new clothes suitable for the area, then off to the laundromat to use their commercial machines to wash and dry all of the new clothes and linen before they pack them away in the camper.

While the washing is being done Llewellyn goes through the notes on the camper Lorna’s Uncle Joe had written. He finds how to turn the seats of the camper into the two single beds for the other two adults. He also finds the storage of screens for the inside of the front windows, and learns there are solar panels on the roof which also charge the batteries. Another find is the small built-in safe that’s part of the main frame, along with the combination for it and how to change the combination.

The Owen Manor Plateau

Once the washing is finished the Owen family takes the full baskets to the camper and they put it all away in the cupboards before Llewellyn starts the drive to the school. By the time they drive to the school it’s so late in the afternoon it’s nearly time for dinner and it’s too late for them to see much of the school. So Llewellyn parks the camper on the gravel parking area in front of the school and they prepare for the night.

While the girls make dinner at their own insistence Llewellyn reviews the papers Miss Lillian gave him. After eating Llewellyn does the washing up while they all talk about the long trip to get to the school.

To drive to the school from Rivers they first drive down to the Hume Highway, go north on the highway, then east into the mountains while they drive up the side of the mountain to the ridge before turning south to go along the ridge to the school entrance near the north-west corner of the Owen Manor lands. The maps show a road across the Owen Manor lands about a tenth of the way in from the western cliff edge that goes to the town of Wood Valley. Going to Wood Valley and then driving from there to Rivers would cut the drive down to about a third of what it took to come from north of the school. However, there are two creeks that flow from the eastern part of the plateau to fall off the western cliff edge, and there are no longer any bridges over the creeks as it’s private land and the trust couldn’t afford the cost to rebuild them. Thus the road isn’t suitable for vehicles, but you can walk along the road or ride a horse.

From what they could see of the lands and the Google Maps images Llewellyn and the girls discuss what they think is needed to make the Manor and the lands useable again instead of being an expanse of tall native grasses. The first thing that worries them is the unfenced cliff edge with the bridges being the next item of importance. They soon agree secure boundary fences need to be erected and the road made useable before they even consider what needs doing at the Manor itself.

During the night the camper rocks a lot in the strong winds blowing across the vacant land. So Llewellyn makes a note to address that too.

The Plateau School

When he wakes up in the morning Llewellyn finds the girls moved during the night, from the two single beds to the large double bed he’s in. He’s not surprised as they both have a tendency to climb into his bed when worried or scared. However, the way they’re blocking his access to the doorway he has to wake them up before he can get out. Naturally, that starts the process of them taking turns for a morning shower and getting dressed for the day before they take their time over breakfast.

Just before 9:00 a.m. Llewellyn and the girls are walking to the school’s front door from the camper when they hear a car driving up the road, so they stop to see who it is. A few minutes later a large SUV drives into the parking area. A fit young woman gets out of the front passenger seat to stand beside the car while looking all around her. Llewellyn recognises what she’s doing is a security check of the local area, and he smiles. A moment later the woman opens the back passenger door to let two teenage girls and a well dressed woman out of the back of the car then they get two bags out of the back. With the door open Llewellyn can see the SUV isn’t set up as normal because the back seats face each other with a large space between them to make it like limousine seating.

Both girls looks to be the same age as Alice and Gwen. The older girl asks, with an accent, “Is this the Plateau School?” Gwen nods. The girl adds, “What is the school like? We should be starting here today.”

Alice says, “We don’t know as we’re here to check the school out with the aim of going here. I’m Alice, this is Gwen, and Llewellyn, our father.”

When all of the arrivals look shocked at the introductions Gwen says, “We’re all orphans and when my brother turned eighteen he became our legal guardian, so we call him Dad when we want to annoy him.” She gets a group of smiles in response.

The girl replies, “I’m Greta, this is my sister Hanna, our mother Marta Schmidt, and our protector Donna Davis.” They all chat for a moment before going to the door and ringing the bell for someone to come to let them in the locked front door of the school.

Starting School

A young woman opens the door for them to enter the building. She closes the door behind them and leads them to the counter. They see the door opens into the middle of an entrance area and waiting room about four metres by four metres with a few chairs against the wall of the front section of each side of the room. The last metre and a half on the left is a counter with the desks of the admin staff behind it. In the middle of the right wall is the door to the principal’s office. The back of the entrance area opens up into a hall running the width of the building on each side of the entrance area with a two metre wide hall going deeper into the building on the left half of the back wall with the door to the vice-principal’s office in the middle of the right side of the back wall. A door into the admin area from the hall can be seen two metres down the hall on that side by looking across the admin counter.

At the counter the woman who let them in says, “I’ve got the papers for Greta and Hanna ready for you to complete Missus Schmidt. I’m sorry, but Principal Martin and Vice-principal Miller are both busy with an urgent equipment problem which started this morning. They should be available by the time you’ve had a tour of the school and completed the paperwork.” She turns to Llewellyn while adding, “I don’t know who you are, Sir, but I gather you would like the two young ladies to attend the school as well. If you’ll give me the basic information I can prepare the paperwork while you all have a tour of the school.”

Llewellyn smiles while nodding as he extracts some papers from the inside pocket of his coat as he says, “Thank you. I’ve the girls’ transcripts from their last school, along with certified copies of their identification documents, and the guardianship documents for you. This is Alice, Gwen, and I’m Llewellyn.” He points at the girls as he names them.

The woman accepts the papers and hands them across the counter to another woman while saying, “I’m Melissa Walker, and I’ll be conducting your tour today. So, please follow me and we’ll have a look at the dorms, the classrooms, and the rest of the school facilities.” She then leads them down the hall. They spend the next forty minutes looking at the various facilities and aspects the school has before they return to the office area.