by Ruby Loren
“I’m just glad I didn’t end up locked in that attic for years and years, until everyone forgot about me,” he said. Holly opened her mouth to tell him that she would never have forgotten, but then remembered if all had gone to plan, she would be dead.
“I heard that the police have released Lana,” she said, not knowing if George was up to date with the news, having been in hospital while the tranquillisers left his body.
“Yes, Lizzie has admitted everything. They told me that.”
“It doesn’t surprise me. The way she was talking was crazy. She really believed that the people she made look like her brother were her real brother.” Holly sighed. “I wonder what happened to the actual Jason. I suppose he really did die.”
George rubbed his chin. “I’m not convinced it happened the way she tells it. I think she killed her parents and her brother ran. Maybe she found him and got him, too. Then the poor absent kid took the rap for it just because of his mental illnesses,” George finished.
“When really Lizzie was the mentally ill one. It just didn’t show on the outside,” Holly finished.
They both sat in silence, looking at the tinsel that decorated Holly’s house. All Christmas spirit had fled during the last couple of days. She couldn’t believe it was the New Year tomorrow.
“Look… I need to talk to you,” George finally said. Holly could already read in his tone that it was nothing good that he wanted to talk about. She reached down and stroked Watson’s furry head, steeling herself for what was coming.
“I’m moving away. Too much has happened during the past few weeks, and I need to get away from it all. I don’t actually need to be at the office to do my work, so I thought I’d do it remotely for a bit,” he said. Holly tried not to think of Lizzie saying she would make George do the same thing.
“I… I wish things could have been different,” George said, filling Holly’s heart and then breaking it in a single moment.
“I understand,” she said, patting his hand. “You should start somewhere new. It will be the best thing for you.”
George nodded and gave her one last sad look, before he pushed himself to his feet.
“I hope we see each other again one day. I’ll call you and we can catch up,” he promised, but they both knew he was just saying it to be polite. George would be cutting as many ties as he could and trying to forget about the darkest December he'd ever experienced.
Holly completely understood where he was coming from, but the way she saw it, there was nothing wrong with the town. A few screws had come loose in some local people, but the same could be true anywhere. Little Wemley was her home, and the more crime she could uncover and solve, the less of it there would be. That was her view.
She waved goodbye to George when he walked back down her garden path. She shut the door a little sadly. Watson was already there waiting for her to stroke him. She went into the living room and curled up on the sofa with her puppy.
“Looks like it’s going to be a quiet New Year’s Eve, boy. Just you and me, okay?” she said. The dog yipped happily before burrowing under the blanket. Holly silently thanked Becky for finding him by the road and for bringing them both together. She needed a reliable sidekick.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, reading Rob’s name on the screen. She shrugged at Watson and answered the phone.
“Finally! What have you been up to?” Rob said as soon as Holly answered. She allowed herself a small smile, pleased that Rob sounded just the same as ever. She’d been dreading this call, but somehow, she had a feeling it might just be okay after all. Perhaps it was the spirit of the New Year. Fresh starts all round!
She gave Rob a brief synopsis of the happenings of the past week.
He was silent for a few moments after. “You do know how to walk into trouble, don’t you? Ever thought of solving the mystery before you barrel in and find out the truth the hard way?” he teased.
Holly grinned. He did have a point. It also didn’t escape her notice that his voice had brightened up considerably when she’d finished her tale by letting slip that George was skipping town for good.
“How have your cases been?” she asked, equally curious. Rob was always digging for the truth - literally. He used a spade. He uncovered archaeological finds and tons of stolen cash. She hadn’t seen his name in the newspaper recently, which was quite unusual.
“I’ve been looking for something for a long time. I think I’m finally getting close, but it’s dangerous, really dangerous. That’s what I need to talk to you about. I think I need a partner on this one, and as we are business partners…”
“I’d love to work on a case with you,” Holly jumped in.
“Thank you! I think it’s best if you come and meet me here. I don’t want to say too much over the phone. This is incredibly important to me. It’s what I’ve been looking for my whole life, and I think I’ve finally found it…”
“I’m with you all the way,” Holly reassured him, insanely curious about what it could be that Rob was after. When she’d first met him, the other detectives had hinted that he was searching for something he’d never found. Was she about to find out the truth about Rob Frost’s dearest ambition?
“Before you make your mind up, you should know this…” Rob carried on and Holly’s ears pricked up. “At least one other person is also looking. And they’ve already tried to kill me.”
Read on for the first two chapters of Winter’s Last Victim!
Winter’s Last Victim
Prologue
For once in his life, Rob Frost was glad of the British weather. It was the night before New Year’s Eve and the world was dark. Clouds covered the full moon. Rob liked the darkness. It reminded him of the depths of dug holes, and it was especially useful if you were planning to do something illegal.
Rob shouldered his spade and cast a final look around the field he was standing in, before he risked turning on the torch light on his phone to safely navigate the barbed-wire fence. A few seconds later, he was on the other side and turned the light back off, allowing his eyes to adjust to the black night before walking on.
