by A. B. King
But Julia didn't kill my sister; she had grasped some reeds and was starting to pull herself out. I now know that after Julia had pushed her in and turned her back, Parsons was already running across the bridge, alarmed at the unexpected turn of events. The lightning struck, and that was when both Julia and I were knocked over, but being further from the strike than I was, she suffered no injury. Parsons saw my sister climbing out, and she apparently screamed at him that she would report them both to the police. In a moment of angry madness he pushed her in again, and so hard she stood no chance, and the current swept her away. That one flash of memory I had when I laid eyes on Tania at the start of all this business was when I had seen her as she fell backwards into the water as a result of the push given to her by Parsons. I think he must have had that death on his conscience all these years, and when Tracy reared up out of the water and spoke to him as she did, well, that finished him.”
I squeezed her hands between my own. “I'm so sorry,” was all I could think of to say.
She essayed a wan smile. “There's nothing for you to feel sorry about,” she sighed. “Thanks to you I've finally laid a ghost to rest. A killer will be brought to justice, my sister will at last be able to rest in peace, and at long last I've learnt some real common sense. I'm afraid all of this is down to you.”
“Me?” I exclaimed, “I haven't done anything?”
“Oh Neil, are you completely blind?” she said in a tone of utter despair. “You've done everything I asked of you, and more! I owe you everything, you've not only discovered who killed my sister, you have freed me of that ceaseless urge that has been hounding me ever since Tracy shocked that memory out of me. I even owe you my life; if you hadn't done what you did, regardless of the risk, well, let's not go in to all that now. I just want you to know that at last I finally feel free!”
I groped for the right words, and as usual, mouth became engaged whilst the sorry remnants of my brain were still blundering about in a denser than usual mental fog.
“Then I guess I'll have to refund part of your fee now the case is over,” I said.
Not surprisingly she looked at me in complete exasperation. “Neil Hammond,” she said with mock severity as if I was a recalcitrant child, “if it wasn't against my principles to send a man to A & E when he's already in hospital I'd thump you so hard they would have to send for an ambulance to take you there!”
“But it’s part of our agreement,” I said defensively, muddying matters even more.
“Neil, do me a favour, please?”
“Certainly, if I can.”
“Shut up!”
I shut up.
“Now listen, and don't interrupt. I'm going to get you out of this dump and take you home. You obviously need looking after.”
“Danny?”
“Yes?”
“There's only one bed in your flat?”
“So there is!” she said with mock surprise.
I hated having to say it, but I was in so deep now it didn't matter. “I can't come.”
“Why not?”
I consoled myself with the thought that I was already in hospital so it didn't make much difference what she did.
“Because I love you,” I said lamely. “I guess I fell for you the first time I saw you climbing out of the water looking like a drowned rat, I loved you even more when you were wandering around in my old dressing gown, and when I saw you in your home I then knew there could never be anyone else in the world for me if I lived to be a hundred. I love you so much I can hardly sleep for wanting you, and when I saw you waiting to die on that bridge I knew that I loved you more than life itself. But I know it’s a hopeless sort of love, because quite simply, I have to accept that you are out of my league. I don't want to be with you, and then discarded when the novelty has worn thin, I couldn't cope with that, it would be so much worse than never knowing you at all. That being the case, I guess it will be so much better for all of us if we said good-bye here.”
For nearly a minute she looked at me with an expressionless face as I waited for the final storm to break.
“Neil,” she said at last. “Will you marry me?”
For a moment I thought the remains of the drugs were creating a wonderful yet totally impossible hallucination for me.
“What?” I croaked inanely.
“Well, it's leap year, and if I wait much longer for you to pop the question I'll be in line for a pension!”
I knew I had to be dreaming.
“You, you really mean that?” I heard myself ask.
“May I remind you that I once asked you if you really fancied me,” she said slowly, “and you offered to escort me into your bedroom to answer the question? I seem to recall that I said that one day I might take you up on the offer?”
“I think,” I said with some deliberation, wondering if Pete's comment that one should always expect the unexpected might just possibly be true in such an unlikely situation, “that I definitely need some proof that this isn't all just a wonderful, impossible dream.”
She put her face down very close to mine
“How's this for proof?” she whispered.
She was still kissing me, or maybe I was kissing her, it doesn't matter which, when the nurse came in to call time.
The End.
You have been reading
DEATH AT WILLOWS END
By
A. B. KING
Twitter @A_B_King
[email protected]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - A. B. KING
‘A.B. King’, known to his friends and associates as Tony is a retired professional hypnotherapist, who now divides his time between writing, working as a volunteer at a local community hall, and caring for his family.
