by K O'Hanlon
Deception Love & Murder
K O’Hanlon
All characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons either living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by K O’Hanlon
All rights reserved
With Thanks
Firstly to my family who encouraged me to finish writing Deception Love & Murder even when I was ready to throw in the towel after hitting the wall that most writers face. I encourage all authors not to give up.
My thanks also to web sites that help new authors and freely give advice and assistance for setting out a novel for publishing.
And last but by no means least, I thank all those who read my work. You can’t please all of the people, but I sincerely hope you enjoy this novel and the characters within.
Prologue
The car appeared from the darkness, headlights on full beam. Raindrops falling from the night sky lit up like small gems cascading to the ground.
The man crossing the road carried a small leather briefcase in one hand, a bunch of flowers in the other. With his collar up and head down, hurrying across to his parked car he glanced sideways into the twin beams of light as the vehicle accelerated, closer, faster.
With wheels screeching and spinning, desperate for traction on the wet tarmac. Its lights switched off suddenly leaving an eerie darkness with shadows that danced across the road.
An angry face behind the windshield was the last thing he saw on this earth. The impact sent his body high into the air.
The driver slammed on the brakes, looked into the side mirror in time to see the broken twisted corpse hit the ground. The flowers landed several feet away from the body, still looking fresh and new as though a dear friend had just paid their respects to the dead man.
~~~
Chapter One
F or the first five years of Michael Fairchild’s life he was an only child. Christmas and birthdays brought a nice pile of presents just for him. His parents spent a lot of time teaching him all kinds of things. By the age of three he could read and write as well as any average four year old. He obviously had the ability to achieve many things in life.
His father was the main breadwinner and worked hard to provide for the family. Working for the telecom company paid well enough to take them all on holidays to sunny European destinations. Mike loved going to hot sunny places. He learned to swim and dive in the hotel pools from a very young age. His skin was nearly always tanned even though his mother smothered him in sunscreen. His outgoing nature brought him many friends. He enjoyed playing all manner of sports and games with children from all over Europe and other parts of the United Kingdom while he was on holiday. Life was good.
A few months after Mike’s fourth birthday he noticed his mother was getting fatter. She didn’t have the energy to take him to the park where he used to meet up with some other boys and have a kick about with a soft football. He loved it when his mum lifted him up high in the air so he could hold onto the goal post and swing there for a few seconds before she caught him when he couldn’t hold on any longer. All that had stopped. Mike found himself kicking a ball around in the back garden on his own most days. He could sometimes see his mother watching him from the kitchen window with a sad tired look on her face. When the weather turned nasty or wet he would spend time in his bedroom playing on his own reading short adventure stories. He enjoyed building things from an old Meccano set that his father had kept from his own childhood days. Mike felt sure that he could build much greater things if only he had more pieces in the set. His excitement when he had completed something grand was nearly always crushed when he hurried down the stairs to show his mother only to find her fast asleep on the sofa.
About a week or two before his mother went into hospital she told Mike that he would be having a little brother or sister very soon. Mike’s bedroom furniture was moved into the smaller spare bedroom that had until now been used mostly for storage. His toys were crammed into boxes and stacked one on top of the other. The remaining floor area wasn’t big enough for his Meccano projects so they were broken down and stored under his bed. Mike’s old room would now be used for the new arrival as it was closer to the main bedroom that his parents slept in. His old cot was removed from its years of storage in the loft and assembled in the new baby’s room with some of Mike’s old teddies that had been put through the washing machine on a hot wash cycle with conditioner that carried with it the smell of flowers.
The baby arrived in time to interrupt Mike’s football session with his friends in the park. His parents were sitting on the bench one minute then shouting out his name the next. They rushed to the hospital just in time for the birth. His father was in a panic not knowing what to do first. His mother had a large wet stain down her skirt and Mike had a large brown mud stain down the arse of his shorts which he’d acquired during a sliding tackle.
Mike was taken away by one of the nurses to the children’s room where he could play with toys designed for children much younger than his mental age. He was offered a glass of orange juice and a ginger biscuit. Boredom soon set in and he fell asleep in the small armchair.
At ten in the evening Mike felt his father’s arms lift him up and carry him to the car. The next morning a strange voice called through his bedroom door.
“Wake up, Michael. Your breakfast is nearly ready.”
Mike jumped out of bed, not sure at first where he was. Walking down the stairs, rubbing his eyes, he saw a woman in the kitchen. She turned and smiled at him as she put his plate on the table. It was Billy’s mum from number 46. Billy was a year older than Mike but they had both attended the same pre-school group. Mike sat down and ate his boiled egg and soldiers. The egg was boiled solid so the soldiers played no part in the traditional egg dipping.
