by Matt Drabble
“There’s a body at the end of the pier.” Danny pointed behind him. “You’ll find that he was the senior partner to Martin Kline, the mastermind behind the murders. This is the end to the case, the ribbon on top of the parcel that answers all questions.”
Barrett motioned for the officers around him to check out the claim. They left, leaving the three of them alone.
“I don’t know what half-assed claims you’re about to make, Meyers, but I can assure you that they won’t stand.”
Jane watched as Danny pulled out a small phone from his pocket. “It’s amazing what these little devices can do these days, Sir; the video quality is quite excellent. I recorded an interview with one of the men that you sent after me and Randall Zerneck, or was it just Randall?” Never mind, the important thing is that he was very helpful with who sent them - namely you, Commander.”
“Where is Randall?” Jane asked, suddenly scared.
“He’s dead,” Danny answered bluntly. “Barrett sent his attack dogs to tie up loose ends.”
Jane watched on as the senior officer stared hard at Danny, trying to decide what leverage the man had. “That’s not proof of anything,” he finally said.
“Doesn’t have to be proof; just the merest whiff of scandal and I’m guessing that your bosses will drop you in a heartbeat. Your job depends on secrecy and a clean reputation - anything else and you’re finished.”
“What is that you want?” Barrett demanded.
“Just to walk away,” Danny replied. “Both of us.”
“No!” Jane snapped quickly. “He has to pay for Randall.”
“Men like him don’t pay, Jane,“ Danny said shaking his head. “Men like him never pay.”
“I can’t save your badge, Inspector. Your fleeing custody and questionable orders put paid to that.”
“That doesn’t matter. I can’t be a cop anymore.”
“Danny?” Jane said quickly.
“I’m done. What happened at St Joseph’s meant an end to that. I made the call to take us in there and people died because of that.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Jane said.
“Yes it was,” Danny replied sadly. “I made the call; it was my responsibility.”
“So you’ll just disappear?” Barrett said incredulously.
“You call off the dogs and we’ll do just that. You can clean up this mess any way that you see fit. Use it to further your reputation as a hero or bury it, I don’t care.”
Barrett stared long and hard before eventually turning away and barking orders into the radio on his lapel. Once Danny had heard enough he threw the phone over the side of the railing and into the sea.
Jane took his arm and together they started to walk back down the boardwalk towards the road.
“Who was he?” Barrett asked, nodding towards Simon’s body at the end of the pier.
“I never knew him,” Jane answered honestly. “I never got the chance.”
“So you what? You took out the memory card from the phone?” she whispered, once they were back in the rental car parked on the road outside.
“Nope,” Danny answered.
“You can’t be serious? What the hell are you doing trusting Barrett’s word?”
“There was never anything on the phone. I just wanted to make sure that it was Barrett who sent the men to kill Randall.”
“Then we go after Barrett,” she snarled.
“I wasn’t kidding before, Jane; men like Barrett never answer for their crimes. Someone else always ends up footing the bill.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“Sorry, but I don’t think it much matters what you accept.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We get the hell out of here and hope that Barrett doesn’t decide to come after us; maybe he’ll call it quits,” Danny shrugged.
“You think so?”
“Honestly? No. At some point he’s going to figure that us running around is not a wise move and one day our car brakes are gonna fail.”
“He can’t just sweep all of this under the carpet - not even Barrett can do that,” she said firmly.
“This and bigger. I’d imagine that Randall and the two dirty cops that I left by the side of the road have already been taken care of. Randall will turn up soon, either dying in an accident or of natural causes, and Simon will just disappear.”
Jane looked out of the car window as they pulled away. Barrett was standing on the pavement outside the pier entrance. His shoulders were back and his chest was out as he watched them drive away. There were several people all rushing around him carrying out duties but it was the one man standing rock still behind him that caught her eye. The man wasn’t quite really there but the spirit looked full of rage as he floated in and out in sepia tones.
“The way I see it, Barrett walks away clean and smelling of roses,” Danny continued “There’s no one that can touch him.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Jane said as she nodded to Randall Zerneck through the window as the dead man gave her a small nod back.
