Don't Look Back

by Ben Cheetham

  Who did this to you? he heard himself asking Faith. He saw her looking pleadingly at Ella. Or was she looking at Henry? Why would she have been looking at Henry like that?

  Adam swallowed hard. Oh Christ, he felt ready to vomit all over Penny.

  “Henry helped me wrap a blanket around Faith,” he suddenly found himself saying. “That must be how he got her blood on him.”

  Penny’s eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me that at the time?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose it didn’t seem important. There was so much else going on.” Dragging a smile back onto his lips, Adam asked, “Is that all or can I help you with something else?”

  Penny continued to stare at him like a cat studying its prey. He fought to keep his smile in place. His mind was painfully full of Faith shuffling from The Lewarne Room, her body a bloody latticework of scratches. His throat bobbed again. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold back the queasiness.

  “I was surprised to find out you haven’t put Fenton House up for sale,” said Penny. “Do you plan on moving back down there at some point?”

  “No.” This time Adam’s answer had the ring of absolute truth.

  Penny nodded approvingly. “No offence intended, but I’m glad to hear it.” She extended her hand. “Thanks for signing my book.”

  Adam shook her warm, dry hand with his cold, clammy one.

  He remained where he was as Penny moved off into the crowded street. As soon as she was out of sight, he ran to the nearest bin and retched into it. When the queasiness finally subsided, he headed for Oxford Circus Underground Station without bothering to rinse the taste of vomit from his mouth. It was preferable to the taste of the lie.

  The Tube and bus journey was a blur until he passed Whipps Cross Hospital. His troubled eyes lingered on the redbrick building where Jacob had died. I didn’t mean to hurt him, Dad… It was an accident… Honest. It had been a long time since Adam had thought about what Henry said in the emergency room, but now the words rang out like a bell in his head.

  He got off the bus and entered a warren of terraced streets. He stood outside his house for several long minutes, his eyebrows knotted. Passing a hand over his face, he erased all the lines except the faint scars inflicted by Heloise.

  A yapping started up as he opened the front door. Edgar ran to greet him, wagging his stubby tail. Ella wasn’t far behind. “How did it go?” she asked.

  A weary smile returned to Adam’s face. “It went well.”

  “Was there a good turn out?”

  “Yes, all five of my fans showed up.”

  Ella smiled at the dry remark. “You’ve got a lot more fans than that these days.”

  Adam’s gaze fell to the porch floor – Jacob, the shattered glass, the blood. So much blood… It was an accident… Honest…

  A frown touched Ella’s forehead. “What’s wrong, Adam? Has something happened?”

  He looked at her uncertainly. He knew he had to tell her about the lie, make sure she was on the same page as him. But he just couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Jacob’s death had added years to her face. Since returning from Cornwall, those years had gradually dropped away. The old sparkle was back in her eyes – the sparkle of mischief and joy that had first attracted him to her. “I’m tired, that’s all. It’s been a long day.”

  Ella took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You know I’m proud of you.”

  “I’m not so sure that book’s anything to be proud of.”

  “Well Henry and I disagree. You took something horrible and turned it into something good.”

  Adam turned away to hide the troubled look that passed over his face at his son’s name. He hung up his jacket and headed for the sofa. Edgar settled down in his favourite spot in front of the hearth.

  “We had a call from the solicitors,” Ella told him as she fetched them both a glass of wine. “There’s been another offer on the house.”

  Adam shook his head in bewilderment. “Another one? Don’t these people care about what happened there?”

  “Apparently three murders and the same number of suicides aren’t enough to put them off. Or maybe that’s why they’re so interested in buying the place.”

  “Hmph, it wouldn’t surprise me,” Adam agreed sardonically. “How much are they offering?”

  “A lot.” Ella’s voice was heavy with emphasis. She showed Adam a figure scribbled on a piece of paper.

  His eyes widened as if he was considering the offer, but then he shook his head. “I don’t care how many zeros they add, we’re not selling. That house can stand empty until it rots to the ground for all I care.”

  Smiling as if that was what she’d hoped he would say, Ella leaned in to kiss him. He inhaled her perfume as if it would clean the taste of the lie out of his mouth.

  They drew apart as Henry charged into the room. In the past year Henry’s limbs had grown gawkily long and a light fuzz had sprouted above his upper lip. His voice seesawed between high-pitched and gruff as he exclaimed, “Dad, you’re back. Yay.”

  He enveloped Adam in something halfway between a hug and a wrestling hold.

  “OK, OK, I’m happy to see you too,” said Adam, disentangling himself. He gave Henry a searching look. “What have you been up to?”

  Henry shrugged. “Will you wrestle with me?”

  “Your dad’s too tired to–” Ella started to say.

