by Dawn Brookes
‘I’ll do as you say. And Carlos?’
‘Yes?’
‘Thank you for your understanding throughout this horrible business.’
‘You and your mother deserve some luck, Caroline. I hope you find peace.’
‘Thanks again. Goodbye.’
On that note, it’s time for me to see Barney Milnthorpe.
Carlos returned the bunch of keys to their rightful place and made his way towards the vicarage.
Epilogue
Caroline Winslow unlocked and opened the shed door. The allotment was a mile away from Peaks Hollow and it had taken time to find out the address without reminding people of the demise of Harold Sissons the previous Christmas. Eventually she had discovered it from a conversation between the woman in the grocery store and a villager when they were chatting about local produce.
The vegetables on the plot had long gone to seed and weeds were taking over. It had taken six months to sell the cottage, but now the sale was agreed, Caroline was down with the whole family, clearing and packing. Aiden wasn’t aware of the allotment; she had pocketed the keys on one of the visits to help her mother gather personal things.
The shed was dark and dingy inside, and musty. The light from the opened door reflected off the front of a polished spade, lying on the floor as if it had been thrown down in a hurry. Traces of mud remained on the spade, which would never have been left that way by Harold. When Caroline turned the implement around, dried brown blood covered the rear.
‘I bet that hurt.’ She couldn’t help smiling, but then shuddered. Her mother’s wellington boots stood next to the spade. They were muddy and also bloodstained, as was an old coat her mother must have been wearing.
She wrapped the spade in a black plastic bin bag and put it in the car. It was still dark and no-one was around. She scrunched up newspaper and poured white spirit over the rest of the contents of the shed before throwing a match inside.
Caroline remained in the car at a distance, watching the bonfire until there was nothing left but ash. It would be blamed on kids, most likely, as it was obvious the plot had been abandoned.
Following a bumpy drive, Caroline approached an isolated marina she used to visit with school friends. There was a towpath where the boys would fish while the girls walked the banks, searching for kingfishers. Moving away from the boats that were moored beside the canal, Caroline walked along the towpath and removed the spade from the plastic bag, tossing it into the canal.
Fiona Cook had arrived home late. She was still puzzled about the Harold Sissons case; she couldn’t understand why Carlos had packed it in so suddenly six months earlier. It was out of character. He wouldn’t discuss it, so she trusted his reasons, and suspected they had something to do with whatever had happened between him and Terry Masters.
Carlos had stayed in the area for the week after Christmas seeing the local vicar for counselling. She hoped it had helped, but didn’t pry. Personally, she hated having an unsolved case on her books. The police had left the case of the boy, Matthew Sissons, unsolved for twenty years, and she feared history was repeating itself. DCI Matlock had been happy to let it go cold. He didn’t want any run-ins with the top brass after the big shot lawyer had rattled their cage.
That also gave her sleepless nights. What did Steve’s boss have on the Chief Superintendent that caused him to take Masters off the case? These questions would have to be answered one day.
Masters had requested and been granted a transfer soon after he was removed from the investigation. She suspected he was ordered to put in the request, but would never know if that were the case.
Sleep eventually came, blocking out the questions.
She woke in the early hours, hearing heeled footsteps walking along the towpath past her boat. You really shouldn’t be out walking alone in the dark, dear, she thought as she closed her eyes again. Just as she drifted back into sleep, she heard a loud splash.
‘Damn fly tippers, always throwing stuff in the canal.’ She pulled the duvet over her head. ‘That’s a job for uniform.’
THE END
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Body in the Woods, the first book in my Carlos Jacobi series. If you have enjoyed it, please leave an honest review on Amazon and/or any other platform you may use. I love receiving feedback from readers and can assure you that I read every review.
Look out for the next in the series. The Bradgate Park Murders will be released in 2021.
Why not check out my Rachel Prince Mystery series?
Keep in Touch
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Also by Dawn Brookes
Rachel Prince Mysteries
A Cruise to Murder
Deadly Cruise
Killer Cruise
Dying to Cruise
A Christmas Cruise Murder
Murderous Cruise Habit
Honeymoon Cruise Murder
A Murder Mystery Cruise
Rachel Prince Mysteries Boxset Books 1-3
Carlos Jacobi series
Body in the Woods
The Bradgate Park Murders
Memoirs
Hurry up Nurse: memoirs of nurse training in the 1970s
Hurry up Nurse 2: London calling
Hurry up Nurse 3: More adventures in the life of a student nurse
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my editor Alison Jack, as always, for her kind comments about the book and for suggestions, corrections and amendments that make it a more polished read. Thanks to Alex Davis for the final proofread, corrections and suggestions.
Thank you to lecturers and fellow students on the MA Creative Writing course who went through the early chapters with me. In particular, thanks to Elle, Amber, Ven, Matt Clegg, Laura, Victoria and Simon for their comments.
A huge thanks to Moy McCrory who offered expert guidance, and who understood what I was trying to get across in the story as a whole. I enjoyed our discussions around coercive control and ethical writing immensely. It was challenging weaving in aspects of traumatic amnesia into Meg’s role in the story, whilst gradually revealing small steps of her recovery from decades of control. For Carlos; the challenge was how to give him permission to walk away without his desire to see justice done ending in failure. I think we managed to pull it off!
Thanks to my beta readers for comments and suggestions, and for their time given to reading the early drafts.
Thanks to my immediate circle of friends who are so patient with me when I’m absorbed in my fictional world and for your continued support in all my endeavours.
About the Author
Dawn Brookes holds an MA in creative writing and is author of the Rachel Prince Mystery series, combining a unique blend of murder, cruising and medicine with a touch of romance. Her latest venture is the Carlos Jacobi series involving a PI and Fiona Cook, a troubled, but likeable detective sergeant.
Dawn has a 39-year nursing pedigree and takes regular cruise holidays, which she says are for research purposes! She brings these passions together with a love of clean crime to her writing.
Dawn is also author of a series of nursing memoirs: The Hurry up Nurse series. Dawn worked as a hospital nurse, a midwife, district nurse and community matron across her career. Before turning her hand to writing for a living, she had multiple articles published in professional journals and co-edited a nursing textbook.
She grew up in Leicester, later moved to London and Berkshire, but now lives in Derbyshire. Dawn holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honours and a Master’s degree in education. Writing across genres, she also writes for children. Dawn has a passion for nature and loves animals, especially dogs. Animals will continue to feature in her children’s books, as she believes caring for animals and nature helps children
to become kinder human beings.