by Gwyn GB
‘She’d been fine, you know, just got a bit lost in her late teens and made some bad choices. I think her first boyfriend was what you’d call a gaslighter nowadays. He was very manipulative, wrecked her confidence and made her withdraw into herself. Eventually he dumped her, but the damage was done and she ended up seeking spiritual help to find herself.’
‘What about your parents?’
‘That was part of the issue. My parents were overseas in Hong Kong with Dad’s work. My sister and I had decided we wanted to go back to the UK. I was twenty-three, and she was twenty-one, old enough to look after ourselves and make up our own minds where we wanted to live. Then I got a job offer in Edinburgh and left Annette here. I wasn’t doing social work then. I was training to be a legal secretary. It was only after Annette disappeared I changed careers. Wanted to help other young people like her. Guilt, I suppose. I’ve always felt like I abandoned her. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if I’d been around.’
‘You can’t know that, Ms Ward. Everyone makes their own choices. Were you not aware of the publicity following her murder? Investigators tried to find next of kin, but nobody came forward.’
‘I wasn’t. As far as I knew, Annette had taken up with some kind of cult in Wales. I didn’t hear from her from one month to the next. I was enjoying life in Edinburgh. I didn’t have any friends in London.’
‘Do you know who she was with in Wales?’ Harrison found his voice. Now he was desperate to know everything.
‘Yeah, we told the police when we reported her missing about six months later. It wasn’t far from the Brecon Beacons. I’ve got a note of it somewhere. But when I went down there, they just denied she’d ever been there. They wouldn’t let me in and every single one of them denied having ever seen her. It was my word against all theirs.’
Harrison’s stomach twisted as he listened to Elizabeth.
‘Llanfynydd,’ he almost whispered.
‘Yes. Yes, that’s it,’ Elizabeth replied. She flicked through some paperwork she had on the table.
‘Yes, just outside of Llanfynydd village. They were quite remote. The two people who ran it were called Desmond and Freda Manning. It was supposed to be a spiritual awakening centre, that’s how they advertised it, but I had serious doubts about what they did. It was like some kind of brain washing cult to me. I’d seen Annette just the once after she’d joined, and she was even more withdrawn than before. She almost seemed scared. I asked her if she was OK, promised my help if she needed it, but she would just say no. I can still see her, the way she looked the last time. She was pale and thin, dressed in a faded brown jumpsuit. Her hair looked like it hadn’t been brushed in days and she kept fiddling with the necklace she always wore.’
‘It was a crystal, a purple crystal. An amethyst?’ Harrison suddenly said. He had no idea where that had come from, but it was there, the image of her in his head. He saw her smiling and laughing with him, the crystal catching the light. She’d been trapped inside his mind all those years.
‘Yes, it was. Was it still with her?’
‘No, they didn’t find it with her body, I’m afraid,’ Jack replied, throwing a concerned look at Harrison.
‘Then how do you…?’
‘My mother was there too, in Wales,’ said Harrison. ‘I was there. I was only five or six, but when you described her, I remembered Annette.’
‘My God. Then do you know what happened to her?’
Harrison shook his head and looked away from her. The shame was back, the feeling of guilt that he hadn’t helped Annette or his mother. The feeling that there was more in his mind he should remember, but it was out of his reach.
He didn’t say another word until it was time to say goodbye. Jack carried the whole conversation and promised Elizabeth that they would be back in touch to make a formal identification and look to see if the case could be officially re-opened.
Harrison said goodbye to Elizabeth and took his secret away with him. She’d had enough shock for one day. He wasn’t going to tell her what he believed in his heart; that her sister had been killed as a sacrifice to Satan.
34
The meeting with Elizabeth knocked Harrison sideways. For years he’d known there were hidden memories, images which haunted him, buried deep in his mind where he couldn’t access them. As the years had gone on, he’d started to think maybe he had imagined things, that his childish fantasy had taken over and twisted what he’d seen. Over in America, the misty pictures in his mind’s eye had drifted further and further away. Talking to Elizabeth seemed to have opened a bridge to those memories.
Now he had proof that there were others who were there. Others who had seen what he’d seen, and he knew his instincts hadn’t been wrong. His mother had been murdered by the Mannings.
Since Tanya’s ordeal with her stalker, Harrison had only seen her a few times. A lot of the problem had been work; their diary commitments clashed, but if he was honest, he’d been making excuses. The power of his feelings for her had taken him by surprise. He knew that when he was in her presence, he struggled to resist. So he avoided her.
One thing about Tanya that Harrison was learning was that she wasn’t a woman who gave up easily. He was sitting at his desk, deep in thought about the meaning behind a passage of text found at a church break-in, when a text came through from her.
Hi stranger, wondered if it would be possible for you to come round after work. Need a hand with something. Will pay with dinner.
Harrison’s heart jumped and his stomach flipped. Why did his body betray him every time he saw anything to do with her? What did she need him for? He looked up at Ryan, as though he may have somehow noticed his change in demeanour. He was focused on his screen as usual.
Sure. 6.30pm OK?