  “No I’m not,” interrupted Adam. Henry squealed with delight as Adam scooped him up and whirled him around before collapsing in a heap with him on the rug.

  Henry pinned Adam’s arms. “Do you give in?”

  Pretending to writhe in pain, Adam tapped the floor in submission. Henry jumped up, raising his hands in triumph.

  Adam reached to pull Ella down onto him. She resisted, smiling and shaking her head. Laughing, Henry grabbed her too and helped drag her to the rug. Adam and he tickled her until she was tearful and breathless with laughter. Then Adam enfolded both of them in an embrace and held on as if he was scared to let go.

  Thank You!

  Thanks for reading Don't Look Back. I really, REALLY hope you enjoyed it. If you go on to read my other books, have an extra big thank you! I couldn’t do this mysterious thing called writing without your support.

  Can I ask a favour? If you have a spare moment could you leave a short review of this book on Amazon? It would be hugely appreciated as reader reviews can make or break a book like mine that doesn’t have the financial clout of the big publishers behind it. If you do get chance to review my book then - deep breath - THANK YOU!!!

  Oh and please feel free to get in touch. I’d genuinely love to know what you think of my books. You can find me on Twitter at @ben_cheethamUK or Facebook at @BenCheethamBooks. I look forward to hearing from you.

  Keep reading!

  Best wishes,

  Ben

  P.S. Don’t forget, you can enjoy one of my books for FREE simply by clicking this link GET MY FREE BOOK and joining my mailing list.

  Other Books by the Author

  (Jack Anderson Book 1)

  What happens when the watcher becomes the watched?

  Jack has it all – a beautiful wife and daughter, a home, a career. Then his wife, Rebecca, plunges to her death from the Sussex coast cliffs. Was it an accident or did she jump? He moves to Manchester with his daughter, Naomi, to start afresh, but things don’t go as planned. He didn’t think life could get any worse...

  Jack sees a woman in a window who is the image of Rebecca. Attraction turns into obsession as he returns to the window night after night. But he isn’t the only one watching her...

  Jack is about to be drawn into a deadly game. The woman lies dead. The latest victim in a series of savage murders. Someone is going to go down for the crimes. If Jack doesn’t find out who the killer is, that ‘someone’ may well be him.

  You can purchase Now She’s Dead at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.co
m.au

  (Jack Anderson Book 2)

  Her eyes pop open like someone surfacing from a nightmare. Shreds of moonlight glimmer through a woodland canopy. How did she get here? A thousand bells seem to be clanging in her ears. There is a strange, terrible smell. Both sweet and bitter. Like burnt meat. Her senses scream that something is very, very wrong. Then she sees it. A hole in the ground. Deep and rectangular. Like a grave…

  After the death of his wife, Jack is starting to get his life back on track. But things are about to get complicated.

  A woman lies in a hospital bed, clinging to life after being shot in the head. She remembers nothing, not even her own name. Who is she? That is the question Jack must answer. All he has to go on is a mysterious facial tattoo.

  Damaged kindred spirits, Jack and the nameless woman quickly form a bond. But he can’t afford to fall for someone who might put his family at risk. People are dying. Their deaths appear to be connected to the woman. What if she isn’t really the victim? What if she’s just as bad as the ‘Unspeakable Monsters’ who put her in hospital?

  You can purchase Who Is She? at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.com.au

  Is it ever truly possible to atone for killing someone?

  After the death of his son in a freak accident, DI Harlan Miller’s life is spiralling out of control. He’s drinking too much. His marriage and career are on the rocks. But things are about to get even worse. A booze-soaked night out and a single wild punch leave a man dead and Harlan facing a manslaughter charge.

  Fast-forward four years. Harlan’s prison term is up, but life on the outside holds little promise. Divorced, alone, consumed by guilt, he thinks of nothing beyond atoning for the death he caused. But how do you make up for depriving a wife of her husband and two young boys of their father? Then something happens, something terrible, yet something that holds out a twisted kind of hope for Harlan – the dead man’s youngest son is abducted.

  From that moment Harlan’s life has only one purpose – finding the boy. So begins a frantic race against time that leads him to a place darker than anything he experienced as a policeman and a stark moral choice that compels him to question the law he once enforced.

  You can purchase Blood Guilt at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.com.au

  Murderer? Or heroine? You decide...

  Fifteen-year-old Grace Kirby kisses her mum and heads off to school. It’s a day like any other day, except that Grace will never return home.

  Fifteen years have passed since Grace went missing. In that time, Stephen Baxley has made millions. And now he’s lost millions. Suicide seems like the only option. But Stephen has no intention of leaving behind his wife, son and daughter. He wants them all to be together forever, in this world or the next.

  Angel is on the brink of suicide too. Then she hears a name on the news that transports her back to a windowless basement. Something terrible happened in that basement. Something Angel has been running from most of her life. But the time for running is over. Now is the time to start fighting back.

