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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Maurice
Czarniak was born to Polish immigrant parents in 1950. His father survived the
German concentration camps after being imprisoned for being a resistance
fighter.
He
was raised a catholic, became an altar boy at eight years of age and remained so
until he was 20. He was inducted as an acolyte in the church and served until
his early 40s.
His
schooling was at
Servite
College
in
Western Australia
. After high school he studied medicine, failed half-way through, but went on to
complete BSC BPharm FPS.
He
married a very pretty blonde German girl,
Petra
, in 1982 and they have two children, Christian and Katherine.
His
strong creative streak first presented itself in the kitchen at a young age with
an intense interest in cakes and eggs. A desire to paint came next. He taught
himself, and has produced highly commendable works of art, ranging from
impressionism to traditional portraits. His wife and family have since taken up
most of his time and he has not been able to spend much time painting.
He
continued in the pharmaceutical industry, creating topical nutritional products,
which were both cosmetic and therapeutic. These can be found at
naturalsecrets.com
His
creativity could not be stopped, instead changing direction to creative
fictional-writing, based on his own experiences and observations.
Accidental Discovery
is the first of a series of novels which are waiting to burst forth from his
imagination.
Jack
Stern was awake. It was 5:30am. The sun had just started to appear on the horizon.
Warm golden light filtered through the lace curtains and painted the naked body
of his latest conquest. She was French. Exceptionally beautiful, a vibrant
blonde, one whom any man would worship and have as his wife, but to Jack, she
was just another toy, something to occupy his time for a brief moment or two and
discard once he had lost interest. It was not that Jack mistreated or abused
women, on the contrary, he had always handled them in the most chivalrous
manner, attending to their every need in minute detail. The problem was that he
could not warm to them. Everything that he did was mechanical, almost
programmed, all as a result of his attitude to business and the ridiculous
fashion in which he could make money. Floating on such immense wealth, all that
he had to do was cast that line with nothing more than a look, a word and women
were his. As Jack lay there contemplating, he was unaware that his recent catch,
Michelle, was awake and beginning to play with his manly bait. As the waves of
sexual pleasure spread through his body he began to think about the different
forms of ecstasy and wondered if they possessed a common thread. Was spiritual
and sexual ecstasy one and the same? He closed his eyes and focused his
attention upon Michelle’s desire to start the day on a beautiful note.
The
Classical Music of Gabriel Faure’s ‘Pavane’ filled the sumptuous interior
of Jack Stern’s red Ferrari. Everything in his life had to be just right, well
balanced, a sense of style, beauty and of course, performance. He glanced at his
gold Chopard wristwatch; it was later than he had anticipated. He gunned the
engine, the car leapt forward in total contrast to the music. He changed lanes
and sped past numerous cars, a motorcycle policeman and several heavy-duty
lorries. In a matter of seconds Jack sensed that the chase was on. With siren on
and lights flashing, the policeman was in hot pursuit. Jack loved a challenge,
especially if it had anything to do with any aspect of the law. He was late for
the office and did not have the time to deal with the petty-minded antics of a
traffic cop. Jack put himself into automatic mode; his senses surveyed the
traffic in front, behind and to the sides of his Ferrari. Decision made, he
changed the radio to tape, the song ‘I am always one step ahead of you’ blared out. It was a
catchy tune, a good rock-n-roll number that he and a friend had collaborated on.
Jack put up the volume, clutched out and changed down a cog, the Ferrari leapt
again, Jack turned the steering-wheel sharply to the left and then to the right
so the car instantly slid sideways in the same direction as it was previously
travelling. The tyres screamed with agony as they dragged across the bitumen and
then they gripped once again, propelling the car forward across the stream of
heavy traffic. Before anyone could respond by braking or blowing their horns he
was away diagonally and down the off ramp to the city. The policeman had no
chance, as manoeuvrable as a bike might be, his reactions were too slow.
‘Oh
well,’ he foolishly thought, ‘there will be a next time.’
Jack
changed the tape back to radio, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture now played.
Perhaps the cannons are an omen of today’s events he thought, as he motored
his way to the office. After he entered the private parking lot, he stored his
car in his reserved bay and made his way towards his plush offices. As he made
his way in, he was greeted by the voices of women hysterically screaming,
shouting, crying. His secretary, Miss Julia Sutton was trembling. She was white
with fear as she tried to deal with two very large opponents. The Ricci twins
were threatening to destroy the entire office and kill everyone in it,
especially Mr Jack Stern once they laid their hands on him. Papers and magazines
were already strewn about. The desk’s vase of fresh flowers decorated the wall
in a hundred pieces. Several of the glass-framed paintings had met with similar
fates. As soon as Jack appeared, all eyes were upon him. The Ricci women lunged
at him, attempted to tear out his eyes and hair. With cat-like ability he sprung
away and was able, in a gentlemanly fashion to despatch each one of his
assailants simply by side-stepping, bobbing and weaving. Each woman encountered
the same end, unconsciousness. Without a hair out of place, Jack Stern looked at
his secretary, smiled and asked, “Now Miss Sutton, would you please tell me
what this is all about?”
“Yes
sir, but can you please give me a moment to regain my composure,” she shakily
replied.
“Of
course, in my office in ten minutes?”
“Yes
sir, thank you sir,” she hastily replied and took her leave.