Perfect. See you then
Now his stomach began a dance of anticipation. He looked at his watch; he had seven hours to get through.
Harrison had gone home for a shower and for a change of clothes. It wasn’t that he felt particularly grubby, but it filled the time and kept his mind off his impending arrival at Tanya’s flat. As it was, he arrived outside at twenty-five past six and took several deep breaths before heading down the steps and knocking.
When Tanya opened her front door, it was obvious that she too had come home, showered, and changed after work. She had her hair down in waves over her shoulders and a cream and pink dress on that enhanced her eyes and hair colour.
‘Harrison, thanks so much for coming round.’ She ushered him in with a kiss on his cheek. ‘How’s your week been?’ she continued cheerfully.
‘Fine. Yours?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, good, actually. Nothing too gruesome this week, so that’s always a bonus, and I had a day out on a course earlier this week. Tiring but useful and nice to do something different.’
‘You said you needed my help?’
‘Ah yes.’ She smiled, and he followed as she led him out to her patio. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I really wanted that plant pot moving from here over to there. Sorry to have to ask you, but there’s just no way I can budge it.’
‘Of course,’ Harrison said, and within thirty seconds had shifted the blue glazed pot across her tiny patio. It hadn’t actually felt that heavy at all. ‘What else?’ He looked around for the rest of what she needed doing.
‘That’s it.’
He turned to look at her, puzzled. She was beaming at him, watching his face.
‘Sorry. It was an excuse to get you round for dinner. I was worried you were avoiding me.’
‘No. I’m not.’
‘Are you sure? Do you regret what happened? The kiss?’
‘No.’
‘If you do and you want to keep it platonic, just colleagues, then that’s fine. I won’t push it. I understand.’
‘I… No.’
Tanya watched the well-built man in front of her as he scrabbled around for words, embarrassed like a little schoolboy who had to talk about a kiss with the Prom Queen. She
knew what she had to do.
Tanya stepped towards him and took one of his hands in hers. She could see the struggle playing in his mind and written on his face.
‘Harrison,’ she said. ‘Harrison, look at me.’
He did as he was told and was instantly caught by the intensity of her blue eyes.
‘Harrison, it’s OK. I’m not going to take you away from who you are and what you need to do. I love everything about you. Your passion and your drive. And I think recent events would have shown you that I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. I’m not your mother, nothing’s going to happen to me.’
Tanya stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips. At first, they were unsure, but it didn’t take her long before she found the passion she knew was there.
35
Harrison was late up the next morning. He’d slept so deeply that he’d turned off his alarm and consequently didn’t get to New Scotland Yard until almost 10 a.m. All he could think about was Tanya and the evening they’d spent together, talking into the early hours, and the taste of her kisses.
As Harrison approached his office door, the sound of voices and laughter met him. At first he thought about going to get a drink, he wasn’t in the mood for visitors, until he realised who it was behind the door, and a wave of relief spread through him. Today had just got a lot better.
Harrison pushed the door open to see the tall, broad bulk of Professor Andrew McKendrick filling the space between his desk and Ryan’s. The latter was belly laughing at something the professor had just said. The pair turned to see Harrison like two naughty schoolboys caught up after lights out.
‘Here he is.’ The professor beamed a huge smile and opened his arms. Harrison didn’t hesitate. He accepted the embrace with gratitude and warmth.
‘Andrew, what a pleasure. It’s been a while.’
‘Yes, what’s been keeping you away from my door? Not a certain young forensics officer, by any chance?’
Harrison sent a dagger’d look across to Ryan, who pretended to be studying something on his watch.
‘No, work’s been busy.’
‘Good. They’ve realised your value, my boy. I told you they would.’
Harrison smiled at his old professor and mentor. ‘You did indeed.’ He remembered the night he’d gone round to his home, bemoaning the fact that they were calling him the Witch Hunter and the police detectives weren’t taking him seriously. Andrew had told him then that all it would take was a handful of successes and word would spread. He’d been right.
‘How have you been?’ he asked. The professor looked a little weary, dare he say older than when he’d last seen him three months before. There were flashes of grey in his hair which he hadn’t noticed before, and his usual rich black skin colour was looking lacklustre, as though it had lost its energy.
‘I was attending a briefing on a case I consulted on years ago, before your time here. He’s up for parole and apparently a reformed and cured man, but I’m not convinced. His doctors are adamant, but thankfully the officer who dealt with the case is of the same mind as me. We were coming up with a plan.’
‘Do you want to grab something in the canteen?’ Harrison asked.
‘I would, but I have to be back for a lecture. Can we set a date for dinner?’
Both men consulted their phone diaries.
‘How about next Thursday?’ Andrew asked.
‘Perfect.’ Harrison added it to his calendar.
‘And will I meet your new young lady?’
‘She’s not my young lady, it’s early days,’ Harrison replied, not sure what their relationship status was.
The professor changed the subject.
‘I see you’re still on the trail.’ He nodded at the photograph of Harrison’s mother standing with Desmond and Freda Manning on his pin board. His face had grown serious, and he looked at Harrison as though trying to see beyond what was on his face.
