Chapter One
The night was coming at her, as if a hundred dark hands were scratching against the bus window. A rush of blood came rippling through Jane Cooper’s body, while a voice in her head was telling her to run. She looked around at the other passengers, but there was only one: an emo in a hoody, and he was asleep.
She wished she had accepted the lift offered by one of the boys on her course, but she was too afraid to be alone with a man in a car. She swore under her breath, ashamed at being such a coward. Plus, he was good looking and her boyfriend Lee would not approve.
She took the bus, even though she hated it- or rather feared it. Face your fears, that’s what her mother had always drummed into her. She had too many fears to count, even though she would never allow anyone to know it. This is Plymouth, not inner city London, she thought. She shouldn’t be this scared.
The bus came to a stop opposite the park. ‘Too dark park’, some of the female students called it, complaining about the serious lack of lighting. And then she recalled the spat of sexual assaults and murders the year before that were never solved. It was only a five-minute walk to her student flat, but there were so many places for an attacker to hide, so many bushes and trees. The branches overhead creaked and seemed to whisper things to her. She kept on walking, eyes straight ahead, fixed on the road on the other side of the park where her student house was situated. She imagined Lee in the kitchen knocking up one of his suspect meals. She almost smiled.
A muffled buzz from her bag gave her a start. No, don’t look at the text, just get home, it’ll only be from Lee or mum.
She hurried on and reached the door of her shared house. She was almost safe as she pulled her keys from her bag. There was her phone at the bottom, still glowing electric blue from the message she had received. She let herself inside, closed the door, breathed deeply, and took out her phone. The message was from her dad. She opened the text.
She flinched, and read it again:
‘I’ve just murdered your family. :-)’
Here’s the blurb:
Two years after the bloody, horrific massacre of a family, the sadistic killer strikes again. Like the first set of murders, the Family Killer leaves one female survivor. He sends each surviving victim a taunting text message and smiley face.
Ex- detective sergeant Terence Marsland has cut himself off from the rat race, trying to bury his former life as a policeman and husband, when he’s begged by the Family Killer’s original victim to privately reinvestigate the case.
Against his wishes, Marsland becomes embroiled in a race against the official police investigation to find the killer while trying to keep his own fears and insecurities at bay.
Marsland soon realises that the killer likes to watch, to soak up the agony of the victims he leaves alive…
Out there somewhere the family killer is watching…
LAST ALIVE will be available in November on Amazon Kindle and in paperback.
Murderson available on Amazon at a new lower price.
Spider Mouth also available on Amazon
