Had she not gone along with the plan, she would have been ruined, she told herself. The name Teresa Wyatt would have been mentioned with distaste, instead of the respect she now enjoyed.
Teresa had no doubt that the complaint would have been taken seriously. The source had been devious, but believable. But it had been silenced forever – and that was something she would never regret.
But now and again in the years since Crestwood her stomach had lurched at the sight of a similar gait or a hair colour or a tilt of the head.
Teresa stood and tried to throw off the melancholy that shadowed her. She strode to the kitchen and put the single plate and wine glass into the dishwasher.
There was no dog to let out or cat to let in. Just the final night time security check of the deadbolts.
Again, she was struck by a feeling that the safety check was pointless; that nothing could hold back the past. She pushed the thought away. There was nothing to fear. They had all made a pact and it had held strong for ten years. Only the five of them knew the truth.
She knew she was too tense to drift off to sleep immediately but she had called a seven a.m. staff meeting for which she could not be late.
She stepped into the bathroom and began to run the water, adding a generous measure of lavender-infused bubble bath. The scent instantly filled the room. A long soak on top of the earlier glass of wine should induce sleep.
The dressing gown and satin pyjamas were folded neatly on top of the laundry basket as she stepped into the tub.
She closed her eyes and surrendered to the water as it enveloped her. She smiled to herself as the anxiety began to recede. She was just being hypersensitive.
Teresa felt that her life had been divided into two segments. There were thirty-seven years B.C., as she called her life Before Crestwood. Those years had been charmed. Single and ambitious, every decision had been her own. She had answered to no one.
But the years since had been different. A shadow of fear had followed her every move; dictated her actions, influenced her decisions.
She remembered reading somewhere that conscience was no more than the fear of being caught. Teresa was honest enough to admit that, for her, the statement was true.
But their secret was safe. It had to be.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of a glass panel shattering. But the sound was not in the distance. It was at her kitchen door.
Teresa lay perfectly still, her ears straining for further sounds. The noise would not have alerted anyone else. The next detached home sat two hundred feet away, on the other side of a leylandi hedge that rose twenty feet high.
The silence of her house thickened around her. The quiet that followed the loud noise was fraught with menace.
Perhaps it was nothing more than a mindless act of vandalism. Maybe a couple of the students from Saint Joseph’s had learned her address. By God, she hoped so.
The blood thundered along her veins, vibrating into her temples. She swallowed, in an attempt to clear her eardrums.
Her body began to react to the sensation that she was no longer alone. She brought herself to a sitting position. The sound of the water rearranging itself was loud as it sloshed against the tub. Her hand slipped on the porcelain and her right side fell back into the water.
A sound at the bottom of the stairs destroyed any vague hope of mindless vandalism.
Teresa knew that she was out of time. In a parallel universe, the muscles in her body reacted to the impending threat, but in this one both her body and her mind were stilled by the inevitable. She knew that there was nowhere left to hide.
As she heard the creak of the stairs she briefly closed her eyes and willed her body to stay calm. There was an element of freedom when finally confronted by the fears that haunted her.
As she felt the cool air enter the room from the doorway, she opened her eyes.
The figure that entered was as black and featureless as a shadow. Utility trousers met a thick black fleece which was covered by a long overcoat. A woollen balaclava covered the face. But why me? Teresa’s mind raged. She was not the weakest link.
She shook her head. ‘I haven’t spoken,’ she said. The words were barely audible. Every one of her senses was beginning to close down as her body prepared for death.
The black figure took two steps towards her. Teresa searched for a clue but found none. It could only be one of four.
Teresa felt the betrayal of her body as urine slipped from between her legs into the scented water.
‘I promise… I haven’t…’
Teresa’s words trailed away as she tried to lift herself to a sitting position. The bath bubbles had turned the tub slippery.
Her breath came in short, sharp rasps as she considered how best to beg for her life. No, she didn't want to die. It wasn't time. She wasn't ready. There were things that she wanted to do.
She had the sudden image of water flooding her lungs; inflating them like party balloons.
She held out her hand imploringly, finally finding her voice. 'Please… please… no… I don't want to die…'
The figure leaned over the bath and placed a gloved hand above each breast. Teresa felt the pressure being applied to force her under the water and struggled to sit up. She had to try and explain but the force of the hands increased. Again she tried to rear up from her inert position but it was hopeless. Gravity and brute strength made it impossible for her to fight back.
As the water framed her face she opened her mouth. A small sob escaped from between her lips as she tried one last time. ‘I swear…’
The words were cut short and Teresa watched as the air bubbles escaped from her nose and reached the surface. Her hair swam around her face.
