A Second Chance: A British Crime Thriller (A DCI Pilgrim Thriller Book 5) Read online

  A SECOND CHANCE

  A DCI PILGRIM CRIME THRILLER

  BOOK 5

  By

  A L Fraine

  The book is Copyright © to Andrew Dobell, Creative Edge Studios Ltd, 2019.

  No part of this book may be reproduced without prior permission of the copyright holder.

  All locations, events, and characters within this book are either fictitious, or have been fictionalised for the purposes of this book.

  Book List

  www.alfraineauthor.co.uk/books

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my wife Louise for her tireless support, my kids for being awesome, and my family for believing in me.

  Thank you to my incredible editor Crystal Wren for her critical eye and suggestions, they’re always on point.

  Thanks to Kath Middleton for her amazing work.

  Thank you to my fellow authors for their continued inspiration.

  And finally, thank you to you, the readers, for reading my crazy stories.

  Table of Contents

  Book List

  Acknowledgements

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  Author Note

  1

  “Nana?”

  “Yes, dear?” Sue turned and looked down at Milo, who stood in the kitchen looking up at her with his big brown eyes. They bored deep into her soul, and she knew just how powerless she was against them.

  She always found it hard to resist his charm. She wasn’t sure where he got it from, but it certainly wasn’t from his father. Maybe he’d picked it up from Darryl? He was more of a father to Milo now than Jake had ever been.

  As she looked down, she noticed the trail of dirt he’d tracked into the kitchen from the side door and sighed.

  “Oh, Milo! Look, you’ve walked mud in.”

  “Oh, sorry Nana, I didn’t mean to.”

  Sue sighed. “That’s okay, darling. I can sweep it up. So, what’s the matter? What did you want?”

  “Can I cycle round the block, please?”

  “Around the block?” She was well aware of what he wanted to do. He’d done it countless times before since getting his bike, but she thought she’d make him work for it.

  “Yeah, just up the road,” he pleaded. “You know.”

  “Oh, just up there,” she replied in mock realisation, Wondering if Milo really did believe that she’d forgotten where he meant.

  But her humour hid her true feelings.

  Letting him out of her sight never sat well with her, even though this wasn’t the first time he’d done this. It was one of the biggest challenges that a parent—or grandparent—faced as their child grew up, the issue of freedom versus protection. Giving Milo a little freedom was good for him. This was a nice area with a quiet road, nothing ever happened around here, ever. But that deep gnawing fear that the child would disappear was always there. It was somewhat irrational, but ever present. But she did what she always did when the little scamp requested this, she pushed those fears to the back of her mind, and forced herself to do what she knew, deep down, was right for the boy.

  “Yeah. I won’t be long.”

  “I should really come with you. Your mum wouldn’t like you going alone,” she replied, thinking about how Emily would react to the request. She was always so protective of Milo. Always wrapping him up in cotton wool, trying to protect him. There was nothing wrong with wanting to keep your kids safe, of course, but her daughter sometimes took it to extremes. She needed to take a leaf out of her mother’s book, and learn to control her feelings.

  In her opinion, she smothered Milo. She’d not always believed this, but after years of being a little too over-protective of Emily, and seeing what that had done to her daughter, she’d realised that despite her fears, kids needed freedom.

  Darryl had a healthier attitude to this kind of thing than Emily, and Sue once again found herself feeling grateful for everything that Darryl had done for her daughter.

  Occasionally, in her darker moments, she’d think about what might have happened to Emily had she not met him. But she didn’t like dwelling on those thoughts. They were far too dark and stressful to worry about.

  “But you’ll just slow me down,” Milo replied.

  Sue spluttered and smirked, overdoing her somewhat melodramatic reaction. “Slow you down?” Out of the mouths of babes, she guessed.

  “Yeah, you’re slow.”

  “Is that right, young man?”

  “Can I, please Nana?”

  Sue sighed. She was always a little torn when it came to letting him do things like this. On the one hand, she knew that Darryl encouraged this kind of thing, but she also knew that Emily usually took the opposite view.

  It put her in an impossible position, especially, over time, she had started to agree with Darryl more than Emily.

  “Please. I’ll just go around one time and come back. Okay?”

  “Well…”

  “Daddy lets me.” It made her heart swell to hear him call Darryl daddy. “He said I could.”

  “And Mummy?”

  “Sometimes. Can I, please?”

  “I’ll need to come and help you get your bike out, then.”

  “No,” Milo replied, beaming at her. “I got it out myself.”

  “Oh, well done,” Sue replied, much to Milo’s satisfaction.

  “I’ll be fast, I promise.”

