'And when your brother found out?'
Sam noticed Hope twitch ever so slightly.
'I told him to leave me alone,' she huffed, the petulant teenager again for a moment. 'He wouldn't take no for an answer. Then he found out about the drugs...'
'Hope!' interjected Kenny, looking at her with urgency. 'We've got to go! The police will be here any minute!'
Hope gave him a dismissive stare.
'I told you, Kenny, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not throwing all this away.'
'But you'd be happy for me to rot in jail!' screamed Kenny in anguish. 'That's what you want, isn't it? To have everything for yourself!'
Hope looked at him coolly.
'I have already,' she sneered, a thin smile playing on her lips. 'You signed the club over to me a few days ago, remember? On my eighteenth birthday? The drugs might be finished, but everything else is in my name now.'
Sam recalled the function taking place in Jaspers. The night he had rescued Charlie on the door. That had been Hope's eighteenth birthday party. Sam must have missed her by a whisker.
Kenny's face suddenly crumpled under Hope's scornful gaze. Totally destroyed, he let his gun slump to his side dejectedly.
In that moment, Sam saw everything.
The besotted look on Kenny's face. The way Hope stared back at him coldly. She had used him for what he was, a foolish old man, blind with love. She had utilised his weakness for her own means. Hope was the one in charge here. Kenny Swain could go to hell as far as she was concerned. He was going to be the one taking the rap, and she would come out of it unscathed to reap the rewards of everything Kenny had built up.
Providing she could silence Sam.
Sam looked back at her. The impassive expression told Sam she was capable of it.
Capable of killing.
'It was you, wasn't it?' he whispered.
'What?' she replied, tilting her head at Sam in amusement.
'You ordered Danny's death. You had your own brother killed. Nobody was going to get in your way...not even your own flesh and blood.'
Hope stared back at him blankly, the smirk fading on her face. Sam saw that twitch again. He knew he was right.
'There was too much at stake!' she hissed. 'I couldn't risk him-'
The sound of cars approaching cut her short. She gave Sam a curious look. The night was suddenly full of screeching tyres as numerous vehicles skidded to a halt outside the house.
Kenny made a groaning noise. His whole world had suddenly fallen apart. Already facing the wrath of the law, now he had been rejected by the one he loved. With one limp arm, he slowly raised the gun again. Sam touched the trigger of his own gun lightly. He couldn't out-shoot both Kenny and Hope, but he could take one of them with him.
'I told you, Kenny, don't do it.'
Kenny aimed the gun at him momentarily. Sam caught sight of Hope lowering her own weapon. She was leaving them to it, content for them to shoot it out.
One less target for Sam to focus on.
Kenny stared at him with glazed eyes. His arm began moving again. He raised the gun to his own temple. Sam watched on helplessly as Kenny turned to Hope. He looked at her with a forlorn expression. She stared back at him with contempt.
Sam lowered his gun and took a step forward.
'Kenny...'
He saw the finger tighten around the trigger and knew he was too late.
He looked away.
The shot reverberated around the kitchen. Seconds later, after the echo had died down, he turned back. Kenny was lying motionless on the floor, a thick puddle of blood spreading out from beneath his head.
Sam looked at Hope. She was calmly wiping her gun with a towel. Ignoring the body yards away, she placed the weapon on the kitchen counter and started messing up her hair. Nearby, police officers could be heard charging through the house, calling out, searching for them.
'Thanks for rescuing me, Sam,' Hope said, smiling arrogantly. 'You saved me just in time.'
Sam stared at her with incredulity. She was leisurely smearing the make-up on her face, waiting for the police to burst in so she could play the innocent victim. Disgust rose within Sam.
'You really are a heartless-'
'Save it, Sam!' she spat. 'Nobody's going to believe I was involved...no matter what you say! All they're going to see is a scared woman snatched by a-'
Hope stared at him in horror.
Sam had extracted the small recording equipment from his waistband. A wire had come loose while he was in the club. He had reconnected it during the chase, enabling him to guide the police to Kenny's home. He held the recorder up for Hope to see, giving her a grim smile.
'I told you the game was up.'
Chapter 28
'She's confessed to everything. Well, she didn't have a choice seeing as you got it all on tape. Barry's admitted to the drug-running, while Clarence and Jimmy have owned up to Danny's murder. They weren't to know your wire had come loose in the club.'
Robins had escorted Sam back to his flat. The two men were seated either side of Sam's desk where he was helping himself to another generous measure of whisky. He still had unanswered questions.
'Have they told you why they killed him outside the club?'
'Clarence lured him there with an anonymous phone call...told him he had some information about Hope for him. The plan was to grab Danny, drive him somewhere remote and bump him off there. When Danny got there, Jimmy was waiting in the corner of the alleyway, hidden from sight. Clarence came out of the club and started talking to Danny. Jimmy grabbed him from behind as planned...'
'And?'
Robins shook his head, a sour look on his face.
'Jimmy lost it. He was an amateur mixing with professional criminals. His patience had run out and he stabbed Danny right there on the spot. Apparently, Clarence went berserk at him. They heard people outside the club and decided it was too risky to move Danny there and then. They left him behind the bins, presuming he was dead. The intention was to come back later for his body.'
'But I found him and ruined their plan.'
'Exactly,' sighed Robins, giving Sam's whisky a longing gaze, looking like a man who wished he was off-duty.
'One more thing,' said Sam. 'When I found Danny, he was asking me to help him find his sister, but he'd already found her.'
