by Ed James
“He likes to drink. Was it deliberate?”
“I can’t tell that. He’s coming around, so if you could…?” She nodded at a door, her lips pursed tight.
“Okay.” Carter followed her in.
Bill lay in the bed, propped up. Battered and bruised, his face cut to ribbons, both eyes black and puffed up. His barrel chest couldn’t fit under the sheet. With tremendous effort, he opened his left eye and shut it again.
Carter perched on the edge of the bed. “What were you thinking?”
“I kept calling you, son. I need to see you.”
“And your needs trump everyone else’s?” Carter took the chair next to the bed, gripping his thighs so he wouldn’t do anything stupid, like strangle him. “Always thinking about yourself.”
“I wasn’t. It’s… Every year, on the anniversary of your mother’s death, I… I fall to pieces. Most of the time, I can handle it.”
“That was in July.”
“This has been going on for months.” Bill groaned. “Normally, I hang around outside your house and watch you. I know you don’t want me in your life, but I see how you’ve turned out and think I did the right thing.”
Carter had to laugh. “You seriously think that?”
“Okay, so maybe it’s more that I didn’t ruin your life. But it’s how I cope with the choices I’ve made.”
“You mean kidnapping me? Bringing me to this country illegally, knowing your lawyers could outspend Mom’s? Making her so wrecked that she killed herself.”
“You’ve got to understand, son. Your mother wasn’t this saint you’ve got in your head, okay?”
Carter got up.
“Max, you were a kid when… You only saw one side of her. She could be manipulative and—”
“I’m outta here.”
“I deserve that. I deserve a lot more for what I did.”
Carter couldn’t leave, no matter how much he wanted to. “Bill, you got loaded and smashed your car into a wall. Were you trying to kill yourself?”
Bill looked away, then spoke quietly: “If I admit that, the insurance won’t cover this.”
Carter walked off.
“Son, wait!”
Carter couldn’t help but stop. The voice of your father and all that. He didn’t show him anything, just faced away.
“I’ve been struggling with the guilt over your mother’s death. For years, son. Every year I’ve thought about ending it all. I haven’t—I’m not that strong. But I’m not well, son. Not anymore. My health insurance ran out and won’t pay for any more chemo.”
Carter gritted his teeth, clenched his fists. The number of times he’d prayed for a long, lingering death for the man who ruined his mother’s life.
And now that it was here? It tasted sour. Like Mason Wickstrom’s truth.
“It’s early stage, son, but it’s taking up all of my savings. I’ve had to sell my house.”
Ill, old, and broke.
In complete contrast with the healthy, affluent young dad who abducted his son all those years ago.
The worst man alive, barely clinging to his life. Trying to end it. Here he was, reaching out, trying to apologize, but only when it was too late.
Carter didn’t know if he could bring himself to help. If he could let Bill get away with what he had done.
Who was he trying to kid?
He walked back over to the bed. “What do you need?”
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Books By Ed James
Scott Cullen series
Ghost in the Machine
Devil in the Detail
Fire in the Blood
Stab in the Dark
Cops and Robbers
Liars and Thieves
Cowboys and Indians
Heroes and Villains
Craig Hunter series
Missing
Hunted
The Black Isle
DI Fenchurch series
The Hope That Kills
Worth Killing For
What Doesn’t Kill You
In for The Kill
Kill with Kindness
Kill the Messenger
Tooth and Claw (previously published as Snared)
A Letter from Ed
First, thanks for reading Tell Me Lies. If you enjoyed it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Aside from the terrifying subject matter, this novel was the most enjoyable for me to write. I’ve written countless British police procedurals from a single point of view, and I needed to try something new, to develop new muscles and to experience a new location. I hope you enjoyed meeting Max Carter and his team as much as I did. They’ll be back soon enough.
While the military operations in Tell Me Lies were fictional, they were based on real events in the USA. Operation Jade Helm 15 in the southwestern states carried as many conspiracy theories as column inches in the news, and the Pacific Northwest seemed like the perfect place to hide a clandestine operation on American soil. I also don’t want to diminish in any way the sacrifices of the heroes and heroines who protect their country, with Max and Tyler among their number before they became federal agents.
The FBI CARD unit sadly has to exist, but they provide a great service in the most trying of times. I wanted to thank the FBI for reading and commenting on the novel for procedural accuracy.
And I hope you loved it. If you did, I’d be grateful if you’d be able to write a review. I read every one—good, bad, and ugly—and I love hearing what you think. It can also help new readers discover my books.
Finally, I’d love to hear from you. However you want—Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, or an email through my website. And if you want to subscribe to the mailing list for my British police procedural series (Cullen, Hunter, Fenchurch, Dodds), you can do so at the following link: http://bit.ly/EJMail
Thanks,
Ed James
www.edjamesauthor.com
Acknowledgments
First, thanks to Allan Guthrie for being my perfect agent, for tolerating my impatience during the submission process, for getting two book deals for me out of it, and for persuading me the book really didn’t need those parallel universes after all. Ahem.
Thanks to Helen Jenner at Bookouture for buying these books and giving me the opportunity to expand creatively and commercially. I’ve loved working with you on this book, particularly the aggressive editing (as requested!) and helping define, develop, and name Max Carter. I’m really excited to see where we take him next!
Also, thanks to the rest of the team at Bookouture. I write this early in the process, so I don’t know who to thank yet, but I’m genuine in appreciating all your hard work to get my book out there in the hands of readers.
Thanks to my author friends in the crime-writing community. To Susi Holliday, AKA SJI Holliday, for a character name and a great friendship. To Katerina Diamond for her advice and mediocre friendship. To Mason Cross for letting me use his pen name for a character this time, rather than a pub. To Howard Linskey for letting me use his name, which I now know is Irish, not Polish. And to all the other writers in the crime scene who’ve helped and supported me but I haven’t mentioned here, I raise my glass to you!
And finally, to Kitty for putting up with me and my nonsense on a daily basis. You’re the best and you know it.
Published by Bookouture in 2020
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Emb
ankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Ed James, 2020
Ed James has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-163-4
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
