Trespass (P.I. Johnson Carmichael Series - Book 2)

by Stephen Edger

  ‘That snivelling little piss ant? Are you kidding? He couldn’t find his balls even with a magnifying glass! It’s no wonder that money-grabbing bitch used and dumped him. I don’t even blame her; I just wish he hadn’t ended up back here.’

  ‘He blames you for how Nathan turned out, y’know. Told me you used to abuse the two of them as kids after their mother died. Is that why you started raping women? Because no woman in her right mind would look twice at you?’

  ‘You know nothing about me! I’ve had plenty of offers in my time.’

  ‘Let me guess: it was your warm and caring personality that attracted them to you?’

  ‘It’s nature’s way.’

  ‘What is?’

  ‘That God put women on earth to service men. That’s the reason they carry the babies; the reason they are not as physically strong as us.’

  ‘Do you really believe that? I mean, seriously, in this day and age?’

  ‘It’s the truth. He made Adam first and then fashioned Eve from one of his ribs. It’s in The Bible!’

  ‘How the fuck do you take the meaning of that story and interpret it as ‘it’s okay to rape’?’

  ‘I told you: it’s their role to serve us. God took my Marie from me too soon…it was His will that I seek comfort in the arms of other women.’

  ‘Bullshit!’

  ‘Yeah? Why have I never been stopped then? Hmm? Tell me that? If the women I raped didn’t understand their place, why have they never reported me? Because they fucking loved it, that’s why!’

  ‘How many women have you attacked?’

  ‘Six or seven, I guess. One more if you include that bitch the other day. It had been several years since I had felt that power and, God, it felt good. Might have to restart the old career. The women out there are even more desperate now than they were back then.’

  ‘Not while I’m still around you won’t!’

  ‘And how do you propose to stop me? Tell the police? See how far that gets you. I’ve already got an air tight alibi for the time when that bitch died: I’ve got half a dozen witnesses who’ll place me on the other side of town when it happened. Good luck getting around that.’

  ‘If you’re so proud of what you’ve done and truly believe you are right, why keep it such a secret? Surely, you should be shouting it from the rooftops: I’m a rapist!’

  ‘I don’t need to proclaim it. God understands what I have done and why: He will be my judge.’

  ‘So why tell me? Hmm? Why confirm everything I suspected you of?’

  Green laughed, ‘They say confession is good for the soul, don’t they? I like the idea that someone else knows what I’ve done and what I’m capable of, but can’t do fuck all about it.’

  Green clambered back to his feet.

  ‘Now,’ he continued, ‘get out of my fucking house!’

  ‘You always abuse women, Tony? Huh? Never been tempted to rape a man?’

  ‘What do you take me for? Some kind of pervert?’

  ‘It’s just something Matthew said…he said you liked to beat him and his brother…he suggested that Nathan bore the brunt of your aggression.’

  ‘Them boys only got what was good for them,’ he said pointing his finger. ‘I gave them a beating when they needed straightening out that was all.’

  ‘Are you sure? How did it feel when you were dominating them? Did it feel the same as when you pinned your victims down? Did it make you hard?’

  Green swung out at him but Carmichael managed to duck out of it and push him away.

  ‘Is that where you first got the taste for it? Huh? Is that why your youngest son thought it was okay to rape vulnerable people because his daddy had done it to him?’

  ‘Shut your fucking mouth!’

  ‘It’s true, is it?’

  ‘No it fucking isn’t!’

  ‘It would certainly explain a lot of things. I heard Nathan really enjoyed it in the showers at Parkhurst: enjoyed being the most popular shower companion.’

  ‘You shut your mouth about him. He wasn’t queer, you hear me?’

  ‘Like father like son…or so the saying goes.’

  ‘Neither me or my boys are queer. Now get the fuck out of my house!’

  Frustrated, Carmichael did as he was instructed. Green slammed and locked the door behind him. He wandered back to the car and pulled out his phone. He saw he had missed a dozen calls from Melissa. It was nine o’clock but he guessed she would still be at the office. He dialled her number and she answered it within one ring.

  ‘Johnson? Thank God you’re alright,’ she said. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘I’ll tell you when I get back. For now, I need a favour.’

  EPILOGUE

  ‘This is fucking scandalous!’ Tony Green said, slamming the folded newspaper down on the counter top.

  ‘And what would you like me to do about it, sir?’ asked the officer behind the glass partition.

  ‘I want you to do your job! Go and arrest the prick who wrote the story!’

  ‘Unfortunately, it is not a criminal matter to print such allegations. However, if you wish to seek civil recompense, we can put you in touch with the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau. I have their details on this easy-to-read pamphlet.’

  The officer pushed the coloured leaflet under his window.

  ‘Is this some kind of joke? What are you going to do about this story?’

  ‘I’m sorry, sir,’ the officer replied firmly, ‘there is nothing I can do at this time. Your best bet is to call the number on that leaflet.’