Billy’s mum felt the need to explain why she was there but Mike knew the answer before she opened her mouth. His mum and dad were still at the hospital but would be home shortly with the new baby.
As expected, the arrival of a new baby brought with it a host of visitors, family, friends, and nosey neighbours. Baby Samuel was the main attraction so Mike slipped away up to his room to play with his construction kit.
A new boy named Benjamin Richards arrived at Mike’s school. He was quite shy and didn’t make many friends. Mike told him about his construction kit and was surprised when Ben arrived in school the next day carrying a bag of metal bits. He gave them to Mike in exchange for a bar of chocolate that had been in Mike’s school desk for a couple of weeks. The bag was quickly emptied into Mike’s box under his bed with the rest of his Meccano when he got home. He knew it would be worth much more than one bar of chocolate, more like two or maybe three bars.
After receiving the gift of Meccano, Mike knew his new found friend called Ben would be a friend for life. The two of them would play for hours, undisturbed in Mike’s room.
They both shared an interest in building things from scratch. Both would use their pocket money to buy more kit at jumble sales and boot fairs. It wasn’t long before their Meccano set was filling three large boxes.
As they grew older their interest in construction never faltered. By the time they reached their last school years a large collection of books had replaced the metal structures once left on show in Mike’s room. Both went on to university to study civil engineering.
Benjamin Richards was the quieter of the two and wanted his own construction engineering company. Michael Fairchild had the looks of a millionaire playboy and wanted the females on campus to leave him alone so he could plan his future. The one person he really got close to and became smitten with was Pauline Jackson. She was in his study group and he found her so attractive
. It wasn’t long before Mike and Pauline were not only sharing accommodation but also a bed.
Mike and Ben went their separate ways after graduating to put all their knowledge into practice but they stayed in touch and would meet up occasionally to exchange news and ideas. It was Ben who first suggested the two of them go it alone. They both had the ability to succeed in their chosen field. Mike’s parents didn’t have enough savings to help him out but Ben’s father had just received a large redundancy package and was willing to finance his son should he choose to start his own business. Ben wasted no time and told his father that Mike would make an ideal partner. They would pay back all they owed as soon as the business was up and running after their first big contract.
They acquired a very small office on the second floor above a shop selling sporting equipment. It had two main rooms, a tiny kitchen area and one toilet. The entrance was via a set of rusty metal stairs at the rear, originally used as a fire escape. The previous tenant had left odd pieces of furniture including two office desks, one of which had woodworm, plus an old lopsided green filing cabinet with its top drawer always hanging half open. The electric sockets were old and few. Wires ran under the threadbare carpet to power the electric kettle that stood on the floor in the kitchen area. It wasn’t great but it was a start and they didn’t need Ben’s dad to fork out a fortune. Once they had their computers set up, a phone line connected, and a couple of adverts in construction magazines they just had to wait for someone to contact them.
The first two weeks passed without a single incoming call about work. Ben would walk to the local bakers to buy a couple of cheese rolls. He sometimes rang his office number just to make sure the line was working. Mike would grab the phone and answer in his best voice only to have Ben blow a raspberry down the line and disconnect. It was funny at first but soon they both started to wonder if they would ever get work.
Their first big break came via a letter that Mike’s mum brought to the office one afternoon. It was addressed to Mike with urgent written in red ink across the front. It was from one of his old university lecturers, a man who always said that Mike had a special gift when it came to construction. He asked how things were going and said there was a job in the pipe for a motorway bridge to be removed and rebuilt. The vast majority of the work could only be carried out at night. It had to be done on budget and on time. He included the name and details of the person to contact. The original engineering company had run over on another project and couldn’t start the new one on the agreed date.
It was a chance not to be missed and Mike quickly made the call. He knew he could get the job done. He had plenty of contacts that he kept from his previous employment. He knew all the firms with the heavy machinery and was on good terms with most of them. He knew how to put a crew together and bring a job in on time. It was like a giant puzzle that all came together and resulted in a massive pay cheque that launched their company onto the construction ladder of success. Ben’s dad was paid back with interest.
All was looking good. Jobs started to came in thick and fast. They had a reputation for good quality service, on budget on time became their motto. Larger offices were needed. Staff and crews were employed. The company just kept on growing and was featured in many construction magazines both in the UK and throughout Europe. Mike and Ben were millionaires by the time they were twenty six.
Samuel’s arrival into the world had changed the order of things quite drastically in the household. Mike had been moved to the smaller bedroom along with all his toys, games, books and clothes. Sam, being the baby, occupied Mike’s old room next to the master bedroom.
As they grew older it was always Mike who had to share his toys with Sam. They would often be returned to him damaged or totally broken. Sam had no respect for other people’s property but would scream the house down if Mike accidently broke anything with his younger brother’s name attached to it.