OTHER BOOKS AND AUTHOR INFORMATION
For more information and book links
check out my author page on Amazon
US READERS: http://www.amazon.com/MATT-DRABBLE/e/B0089NFG8Q
UK READERS: http://www.amazon.co.uk/MATT-DRABBLE/e/B0089NFG8Q
My website: www.mattdrabble.com
Look for me on Facebook: mattdrabble.3
Twitter: MattDrabble01
To sign up for my newsletter via Mad Mimi containing news, new releases, freebies & giveaways click here:
(Your information will not be shared with anyone and there will be no spam)
THE montague portrait
Hugo Montague was a man of boundless cruelty that lived on beyond his mortal days. The portrait that he commissioned has hung on many walls, but has always overseen tragedy and murder.
The painting was long thought destroyed in a fire, but now there are those desperate to find the portrait if it still exists
Travis Parker was an insurance investigator, but now he is a widower trapped within his own pain and broken promises. When he is approached by the mysterious Telfer Vargas to track down the portrait he reluctantly agrees to one last case.
Charlotte Goode has a long personal history with the painting and will let nothing stand in her way to avenge her family.
The race across Europe to find the painting soon becomes littered with death as dark supernatural forces converge and threaten to consume those foolish enough to look.
"Once again, I was impressed with the rich background of each character in this suspenseful plot, never taking away, but always adding to the excitement. Matt is feeding my need for horror through the written word." SAGE ADDERLEY
"Matt Drabble is immensely talented... Again & again he has provided his readers with exceptional content & books we cannot put down!... I literally flew through this one because I just couldn't put it down... It's definitely a 5 star novel" DEVOTED MOMMY OF 3 (blog)
THE TRAVELLING MAN
A Indie Book of the Day Award Winner
The small desert town of Granton is a typical slow boiling pot of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. Every hard working day is much like any other here where little ever changes.
Sheriff Cassie Wheeler runs a tight ship in the tradition of her late father. There is little serious crime to trouble her department, save for the local miners' occasional rowdiness after payday.
But Granton has its share of secrets hiding behind twitching curtains and small town folks often have the biggest of ambitions.
Now the long dusty road into town has brought with it a stranger. A man of elegance calling himself Gilbert Grange has arrived. He brings with him a bag full of dreams and a silver tongue of promise.
He can give you whatever you desire, all you have to do is sign
on the dotted line.
The residents of Granton are about to discover that dreams can come at a
terrible price, and you should always be careful what you wish for.
"If you are looking for a classic tale of horror then you'll never ever be disappointed in Matt Drabble's writing. He knows creepy and he writes it very well." SAGE ADDERLEY
"Its dark subject matter, creepy terrain, a highly developed and complex cast of characters, and a thundering crescendo all make for a spectacular novel of horror and suspense" HOGWASH
"If you're a fan of Stephen King's Needful Things then you have to get this book" Zombie Girl Shambling Blog
GATED
A UK & US Horror Chart Top Ten Best Seller
Full Moon Awards 2014 Horror Book of the year
Michael and Emily are a happy and contented English couple, a writer and a school teacher. Their lives are complete when Emily falls pregnant, however their dreams are shattered one cold winter night by a car accident that robs them of their happiness.
To overcome their loss they up stick and move to Eden Gardens, a US gated community that offers "Heaven on Earth and Twice as Nice". The people are warm and friendly and welcome them with open arms. The town is a beautiful throwback to a bygone age, where the sun always shines and the sky's always blue.
As they settle into their new perfect lives, the circle is complete when Emily falls pregnant. The town is perfect, the weather is perfect and their lives are perfect. But are the stares from their neighbours a little too intense, is the town a little too interested in their happy news, and is Eden all that it seems.
They are about to find out that paradise comes at a cost, and when you sign a lease, you should always check the fine print.