Building
security and maintenance were called in to repair the damage and usher out the
bewildered assailants. Jack waited patiently in his office for his secretary’s
arrival. “Now, who were those women and what did they want?”
“They
claimed that they were the twin daughters of the late Mr Giovanni Ricci who
recently committed suicide. He had lost a company and a huge sum of money during
a recent share deal. They claim you were involved. They say you are responsible
for everything. His death, their loss, their fortune and future income, they
came seeking revenge. I fear that they are very serious about this and unless
they receive some sort of compensation, they are going to do just that.”
“Now
Miss Sutton, do not overly concern yourself. What I did was perfectly legal. I
just happened to take advantage of some opportunities one might say that
presented themselves in law.”
“Even
so sir, I think you should take precautions. There is no telling what they might
do next. They might even… ” She put her hand up to her mouth and held her
breath.
“Hire
an assassin.”
Miss
Sutton’s eyes widened with fear.
“Yes
sir.”
Jack
stood up, approached her, took her hand and firmly squeezed it. With a smile on
his face, he continued.
“Julia,
you have had a very traumatic experience this morning. Why don’t you take
yourself home, have a nice warm relaxing bath, listen to some classical music,
take a few days off. This was nothing more than a storm in a teacup. I tell you
what, I shall make arrangements straight away so that you can go and enjoy a
week or two at the corporate holiday home. Everything will be supplied; you need
not worry about anything at all.”
“But,
but sir, the office will not run efficiently without me.”
“That
is very nice of you to say that Miss Sutton, very well, take as much time as you
need, come back whenever you wish, I admire your loyalty. Now, what I also need
to tell you is that I shall be away for at least two weeks. When I return, I
want to see you totally refreshed, okay.”
Julia
accepted his proposal and took her leave, but remained quite uncertain of the
future and her employer’s safety.
The
reception area was now restored to normality. The cleaners had done away with
the mess and one of the other secretaries had taken charge of the reception
desk. Jack Stern called a meeting of his staff that numbered six in total for
that afternoon. This morning’s activity, plus his glorious start to the day
had given him quite a healthy appetite. Food now, was the foremost thought in
his head. He could smell the freshly brewed coffee, oven baked croissants and
lightly scrambled eggs. With those thoughts in mind he went in search of his
favourite café.
“Gentlemen,
as you are aware, I have decided to take a break of about two weeks from the
office to oversee my new acquisition, the community service centre out in the
mid west. This has nothing to do with this morning’s incident and it is not an
attempt by me to go into hiding. I simply want to be there to fine-tune the
operation and other matters as you well know. I have left a file for each one of
you and I expect that the contents of each will be completed by the time I
return. Do not telephone me, except for the utmost urgency and only on my
ultra-secure private line. I expect that each one of you will be as efficient as
always, to the maximum degree of course. After all, each one of you is hand
picked and expert, any questions?”
The
room remained silent, just as Jack had anticipated. Each one of his employees
was a quiet achiever, more than capable at his or her respective tasks. As they
left his office, he fiddled with his attaché case and once satisfied that he
had everything that he required, he locked it, closed the door behind him
confident that unless a disaster happened, his office would run with Swiss
German precision.
The
journey to the newly acquired community service centre would be quite long
between 10 to 12 hours in total driving time. Jack decided to motor, rather
than take a bus, or train or plane because he enjoyed the pleasure of spending
time with, as he affectionately called her, ‘my
timeless lady’. She was
his red Ferrari, complete with V12 engine. It had to be so, for symbolically and
numerologically the number 12 reduced to 3 and to Jack this represented immense
strength. It stood in his mind, as an equilateral triangle, the strongest
structure known to man. In his mind his timeless lady responded in a similar
fashion. Although she enjoyed the short trips to and from work, the episodes of
stunt driving, she often yearned to stretch her legs and do a marathon run. Her
engine simply purred as she drove out of the city on to a route that would guide
him to his destination. The cabin was filled with the angelic music of
Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus. As the music played, Jack reflected on days gone
by. The scene was one of…
The
convent’s chapel was silent. The congregation awaited the procession of altar
boys and priest, the signal, for the start of mass. The altar had been made
ready. It was richly decorated with flowers left over from the previous day’s
wedding ceremonies and bathed in a myriad of colours that shone from the upper
left stained glass windows. People swore that when the lights came from a
particular direction during a particular time of the day, you could make out the
image of the Virgin Mary, with the baby Jesus in her arms on the right hand wall
of the sanctuary, but you had to be quick, for it only lasted a brief moment or
two.
Jack’s
mother sat with her husband in the centre aisle pews, seven rows back from the
front. She was overjoyed that her son had become and remained a devoted altar
boy. Now nearing eighteen years of age, she hoped that he would consider
becoming a priest, just like his Uncle Tom. She prayed for that at every mass
and said numerous rosaries in between with the same intention. It seemed that
her prayers had been answered, for Jack accompanied his Uncle Tom every time he
went on a mission of pastoral care, bringing communion to the sick and saying
mass in remote areas. Jack had become so good at observing and remembering, that
Father Tom quite frankly said, “You might as well let Jack say the mass.”
On
many occasions when it was obvious that the distribution of communion was going
to be a laboured affair, he would allow Jack after saying the necessary
blessing, to assist in giving out the consecrated hosts. People often thought
that Jack was a trainee priest, or even a deacon. Such was his angelic
disposition, but something went wrong. That something wrong if you wish to call
it that came in the form of a woman.
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