by CJ Carver
‘Nice,’ he remarked.
Milena pointed at a small console table. ‘See this? It was painted blue and below that, a hideous red. I stripped it down, made it beautiful again. I bought it for ten pounds, I can sell it for thirty-five. A good profit, yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘This is the business I am going into,’ she told him. ‘Buying things people think are junk and making them into something desirable.’
‘A good business,’ he said.
She asked him about Jenny, and he asked her about her situation. She’d been debriefed at length by Six and was still in touch with Emily, helping identify people of interest as well as looking at a variety of unprocessed information and substantiating what she could. She was apparently going to get her residence card soon and when it ran out in five years, apply for a permanent residence card.
‘You like it that much here?’ He was surprised. He hadn’t been sure how she’d take to not being next door to Harrods or Bond Street with its five-star shopping and luxury restaurants and bars. Streatham was a long way from her old life of designer labels and chauffeur-driven cars.
She smiled. A real smile that warmed her eyes into the colour of a tropical sea. ‘It reminds me of Irkutsk, except for the rain. And I am free.’
He’d forgotten she and Ekaterina had come from a poor background where they’d scraped a living working for the Irkutsk Aviation Association on an assembly line, manufacturing aircraft. He’d rather thought the first thing she might have done in the UK was find a wealthy man to support her, but he’d obviously got her wrong. It appeared she was enjoying her independence.
He let a silence fall while they finished their tea. Milena looked out of the window where a mechanical street sweeper droned. She said, ‘What news from Russia?’
He decided to be direct. He said, ‘The helicopter failed and crashed into a wood where the fuel tank exploded on impact. Everyone died, including Ekaterina.’
Milena sat quite still as he spoke. She continued gazing outside.
‘There is a bounty on your head,’ he added. ‘Thirteen million roubles.’
She looked amused. ‘Nearly a quarter of a million pounds. Not bad for a Siberian peasant. And what of Lazar Yesikov?’
‘He sustained serious head injuries and not long afterwards, suffered several strokes. He is in a wheelchair. He can no longer speak. He cannot walk, or feed himself.’
She seemed to think about this for a moment.
‘He is like a baby?’
‘I guess so.’
She turned to face him. Her gaze was fierce. ‘Good. He deserves to suffer the fate he had in store for Katen’ka.’
Long silence.
He said, ‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘Of course.’
‘When did I know Ekaterina? Where did we meet?’
She looked at him openly. ‘It was before you were married. At an Embassy party.’
‘And . . .’ He hesitated and at the same time, Milena rose and padded to a scrubbed cabinet in the corner. Returned with a leather-bound, slim volume of poetry.
‘Katen’ka. She wanted you to have this.’
‘You brought it with you?’ He was amazed at her presence of mind when she’d been in such a desperate situation at the lodge.
‘It was her last wish.’
He opened it. His handwriting jumped out at him. He’d written something for Ekaterina in Russian on the fly page and suddenly he had such a violent shudder in his mind he nearly fell. He wasn’t standing in Milena’s little flat anymore. He didn’t know where he was, but instead of shaking himself and trying to move on, he let himself become absorbed in the vision his ruined memory had recovered.
He was lying in bed with Ekaterina. He was brushing back a tendril of hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear. She was smiling. Her almond eyes were filled with love.
Don’t be afraid.
A message from CJ Carver . . .
If you enjoyed TELL ME A LIE – why not join the CJ CARVER READER’S CLUB by emailing me at [email protected], or if you missed it you can order the first book in the Forrester and Davies series, SPARE ME THE TRUTH, here.
Dear Reader,
Firstly, I’d like to thank you for picking up Tell Me a Lie and I really, truly hope you enjoyed it!
I love thrillers, especially those with an international twist, ones with characters that I can identify with and be gripped by their dilemmas. I guess I wrote the sort of book I want to read. Plenty of suspense, lots of action, and some passion and heartbreak, too.
The book follows two main characters, Dan Forrester, an ex-spook, and Lucy Davies, a police constable who was booted out of the Met and sent to Stockton-on-Tees as punishment. Dan and Lucy’s stories appear unconnected but as the story progresses, their paths begin to cross until eventually they work together.
This is the second book in the series (don’t worry, you can read this book without having read the first!) and it was great to work with Dan and Lucy again and see how their lives were going. Dan struggling with his family life and Lucy fighting her insane attraction to her boss. There were new characters too, like the enigmatic, beautiful Ekaterina Datskik who draws Dan to Moscow and into a conspiracy of murder, lies and deceit. It is in this book that Dan learns how far he will go to protect his family, and even I was surprised at the outcome (it’s these surprises that make writing so compulsive as you never know what might happen next).
I chose Russia not just because it’s topical at the moment, but it holds everything I like in a thriller: spooks, car chases, guns and helicopters and snow. Lots of snow. I’ve been to Russia and found the place captivating, the people friendly and generous, but the organs were truly frightening, which is reflected in Tell Me A Lie.
If you’d like to hear more from me and about my future books, you’re welcome to sign up to my newsletter via my website http://www.cjcarver.com/books/ or you can join the CJ Carver Reader’s Club by emailing [email protected]. It only takes a few moments to sign up and there’s no catches or costs. Your data will be kept totally private and confidential, and it will never be passed on to a third party. I won’t spam you with loads of emails, but will get in touch now and again with book news, and you can unsubscribe any time you want.