"This book is a page turner. An absolute thriller that keeps the reader engaged to the very last page." - I READ A BOOK ONCE.COM
"I cannot praise this book enough. It is one of those books that stays with you long after you have read it the imagery is that powerful." SOOZY'S HORROR PAGE
"The description in this book is amazing, it's like he has pulled it out of his head and right into the book. I'd definitely recommend reading it." REBBIE REVIEWS
"An eerie and sinister plot that draws you in from the start. A book I can recommend to all readers for the love of Horror and thrillers." LYNELLE CLARK
"Surprises are in store, and good ones. Think along the sadistic lines of John Saul and VC Andrews. Not everyone is getting out of this story alive." - EXAMINER.COM
GATED II: Ravenhill Academy
It has been 10 years since the events in the small picturesque town of Eden. Lives were forever altered as two newcomers found the courage to peek behind the curtain and bring Tolan Christian's reign to a violent end as the town burned around them.
No-one was more affected than Sarah-Jane Mears. The once bubbly ball of good nature is now a shadow of the former woman she used to be. After travelling to try and find a new home she has eventually settled in Northern England. She has taken a teaching position at Ravenhill Academy, an exclusive private school.
But now there is a new student who has just transferred. A young American boy who is strangely familiar and oddly charismatic. As the school breaks for the Christmas holidays the harsh winter weather has cut them off from the outside world. Sarah is starting to learn that Ravenhill is an old building seemingly with a life and an energy of its own, one that is slowly stirring.
She is going to realise that not all lessons are learnt in the classroom and that some secrets won't stay buried.
"Gated II: Ravenhill Academy is as good a suspense thriller as any written by the big name authors. Indeed, it could serve as the Indie Publishing Poster Child" READERS' FAVORITE
"If you read Gated & loved it, then I know you will enjoy this book. The ending leaves us with an opening for a third book which I'm sure is what you want!" HORROR NOVEL REVIEWS
ASYLUM – 13 TALES OF TERROR
A US Horror Chart #5 best seller
Voted #5 on The Horror Novel Review’s Top 10 Books of 2013
& a 2014 Readers Favorite Gold Medal winner
Blackwater Heights is a building with a long dark history, some of it is well known but more is shrouded in myth and legend. None more so than that of its founding father Horace Whisker.
Martin Parcell is an ex-journalist with shattered dreams of an author's career. Sidelined through a car crash's injuries, he finds himself forced through governmental austerity measures having to take a custodians position at a private mental health hospital. A writer with undoubted talent, but an author without a story.
He begins his new job deep in depression and drowning under waves of his lost dreams. On his first night he meets Jimmy, his elderly supervisor who has spent most of his life within the hospital walls. Jimmy is nearing retirement age and desperate to rest his weary bones. Jimmy offers Martin a way out for both of them, access to the background histories and stories of the hospital's patients.
A collection of 13 tales from the darkly disturbed minds of the residents of Blackwater Heights.
As the long night unwinds, Martin finds himself deeply troubled as the tales unfold before him and threaten to drag him down into their insanity.
"Matt Drabble is nothing short of a genius when it comes to painting a picture of his characters. This novel was sensational! I started reading and couldn't stop" LITTLE BLOG OF HORROR
"Consistently very, very strong like Stephen King, or Clive Barker, there's simply no telling what the man will deliver in a package of this nature" HORROR NOVEL REVIEWS
"It takes skill to make the short story format work and Matt Drabble has mastered it as he is able to establish both character and story in a matter of pages while conveying a sense of horror and terror" REELYBORED.COM
"Turn down the lights, turn off the TV and cuddle up with these stories tonight - talk about being afraid of the dark!" BOOK FIDELITY
AFTER DARKNESS FALLS
VARIOUS VOLUMES
10 tales of terror & the macabre
A new horror anthology collection,
look out for future volumes
"Matt Drabble has come out with another winner. Ten terrifying tales guaranteed to make you shudder 5/5"
HORROR NOVEL REVIEWS
"Guaranteed to keep you awake at night, while fully entertaining you during daylight hours. 5 Stars"
READERS' FAVORITE
"Matt Drabble delivers the must have UK collection of 2013" SCARY MINDS
VOLUME ONE
VOLUME TWO