Part 6

Sunday, we had a day at the beach at Lyme Regis, with the parents. It was the first chance that Dad had to be where we could talk quietly. He spoke to Angelica as we walked along the foreshore, eating ice-creams. Whatever he told her, it must have been good, as she gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Then, he walked between us while Mum steered Angelica away.

Part 4

“Girls, I wouldn’t have spent it if we couldn’t. You know I do the books for the business, and I can tell you that we do very well. We owe nothing on the house and land because they’ve come down through the family; the original truck fleet were bought just after the war for next to nothing, and the tank transporters came out of a military auction. The Burrells cost about fifty pounds each, so I was told, and are now worth over a quarter of a million, each.”

Part 2

The stage was set up with a bank of speakers on either side, where we would come out from behind. The backing tape went through those, with our voices going through a PA system. As we emerged, with Angelica singing the first lines, I was almost pushed forward by the impact of the sound.

View from a Bridge

The old tune was on constant repeat in my head as I walked, slowly, across the bridge, carrying a heavy knapsack. The view was particularly stunning this bright early summer day. Following the lines of the song, though, I couldn’t take any more.

This one started as an idea for a longer story, but the team was so good they solved the case before it went too far. It wrapped up just in time for Christmas.
Marianne

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Going back into the house, I helped with the dinner, and we sat to enjoy the meal. Mum had found a bottle of white wine which had been in the fridge, and we had a glass, each. It wasn’t bad. I had baked a cake, during the week, so we each had a slice, covered in custard out of a carton.

Chapter 1

I’ve heard it said that Bob Dylan intended his ‘The Times, They Are A’ Changing’ to be a protest song. The first version I remember hearing was sung by Simon and Garfunkel, and it sounded more like a ‘progress’ song, when sung without the nasal whine. The first verse that relates to the water rising until you have to swim to survive must be a metaphor for the reality of growing up and making your own way in life.

Chapter 38

By the time we got near Christmas, again, there had been another shift in focus. Ali had been invited to apply for the Juilliard School in New York, a singular honor for one so young. She, however, wanted none of it. In the middle of the year, she would have finished high school and was certain that if Wayne County was good enough for her Aunty Pet, it was good enough for her.

Chapter 5

After we had cleaned ourselves, he went back out into the corridor, smiling to himself. I did an enema sluice, then got up into my bunk and tried to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he had given me a soft ejaculation during our love making. I wondered if it was the pills that I was taking.

Chapter 4

I was another few days in that ward, moving better and finding my new balance. I ate well and began to feel good about myself. I felt a lot better after a visit by a ward hairdresser. I was now issued with a whole new outfit, plus a bag with two complete spares. The dress wasn’t just one altered from a jump suit. No, it was from the women’s prison and shaped to fit a woman with my attributes.

Chapter 3

I forced myself to be aloof, to block out the sight of casual murder, and to make sure it wasn’t going to happen to me. Back in our part of the prison, Dirk gave Cloe a hug and a kiss, and then turned to me, to hold me close and deliver a kiss as gentle, but more urgent, than the one that Spike had given me last night.

Bull, who had stayed in the cells to keep guard of our little section, then spoke.

Chapter 34

I waited for the rejection, but she swallowed and smiled and asked if the plain was much different. I told her that they were just “fishier” and picked out a small one for her to try, taking one for myself and showing her that these are eaten straight from the shell. She made a face when it was in her mouth and didn’t chew much before swallowing. She thought for a few moments and then reached for another.

Chapter 33

Wilhelm led the three of us off and the orchestra followed. Over some refreshments Kelly announced that tomorrow afternoon was a full-dress rehearsal with the press attending, starting at three so that we could stay dressed for the Friday night performance, if we didn’t spill any drinks on our outfits.

Chapter 5

They didn’t get to talk to the daughter on Friday. When Sally rang her in her shop, she refused to discuss anything over the phone. She would only talk to Sally, and only on Sunday, in Saint Georges Park, near the centre of Manchester, by the slide. She said that she would be there at one and have her toddler in a black stroller.

Sally asked who had Sunday free, and Ben put his hand up.

“My partner, Anne, has a toddler, about five years old. We could take some recreation time there, after a fast-food lunch. Is it on overtime?”

Chapter 4

Sally opened up the thin file which outlined the basic facets of the case. It was close to what they were dealing with now. The dead man was well-off, and there was a substantial life policy. He had been found hanging from a balustrade in his big house. There was a typed suicide note, with the signature also typed. The rope was over-the-counter plastic woven, in a jazzy colour pattern. The body had a large amount of alcohol in the system that matched the bottle on his desk, next to the note.

Chapter 3

Back in the office, that afternoon, they called the council and was told that the surname was Raddison. The address was in Walton-on-Trent, and that he has done a bit of work for the council and was classed as a good worker.

Chapter 2

She laughed and went back to her desk. Tomorrow, she hoped, a few more answers would be forthcoming. This one had the feel of her last big case, in her mind, this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

The next day, the three detectives went north to see the doctor and the bank manager. The first would see them, in his clinic, at ten, the other, at the bank after eleven. Sally had spoken to her friend, and they had agreed to meet on his lunch break, at a café in Burton.

Chapter 1

Detective Chief Inspector Susan Cousins sat at her desk in the open office and thought about the last couple of months. It had been a whirlwind of interesting events, the least of them being the winding up of the Shields case.

Chapter 9

Andy took the card out of his wallet and rang ‘Off the Bone’. When he put his phone away, he laughed.

“Jim told me that if I can get the team in, he’ll set up the function room, on Saturday evening, just for us. He is still happy with us, and the place is, or so he said, going gangbusters. The room is big enough for your team and their partners if they want to come. I’m sure that Jim will have enough food for us all. Here’s the address, it’s smart casual, and we’ll meet you at seven. Now I’ve got to round up the others.”

Chapter 27

Louise got on her phone to Etienne to get him to call the place we had been to lunch yesterday because he knew the owner. Then she told him that we needed lunch for the Stable Sisters plus four and she smiled as she put her phone away.

“He’s shocked,” she said. “He said that the music shop will pay for lunch as long as we stroll around the corner for some pictures there.”

Janet laughed. “Edie, we let you come early and when we arrive you have helpers, transport, and now free lunches. What else did you organize?”

Chapter 26

The journalist had obviously not gone far with his research because he and she jabbered away in French and then he came back to me and asked me if I was a pop star as well in the USA. That led to more questions and answers before he was happy.

Chapter 25

On the flight home on Sunday afternoon, I sat between Maureen and Mom and quietly spoke about the future as Ali dozed in my arms.

Mom said that she was going to push Dad into being in Fort Lauderdale by Easter and Maureen said that this would be a traditional weekend for Jordan and me to wed.

We batted it around a bit, and, between us, we thought about an Easter Sunday wedding, at the farm, with a big marquee set up. It would be kept quiet from the press, just for invited guests.

Chapter 24

“We are the administrators of the Swan Club. It all started when a few of us got together, one evening, to watch your classical DVD. When it finished, we were all crying and felt as if we could tell each other what we had been holding back.”

Chapter 23

After the meal, the other girls left us, and Alicia went off with Josie to explain why she was sorry. Brad went off to have a drink or two in the bar which left me and Ali with Tony.

“Edie, Josie was devastated once she had watched that DVD. She told me a lot about her time with the Pixies, and her time living with you and your family at the farm. I saw that the papers have said that her brother is the father of little Ali, so Josie is really your sister-in-law.”