Dark of Mind

by Robin Roughley

  D.S. Lasser

  The Needle House

  The Way That It Falls

  Tethered To The Dead

  Twisted

  More Equal Than Others

  Vanished Beneath

  Riven

  Bad Self

  Crave

  Moments Back

  Conspiracy of Ravens

  Dark Necessities

  Living Ashes

  Stations Of The Cross

  The One With All The Pain

  Shadows Cast

  Blood Bought

  Desolate Hearts

  Winter's Lament

  Shedding Skin

  Dark Of Mind

  D.S. Marnie Hammond

  Whippersnapper

  Rain Of Souls

  Day Is Done

  Plymouth

  Stormcock

  The Strife And Grime Of Charlie Roebuck

  Pinches Of Salt

  Dark Of Mind – DS Lasser 21

  Author Robin Roughley

  Copyright © 201 by Robin Roughley

  Published on Amazon 2019

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

  74

  75

  76

  77

  78

  79

  80

  81

  82

  83

  84

  85

  86

  87

  88

  89

  90

  91

  92

  93

  94

  95

  96

  97

  98

  99

  100

  101

  102

  103

  104

  105

  106

  107

  108

  109

  110

  111

  112

  113

  114

  115

  116

  117

  118

  119

  120

  121

  122

  123

  124

  125

  126

  127

  128

  129

  130

  131

  132

  133

  134

  135

  136

  137

  138

  139

  Dark of Mind

  Prologue

  Benny Foster could feel the heat building beneath his grimy parka jacket, his body tacky with sweat, the tart whiff of body odour wafting into his face as he shuffled along Market Street. The hood of the jacket was pulled up, his narrow face circled with a band of matted fake fur, hands thrust deep into his pockets.

  'Tell me what you see?' the voice in his ear demanded.

  'I'm on Market Street.'

  'I know where you are, you worm, I sent you there,' the man interrupted sharply. 'I want to know what it's actually like, right there, right now.'

  'I'm sorry,' Benny Foster whispered nervously in reply.

  'I don't want to listen to your snivelling apologies, now give me details, are people happy, laughing, arguing, what?'

  Foster looked at the familiar town centre street as he walked, his pale grey eyes flitting left and right, taking in the shops; most were closed for the night apart from the numerous fast food outlets and pubs. His mind started to overload on the imagery of people pushing and jostling, the noises and smells assaulting his senses as he tried desperately to think of something worthwhile to say.

  When the voice in his ear sighed heavily, he felt the panic flare and blurted out the first thing he could think of. 'There are lots of people out tonight.'

  'One more crass comment and I hang up right now,' the man warned.

  Foster scuttled left, shoulders hunched in, his breathing light and fast, he moved into the doorway of B&M Bargains as if walking and talking was too much multitasking for his befuddled brain. The phone trapped beneath the hood of his parka felt like a hotplate against the side of his head as he watched the people moving up and down the street.

  'I'm waiting, so start talking or I vanish forever.'

  Foster felt the fear thrum through his body, his pimple-littered face sweating profusely. 'I can see a group of girls,' he gasped and closed his eyes as he waited for a response, his teeth feverishly nibbling at his mashed bottom lip.

  'And?'

  Foster heaved a sigh of relief as he opened his eyes and looked across the street to the four girls, they were standing outside Primark, arms waving in the air and laughing, dressed for a night on the town.

  'Two of them are wearing short skirts and cheap sparkly tops,' he offered tentatively.

  'What about the other two?'

  Benny swallowed and then hissed in a gasp of warm evening air. 'One's wearing jeans, the other is in a short dress.'

  'How many are blonde?' the voice asked.

  Foster squinted across the street. 'Only one of them.'

  'Natural?'

  Moving from one foot to the other, the agitation continuing to build as the questions were fired directly into his brain. 'I don't think so; her hair looks like straw.'

  'A whore then?'

  Foster nodded as he answered. 'Yes, yes she looks like a prostitute, her face is thick with makeup and her breasts are virtually falling out.'

  'My, my, Benny, using the word ''prostitute'' and ''breasts'' in the same sentence, it almost makes you sound like an educated man,' the voice rumbled a laugh.

  'Thank you,' Benny replied in a confused whisper.

  'This town is full of whores and skanks.'
<
br />   Foster raised his left hand, exploring the pimples on his face, his tongue feverishly licking his lips.

  'What else can you see?'

