Dead to Me

by Pamela Murray

  ‘Secrets, lies, betrayal and murder converge to create the start of a gripping, new British police procedural’

  A. J. Thomas

  DEAD

  TO

  ME

  Burton & Fielding: Book 1

  PAMELA MURRAY

  Published in 2021 by Dark Edge Press.

  Y Bwthyn

  Caerleon road,

  Newport,

  Wales.

  www.darkedgepress.co.uk

  Text copyright © 2021 Pamela Murray

  Cover Design: Jamie Curtis

  Cover Photography: Steve Heap/Shutterstock

  The moral right of Pamela Murray to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, stored, or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

  from the British Library.

  ISBN (eBook): 978-1-5272-9140-9

  For all my friends and family.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Caroline Watkins liked to be in control. She liked to be in charge at work, and she liked to be in charge of her friends. It was hardly surprising that she had taken it upon herself to book a night out with her girlfriends without telling them what it would entail. Bearing in mind that they hadn’t met up since Maria’s wedding last year, it might have gone down a whole lot better if she’d thought to include them in the decision.

  This was typical of the kind of person she had become. She’d always been a bit domineering, but after successfully climbing her way up the career ladder, she had immersed herself in her work. In doing so, she had become even more self-indulgent. But somewhere down the line she seemed to have forgotten the true nature of friendship.

  Perhaps if her friends had had the courage to stand up to her and her supercilious whims, the events of the night might have played out differently. Perhaps then, one of them would still be alive.

  ***

  ‘I’m not really sure about this,’ Maria Turnbull began nervously chewing at the skin around her thumb nail after hearing of the evening’s plans.

  ‘What have you got to be unsure of?’ Caroline Watkins laughed, looking towards the other two women in the room. She jerked her head in Maria’s direction, hoping that they’d get the hint and say something to back her up.

  Selena Douglas was the first to pick up on it and oblige. ‘It’s only for a laugh and a bit of fun, Maria; it’s not like we’re going to take it seriously or anything. Isn’t that right, Barbara?’ she said, turning to the fourth person present.

  ‘Yes . . . it is,’ Barbara McKay said through gritted teeth, giving Selena a stern look that could have turned her to stone on the spot. She hadn’t wanted to be dragged into this, or push Maria into something that she didn’t want to do, but found herself now having to go along with it for the others’ sakes. ‘It’s only make-believe anyway. I hear there’s a knack to reading those things, like the way a magician or a mind reader performs their act. How can it be anything other than a party trick, as we all know there’s no such thing as being able to predict the future?’

  ‘But you know I don’t like anything weird like that,’ Maria insisted, biting down harder on her skin with just enough pressure to draw a spot of blood.

  ‘Listen to what Barbara and Selina have just said,’ Caroline’s voice hardened. She wasn’t going to let anyone ruin her plans for the evening, especially when she’d paid out an inordinate amount of money for it. She didn’t believe in this stuff either, but she’d heard interesting things about this woman and had been wanting to go and see her for a long time. There was no way anybody was going to prevent her from doing so this evening, and that included her best friend. ‘It’s not real, just a bit of harmless fun that’s all, and it’ll be a good laugh. Come on Maria, stop being such a spoilsport. Don’t ruin it for the rest of us!’

  Maria stopped the chewing and looked at her three friends whose eyes were now all on her, each of them eagerly waiting for a response. She couldn’t let them down, she knew that; so, she finally agreed to go with them.

  ‘But if I get spooked, I’m straight out of there,’ she added warily.

  ‘Good girl, that’s more like it!’ Caroline walked over and put an arm around her shoulder. ‘You’ll be laughing about this by the end of the night, just you mark my words.’

  ***

  Madame Ortiz was a renowned figure, not only in Manchester but across the entire country, as one of the UK’s top astrologers who also specialised in crystal ball and Tarot card readings. Despite the friends’ disparaging comments about Madame Ortiz’s authenticity, the woman was well-known in social circles and was considered by many to be the real deal. If she wasn’t, then she was doing a damned good job of convincing people of it.

  When she had booked the appointment online, Caroline had checked out the website and seen photographs of what the place looked like both inside and out. She knew what to expect but to the others, it came as a complete surprise. Maria had half-expected Madame Ortiz to work out of a dingy room tucked away down some dimly-lit back street, but it couldn’t have been further from the case. The fortune teller had her business premises in the Northern Quarter, which was nestled in between Piccadilly train station and the Arndale Centre, right in the middle of the city’s trendiest bars, cafés and boutiques.

