Deadly Friends (26 page)

Since the Doctor Jordan case I’ve let Nigel run the show. He’ll be promoted to inspector soon, which will mean a return to uniform. Meanwhile, I let him play at detectives. I go walking, most weekends, either in the Dales or driving up to the Lakes on a Friday or Saturday evening. The couple who run the B and B I use have become friends, and he suggested I do some back-packing on the Continent. I wondered about the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the USA.

There’s a good library in Heckley. One lunchtime, fired with enthusiasm, I went along to see what I could find in their Travel section and discovered that my membership had lapsed. That’s a bit like saying that Maggie Thatcher wasn’t a chemist any more.

‘Could you fill this in please?’ the woman behind the counter asked, ‘and we’ll put you on the computer. We have computers now, you know.’

‘Whatever next?’ I replied, taking the white card from her. She was wearing wire-framed spectacles and her hair was tied severely back. She believed in
conforming to type, but couldn’t disguise the fact that she was attractive. I was reminded of one of those Barbra Streisand films where the make-up people have drawn on all the skills of their craft in an attempt to make her look dowdy, fooling nobody except the hapless hero.

‘Will that do?’ I said, handing the form back to her, holding on to it a fraction of a second longer than necessary.

She studied it and looked at me, her cheeks tinged with colour. ‘Hello, Charlie,’ she said. ‘I thought it was you.’

I imagined her in the last reel, where he removes her spectacles and she lets her hair tumble free, revealing the enchantress we knew was there all the time. ‘Jackie?’ I said, disbelieving my eyes. ‘Is it Jacqueline? Well, er, fancy meeting you here.’

This story and all the characters in it are fictional. However, some real names of people and places have been used for dramatic effect. Any implied criticism of the citizens or police forces of the towns mentioned is again for dramatic effect and is not based on experience or reputation.

Huddersfield's Derek Ibbotson set a new world one-mile record in 1957 with a time of 3 minutes 57.2 seconds. The following year, at the White City, London, he became the first person to be timed at exactly four minutes for the distance.

The East Lancashire Regiment was stationed at Fecamp, Normandy, home of the Benedictine distillery, during both the First and Second World Wars. To this day the biggest single market for the liqueur is in the
pubs and clubs around Burnley and Accrington.

David Rose, in his excellent book
In The Name Of The Law
, tells of an – alleged – serial date-rapist who has been acquitted seven times. May there be a Charlie Priest waiting for him, soon.

If you enjoyed
Deadly Friends
, read on to find out about the other books in the
Charlie Priest series …

To discover more great crime novels and to place an order visit our website at
www.allisonandbusby.com
or call us on
020 7580 1080

Detective Inspector Charlie Priest believes in doing things by the book. It’s just that, in the heat of the chase, he sometimes turns over two pages at once. His unorthodox ways have held him at inspector level for a record-breaking length of time; however DI Priest does get results. When Charlie suspects a now-respected businessman, with a background of extortion and GBH, of involvement in international art fraud, he’s taking on an enemy with friends in high places. But Charlie can be persistent to the point of recklessness – and, once he’s realised that there’s a link to the lethal doctored heroin that’s striking down the local kids, no threat will stop him …

There’s nothing Detective Inspector Charlie Priest hates more than a case involving children. When Georgina, the
eight-year
-old daughter of local businessman Miles Dewhurst, goes missing, Charlie and his colleagues soon start to fear the worst. Charlie’s suspicions are focused on Dewhurst and, in a race against time to find Georgina, Charlie’s life is further complicated when it seems a killer is targeting clergymen. Three have died suddenly, and a picture of a Destroying Angel mushroom has been left beside the body of the latest victim. But why would a serial killer focus on men of the cloth?

Detective Inspector Charlie Priest is officially on sick leave, but this brief break from work comes to an abrupt end when Mrs Marina Norris’s chauffeur is found dead from unnatural causes – namely a blast to the head from a Kalashnikov. Meanwhile, big-time drug smugglers on the Hull–Rotterdam run demand his attention. His contact, Kevin, is a lowly cog in the great smuggling wheel, and easily hoodwinked into believing that Charlie’s line of business is similar to his own. But the real villains are not such pushovers, and when Charlie uncovers a connection with his previous enquiry he realises that he’s on very dangerous territory indeed.

Hartley Goodrich has been found dead in his armchair, right beside the flowerpot that caused the gaping gash in his head. There’s little doubt that this was murder, and when Detective Inspector Charlie Priest discovers that Hartley’s financial advice had lost his clients a small fortune, there’s no shortage of murder suspects either. But is the case all it seems? The enquiry reopens an investigation that fizzled out years before, involving diamonds, drugs and stolen gold bullion … and plenty of danger to boot. But when everything he holds dear is threatened, Charlie knows he can’t stop digging until he’s found out exactly what’s been going down on his patch …

Charlie Priest was a newly promoted sergeant on the Leeds force when he was called to the scene of a tragic fire, deliberately set. Now a DI in nearby Heckley, Charlie jumps at the chance to reopen the investigation when a message left by a suicide victim suggests a new lead. Meanwhile, Charlie’s under pressure to apprehend the burglars who’re playing a dangerous game with wealthy elderly couples. By a combination of luck, detective work and, Charlie would say, soaring flights of the investigative imagination, he is soon closing in on the perpetrators of both crimes. But a cornered villain can be dangerous for a copper who’ll take every kind of risk in the hunt for justice.