‘Yes. In fact, a detective has been helping me and we’re making some headway. They are both alive. I saw them.’
‘You saw them? When? Where?’
‘They lured me to Nunhead Cemetery and then tricked me so they got away, but now I know they’re still alive, I won’t let that happen again.’
The professor had gone quiet and seemed to momentarily be lost for words.
‘Are you feeling all right?’ Harrison asked.
He studied his friend. It was always a pleasure seeing Andrew. He’d been like a father figure to him throughout university and afterwards. They’d found a kindred in the fact both of them had nearly gone off the rails in adolescence before finding their groove in life. Andrew had been abandoned as a child and in those days, it had been harder to find a suitable childless couple for a black child. In the end, a white couple fell in love with him and adopted him. They’d been wonderful parents, but it had been hard growing up as a black child with white parents. The bullying at school was bad enough because of his skin colour, but his family situation had made it relentless. He’d had to learn to be tough to survive. Luckily, he’d been tall and well built, so as he’d progressed through the years, fewer of the bullies were brave enough to challenge him. It left its scars, though. For a few years after school, he’d lost his way. He’d never told Harrison what had happened in those years, but when he’d first arrived in his tutor group like a fish out of water, the professor had recognised his struggle and given him wise counsel. They’d been best friends ever since.
Harrison hadn’t seen him this quiet before. He wondered if there was something he needed to talk about, something that was troubling him.
‘I’m fine. Just a bit tired after the early morning start. I don’t want you getting hurt. People like the Mannings find a way to get to everyone, eventually. This reckoning has been a long time coming so you be careful.’
‘I will.’ Harrison smiled back at him, but he saw the change in Andrew’s eyes.
‘I’d better be off, or I’ll have sixty students throwing things at each other in my lecture hall when they should be listening to me. I’ll see you next week.’
Harrison watched his friend’s back recede down the corridor and wondered what the topic of their dinner conversation would be. In the meantime, he needed to get back to work. There were ritualistic crimes being committed, police detectives who needed his expertise, and victims who needed his help.
Afterword
Firstly, a huge thank you for choosing to read The Horsemen. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. This series has been several years in the making and it’s been an exciting experience to bring Harrison to the world. I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review on the Amazon book page. Reviews mean a lot to me as they do to all authors. They not only tell us that people are reading and appreciating our work, but it helps to guide other readers.
If you’d like to read a FREE short story about Harrison and DCI Barker’s first case together, you can sign up for my Readers Club for free. I’ll not bombard you with emails, but I’ll keep you updated with release news, competitions, offers and more. Visit: GwynGB.com
Plus if you’d like to read more about Harrison and co, Dark Order is the third in the series.
As with all fiction, this book isn’t based on any real people or practices in horseracing, although it was inspired by some actual events. However, The Horsemen societies, Toad men, Witch’s bottles and objects placed inside the walls of houses for protection, were all once a part of British society folklore. Here are just two of the books that I used for research. If you’d like to do some further reading, I recommend them:
Witchcraft and Secret Societies of Rural England: The Magic of Toadmen, Plough Witches, Mummers, and Bonesmen by Nigel Pennick; and Magical House Protection, The Archaelogy of Counter-Witchcraft by Brian Hoggard.
Thank you again, I really do appreciate your support.
Best wishes
Gwyn
Thank You’s
Every book relies on a team of people and so I’d also like to
say a few thank you’s to those who have helped bring Book 2 in the Harrison Lane series to you. For the cover work, thank you to Adrijus from Rocking Book Covers. For her proof reading skills, thank you to my editor, Emma Mitchell at Creating Perfection who spots the inconsistencies and errors that inevitably creep into a book.
As always, my writing friends, The Blonde Plotters, Deborah and Kelly, who have provided so much moral support to me in writing this series. The life of a writer is a roller-coaster of emotion and it is wonderful to have great friends there to encourage you on. Thank you.
Finally, as always thanks to my husband and boys who have to put up with me having my head constantly stuck in my laptop; and of course Miss Molly, whose constant companionship keeps me going, and manages to drag me away long enough to get some exercise on our daily walks.
Dark Order
3rd in the Harrison Lane mystery series
A UNIVERSITY SOCIETY TURNED DARK AND MURDEROUS
A PHANTOM MONK HAUNTING THE STREETS
CAN DR HARRISON LANE UNCOVER THE TRUTH BEFORE ANOTHER STUDENT DIES?
It all started off as a bit of fun, but somehow it ended with one of them dead. When the student friends attempt to hide the truth, it unleashes a sinister succession of events. The ghost of their dead friend starts to walk the streets of Durham city, risking the exposure of their secret, and bringing fear and ultimately murder.
Will Dr Harrison Lane, Head of the Ritualistic Behavioural Crime unit, be able to uncover the truth as he also battles to find out what happened in his own past?
Dark Order is the third in the Dr Harrison Lane mysteries, fast-paced crime suspense novels full of murder and intrigue, with a little romance and humour included. Harrison travels all over the British Isles as he solves the crimes hiding behind folklore, superstition, religion, and ritual.