The figure shimmered on the other side of the water barrier.
Teresa’s body began to react to the oxygen deprivation and she tried to quell the panic rising inside her. Her arms flailed and the gloved hand was briefly dislodged from her breast bone. She managed to raise her head above the water and got a closer look into the cold, piercing eyes. Recognition sapped the last of her breath.
The brief second of confusion was enough for her attacker to reposition. Two hands forced her body underwater and held her fast.
Her mind was full of disbelief, even as her consciousness began to wane.
Teresa realised that her co-conspirators could not even imagine who it was they had to fear.
Chapter 2
Kim Stone stepped around the Kawasaki Ninja to adjust the volume on her iPod. The speakers danced with the silvery notes of Vivaldi’s Summer Concerto as they headed towards her favourite part; the finale called ‘Storm’.
She placed the socket wrench on the work bench and wiped her hands with a stray rag. She stared at the Triumph Thunderbird she'd been restoring for the past seven months and wondered why it had not captured her tonight.
She glanced at her watch. Almost eleven p.m. The rest of her team would be staggering out of The Dog right about now. And although she didn't touch alcohol, she accompanied her team when she felt she'd earned it.
She retrieved the socket wrench and lowered herself to the knee pad beside the Triumph.
It wasn’t a celebration for her.
The terrified face of Laura Yates swam before her eyes as she reached inside the guts of the bike and found the rear end of the crankshaft. She placed the socket head over the nut and turned the wrench in a back and forth motion.
Three guilty verdicts of rape were going to send Terence Hunt away for a very long time.
‘But not long enough,’ Kim said to herself.
Because there had been a fourth victim.
She turned the wrench again but the nut refused to tighten. She’d already assembled the bearing, sprocket, clamping washer and rotor. The nut was the final puzzle piece and the damn thing refused to tighten against the locking washer.
Kim stared at the nut and silently willed it to move for its own sake. Still nothing. She focused her anger on the arm of the s
ocket wrench and gave it one almighty push. The thread broke and the nut turned freely.
‘Damn it,’ she shouted, throwing the wrench across the garage.
Laura Yates had trembled in the witness box as she'd recounted the ordeal of being dragged behind a church and repeatedly brutally sexually assaulted for two and a half hours. They had seen with their own eyes how hard it had been for her to sit down. Three months after the attack.
The nineteen-year-old had sat in the gallery as each guilty verdict was read out. Then it came to her case and two words were stated that would change her life forever.
Not Guilty.
And why? Because the girl had consumed a couple of drinks. Forget the eleven stitches that stretched from back to front, the broken rib and the black eye. She must have asked for it, all because she'd had a couple of bloody drinks.
Kim was aware that her hands had started to tremble with rage.
Her team felt that three out of four wasn't bad. And it wasn't. But it wasn't good enough. Not for Kim.
She leaned down to inspect the damage to the bike. It had taken almost six weeks to track down those bloody screws.
She eased the socket into position and turned the wrench again between her thumb and forefinger as her mobile phone began to ring. She dropped the nut and jumped to her feet. A call so close to midnight was never going to be good news.
‘D.I. Stone.’
‘We have a body, Marm.’
Of course. What else could it have been?
‘Where?’
‘Hagley Road, Stourbridge.’
Kim knew the area. It was just on the border with their neighbours West Mercia.
‘Should we put a call in to D.S. Bryant, Marm?’
Kim cringed. She hated the term Marm. At thirty-four, she wasn’t ready to be called Marm.
A picture of her colleague stumbling into a taxi outside The Dog came into her mind.
‘No, I think I'll take this on my own,’ she said, ending the call.
Kim paused for two seconds as she silenced the iPod. She knew she had to let go of the accusation she'd seen in the eyes of Laura Yates, but she couldn't get it out of her mind.
She would always know that the justice in which she believed had failed someone it was designed to protect. She had persuaded Laura Yates to trust in both her and the system she represented and Kim couldn't rid herself of the feeling that Laura had been let down. By both of them.