His footsteps crunched on the grass. The frost had begun to take hold. He tried not to think about just how hard the ground would be and instead walked a little faster. At least staying warm was one thing he wouldn’t need to worry about. Once he started digging, he’d be glad of the winter’s chill.
He used his spade to swipe a path through the thicket of weeds that blocked his way into the scrubby woodland. The woods were part of the South Downs National Park. Rob knew from past experience that you definitely weren’t supposed to dig holes in national parks. He didn't usually go out of his way to destroy national heritage, but he was finally on the trail of something he'd searched for his whole life. Tonight might be the night he found the treasure he’d dreamed he’d find ever since he was a kid.
He breathed out. His breath misted and froze in the air as he walked around the small clearing until he felt a familiar tug in his gut and began to dig.
At first, the ground hardly yielded to his spade. It had been cold for a whole month. Rob knew it would be hard going, but then the earth broke and gave way and Rob made his first impression. A smile lifted his lips. He forced the spade in deeper and began to dig a hole. All the time he dug, he thought about the truth he was going to unearth and felt the piece of metal that hung from a string around his neck warm against his skin. He knew it was around here somewhere, and he wouldn’t give up until he found it.
Rob only paused for breath when his head was all that was poking out above the deep hole. So far, he hadn’t found anything, but he would dig a little deeper down and then try again. He’d waited his whole life for this dig. He could wait a little longer. He’d listen to his gut some more and one of these times it would be right. He’d find it.
He frowned when the woods suddenly became silent. The sounds of the nocturnal creatures stopped. Hairs rose on the back of Rob’s neck. All of hi
s instincts screamed that something wasn’t right.
Someone - or something - was coming.
The buzzing sound was out of place in the woods. If it had been the summer, his thoughts might have gone to a hornet, but it was the wrong season. When the sound got closer, he realised it was far louder than any insect. Curious, Rob lifted his head a little over the lip of the hole and then instinctively ducked, as something swooped down on him. He blinked and turned his head, trying to see where the thing had gone, but he was unable to see much at all in the darkness. Rob felt strands of something fall on his face and dusted them off using a hand. He’d thought a leaf or a cobweb had landed on him, but he immediately realised he was wrong.
It was his hair that he was brushing off his face.
Rob nervously reached a hand up and discovered that his perfectly styled ‘do was an inch shorter than it had been. The buzzing intensified again. Rob threw himself flat in the hole just as the drone swooped down again. He’d figured out that a drone was what this thing was when he’d seen the little pilot light. Going by the circular saws that were attached to the otherwise innocuous piece of technology, he’d say that this one had been somewhat modified. He stayed still in his hole as another fly-past was made. He was willing to bet that whoever was flying the thing was using night vision. He just hoped he’d vanished from their radar. He thanked his lucky stars that he was so quick at digging holes. A few inches more shallow, and he’d have lost his head.
The buzzing drone flew away, the noise fading into the distance. The nighttime sounds of the woods returned. Rob scrambled out of his hole and moved across the clearing until he collided, rather painfully, with a holly bush.
“Perfect,” he muttered and slid behind it, just as the moon broke free from the clouds and illuminated the clearing where he’d dug his hole.
He didn’t have to wait for long.
A minute later, two men walked into the clearing. They were both dressed in black - the universal fashion choice of people up to no good. The first thing they did was to go over to Rob’s freshly dug hole and peer inside. One of the men shrugged. Rob detected some disappointment.
They’d been hoping to find a body - his body.
A chill ran up his spine as he watched the men raise their spades and start to dig their own holes. He could take no joy from the way their spades clanged against the frozen earth and the diggers swore when they made little to no progress. He didn’t know who these men were, or how they’d managed to find him, but he was certain about one thing:
Someone else was looking for the same buried treasure… and they were willing to kill their competition.
Story Of My Life
Holly had a lot to think about when she started the drive down from Surrey to Sussex. She hadn’t even known that Rob was so close geographically until he’d texted her, just moments before she’d told him she was going to leave. Something about all of the secrecy was making her skin prickle. She sensed that whatever Rob was caught up in, it wasn’t good. He’d told her that someone had already tried to kill him, although he hadn’t filled her in on how. All he’d said was that he needed her help, and like the good friend and business partner she was, she’d jumped straight in the car.
The other reason she’d been so happy to go on a road trip and ditch the sleepy town of Little Wemley was because of George. The company boss she’d thought she’d had some real feelings for had told her he was moving away for good. She couldn’t blame him. Since she’d met George, he’d been accused of being a serial killer and then kidnapped by a crazy woman who’d imprisoned him in her attic. Holly acknowledged that there hadn’t been a whole lot of time for romance to blossom between them.
For George, it had been too much. He’d decided to take a break from the weirdness around Little Wemley - and presumably around Holly - and had left. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t feeling a bit sorry for herself right now, but this case of Rob’s was the perfect distraction. If she were being truly honest, Rob himself was distraction enough.
