“What the hell are you doing?”
“She’s a killer. She should be stopped.”
“Yeah. And so should you,” said Dan. The masked man tilted his ear to the air. The sirens were very close now. He turned away from Dan and made off back up the road he came up, then he immediately reappeared, breaking into a run. A police car appeared by his side. The police car stopped and the door opened. A policeman moved past Dan chasing the masked man but there was no way they were ever going to catch him on foot. The policeman’s fitness was a long way short of the man in the mask.
Another policeman climbed out of the car and looked at Dan Bradley with a tired and familiar look. “Here we go again,” said Dan to no one but himself, as he looked out over the Estuary darkness.
Deep inside the house, in the front sitting room, Eva found another parcel nestling on an armchair. It was Maggie’s down payment to Alexander Galvan. It was the money Maggie had promised Eva. Without shame, Eva picked up the small stacks of cash and put them back into her handbag which she found on the tiles beneath the kitchen table, just where she’d left it. Maybe her standards had lowered through the years. Yes, that was surely true. But with so much blood and water under the bridge, feeling jaded, caring a little less was inevitable. Maybe she should have been more upset about Maggie Gillespie, but Eva found she wasn’t at all. She had not seen the killer, but she had seen the killer’s handiwork close up. She was shocked, but more than shocked, she was relieved. And more than relieved, she was wondering what was coming next. The killer had tried to top her as well. Yes, there was the police, and all that nonsense was going to take time. But beyond that, there was Brian Gillespie. Eva had taken him on, but Brian had still won the battle. But Eva knew this wasn’t over. Gillespie knew Eva had helped his ex-wife towards safety with a bitter rival. He already hated her and Dan with enough passion that he taunted them and stalked them with his minions Now Eva had escalated things to a whole new level. Eva took her handbag, and took a seat at the table. Eva shifted her cash deep inside, and saw a post it note pressed onto the leather where she’d not seen it before. She looked at the yellow post it note. In hasty ugly capital letters, the note said: BORROWED TIME. It made her body freeze. She knew exactly what was meant. A long quiet minute following behind. At the back of the house was the familiar jug eared form of DI Gary Rowntree. When Rowntree appeared inside, he frowned at her made a sucking noise with his lips. “Eva, Eva, Eva. How the hell did you end up in this mess?” Eva didn’t have an easy answer but smiled at Rowntree all the same. She tried to dispel the feeling that the wheels were already in motion to bring about her own death. In the last couple of years Eva had learned that Life and death was a cut throat business. Eva shook her head. Damn. For all this trouble I should have charged a hell of a lot more.
Twenty-seven
Jess shooed her mother out of her room so she could stew some more in her own juice. Eva and Dan had been in police custody for almost twelve hours now, and so far she’d heard from neither of them. DI Rowntree did at least confirm they were alive, but his demeanour said they were not out of trouble. So Jess had gone home to wait it out. She thought of all the mad cap, scary-arse adventures she’d had since she started working with Eva. She was going to miss it, because she was pretty sure her time at the agency was done. As she thought about her mistakes, she started idly toying with her phone, scrolling through her texts. Amongst the text messages there was the image which started this whole awful ball rolling. It caught her eye once again: the image of Brian Gillespie kissing the peroxide blonde from the North London mob. It started with a kiss. She played with the image and enlarged it, noticing image looked odd. Brian’s face was dominant and large, and the colouring of the image looked odd. Brian Gillespie kissing the peroxide blonde seemed ugly and inappropriate but there were other issues emerging here. The image felt wrong somehow. Brian Gillespie was clearly in the full throes of passion- his mouth was open and he looked as if he was ravenous. Or shouting maybe… The face of the woman was almost hidden beneath. At first glance it was the kind of photograph which you didn't want to look at, too intrusive, so personal that it was offensive to the eye. Yet as she looked at it again there was something else. Brian's brown leathery face showed soft hues of light on his cheeks and forehead. The face of the woman beneath was pale the quality of the light grey and grainy as if this picture was taken on a winter's day. It suggested a different quality of light altogether than Brian’s image. Jess was confused and suddenly she was tense. She looked at the image and pulled it