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Books by Angela Marsons
Detective Kim Stone Series
1. SILENT SCREAM
2. EVIL GAMES
3. LOST GIRLS
4. PLAY DEAD
5. BLOOD LINES
6. DEAD SOULS
7. BROKEN BONES
8. DYING TRUTH
9. FATAL PROMISE
10. DEAD MEMORIES
11. CHILD’S PLAY
Other Books
DEAR MOTHER
THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN
Available in audio
The Detective Kim Stone series
1. SILENT SCREAM (Available in the UK and the US)
2. EVIL GAMES (Available in the UK and the US)
3. LOST GIRLS (Available in the UK and the US)
4. PLAY DEAD (Available in the UK and the US)
5. BLOOD LINES (Available in the UK and the US)
6. DEAD SOULS (Available in the UK and the US)
7. BROKEN BONES (Available in the UK and the US)
8. DYING TRUTH (Available in the UK and the US)
9. FATAL PROMISE (Available in the UK and the US)
10. DEAD MEMORIES (Available in the UK and the US)
11. CHILD’S PLAY (Available in the UK and the US)
Other Books
DEAR MOTHER (Available in the UK and the US )
THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN (Available in the UK and the US )
A Letter from Angela
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read First Blood. If you’d like to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the website link below.
Sign up here!
The idea of writing a prequel to the Kim Stone series has been playing around in my mind for some time. The more I reveal of Kim’s journey the more I want to understand how things began in the early days when the team first formed.
Over the course of the books I’ve watched as Kim has come to regard her team as a surrogate family, the one she never had, even if she doesn’t realise it herself. She is fiercely loyal and protective of them all despite her limited social skills and inability to form emotional connections, and would give her life for any one of them.
Additionally, as I’ve grown to know the team better with each book I find that questions are constantly buzzing around my head.
Where had Kim been before heading this team? Why was she transferred to Halesowen police station? How did she gain the respect of her superior officer, Woody?
What type of police officer was Bryant before joining the team? How did he grow enough patience to work with and support Kim with the loyalty he does? How did she learn to trust him so that he becomes her only true friend?
How did DS Dawson become so cocky and how did he adapt his working practices to fit into the team? How was the relationship between him and Kim on the first case they worked together?
How did Stacey cope with being a newly promoted detective and being thrust into a major investigation?
The more I’ve thought about these questions the more I wanted to explore the forces that brought them all together and to see how the team began.
Since releasing the Silent Scream I have been overwhelmed by the public reaction to Kim Stone and how readers have taken her to their hearts despite her faults. Many want to mother her, others want to protect her but the majority of readers tell me they simply want to be her friend.
If you did enjoy it, I would be forever grateful if you’d write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it can also help other readers discover one of my books for the first time. Or maybe you can recommend it to your friends and family…
I'd love to hear from you – so please get in touch on my Facebook or Goodreads page, Twitter or through my website.
If you haven’t read any of the previous books in the DI Kim Stone series, you can find them here:
Detective Kim Stone Series
1. SILENT SCREAM
2. EVIL GAMES
3. LOST GIRLS
4. PLAY DEAD
5. BLOOD LINES
6. DEAD SOULS
7. BROKEN BONES
8. DYING TRUTH
9. FATAL PROMISE
10. DEAD MEMORIES
11. CHILD’S PLAY
Thank you so much for your support, it is hugely appreciated.
Angela Marsons
www.angelamarsons-books.com
EVIL GAMES
Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Series Book 2
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The greater the Evil, the more deadly the game…
When a rapist is found mutilated in a brutal attack, Detective Kim Stone and her team are called in to bring a swift resolution. But, as more vengeful killings come to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone far more sinister at work.
With the investigation quickly gathering momentum, Kim finds herself exposed to great danger and in the sights of a lethal individual undertaking their own twisted experiment.
Up against a sociopath who seems to know her every weakness, for Detective Stone, each move she makes could be deadly. As the body count starts to mount, Kim will have to dig deeper than ever before to stop the killing. And this time – it’s personal.
BUY NOW
LOST GIRLS
Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Series Book 3
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Two girls go missing. Only one will return.
The couple that offers the highest amount will see their daughter again. The losing couple will not. Make no mistake. One child will die.
When nine-year-old best friends Charlie and Amy disappear, two families are plunged into a living nightmare. A text message confirms the unthinkable; that the girls are the victims of a terrifying kidnapping.
And when a second text message pits the two families against each other for the life of their children, the clock starts ticking for D.I. Kim Stone and the squad.
Seemingly outwitted at every turn, as they uncover a trail of bodies, Stone realises that these ruthless killers might be the most deadly she has ever faced. And that their chances of bringing the girls home alive, are getting smaller by the hour…
Untangling a dark web of secrets from the families’ past might hold the key to solving this case. But can Kim stay alive long enough to do so? Or will someone’s child pay the ultimate price?
The latest utterly addictive thriller from the No.1 bestseller Angela Marsons.
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PLAY DEAD
Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Series Book 4
ORDER NOW
First Blood: A completely gripping mystery thriller (A Detective Kim Stone Novel) Page 27