You can find me on Goodreads and Amazon, and if you fancy posting a review you will make this author very happy! More importantly, it’s great for me to see what people think about my stories. Feedback is great fodder for creativity.
Thanks for your interest, and I hope more than anything that you enjoy the book.
All the very best
CJ
Twitter: @C_J_Carver
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Also in the Forrester and Davies series
SPARE ME THE TRUTH
THREE STRANGERS. COUNTLESS SECRETS. ONE DEADLY TRUTH.
THE SPY
In the grip of amnesia, Dan Forrester believes he’s just an ordinary man. Until a stranger approaches him with a startling revelation – and an explosive request . . .
THE COP
Banished from the Met in disgrace, Lucy Davies’s life is falling apart. But when a serial killer strikes in her new provincial posting, might it be her chance at redemption?
THE DAUGHTER
Stunned by her mother’s sudden death, Grace Reavey’s grief is interrupted by a staggering act of blackmail – one that challenges everything she knew about her mother.
‘Read it!’ Meg Gardiner
‘A top notch thriller writer’ Simon Kernick
Available in paperback and ebook now
Look out for more in the Forrester and Davies series – coming 2018 . . .
If you enjoyed Spare Me the Truth and Tell Me a Lie, why not read CJ Carver’s CWA Debut Dagger Award winning novel, available in ebook now
B
LOOD JUNCTION
Journalist India Kane’s trip to the Australian outback takes a horrifying turn when she arrives in the town of Cooinda to find that her best friend Lauren is missing.
Seemingly no one knows what has happened to her, but it’s not long before India finds herself arrested for a double murder that she didn’t commit, caught up in the dark past of a small town hiding a devastating truth – one that could destroy a family, a friendship, and a nation.
A powerful and compulsive thriller about a woman on the run from a brutal killer, as well as from her own past.
And follow on with the rest of the backlist
Available now in ebook
BLACK TIDE
India Kane is back in a dark and dangerous quest for justice.
GONE WITHOUT TRACE
Jay McCaulay is on a trail of murder, corruption and evil that leads to the very heart of London.
BACK WITH VENGEANCE
Jay McCaulay finds herself once again entangled in a web of lies.
THE HONEST ASSASSIN
Jay McCaulay was the only witness to an assassination and is determined to discover the truth.
DEAD HEAT
When the plane Georgia Parish is on crashes, it soon becomes clear that it was no accident.
BENEATH THE SNOW
When a young scientist vanishes in the Alaskan wilderness, her sister joins the search and finds more than she bargained for.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe a big thank you to everyone at Zaffre for their endless hard work and enthusiasm for the Dan Forrester series. To Joel Richardson for being the kind of editor every writer dreams of having. To Emily Burns and Georgia Mannering for their tireless media campaigning. To Nico Poiblanc and Graham Evans for representing me so well.
Always thanks to my wonderful agent Rowan Lawton for her continued good advice and support. Thanks also to Liane-Louise and Isha for being so efficient and on the ball.
Grateful thanks to Angelica Semmelbauer, my expert on all things Russian, for making sure I don’t make too many embarrassing mistakes, and for helping with Russian translations. Za tvoe zdorovie! Many thanks too, to Ed Hicks, editor of Flyer magazine, for his expertise on aviation issues. Thanks to Elinor Evans for sharing her insights into social media as well as getting me launched in Toppings and Company Booksellers of Bath – we had a great party.
Always thanks to my eagle-eyed proofreader, Anthony Weale. You won’t find any loose Canons in these pages.
Special thanks to Group Captain Steve Ayres, whose extensive knowledge of everything from flying fast jets to the inner workings of NATO and Russian and military matters, has been invaluable. You are a one-stop research centre and I’m incredibly lucky to have you on tap.
Last, but not least, thanks to all the reviewers, bloggers, readers, librarians and booksellers who liked Spare Me the Truth and helped spread the word – I hope you enjoy this one as much.
As usual, I must finish by saying this book is fiction, and any errors of fact will be mine.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CJ Carver is a half-English, half-Kiwi author living just outside Bath. CJ lived in Australia for ten years before taking up long-distance rallies, including London to Saigon, London to Cape Town and 14,000 miles on the Inca Trail. CJ’s books have been published in the UK and the USA and have been translated into several languages. CJ’s first novel, Blood Junction, won the CWA Debut Dagger Award and was voted as one of the best mystery books of the year by Publisher’s Weekly.
www.cjcarver.com / @C_J_Carver
By the same author
The Forrester and Davies series
Spare Me the Truth
The India Kane series
Blood Junction
Black Tide
The Jay McCaulay series
Gone Without Trace
Back With Vengeance
The Honest Assassin
Other novels
Dead Heat
Beneath the Snow
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Zaffre Publishing
This ebook edition published in 2017 by
Zaffre Publishing
80-81 Wimpole St, London, W1G 9RE
www.zaffrebooks.co.uk
Copyright © CJ Carver, 2017
The moral right of CJ Carver to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-7857-6036-5
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7857-6035-8
This ebook was produced by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Zaffre Publishing is an imprint of Bonnier Zaffre, a Bonnier Publishing company
www.bonnierzaffre.co.uk
www.bonnierpublishing.co.uk