  ‘Here we are,’ Caroline declared as she brought the party to a halt outside a bright red half-glazed door with the name Madame Ortiz – by appointment only etched on the frosted glass panel.

  ‘
This is not what I expected,’ Selena looked around. ‘I thought she’d be down a–’

  ‘Back alley?’ Maria finished her sentence for her.

  ‘Yes, exactly!’

  ‘Oh ye of little faith,’ Caroline quoted before pressing a button on the intercom beside the door.

  After a few moments, the intercom crackled into life. A deep, sexy voice greeted them and asked if they had an appointment.

  Caroline took the lead, as ever. ‘Yes,’ she spoke into the device. ‘Party of four for 9 p.m. in the name of Watkins.’

  ‘Ah yes, do come up, I’ve been expecting you,’ the disembodied voice continued before a buzzer sounded. The red door automatically unlocked so they could enter.

  ‘Thank you,’ Caroline replied, as she pushed it open and went inside. The others followed dutifully behind her, up the steep flight of stairs.

  ‘Wow!’ Barbara exclaimed, stunned by the impressive decor. The stairwell was done in an Art Nouveau style, with framed prints adorning both sides of the wall all the way up. She recognised some of the works: Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, and others in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Having studied art history as part of her fine arts degree, she was impressed by the extent of the collection, especially as Art Nouveau had always been her favourite style. She couldn’t wait to see what lay beyond the top of the stairs.

  And she wasn’t disappointed. As they entered what appeared to be a waiting room, they saw four seats already arranged around a circular coffee table. The decor in here was a continuation of what they’d already seen. Barbara wasn’t certain if it was a genuine interest in the art itself or the way Madame Ortiz had decided to market her business. In either case, it had been done tastefully and was in no way overwhelming. She was suitably impressed.

  Before they had time to sit, one half of a curtain at the far end of the room swished open and a woman appeared from behind it, dressed in what could easily be described as an outfit from the 1920s, complete with a sequined headband with a feather plume sticking out from it. She looked as if she had just walked out of the film set of The Great Gatsby. All that was needed to complete the scene was Leonardo DiCaprio to come through the curtain as well, with a champagne glass in hand, bidding them a warm welcome. Selena managed to stifle a laugh by turning it into a cough.

  ‘Welcome,’ the attractive brunette greeted them, bowing her head as she said it causing the feather to flutter as she dipped then rose up again. ‘I am Madame Ortiz, and I will be giving you all a reading this evening.’ It seemed to be the standard, well-rehearsed greeting speech for all her clients, culminating with ‘And who will be the first to enter my chamber?’

  Selina emitted yet another cough. Apart from it being overly dramatic in her opinion, Maria started to feel all panicky again. All this talk of fortune telling and crystal ball reading was disturbing, despite the false sense of bravado the alcohol had given her when they’d stopped off on the way for drinks in a trendy bar. Yet again, the choice of watering hole had been Caroline’s.

  Maria wasn’t into it at all, if truth be told, and was a little bit concerned about meddling with things unknown. This had all stemmed from a tale one of Maria’s friends told her years ago. About how that friend and her husband had been to a party where a Ouija board had been brought out. Like everyone else, the friend and her husband had played the game – if indeed it can be called a game – but on the way home they’d got lost on a road they regularly travelled on. They’d found themselves in a densely wooded area, with no sense of how they got there. To this day, the couple swears blind that they’d lost about forty-five minutes from the start of the journey to the end.

  As they were both level-headed people, Maria had no doubt in her mind that something supernatural had happened that night after they’d used the Ouija board. So, Maria decided then and there to avoided anything remotely to do with the unknown. For that reason, she said that she’d go last; if she would chicken out at the last minute at least the others would have been in to see the woman.

  Surprisingly, Caroline said that she would go either last or second from last, leaving the first slot open for either Selena or Barbara. As keen as ever to try something new, Selena put her hand up only seconds before Barbara, and by doing so won herself the chance to be the first.

  While their friend went behind the red curtain with Madame Ortiz, the other three sat and wondered what would be going on in this mysterious chamber she’d spoken of – well, apart from Maria, that is. She didn’t really care what nonsense the woman was spouting out; she just longed to be as far away from this place as possible. Her sense of bravado after downing three glasses of sparkling wine had worn off, and she was back to chewing skin, around her other thumbnail this time.

  Fifteen minutes passed before the curtain moved and a flustered Selena returned.

  ‘That was crazy!’ she exclaimed rushing to her seat, flushed with excitement as she sat down.

  ‘What did she say?’ Caroline was eager to hear what her experience had been like.