'He had,' nodded Robins, 'but after Danny found out about the drugs and paid his uncle a visit, Hope thought it wiser to stay away from the club, especially once she'd made up her mind to have him silenced. Danny literally found his sister, then lost her again.'
Sam shook his head.
'I still can't believe she did that to her own brother.'
Robins dropped one final bombshell.
'She blamed Danny for the deaths of their parents.'
Sam was dumbstruck.
'But it was an accident, wasn't it?'
'The incident itself was an accident,' nodded Robins, 'but it was Danny who bought them the tickets for the boat trip. A birthday present or something.'
'And she blamed him because of that?'
Robins shrugged, looking slightly bewildered himself.
'She was only a kid at the time. She kept how she felt to herself, but her anger towards her brother twisted and grew all out of proportion over the years. It wasn't just her uncle she wanted to get away from in the end.'
'Did Danny know?'
Robins shook his head sadly.
'Not from what I can gather. Maybe that was a good thing.'
Sam stared around the room in disbelief. Robins was fidgeting with his wedding ring.
'You mean Danny was prepared to lay his life on the line for a sister who hated him?'
Robins pushed his chair back and got to his feet.
'One messed up family, eh?' he said quietly.
Sam stood up as well.
'How is Roger Carpenter, by the way?'
Sam asked only in the interest of tying up loose ends.
'He'll live,' said
Robins curtly, giving Sam a sharp look. 'He's too scared to talk about what led to his heart attack that night...won't tell us anything about who made the phone call.'
Sam noticed Robins watching him closely. However, the detective's face had softened a touch.
'Sometimes, Sam, things happen for a reason.'
Robins gave him a knowing look. Sam nodded back in reply.
'And, sometimes,' Robins added, 'certain things are best left...'
***
Gloria was quiet.
Sam had revealed everything to her, and now it was sinking in. Over at the bar, Denny and Archie were watching them discreetly. Two younger men were in their company, their backs turned to Sam and Gloria seated in a corner of the Barton.
'Are you okay?' asked Sam, taking Gloria's hand lightly in his own.
Gloria sniffed and nodded.
'Thank you for telling me,' she smiled, squeezing Sam's hand. Now she knew, her voice contained no anger or bitterness, just genuine sadness. 'And thank you for going to the trouble of finding out what happened to him.'
'No trouble,' replied Sam, turning to the bar, giving the men there the briefest of nods. 'No trouble at all.'
Gloria dabbed at her nose with a tissue. She didn't notice the group of men walk towards them.
'Like I said before, Sam, it gives me some comfort knowing somebody else cared about what happened to him.'
She looked up, aware now of the newcomers hovering over them. She smiled at Denny and Archie. Not recognising the other men, she gave Sam a curious look.
'Gloria, I'd like you to meet Stuart Sloane and Diego Albiol. Two very good friends of Danny's.'
Gloria gave him a bemused look. Sam invited the two men to sit down. Gloria studied them as they took their seats.
'Danny didn't die alone,' said Sam, giving her a warm smile. 'Far from it.'
Gloria gave Sam a nod and looked at Stuart and Diego in turn. She reached out and placed a palm over each man's hand. A solitary tear trickled down her cheek as she gazed thoughtfully at the two men.
Then she smiled.
THE END
###
Also by Michael Joseph
A NEW DAWN RISING
A NEW DAWN RISING introduces the reader to former undercover cop Sam Carlisle. Haunted by the tragic loss of his wife and young daughter, Sam's only companion is the ever-present bottle of whisky he uses to numb the constant pain and terrifying nightmares. However, his anguish shows no sign of relenting, and his money is beginning to run out...
His fortune appears to change when he intervenes in a mugging and an impressed onlooker makes him an unusual proposition. Wealthy businessman Carl Renshaw has been receiving sinister threats and is looking for protection. After witnessing Sam in action, Carl offers him a job as his personal bodyguard. Despite his reservations, Sam accepts, swayed by the lure of distraction and a regular income. An opportunity to move on and make a fresh start.
However, when Carl is murdered shortly afterwards, the police suspect Sam is responsible, forcing him to hunt down the real culprit himself. His journey takes him deep into the local criminal underworld, where he discovers Carl's life was a tangled web of shady deals and dangerous enemies. As Sam delves deeper, his own life comes under threat from someone determined to silence him before he can reveal the truth. In a frantic finale, Sam faces a race against time to solve the mystery and prove his innocence.
A NEW DAWN RISING is available on Amazon Kindle.
DEATH IN JULY
The follow-up to A NEW DAWN RISING sees the return of maverick ex-cop Sam Carlisle, now free of his demons and living in the bustling seaside town of Newgate, on the East Anglian coast.
When retired war veteran Geoffrey Compton is found dead in his own home, all the evidence points to suicide. However, his son Benjamin believes there was more to the death and hires Sam to investigate. Tackling his first mystery as a private eye, Sam discovers a number of Geoffrey's old acquaintances have also passed away recently in suspicious circumstances, leading him to believe someone is exacting revenge on these people, snuffing out their lives in the most calculating manner. To prevent more fatalities, Sam must trawl the past and find the cause of this twisted retribution, putting him on collision course with the elusive figure responsible.
As well as investigating Geoffrey Compton's death, Sam also finds himself trying to protect a friend from her vengeful ex. Sam is stretched to the limit in Death In July, juggling two separate cases full of intrigue and danger.
DEATH IN JULY is available now on Amazon Kindle
Searching For Hope Page 17