Born in England's premier Naval Sea-Port of Portsmouth, the second son of a regular Royal Marine NCO, he remained as a child in the city throughout the Second World War, witnessing much of the devastation and hardship associated with this period in history. He openly admits that due to chronic ill-health and the exigencies of the war he left school very poorly educated to work as an office boy in a brush factory. It was not until he was called to do his National Service that he finally managed to catch up on his education. Most of his service life was spent in Germany, where his life-long penchant for writing and reading books was recognised when he was appointed unit librarian. Returning eventually to civilian life he found it difficult to settle, and tried his hand at a wide range of careers from engineering to salesmanship before he found his true forte as a qualified Therapeutic Hypnotherapist.
Although he started writing stories very early in life, he recalls that his first effort was at the age of about nine years old. His first full-length story he wrote when he was eleven, and it ran to fifteen exercise books before it was finished. These dog-eared relics are still in his possession, and although obviously the work of a child, give clear evidence of the imagination inseparable from successful creative writing. He broke into print with a book on Self Hypnosis in 1986, although prior to this he had innumerable articles and short stories published in various magazines. Having spent so much of his professional life helping people to resolve personal problems he has a keen insight into what motivates the people around him, and this is often illustrated in the incidents he relates in his tales.
He still enjoys writing, but he maintains that a work of fiction should be aimed solely at entertaining the reader, and nothing else. Now, in the twenty-first century, with the ease of digital publishing and the pressure of his fan-base behind him, his works have been made available to a wider audience than ever before on 'Kindle'.
Also by A B King
Disaster books
CATACLYSM
Genre - Disaster
When an emerging volcano threatens to destroy Southern England a small group of people fight for survival in a world gone mad.
Detective/Mystery Books
A WELL KEPT SECRET
Genre - Mystery
Inheriting a
large country house complete with a very acid housekeeper thrusts the new owner into an ever deepening mystery that centres on a twenty five year old crime that suddenly places him face to face with death.
DEATH AT WILLOWS END
Genre - Detective
A reluctant private detective and an erratic young woman business executive try to unravel the riddle of her twin sister’s death.
THE BROMLEY INHERITANCE
Genre - Mystery
When her parents die in mysterious circumstances a teenager has no-one to turn to but a stranger when death comes
THE KISS OF LIFE
Genre - Mystery
A mysterious and beautiful young woman appears and vanishes. Is she real, or is she a spirit of someone who needs help. In a desperate race against time only one man can prevent a callous murder.
THE VALENTINE STRANGLER
Genre - Mystery
He was the only one who could save his wife from a serial killer, but the police thought that he was the killer.
THURSDAY’S CHILD
Genre - Mystery
Grant’s father had scarred him for life, and even from beyond the grave he was leading his son into the biggest danger he had ever been required to face.
THE WISE CHILD
Genre - Mystery
Trying to discover her unknown origins brings a young heiress close to madness as the horrors of her past unfold. Only one man can save her, but will he be in time?
Thrillers
AN ILL WIND
Genre - Thriller
A number of people become trapped in a remote moorland hotel, only to discover that a killer is hiding amongst them, a killer determined that before another day can dawn, death will finally triumph.
THE WRONG KILLER
Genre – Suspense Thriller
Alana’s sister had been brutally murdered, and then when she started to ask questions someone decided that she had to die as well.
Fantasy books
MOONSPEAR TO COMETFALL
Genre - Fantasy
Projected into a parallel universe as a slave on an unbelievably huge airship, Garnet must conquer a world in order to rescue the one person who means more to him than life itself.
THE PEOPLE OF THE CRYSTAL
Genre - Fantasy
A crystal of unbelievable power becomes separated in time. All the parts must be re-united, and only one man can do this. But he is not the only one who wants it!
SHANI
Genre - Fantasy
Faced with extinction from the results of a global catastrophe and the appearance of an alternative life form, the few remaining humans on Metanya have to rely upon an Earthman who has become marooned on their world.
Supernatural books
THE GREY LADY OF HAVENRIDGE
Genre - Supernatural Mystery
Inheriting a fortune and a remote Elizabethan house, a highly sceptical young school teacher realises that there is truth to the legend of the family ghost. Death stalks the ancient house, but who will be the final victim?
THE CRY OF THE BEAST
Genre - Supernatural Mystery
A beautiful young woman who vanishes without trace, an unknown killer that stalks the night, it all centres on a man who must find the answer before it is too late.
Children’s books
THE SWORD, THE RING AND THE MIRROR
In 6 volumes
Genre - Children's Fantasy Adventure
. A young boy called John is sent on a perilous mission into the Land of the Faerie in order to save the people of Happy Valley, but there is an evil faerie who will stop at nothing to see him fail.