  ‘Well, at first when she looked into her crystal ball it didn’t make any sense at all, but when she dealt the Tarot cards what she told me was interesting.’

  ‘Go on,’ Barbara urged.

  ‘She told me I’d be married by the end of the year, and have my first child the year after!’

  ‘What a load of rubbish,’ Maria spouted, finding herself unable to keep silent. ‘You’re not even going out with anybody at the moment.’

  ‘Well, Selena had better get busy and find Mr Right,’ Caroline laughed, ‘Tick tock, tick tock!’

  Madame Ortiz re-appeared through her velvet curtain to take the next client in. Maria suspected that she may have heard her comments, but really couldn’t have cared less. It was her opinion, and no second-rate fortune teller was going to make her change her mind.

  Still thrilled by her prediction, Selina cried out, ‘Good luck,’ to Barbara as she rose to make her way to the other room.

  While waiting for Barbara to return, Selena continued to tell the other two what she’d been told. Maria was still less than impressed, and couldn’t hide it from her two friends.

  ‘Aw, come on,’ Caroline said with more than a hint of anger in her voice. ‘We all agreed it would be a bit of fun; you even said so yourself after a couple of drinks. You’re no fun anymore, Maria. You’ve been like this ever since you got married.’

  ‘That’s unfair, Caroline.’ Maria was hurt by the comment. She had her opinions, yes, and it didn’t mean that she had to agree with them for the sake of it. True, the effects of the alcohol were wearing off, but she wasn’t going to change her opinion just to suit what her friend thought. ‘Maybe I should go now then.’

  ‘No, no, stay,’ Selena begged her. ‘There’s no reason for us all to fall out over something as silly as this.’

  ‘But you believe what she told you,’ Maria continued, reminding her of her reaction a few moments ago.

  ‘Well, yes, but let’s face it, it is a bit far-fetched, isn’t it? I mean, as you so rightly said, I’m not even seeing anyone.’

  The room fell silent. Even Caroline refrained from commenting, which was most unlike her. She always had an opinion, and was more than likely be the first to either say or suggest anything – like this evening, for instance. None of the rest of them would have ever thought of visiting someone like this, but this was Maria’s idea and hers alone. Goodness knows why I even thought of it, but knowing in her heart that Caroline was the one who probably wanted to go and just dragged everyone else along with her so she wouldn’t be alone. She was like that.

  Following the prolonged silence, with each staring down at the floor and avoiding the others’ eyes, the next sound they heard was a swish, which was Barbara coming through the curtain after her session.

  ‘Well, that was a load of codswallop!’ she exclaimed, face like thunder and plonking herself down heavily on a chair. Her reaction the complete opposite of Selina’s. />
  ‘Oh no, what were you told?’ Caroline and Selina rose to their feet at the same time. Maria remained seated, still chewed up about what her friend had said.

  ‘Nothing that was credible, that’s for sure. It was a complete waste of time.’

  Madame Ortiz had, it seemed, skilfully acquired the knack of suddenly and silently appearing out of nowhere; and if she’d heard their comments, she didn’t react in any way. She stood looking at the remaining two people who had yet to go in, waiting for the next one to join her in the room beyond.

  ‘You sure you want to go last?’ Caroline turned and asked Maria, who nodded sullenly. ‘Okay then, my turn to go in.’

  While Caroline was in, the other two tried to cheer Maria up, but to no avail. Aggrieved by the whole thing, she was now set to go home without even venturing in to see this so-called famous woman. Maria was mulling all of this over when Caroline’s sudden appearance after a short time took them all by surprise, especially when they saw the expression on her face. She’d turned ashen, and both her hands were shaking so much that she was holding them together in front of her in a feeble attempt to control the tremors. She ran unsteadily to the nearest chair and slumped down in a heap.

  ‘What the hell?’ Selena quickly went over to see what was wrong with her. Both Barbara and Maria joined her, horrified to see Caroline’s reaction to what she must have been told. This was the final straw, and had certainly put Maria off going in at all now. Although still angry with her friend’s choice of entertainment, she was furious as to what had just taken place, and decided to confront the woman herself and give her a piece of her mind.

  Maria strode purposefully towards the curtain and pulled it aside without waiting for Madame Ortiz to appear through it to come and collect her.

  The woman was still sitting at her table; she looked as shocked as Caroline had done when she’d returned to the waiting room, and her Tarot cards were still laid out on the table in front of her. It was as if she was trying to process what had just happened. Maria’s arrival seemed to take her by surprise.