  Green glared at the officer and threw the newspaper at the window before turning his back and striding out of the door. P.C. Alex Young moved forward from the room where they had been hiding and picked up the newspaper.

  ‘Has Mercure seen this yet?’ he asked.

  ‘Well she’s not phoned me yet, so I’m assuming not,’ Carmichael replied, smiling.

  It had been a week since his last confrontation with Tony Green. He had tried speaking to Mercure again but she had re-affirmed her position that they would investigate him as a suspect for Lauren Roper’s death but they could not investigate the assault on Beth. He had begged her to see reason but understood her hands were tied. He even tried phoning Rashid Patel at the Sapphire Squad but he had spun a similar story.

  He had told Melissa everything he had learned and she had seemed even angrier than him that there was nothing that could be done. As a favour he had asked her to dig out the telephone number for Tim Williams and had offered to buy him a pint. The reporter had been a quivering wreck when he had arrived at the bar, believing that Carmichael might be contemplating some kind of revenge. They had spoken at great length about how Williams could make things better between them. They had met each night for the last week to go over all the angles of the story and they had finally agreed on what could be published.

  Carmichael admired the work on the printed page before him, ‘What do you think Mercure will do?’

  ‘She’ll probably order the newspaper withdraw the story as it compromises an open investigation. My suggestion to you would be to buy as many copies of it as you can and hand them out.’

  ‘I’m one step ahead of you,’ Carmichael grinned. ‘My assistant has been out buying copies all morning. We’ve paid a group of local lads to deliver them to residential homes in the Portswood, Shirley and Swaythling areas by six p.m. tonight. ‘

  Young laughed, ‘Probably best not to mention that part to Mercure when you see her.’

  ‘I won’t. Have you read it yet?’

  ‘Yeah. Twice.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘How true are the allegations?’

  ‘Every single one of them is true…except the bit about him targeting men as well as well as women. We put that bit in just to rile him a bit. You think it’s too far?’

  ‘Too far? Johnson, you’ve got a two-page article in a national newspaper accusing Tony Green of raping women throughout the eighties and nineties including photogr
aphs of him then and now. I think you passed too far some time ago.’

  The two men laughed again.

  ‘He’ll probably sue you, you know that right?’

  ‘I’ll take my chances. The more he complains about it, the longer it will stay in the headlines. I’m not sure he’ll want that to happen but either way, it’s a win-win for me.’

  ‘It must be costing you a fair whack to buy all the copies.’

  ‘I had some savings. I was going to use them to get away somewhere tropical but this seemed…more worthwhile.’

  ‘Well you’re a braver man than me, that’s for sure.’

  The two men shook hands and Carmichael headed out of the door. Traffic flowed by and in the distance he could see the twinkling decorative lights as the city prepared to welcome the festive season. He took a deep breath and smiled skyward: he was sure Lauren and Beth would understand the justice he had delivered for them. It made him feel glad to be alive.

  THE END

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Integration

  THE OFFER

  Mark Baines is a Team Leader in a call centre. He dislikes his job and dreams of the day he can afford to give up his job and buy the house of his dreams. Following a terrifying burglary at his home, he is contacted by a group prepared to pay him one million pounds in return for a favour.

  THE CATCH

  The offer seems too good to be true, and he begins to worry about what they might expect in return. The group calls again and tells him to integrate their laundered monies through the bank he works for, but he refuses. When Mark’s girlfriend Gabrielle goes missing and his brother is attacked, Mark begins to realise just how far the group will go to get what they want.

  EVERYONE HAS THEIR PRICE

  As the game begins and the pressure mounts, Mark finds himself risking everything he has to find Gabrielle and save his own life before the group and the police catch up with him.

  INTEGRATION

  Blackmail, murder, suspense, conspiracy and money laundering: Integration is a British crime thriller set in the murky depths of the finance industry.

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Remorse

  'I didn't mean to kill her. That is the first thing you need to understand about me...'

  FAIRY-TALE LIFE

  John Duggan had it all: married with a beautiful four month-old daughter; Manager with a career on the up; nice house in a good area of Southampton.

  BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

  His wife is cheating on him; his daughter’s relentless screaming deprives them of sleep; he drinks too much.

  ON THE EDGE

  Unable to deal with the mounting pressure, he hires a private investigator to spy on his wife. But Johnson Carmichael has troubles of his own.

  As the conclusion of Duggan’s trial looms, he must come to terms with what he has done and why he is facing a life behind bars. He is about to learn a valuable lesson: not every fairy-tale has a happy ending…

  REMORSE

  Betrayal, revenge, regret and suspense: Remorse is a gritty British thriller exploring what fathers will do when driven to desperation.

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Redemption

  LAST YEAR

  Mark Baines was blackmailed into integrating two hundred and fifty million pounds of laundered money through the bank he worked for. The same group framed him for murder. Now serving two life sentences in a maximum security prison, the future looks bleak.