  Reluctantly, he moved his gaze from the girls and scanned the busy street. 'There's a tramp in the doorway of the coffee shop, he's sitting in a sleeping bag with a bob cap on his head, I bet he stinks, he looks as if he stinks.'

  'Good, now give me more.'

  Foster suddenly felt some of the tension leave him replaced by a thrilling sense of achievement. 'There are two police officers walking together, they've just stopped to talk to the tramp in the doorway.'

  'Are they moving him on?'

  Foster watched and waited, after a few seconds the officers strolled away and vanished into the crowd. 'No, they've left him alone, they're moving away.'

  'Any lone females?' the voice asked.

  Foster leaned forward slightly and looked up and down the street, but the truth was it was impossible to tell, there were so many people crammed together, they moved like a shoal of fish, blending into a single mass, each one indiscernible from the next.

  'I can't really tell,' he admitted as the brief sense of achievement vanished.

  'I'm beginning to wonder if I made a mistake in choosing an idiot like you.'

  Benny Foster felt the despair wash over him, his fingers now picking at the small scabs that littered his face, making them bleed as he moved further back into the doorway. 'Please, I want to prove that you made the right decision in picking me, I know I can do this.'

  'There are others who would be more than willing to take your place, perhaps I should call one of them up right now and…'

  'NO!' Foster hissed as the despair morphed into fear.

  Two young women who were strolling past the shop glanced his way, matching frowns on their faces as they saw the scruffy-looking man skulking in the shadowed doorway.

  Foster spun away, his cheeks burning with shame and fear. 'I promise I can get better; this is new to me, but I learn quickly.'

  'But there's no need for you to ''learn'' anything, I thought I made that clear from the outset?'

  Foster screwed his eyes closed as he realised his mistake.

  'The first time we spoke you wanted to die, you said life wasn't worth living, you'd been trawling sites looking for the best way to kill yourself, is that true or not?'

  'It's the truth,' Foster gasped as the tears slid free from his glass-like eyes, all the self-loathing was still there waiting to smother him, and he knew that if he was cut loose now then he would sink back into the dark place.

  'Please, don't let me go,' he whined, his back to the street as he tried to control his shattered sense of worthlessness.

  'All you had to do was follow instructions and yet apparently you can't even do that one simple task.'

  When the phone beeped, Foster snatched it from beneath his hood and stared at the screen with anguish-filled eyes, suddenly he felt exposed and utterly alone, his body seemed to sag in on itself, the old knife scars on his arms and legs began to itch and the noise of the street seemed to explode in his mind. People laughing and shouting, a cacophony of sound mingling with the stink of perfume and aftershave made him dry retch.

  The town centre was somewhere he had always tried to avoid, especially at night and even more so on a Saturday, now here he was marooned in a place he hated, cut adrift by the voice that had promised so much.

  The thought of actually walking out into the throng was an impossibility and Benny Foster slowly sank down in the doorway, a mirror image of the tramp lost from view on the other side of the street.

  Lowering his head into his hands, he began to cry as his pitiful world fell apart.

  1

  'Thanks, love,' Lasser smiled as the waitress gathered some of the empty glasses that littered the surface of the long wooden table.

  The last of the early evening sunlight filled the patio of The Owls pub and restaurant, in the background a couple of ducks squawked on the manicured lawn as they waddled towards the small pond set in the middle of the landscaped gardens.

  When Bannister rattled a spoon against his half-empty pint of Guinness, the people around the table fell silent and turned towards him.

  Lasser did a quick scan of the faces, Bannister opposite, his face flushed with merriment, Suzanne by his side keeping a wary eye on her husband. Odette sat to the left, running her finger around the rim of the wine glass. Roger the tech guy by her side, his dark hair was as usual in disarray, his grey tie loosened as he took a sip from his pint of lager.

  As always Belle and Kelly were together and Lasser glanced at the two lads who sat either side of them, both girls had insisted that they weren't ''boyfriends'' but just ''friends''.

  Before he could finish checking everyone out the DCI had risen to his feet.

  Easing back in his chair, Lasser folded his arms and then smiled as he felt Jackie give his thigh a squeeze.

  'What are you grinning at?' Bannister's narrowed eyes homed in on Lasser.

  Jackie slid her hand away as Lasser shrugged.

  'Nothing, I'm just waiting for you to get on with it then I can order my pudding.'

  'My God, you've already eaten more than the rest of us put together.'

  When Suzanne tapped his arm, Bannister scowled before straightening his broad shoulders. 'Right, it's not often the team manage to get together to celebrate something, so this is a rare occasion, but I would like to raise a toast to those who are on duty tonight and couldn't make this momentous occasion.'