Sam hadn’t been blessed with the same genes as Mike. He was slow to learn right from an early age. They were like chalk and cheese. Everything about them was different, from their looks to their personalities.
There was a spiteful streak in Sam which first showed itself when their neighbours next door bought a rabbit for their five year old daughter, Millie. Sam wanted a rabbit but Mike had one when he was really young and the foxes killed it. It had been really upsetting so no more outdoor pets were allowed. Their house wasn’t big enough to have any animals inside so Sam would look with envy through the fence at the rabbit in the garden next door. Some days it was left running loose on the lawn then locked away in its hutch at night. Sam volunteered to feed it when Millie went away for a few days with her parents.
It was the evening before they returned that Sam left the hutch door open. The rabbit had been fun for a few days but it belonged to someone else. If Sam couldn’t have it, neither could Millie.
Cries of shock and horror were heard when the neighbours returned and found the remains of their daughter’s beautiful rabbit. Clumps of fur were scattered all over the back lawn. The hutch door stood open. Millie was crying her eyes out. Sam witnessed the scene from an upstairs window. The rabbit was no more.
Between the age of eight and eleven Sam was always in trouble at school. Teachers would send letters complaining of the spitefulness and bullying towards smaller children. Sam’s parents ignored it all as most children went through an awkward stage as they grew up. Mike had noticed it too and told his father but nothing was done apart from a very polite request to not be nasty to other kids at school.
While Mike was at university Sam was bumming around with a crowd of no hopers. Mike wanted to become someone and make something of his life and he was prepared to work hard to achieve it. Sam was lazy and always took the simple route.
Some of the people Sam hung out with had tried recreational drugs. Sam had been easily led into following their example. When art became fashionable Sam bought a set of brushes and some canvas. The idea was to sell abstract work and scrape a living.
A cheap bedsit apartment was shared by Sam and a friend called Emma. The rent was split between the pair of them, all the bills were shared. They both enjoyed late night clubbing and bringing strangers back to party until dawn. Neither one of them enjoyed cleaning the place but Emma tried to keep it tidy. After two months they had a massive argument because Sam had once again left a jumbled stack of dirty greasy burnt cookware in the kitchen sink and the rubbish bin had disappeared under a colossal pile of trash. Emma walked out leaving Sam to pay all the bills and the rent. Sam had no way of paying for everything. Somewhere cheaper was needed and an old school friend named Matthew Sharp, nickname Spike, had a basement apartment that he rented out. Spike claimed housing benefit but never lived in the apartment himself. He could get an income from renting it to trusted friends at a slightly higher price. As long as the landlord was paid on time every month nobody checked who actually lived there. All compliments of the Great British taxpayer.
Chapter Two
J ames Russell had been married to a person that he first thought was his ideal partner. Like most married couples they shared the cost of buying their first home. But it wasn’t long before his wife became demanding and bossy. She said that he would never be able to provide her with all the things she craved. She wanted to spend their money on fashionable outfits, designer clothes, shoes and handbags in every colour imaginable.
Before their seventh wedding anniversary her upkeep had spiralled to the point whereby it topped the mortgage and utility bills combined. James was working flat out trying to keep up with their credit card payments but there was limited overtime at his workplace.
When the credit crunch hit, his hours were slashed along with his commission. The time had come to put a stop to her spending. He knew that she would fly off the handle as soon as he mentioned money. He also knew she would be angry when he told her that the spending spree she had enjoyed at his expense must now stop.
He worked for a stationery printing co
mpany that mostly supplied headed paper and envelopes to businesses. That was the firm’s bread and butter. The owner of the company was now in his late sixties and had never really been interested in expanding or diversifying.
The internet was having a massive effect on the company. Postage costs had risen enormously over the last five years so most correspondence was now via email.
Headed paper sales were limited, as were envelopes. There just wasn’t the demand for them anymore apart from junk mail. James, along with the rest of his colleagues were all feeling the pinch.
His basic salary wasn’t enough to pay the bills and his commission was getting ever smaller.
He had arrived home from work early on Monday afternoon. That wasn’t a good start to the week, it meant that sales were really bad and the rest of the week would probably get worse.
The house was empty so he guessed that his wife must be out spending again. The dishwasher still hadn’t been emptied from the previous evening so he set about taking out some of the crockery.
The sound of his wife pulling into the drive gave him hope that she would walk in with a bag or two of groceries and start cooking their dinner. He knew the fridge was almost empty. His stomach was rumbling and he needed food so he could think straight and plan his future.
James left what he was doing and walked to the front door to let his wife in and help her bring in the shopping. He was greeted by three large designer bags that were thrust in his face. That was it, no groceries, no food of any kind. The expression on his face said it all. He was hungry, he was angry, and he was past the point whereby he cared if he made her cry.