up, zooming in with her finger and thumb. She scrolled up and down, looking for a possible break - a seam between the two images. So far nothing, but there were still hints of something. But nothing substantial… until she reached the bottom of the image. There beneath the second fold of Brian Gillespie's double chin - there was a gap between the faces filled with white and a speck of colour which was completely out of place. Just one single pixel of green. Fake! The kiss was a fake! The whole basis for the case was built on a huge lie. Kendra had shown the photograph to Eva. Maybe Maggie never knew about the lie… Maybe she did, which meant her motives were as badly mixed up as ever. Nothing new there. But for Eva, the implications were worse…. Eva had been duped, totally and utterly duped, into taking on a case to protect Maggie Gillespie from the wrath of an erring husband. But if the erring had never taken place... then what? It meant someone else had a motive to kill Maggie Gillespie and pass off the blame on her husband. It meant that Brian Gillespie would be out for revenge. Gillespie would be ruthless and desperate. And because of her mistakes... her lack of judgement, maybe Eva would certainly be a lead contender for Gillespie’s wrath. Eva was still with the police, and right now Jess was persona non grata to Eva. Her head was already Swiss-cheesed with booze, burn out and now the double murder she had been embroiled in. Jess knew she wouldn't want to hear these allegations - rumours of her huge mistake. Not from Jess. Not now and maybe not ever. So right now, Jess had a huge decision to make. The scale of it scared her. Did she face Eva and tell her the photo was wrong - and maybe destroy what was left of Eva in the process? Or did she let Eva forget it all and recover from the latest trauma. Deep down inside Jess had already made her decision, she knew there was no other choice. Whatever happened next, the results were going to be messy. Messy explosive. This disaster wasn’t over. It had only just begun.
To be continued…
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THE RECORD
Masked Vigilante Is Hunted As Main Suspect in Gillespie Wife Killing
By Gemma Cassidy - crime reporter
The masked man believed to be responsible for vigilante style attacks against suspected criminals across the Southend in recent weeks is believed to be the main suspect for police tracking down the killer of multi-millionaire Maggie Gillespie, 44, the wife of multi-millionaire businessman Brian Gillespie. At 9pm last night, Police were called to an address in Leigh in response to reports of gunshots being heard in the vicinity. The house was the home of Alexander Galvan, son of the convicted fraudster and local businessman Douglas Galvan. Alexander Galvan is believed to have been ruled out of the crime, though police have so far refused to give their reasons. Detective Inspector Gary Rowntree made a statement about the case late last night.
“Though we have a number of leads at present, we are taking one particularly seriously. A man wearing a mask was seen running away from the Galvan residence shortly after the shots sounded. It is a strong possibility that this man is the same person who has conducted so-called vigilante attacks in Southchurch and central Southend. We know this man is extremely violent and should not be approached by members of the public. Murder and violence of any kind cannot be condoned and is a crime of the highest possible seriousness. We must locate the man beneath the mask, and we are calling on anyone who has any information about this man – or if they
believe they might know him – to come forward and speak to us before another murder happens on our streets. We are investing the full weight of police powers and resources to track down this highly dangerous man. The public are asked to be observant and to report any suspicious behaviour which could be linked to preparation, planning or activity related to vigilante activity.”
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed reading Better The Devil book seven of the Long Time Dying series. It would be great to have you along for the rest of the journey. Now that you have reached the end of this current book can I ask you a super-important favour? Can you please post a positive review at Amazon or other retailer where you purchased it?
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-Solomon
COMING SOON:
On Borrowed Time – Long Time Dying 8
The Long Time Dying series
By Solomon Carter
Thrilling adventures featuring Eva Roberts & Dan Bradley, private detectives
Series list - in reading order
Out With A Bang
One Mile Deep
Long Time Dying
Never Back Down
Crossing The Line
Divide and Rule
Better The Devil
On Borrowed Time – coming soon!
For more information about the author visit www.solomoncarter.net
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Better the Devil Page 21