  BREAK OUT

  A siege at the prison allows Mark to escape with a mysterious group who know everything about him. They are searching for a secret passage buried somewhere in the heart of London, and they believe Mark is the key to finding it.

  UNDERWORLD

  Ali Jacobs is undercover with a Russian mafia family in London. She is shocked when her path brings her into contact with Mark again.

  Kidnap, car chases, and an uneasy union with underworld figures mean Mark is in a race against time to prove his innocence and find redemption.

  REDEMPTION

  Kidnap, torture, blackmail and revenge: Redemption is the breath-taking follow-up to the acclaimed Integration.

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Snatched

  Approximately one hundred and fifty thousand children go missing in the U.K. every year. That’s one child every three and a half minutes.

  ABDUCTION

  Every parent’s worst nightmare: seven year-old Natalie Barrett is snatched on Friday afternoon walking home from school. The police begin a desperate hunt to find her before it is too late. They fear the worst when a body is located near a golf course.

  THE FALLOUT

  Sarah Jenson is Natalie’s teacher. When one of the detectives on the case is suddenly killed, Sarah believes the events may be linked and begins to search for answers. With suspects stacking up, she is in a race against time to discover the true identity of the perpetrator before Natalie winds up as another statistic.

  UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

  Where were Natalie’s parents when they should have been collecting her? Why was Natalie so scared of her Uncle Jimmy? Could a convicted sexual offender from Sarah’s past be involved?

  Children not found within the first seventy-two hours, rarely return home alive. Sarah knows the clock is ticking…

  SNATCHED

  Abduction, terror, suspense and sorrow: Snatched is a breath-taking British crime thriller set in Southampton.

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Shadow Line

  THURSDAY NIGHT

  The pilot of a routine flight from Paris deliberately crash lands the plane at Southampton airport. Miraculously, there are no fatalities, but who is the man in the Panama hat risking his life to save all on board and who is the mystery eighty-third passenger?

  FRIDAY MORNING

  An insurance broker carrying an automatic gun opens fire on his colleagues before turning the gun on himself. What motivated him to take such drastic measures and where did he get the weapon?

  SATURDAY MORNING

  A student enters the West Quay shopping centre with a bomb strapped to his chest. He takes control of the complex and begins to preach from the Qur’an. Why is he bringing his terrorist act to Southampton and why did he choose today?

  IN THE SHADOWS

  Charged with leading the three investigations, D.I. Jack Vincent is under enormous pressure to deliver results. The last thing he needs is the Security Services poking around. With three seemingly unrelated cases occupying his time, this really will be the toughest week of Jack Vincent’s life.

  SHADOW LINE

  Murder, espionage, suspense, terrorism and a face from the past: Shadow Line is the thrilling follow-up to Redemption.

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Crosshairs

  WARNING

  This morning, Southampton MP Eve Partridge received a hand-delivered letter threatening revenge for her failure to serve the city. She contacts the police immediately but despite her protests they ignore the warning. When the terrorist later contacts D.C.I. Mercure and tells her where he’s left his first bomb, the threat becomes clear.

  THE GAME

  Whilst the police scramble to discover who is behind the bombs, five strangers carry on their lives, unaware that they have been targeted to play a part in the bomber’s endgame. D.S. Kyle Davies is on a train to meet his new D.I. when an assassin known as ‘The Serpent’ contacts him directly and tells him they are going to play a little game. If Kyle does what he is told, The Serpent will tell him how to stop the final bomb exploding at 7 p.m.

  RELENTLESS

  With no other choice, Kyle must risk everything to take on the challenge. As the deadline approaches, The Serpent reveals the bomb is on a bus. What he won’t confirm is which of the six passengers on board has the detonator.

  Five innocent people. One bomber. The clock is ticking…

  CROSSHAIRS

  Politics, conspiracy, terrorism and suspense: Crosshairs is a British c
rime thriller delivered minute-by-minute until its gripping finale. This is the first book in ‘The Cadre’ series. Published by Endeavour Press.

  ALSO BY STEPHEN EDGER

  Complicit

  REUNION

  Connor Price is a young man meandering through life without purpose. He hates his job, can’t pay off his student loan and is back living with his parents in North West London. He receives a chance phone call from Dylan Thomas, his best friend from school and they agree to meet up. Dylan offers him money if Connor will go with him to a meeting. Connor is suspicious but Dylan assures him it is nothing illegal.

  ON THE RUN

  Connor’s world is turned upside down when he witnesses Dylan execute two Russian gangsters at the meeting, and then steal their bags full of cocaine and cash. When Dylan disappears, Connor is left to face the music alone, and becomes the target of the drug dealer, loan shark and Russian mafia who Dylan ripped off.

  NO ESCAPE

  The Chairman of a secret organisation known as ‘The Cadre’ is hunting Dylan as well. He has terrifying plans for Britain’s future and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. He thinks Connor is the key to finding Dylan, and uses the high-ranking members of his organisation to exert the necessary pressure to get to the truth.