  Glasses were raised in acknowledgement, Doc Shannon shouted out a ''here, here'', for once his usually wild beard had been tamed, Silvia, his diminutive wife, by his side smiled and shook her head ruefully as he beamed.

  Bannister grunted and jutted out his chin before craning forward to look at everyone in attendance. 'Now, you all know me, I am not one for long-winded speeches,' he paused, though no one filled the gap to agree with him, 'but as mentioned this is a special occasion and for two very specific reasons.'

  Lasser lifted his glass of orange juice from the table and took a sip, his eyes flicking left as the two lads on either side of Belle and Kelly whispered something to one another behind their backs, then they both sniggered, the one called Danny caught Lasser's eye and the smile slipped from his face as Lasser gave him the stare and placed a finger against his lips.

  Danny had the good grace to blush and turned away sharpish.

  'This job we do is like no other,' Bannister set off again. 'No doubt most of the outside world think we have it easy, they think we sit behind our desk, feet up, ignoring the phone and playing sudoku, they think we no longer care about policing the streets!' his voice rose sharply and Lasser saw Suzanne wince.

  The DCI shook his head in Oscar-winning mode. 'Sad times, my friends, sad times indeed.'

  Inwardly, Lasser sighed as he took a gulp from the pint glass of fruit juice.

  'The general public look to us to keep them safe, that's why we joined the force in the first place, because we're people persons.'

  Lasser could see one or two people frown at the clumsy sentence, Suzanne closed her eyes, her lips moving slightly as if she were uttering a prayer.

  'We want to make a difference, want to contribute to society, yet at every turn we find our hands tied; budget cuts and restructuring are the blight of our lives.' Bannister's face started to grow a deeper shade of red as he got into his stride. 'The politicians make those rules and yet all they ever care about is saving money!'

  'Alan, you need to calm down.'

  Bannister ignored his wife and ploughed on. 'These powermongers couldn't give a toss about the likes of us, working every hour God sends, under constant stress and strain, while they swan about in their chauffeur-driven cars just so they can have their bottle of chateau knob head after a round on the golf course,' his face writhed in disgust, 'pretending they're working class because they wear a hard hat and yellow vest while they visit some factory that will employ a work force
on zero bloody hours' contracts. And while they do that, WE are letting people down, yes, yes, I know that's a harsh thing to say but it's the truth! We are being hung out to dry by those parasites as they cut another department to the bone, they don't care about any of this, they don't care about US!' he waved his arms around alarmingly.

  Lasser did another quick scan of the table, faces blanched with shock were the order of the day, Belle and Kelly looked mortified at the rant, Odette's eyes were suddenly full of concern as Bannister railed against the system.

  Taking a deep breath, Lasser grabbed his glass and shot to his feet. 'Congratulations to Spenner and Tess on their engagement and to Spenner for starting his sergeant exams!' he announced in a loud voice.

  The silence stretched out and then it seemed as if everyone let out a cheer at the same time before turning towards Spenner and his fiancé who sat at the end of the table looking embarrassed and relieved in equal measure.

  Form the corner of his eye, Lasser saw Suzanne snatch Bannister back into his seat, the DCI looked furious for a moment and then he glanced at Lasser and nodded a red-faced thanks.

  At their backs, the ducks continued to squawk at the proceedings, adding their two penn'orth.

  2

  Shaun Rourke and Sally Wright stepped to one side as the group of four giggling girls strode by, arms linked, their towering heels clicking on the pavement. Rourke grimaced slightly at the cloud of scent they left in their wake.

  Spotting the look, Sally smiled. 'Bit overpowering, isn't it?'

  'Smells like paint stripper,' he commented as they continued to walk along Market Street, the Saturday night revellers out in force.

  'I wonder how Spenner's engagement party is going,' Sally pondered.

  'Well, I had a meal at The Owls a few weeks ago and the food was top notch and not badly priced.'

  'I still can't believe he's engaged, I mean, as long as I've known Spenner he's wanted to find the right woman and settle down.'

  'You mean any woman,' Rourke grinned.

  'Don't be cruel,' Sally replied and nudged him with her elbow.

  They fell silent for a moment as they walked past the Ship Inn, music blaring through the open windows, mingling with the horrific sound of out-of-tune singing.

  Once clear of the racket, Sally tapped at Shaun's sleeve and nodded across the street to where a man in his twenties was gesticulating wildly at a young woman, her head bowed as he pushed his face in close to continue the rant.