Super-salesman Tony Silkstone wreaks a terrible revenge when he comes home to discover his wife dead, apparently strangled by her lover after a sex game that went wrong. But Detective Inspector Charlie Priest is the investigating officer, and he cannot be convinced that this murder is as cut and dried as it seems. When a hitman comes to town, Charlie is more interested in identifying the proposed target than in arresting the hitman, a strategy that produces surprising results. And when links are found between Mrs Silkstone’s killer and the murder of a young girl in another part of the country, Charlie follows the trail only to discover that he is suddenly faced with difficult questions about his friends and his feelings towards them.

Laura Heeley was just an average mother of two, but at the age of thirty-eight her life was swiftly taken from her, stabbed in the back on the way home from bingo. Colinette Jones was a popular, attractive and intelligent student, but she has been strangled, her body dumped on the roadside. What is the connection between the two victims? Detective Inspector Charlie Priest must solve the mystery, though with no clear motive and police movements restricted by foot-and-mouth disease this proves an increasingly frustrating task. As the number of victims mounts, it becomes clear to Priest that this could be his biggest challenge yet …

DI Charlie Priest is wise-cracking his way through his daily routine, but it’s not long before the clouds roll in. Someone has been tampering with food tins in the local supermarket. A national scare ensues and if Charlie doesn’t act fast he could be dealing with a murder inquiry. As if that wasn’t enough, he learns that an organised dog-fighting ring has set up operations nearby. Charlie’s relationship with Rosie has reached a rocky patch too. When Charlie gets to the bottom of her change of heart he is somewhat concerned, and offers his help. But, as he’s about to learn, sometimes helping only makes things worse …

Joe Crozier, a businessman with a decidedly shady past, is enjoying an evening of being wined and dined. But after refusing to sell his nightclub, the Painted Pony, he is bound and gagged, and takes a silent and deadly dip into the nearby river. Meanwhile, DI Charlie Priest is called to the murder scene of the famous mountaineer Tony Krabbe, who has been attacked with his own ice axe. Charlie’s love-life then takes a turn for the worse. He is desperate to seek out the truth in the two murder cases, but can love and violent death ever make comfortable bedfellows … or will Charlie finally be pushed over the edge?

Is selling your employer’s confidential records enough to warrant a particularly sadistic murder? Acting DCI Charlie Priest asks himself when handed the file on a bizarre murder. Appearances deceive, and it transpires that the victim may have been chosen simply because of his physical appearance. And when another body turns up, Charlie begins to wonder if he himself is the catalyst that motivates the killer. Before long he is embroiled in much more than a hunt for a murderer – now it is personal.

The monthly superintendents’ meetings never hold much excitement for DI Charlie Priest, but this time he is in for a surprise. DCS Colin Swainby is to resign, quietly and without fuss, because certain allegations have been made against him. Allegations involving a woman, and it’s not his wife. When MP Edward Gross finds himself similarly compromised, he also opts for a quiet exit, but his has a far more permanent outcome. Priest knows there must be a connection - he has to prove it before the body count starts escalating.

DI Charlie Priest is on gardening leave – the neighbours have complained about his weeds – when the call comes. Ghislaine Curzon, girlfriend of one of the royal princes, is in Heckley to open the Curzon Centre, a new shopping mall and conference facility. But as she reveals the commemorative plaque it looks like someone has got to it first, defacing it with a single obscene word in foot-high red letters. The visiting dignitaries are aghast and the chief constable insists on Charlie investigating the case. When the mayor of Heckley and driving force behind the construction of the controversial new mall is found murdered, killed by a single shot to the head, the investigation takes a deadly turn. It’s going to take more than standard police procedure to crack this case.

S
TUART
P
AWSON
had a career as a mining engineer, followed by a spell working for the probation service, before he became a full-time writer. He lives in Fairburn, Yorkshire, and when not hunched over the word processor likes nothing more than tramping across the moors which often feature in his stories. He is a member of the Murder Squad and the Crime Writers’ Association.

www.stuartpawson.com

By Stuart Pawson

I
N THE
DI C
HARLIE
P
RIEST SERIES

The Picasso Scam

The Mushroom Man

The Judas Sheep

Last Reminder

Deadly Friends

Some by Fire

Chill Factor

Laughing Boy

Limestone Cowboy

Over the Edge

Shooting Elvis

Grief Encounters

A Very Private Murder