  At the scene of a fatal shooting, DI Jim Monahan finds evidence of a sickening crime linked to a missing girl. Then more people start turning up dead. Who is the killer? Are the victims also linked to the girl? Who will be next to die? The answers will test to breaking-point Jim’s faith in the law he’s spent his life upholding.

  You can purchase Angel of Death (aka Lost Angel in the US) at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.com.au

  When is a life worth less than the truth?

  Melinda has been missing for weeks. The police would normally be all over it, but Melinda is a prostitute. Women in that line of work change addresses like they change lipstick. She probably just moved on.

  Staci is determined not to let Melinda become just another statistic added to the long list of girls who’ve gone missing over the years. Staci is also a prostitute – although not for much longer if DI Reece Geary has anything to do with it. Reece will do anything to win Staci’s love. If that means putting his job on the line by launching an unofficial investigation, then so be it.

  DI Jim Monahan is driven by his own dangerous obsession. He’s on the trail of a psychopath hiding behind a facade of respectability. Jim’s investigation has already taken him down a rabbit hole of corruption and depravity. He’s about to discover that the hole goes deeper still. Much, much deeper...

  You can purchase Justice for the Damned (aka Lost Girls in the US) at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.com.au

  ‘So he wove a subtle web, in a little corner sly...

  And merrily did sing, “Come hither, hither, pretty fly...”’

  A trip to the cinema turns into a nightmare for Anna and her little sister Jessica, when two men throw thirteen-year-old Jessica into the back of a van and speed away.

  The years tick by... Tick, tick... The police fail to find Jessica and her name fades from the public consciousness... Tick, tick... But every time Anna closes her eyes she’s back in that terrible moment, lurching towards Jessica, grabbing for her. So close. So agonisingly close... Tick, tick... Now in her thirties, Anna has no career, no relationship, no children. She’s consumed by one purpose – finding Jessica, dead or alive.

  DI Jim Monahan has a little black book with forty-two names in it. Jim’s determined to put every one of those names behind bars, but his investigation is going nowhere fast. Then a twenty-year-old clue brings Jim and Anna together in search of a shadowy figure known as Spider. Who is Spider? Where is Spider? Does Spider have the answers they want? The only thing Jim and Anna know is that the victims Spider entices into his web have a habit of ending up missing or dead.

  You can purchase Spider's Web (aka Lost Sister in the US) at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.com.au

  The truth can be more dangerous than lies...

  July 1972

  The Ingham household. Upstairs, sisters Rachel and Mary are sleeping peacefully. Downstairs, blood is pooling around the shattered skull of their mother, Joanna, and a figure is creeping up behind their father, Elijah. A hammer comes crashing down again and again...

  July 2016

  The Jackson household. This is going to be the day when Tom Jackson’s hard work finally pays off. He kisses his wife Amanda and their children, Jake and Erin, goodbye and heads out dreaming of a better life for them all. But just hours later he finds himself plunged into a nightmare...

  Erin is missing. She was hiking with her mum in Harwood Forest. Amanda turned her back for a moment. That was all it took for Erin to vanish. Has she simply wandered off? Or does the blood-stained rock found where she was last seen point to something sinister? The police and volunteers who set out to search the sprawling forest are determined to find out. Meanwhile, Jake launches an investigation of his own – one that will expose past secrets and present betrayals.

  Is Erin’s disappearance somehow connected to the unsolved murders of Elijah and Joanna Ingham? Does it have something to do with the ragtag army of eco-warriors besieging Tom’s controversial quarry development? Or is it related to the fraught phone call that distracted Amanda at the time of Erin’s disappearance?

  So many questions. No one seems to have the answers and time is running out. Tom, Amanda and Jake must get to the truth to save Erin, though in doing so they may well end up destroying themselves.

  You can purchase The Lost Ones at

  amazon.co.uk

  amazon.com

  amazon.com.au

  About the Author

  Ben is an award winning writer and Pushcart Prize nominee with a passion for gritty crime fiction. His short stories have been widely published in the UK, US and Australia. In 2011 he self-published Blood Guilt. The novel went on to reach no.2 in the national e-book download chart, selling well ove
r 150000 copies. In 2012 it was picked up for publication by Head of Zeus. Since then, Head of Zeus has published three more of Ben’s novels – Angel of Death, Justice for the Damned and Spider’s Web. In 2016 his novel The Lost Ones was published by Thomas & Mercer.

  Ben lives in Sheffield, England, where – when he’s not chasing around after his son, Alex – he spends most of his time shut away in his study racking his brain for the next paragraph, the next sentence, the next word...

  If you’d like to learn more about Ben or get in touch, you can do so at bencheetham.com