She smiled when she drove down the main road, her thoughts already drifting to Rob’s dark hair, and his eyes that always glinted with trouble. She sighed. The first time she’d met Rob, she’d been immediately attracted to him, especially that dark wit of his, but before she could blink, they’d been caught up in a string of murders and had barely escaped with their lives. The situation had pushed them together and brought about the founding of their detective agency, Frost and Winter. But fortune had not favoured any romance.
She glanced in the mirror and tried to blow her fringe out of her eyes, so she could see Watson (her dog) properly. As usual, she’d let her fringe get too long but wasn't daring enough to take a pair of scissors to it herself. She’d lost count of the times she’d wetted her dark brown hair and hovered in front of the mirror with the scissors, never finding the courage to cut. Something inside her always warned it would be a mistake, and Holly had learned to listen to that instinct. The fact that she was still breathing proved it hadn’t failed her yet.
Watson yapped from his place on the back seat and she thanked her lucky stars that the puppy wasn’t travel sick. It was also fortunate that the boisterous crossbreed (who was looking more like a Collie mixed with an Alsatian everyday) was having a rare sleepy session. Otherwise, her upholstery would be in pieces. She only hoped that Rob wouldn’t mind the addition of a puppy to their team, but she couldn’t leave Watson behind - especially when he’d so recently saved her life.
An hour or so later, Holly pulled into the car park of a rather rundown hotel. Despite the January chill, they still had their faded, striped awnings out. Holly noted it was an attempt to cover the slew of mould that was crawling up the walls. She chewed her lip as she took in the awful establishment. What was Rob doing here?
She got out of the car and thought about leaving Watson behind but decided against it. He was too young for that. Hopefully, she’d be able to smuggle him in. It wasn’t as if one little dog was going to contribute much deterioration to the general heap of a building.
A window on the second floor opened and she looked up.
“Room 28!” a voice said. She was almost tempted to tell Rob to stop being such a drama queen. This wasn’t a spy movie. She held her tongue and walked inside, past the unmanned reception desk and up the stairs. Until she knew the full story, she wouldn’t make any judgements.
Holly wound her way up the uneven steps (that had no right to be uneven, given that the building wasn’t old, just in poor repair). The smell of old plastic and disinfectant drifted up from the floor, and if she’d closed her eyes, she might have imagined she was in a rather dirty hospital. The difference was, the guests were presumably paying to stay here. Watson whined at the steep steps and she picked him up, even though she knew he was just being lazy.
“Did anyone follow you?” Rob asked, sticking his head around the door when Holly approached.
She glanced behind her. “I wasn’t really looking, to be honest. Seeing as I didn’t even know where I was going, I doubt anyone would have followed me?” she said, wondering if that was a silly assumption to make.
Rob grabbed her arm and pulled her and Watson into his room before slamming the door. He stared at the dog for a moment and then seemed to dismiss him.
“You’d better tell me everything,” Holly said, wondering if Rob had gone completely nuts, or more worryingly, if there was a good reason for his paranoia.
Rob nodded, pacing the room. Holly noted that his usually deliberately dishevelled dark hair was now simply messy, and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes she’d never noticed before. Holly was starting to have a really bad feeling about all of this.
“You’d better sit down. It’s a long story. In fact, it’s my story- the story of my life and what I’ve been looking for since I was a kid,” he said. Holly seated herself on the threadbare armchair by the side of the bed.
“Oh, do you want some tea or coffee, or something? I wouldn’t recommend it
. The kettle is so covered in limescale I think it’s just as likely to combust as it is to boil water,” Rob said, returning to his usual snarky self for just a second. Holly managed an encouraging smile but shook her head, politely. Watson walked over to Rob and bit his bare foot, as affectionately as he knew how.
Rob stared at the lanky puppy. “I’m not even going to ask,” he said and gently shook Watson free, although not without sacrificing his sock.
“So… someone tried to kill you?” Holly prompted.
Rob sighed and sat down on an incredibly ancient leather stool. “Yeah, but I’d better start at the beginning. Although, it would be cool to kind of jump around, you know - like films and authors do, just to add to the general confusion?”
Holly gave him a look, and a smile briefly lifted his lips.
“I like digging. I always have done. Even as a kid, that’s all I did. I went out in the garden and dug up the lawn when I outgrew the sandpit, and so on. My parents used to go nuts at me, but eventually they gave in and bought a metal detector. I was obsessed with the idea of buried treasure. I guess I still am. Since then, I’ve got pretty good at finding it. My first ever find was a Roman coin. It wasn’t worth much, but it was something. I still have it, you know…” he said, and then shook his head to free himself from the mists of the past. Holly waited patiently, knowing he would return to the present soon. “You know what happened next. I got better at finding things and started getting feelings about places. Pretty soon, I was digging up stolen hoards and accidentally caving in tunnels dug to rob a bank.” He shot her a look when he said the last one. Holly nodded. She remembered. “I suppose you could say I was just lucky, but I like to think that the sheer number of holes I’ve dug makes my odds pretty good and my feel for it even better. But all of that stuff… those finds… they were just perks. I still haven’t managed to locate what I’ve been looking for my whole life.”
