Chapter 1

Anyway, during that summer, I noticed that my father and a certain young law clerk, Veronica Sheldon, would leave about one o'clock every Tuesday and Thursday and be gone for about three hours. When Dad returned, he would take me home and then go back to work for another couple of hours. I mentioned this to Mom and said I thought it was a little strange, that it happened every week. Mom said not to worry about it, that she would look into it.

A week later my mom asked me to see if I could find out about my dad's financial status.

One of the things my dad was grooming me for, was computer information and investigations. You know, hacking into computer systems to see if there was fraud or funny things going on. I seemed to have a real knack for digging into computer systems, and memory storage areas; as well as digging through programs, and finding things on the internet. Using these skills, I started looking for other Daniel Martin Hamner's on the internet. I found eight people by that name across the US, but there were three in our town, and one in a town about forty miles away, in the next county. One was my grandfather, one was at our address, and one was listed at the law firm's address with a private line number not associated with the law firm. The firm's numbers started with 704-61xx. This number was a 674-4616.

I could see that Dad was up to no good.

Mom asked if I could find out how much Dad was making at the law firm. After some digging, at home and at work, I found that Dad had several places his money went. After some more tracing, I found that Mom got only about thirty percent of Dad's money into their joint account. I dug some more and found that Dad had another three bank accounts in three different banks in town. All were with the same SSN. I also found that the Daniel Hamner in the other county was also my dad. He had a home and fifty acres of woodland there, as well as another bank account.

Mom asked me to print out everything I had found, and that she would handle it from there. I said ok, but told her if she needed anything more, just to ask. I would be happy to do anything for her.

I think at this point, I should give you some background of our family. Dad met my mom when her family had a lawsuit against a drunk driver. Her dad and mom were messed up pretty bad in an accident, and Dad's firm represented the drunk driver. The drunk was some high-powered CEO, and figured his lawyers would get him out of it just like they had the other four times before. Because Dad was just learning the business at the time, he was sent to the family, with a settlement check for $125,000, to buy them off before going to trial. That is what had happened before, so they thought it would work this time, too. Well, Dad went to their house to deliver the check and met my mom. She was just seventeen at the time, and was very, very beautiful.

Dad felt very attracted to her, and decided to work out a better settlement for them. The drunk driver would pay all medical bills associated with the accident, both past and for the next five years, a $125,000 settlement paid out over ten years and a college fund set up for one Helen Sheldon for $75,000. Dad went back to the firm and said that somehow the family had found out about the other four times their client was arrested for drunk driving. If it ever went to court, their client would be going to jail for a very long time. He said that he felt, knowing the circumstances he had made them a good deal. His dad agreed, and they settled.

About a month later, Dad went to their house again, and asked if he could date their daughter Helen. Dad was twenty-six at the time, and Helen was only seventeen, but they agreed that it would be ok.

Within six months, they were married. Eight months later, I was born ... supposedly, a month early. Then twenty-one months later, Belinda was born and fourteen months after that Britney was born. Mom and Dad agreed that she get her tubes tied, as they didn't want any more children.

Shortly after I was born, Daniel senior, my grandfather, gave Mom and Dad our house as an anniversary present. This house is really a mansion on twenty acres of land. The house was built for the man who founded one of the big banks in town about a hundred and forty years ago. It was about 4,000 square feet, on two floors. That was not counting the basement and attic; even though the attic had three finished rooms for servants, plus an area downstairs for the cook and butler. In the basement, there were a storm cellar, a cold storage cellar, an old coal storage room, and the place for the furnace and a/c unit.

As a child, I was first raised by nannies; then by my mother, after she graduated from college. She had worked part time at first, so she could use her education. But after Britney started school, she started back to working fulltime. She didn't need the money, but wanted to contribute to the household, and keep active with her career.

As a child growing up in the mansion, I had found several secret passageways, and even had discovered secret compartments in some of the furniture. My dad's desk in the den contained seven secret compartments. I told Dad of six of them, but not the last one I found. I also found an ancient roll top desk in the attic, and when I turned twelve, I asked if I could have it in my room for doing homework. In that desk, I found ten secret compartments, over the years. I later learned I had missed two very important compartments.

Back to my parent's divorce Mom hired a very good woman lawyer named Gloria Marie Donner that a friend of hers had recommended. She had recently raked a prominent state representative through the coals for infidelity. Mom took everything we had on Dad, and the information about Victoria, and gave it to Ms. Donner.

Two weeks later Dad was served with divorce papers asking for a settlement of just over 35 million dollars, plus $5,000 a month in alimony and $9,000 a month in child support for each child. Mom asked for the property in the next county, half of all his cash, stocks and bonds, and our house and property. This added up to just over $35 million in assets. Several things came up about some of the places where Dad had hidden his money from the IRS. He was kind of threatened that if he protested the divorce, or the settlement, that those facts would somehow be leaked to the IRS.

Defeated, Dad signed everything over, and essentially disappeared from our life.

It seems that Dad had a thing for young women, aged sixteen to twenty-five. After they reached twenty-five he just dropped them, and sought a younger one, again. Mom returned to working and life went on, except I didn't work for the law firm anymore. Dad and Grandfather decided three Hamners were enough.

There was a little bit of intrigue going on at the property in the next county. Ms. Donner had the property looked at, closely, and she found that the barn was climate controlled. She was curious as to why. The barn had securely locked doors, and painted over windows with locks on them, too. Entry would require major damage to the locks, so she hired someone to watch the place and if anyone came snooping around, they were to contact the County Sheriff immediately. About a month after the divorce was finalized, some strange activity was reported to be going on there.

What the Sheriff found was astounding. In the barn they found eleven vehicles under covers. They found the following: a 1952 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta; a 1932 Duesenberg, Model J, convertible sedan; a 1937 Cord 812 supercharged sedan; a 1971 Jaguar XKE V-12 coupe; a 1932 Ford Coupe (Deuce coupe) in original condition; a 1932 Chevrolet closed cab pick-up; a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette roadster; a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray split window coupe; a 1943 Willis jeep in military colors and military markings; a 1942 Dodge WC-53 Carryall (Like a suburban, but a Dodge) with US Army markings; and a 1941 Plymouth sedan Command Car with military markings. The first eight vehicles had their VIN's run. They were found to have been destroyed due to fire, flood or earthquake. There would be a big insurance investigation into that bit. But the three military vehicles were never registered therefore had to have been transferred directly from the military or stolen from them. Each one's serial numbers were checked and they had all been assigned to an Army base in Texas that had since closed and was now part of someone's ranch. The US Army was investigating that one.