Tell the Truth (30 page)

Web of Deceit

When paramedics Jane and Alex encounter a man refusing to get out of his crashed car, with bystanders saying he deliberately drove into a pole, it looks like a desperate cry for help. His frantic claim that someone is out to get him adds to their thinking that he is delusional.

Later that day he is found dead under a train in what might be a suicide, but Jane is no longer so sure: she remembers the raw terror in his eyes.

Detective Ella Marconi shares Jane's doubts, which are only compounded when the case becomes increasingly tangled. The
victim's boss tries to commit suicide after being questioned, a witness flees Ella's attempt to interview her, and then to confuse matters further, a woman is beaten unconscious in front of Jane's house and Alex's daughter goes missing.

Ella is at a loss to know how all these clues add up, and feels the investigation is being held back by her budget-focused boss. Then, just when she thinks she's closing in on the right person, a shocking turn of events puts more people in danger and might just see the killer slip through her hands.

Deserving Death

Detective Ella Marconi returns in this thrilling case, set against the dangerous background of drug deals, police corruption and deadly consequences.

Two paramedics murdered in a month. Coincidence, or the work of a serial killer? Detective Ella Marconi isn't sure, but goes hard after her key suspects, including police officer John Morris. But each turn of the case throws up more questions and entanglements, and Ella and her partner, Detective Murray Shakespeare, fight to find the truth among the lies.

Ella also struggles to balance work and her relationship with Dr Callum McLennan – a relationship made more difficult by the anniversary of his cousin's murder.

Meanwhile, Carly Martens – close friend of the second victim – conducts her own investigation into the murders. She's certain that fellow paramedic Tessa Kimball is hiding something, and Carly's refusal to let it go puts her, Tessa, and Ella into even more danger.

First published 2015 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited

1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000

Copyright © Katherine Howell 2015

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available

from the National Library of Australia

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au

EPUB format: 9781743532911

Typeset by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

Cover design by Deborah Parry Graphics

Cover images: Sylvia Serrado/Getty Images, iStock

The characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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