As Annie mulled all this over in her mind, waiting in front of her apartment, she spotted Charlie’s car turning into the road. A minute later, he pulled up in front of her apartment house, and opened the car door for her.
‘Thanks for coming with me. We should be there in just over an hour or so.’
‘It’s going to be a very hard day for Gus and Carol’s parents and his mother.’
‘Yeah. I never knew Carol, but she was obviously a huge support for Angie, and for that I will always be grateful to her. Perhaps one day soon, Angie will be able to talk to us all about this.’
‘In good time.’
‘You know, the part I still find hard to accept is Jackie, I mean June. I still can’t believe how I was taken in by her. When I think that I trusted her with Angie. All that time she spent with me in the hospital. It really makes you start to doubt your judgement.’
‘Charlie, you hardly knew her. You accepted her because she was Angela’s friend and she appeared to be such a loyal friend, visiting as she did. None of us could have imagined the true extent of her involvement. She is one damaged lady, that’s for sure. For all she did, I still can’t get out of my mind, what it must have been like to be ten years old and come home to find your mom drowned in the bath.’
‘The shock of that is hard to imagine,’ Charlie commented.
They were both reflective for a few minutes. Then Annie added: ‘The one I really feel sorry for is Jim Moorcroft. True he wasn’t a nice man, if his ex-wife and her experience was anything to go by, but he was never a part of anything to do with Angela. He was a victim too.’
‘I’m dreading Angie asking about him and about Jackie for that matter. She’ll wonder why they aren’t visiting. Still, all of that’s a long way off. She’s only just showing the early signs of recovery.’
*****
The Church was nearly full by the time they arrived, and minutes after they took their seats, the funeral procession began. Gus Wojinski followed his wife’s coffin, flanked on either side by her parents with his mother behind. The women dabbed their eyes as they walked past the mourners. The funeral itself was a celebration of Carol Wojinski’s life and numerous friends got up and talked about her and their times together. Both Annie and Charlie were amazed that Gus was able to stand up and deliver the most moving account of what his wife had meant to him. Annie couldn’t contain herself and the tears flowed freely. Charlie put a comforting arm around her.
On the way out of the Church, Gus asked the two of them to come back to his house. Annie left Charlie speaking to Gus as she moved on ahead and joined Detective Malin, who was waiting by his car.
‘The only consolation is that we got Hardman,’ he said, as Annie approached.
‘I hope it will be some solace for Gus.’
‘Anything further on Captain Hegarty’s sister?’
‘Thankfully, some positive signs. The doctors say that she is emerging from the coma. It’s some sleep and awake cycle. She’s opening her eyes and has started tracking, but not yet when asked. She’s still on the assisted breathing but it’s the most hopeful it’s been. Still early days, obviously. We hope that eventually she’ll be able to identify Hardman as her attacker. She doesn’t know about Carol yet.’
‘No, I don’t expect news like that would help her.’ Glancing over at Charlie in his dress uniform, he added, ‘She’s lucky to have her brother: he looks like the sort of man who will stand by her.’
‘He is, and the Department of Defense has been really accommodating. He’s been given a leave of absence for six months to help her in her recovery. I think he’s considering whether to resign his commission, but I guess he’ll evaluate that as the next few months go by. Will we see you back at the house?’
‘No, I already paid my respects. The best thing I can do for Mrs Wojinski now is to make sure our case is watertight. Thanks for all your help, Detective Macpherson, and good luck with the rest of your exchange.’
Annie walked back to Charlie. They smiled at one another, joining hands as they headed for his car.
By the same author
(and available on Kindle)
Secrets Only Sleep (2005)
Ashridge Press ISBN (Print): 1 901214 41 9
(precedes Primed by the Past)
Michael Turner is content, if not happy. He has his own security business and is finally coming to terms with being invalided out of the Westford Connecticut Police after an undercover operation that went badly wrong. But as dawn breaks on the morning of May 21, 2000, he is unwittingly drawn into an investigation of a murdered bag lady, the body found by one of his security staff. Something about her is oddly familiar but where does he known her from?
A chance meeting with Dr Christine James, the sister of one of his oldest friends, temporarily back in Connecticut and still grieving from the sudden and premature death of her British husband triggers off a memory and leads to the identification of the murdered bag lady. Christine is drawn into the investigation, becoming immersed again in the life of her former childhood best friend: attending her funeral, comforting her parents, discovering Maria’s ex-husband, unraveling her past, helping the police. For everyone Maria’s left behind, there are questions. Why did she take to living on the streets? Why was no one able to help her? What was it that she was never able to come to terms with? All questions with disturbing answers.
As Christine and Michael are drawn deeper and deeper into the investigation, the two develop a closeness that Christine never felt possible again and she discovers that her life still has meaning, even without Richard. But the murdered bag lady had secrets that even Christine never knew and as she works closely with Michael and Detective Marco Franconi, from the Westford Police Department, to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together, someone else is following her movements, someone who doesn’t want secrets out in the open. When Christine finally learns the true motive for the murder, she is hurtling towards a precipice ... after all, a grieving widow can be unpredictable ...
Programmed to Kill (2012) Country Books ISBN (Print): 978-1906789-75-6
This book is the sequel to Primed by the Past and features Detective Annie Macpherson
Now in the middle of her six-month exchange with the Westford Connecticut Police Department, Scottish Detective Annie Macpherson is barely tying up the loose ends from her last case when a new one appears. The vicious murder of a local priest has all the marks of a ritualistic attack, but what is the motive behind it? Before they can answer that, Annie and her colleague, Detective Dave Ellison, find they have another body on their hands whose injuries are too similar for it to be coincidence. And if that wasn’t enough, Annie’s love life has just got more complicated.
Joined by Detective Bronski, the third member of their team, they find themselves drawn into a statewide investigation into child pornography. Their lines of inquiry are tangled by parents who want to take the law into their own hands, and instances of domestic abuse, not to mention the question of how high the intrigue goes – can they even trust their own police chief?
In her second Annie Macpherson novel, Barbara Fagan Speake once again dissects the issues which drive her characters – the potent themes of love, revenge and moral ambiguity. The twist here is that we also see into the mind of the murderer, the desire to observe the reactions of the victims, and the motivation of those who hide dark secrets behind the face they present to the world.
Programmed to Kill is a fast paced police procedural, pitting the detectives against intelligent adversaries who plan meticulously. By the end you may wonder if you’re on the side of law and order after all…
ve.
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