  “I know you will,” Sue replied. He frequently went on cycle rides with Darryl, up into the countryside, along dirt tracks, up and down hills. He was a strong cyclist and tall for an eight-year-old. He looked nearer ten, really. “Make sure you put your helmet on.”

  “So, I can go?”

  “Yes. But be quick and come right back.”

  “I will,” he called back, already halfway out the door.

  Sue smiled to herself and shook her head at the boy's boundless energy and enthusiasm, and then walked through to the front room and watched him power out of the drive on his blue bike and go left, towards the nearby crescent, checking the time as he went.

  10:06 am.

  As she watched him go, something deep in her gut pulled on her emotions. She felt a sudden, but faint, need to go with him, to keep him safe. It was a feeling she’d felt many times before, both looking after Milo, and when she was young, raising Emily and letting her have her first tastes of freedom.

  Milo was out of sight, away from her protection, and that scared her. Not too much, admittedly, but the fears for his safety were there and real, but also unfounded. The news media constantly showed what was going on in the world, reporting murders and kidnappings, but she believed the streets were fundamentally no more dangerous than they were when she was younger.

  You just heard about it more.

  She shook her head at her own silliness. He would be fine, and back here in no time, asking to go around the block again, no doubt.

  Sue sighed, lamenting how quick he was growing up, and wandered back through int
o the kitchen where she grabbed a few sheets of kitchen roll and wiped up the dirt that Milo had walked in.

  Bending over to reach the floor wasn’t something that came as easily as it used to.

  “Ooof.” She grunted, pressing her hand into her back as she stood up.

  Finished with her cleaning, she glanced at the clock.

  10:09 am.

  He shouldn’t be long, she thought.

  The crescent was just a short distance up the road, creating a nice loop for Milo to cycle around that only took him a few minutes to complete. The streets were quiet here too. They were well away from the nearest busy road, and the residents rarely drove fast.

  Also, she knew several of the people who lived on the crescent to say hello to and knew they’d help if they saw him in any kind of difficulty.

  Busying herself in the kitchen, she wiped the surfaces and put away a few things that had been washed and left to drip dry earlier.

  10:13am.

  Sue frowned at the clock. Was that right, she wondered, and checked her watch. It looked right.

  He should be back by now, shouldn’t he?

  The knot in her stomach pulled tighter.

  Frowning, Sue walked through to the front room and checked the clock in there, too. It was right. They were all broadly at the same time, but there was no sign of Milo. She couldn’t see much from the front window, just the front garden and the road beyond.

  She watched, hoping that Milo would suddenly come swinging into the driveway with a massive grin on his face. But no matter how hard she hoped, he didn’t appear.

  10:15 am.

  Sue turned, a sudden resolve taking hold of her and urging her to go out there and find him, only for her to stop halfway across the front room.

  “No, don’t be silly,” she admonished herself. “He’ll be fine.”

  She sighed. What was she thinking? He’d be back any time. He was most likely taking liberties and going twice around the crescent.

  Again, it wouldn’t be the first time that he’d done that, either. She’d walk outside only for him to appear and make her feel silly for doubting him.

  Pacing back and forth across the lounge, she glanced outside every few moments, checking the time as she did so.

  The minutes ticked by, and Milo didn’t appear. All the while, the ache in her stomach grew, increasing her heart rate.

  10:22 am.

  “I’m going,” she announced to the empty house as her emotions finally got the better of her. She rushed to the porch, pulled on her shoes, and walked into the garden.

  Would he appear?

  Surely this was his cue to ride back into the drive or jump out from behind her car

  “Milo?” she called out just in case he was hiding nearby.

  Nothing.

  She was finding it tough pulling enough air into her lungs despite the quickness of her breathing. Where was he? With one last look around, she walked into the street and checked both directions.

  It was quiet. No one was out, and crucially, there was no sign of Milo.

  Looking up towards the two junctions at either end of the crescent, she hoped against hope that Milo would suddenly appear.

  She imagined him riding into the road and waving as he came down the hill towards her.

  Her heart was going crazy. It hammered against her ribs as if it wanted to leap out of her chest. She reached for her phone, but it wasn’t on her. It was inside. She ran into the house, grabbed it, rushed back out and looked up the street again—still nothing.

  There was no one around, no one to help her. She felt separated from the normality of the world that surrounded her, isolated.

  Alone.

  She looked at her phone.

  10:26 am.

  She brought up the keypad and started to tap in Emily’s name.

  Then she stopped.

  No. Not yet. She needed to be sure. If she called Emily now, and he suddenly appeared, she’d feel foolish.

  “Damn it, Milo,” she muttered and marched up the road to the nearest entrance into the crescent. At the T-junction, she looked left, up the gentle curve of the road, but again saw no sign of Milo.

  With a grimace, she peered up at the far end of the crescent where it rejoined the main road. But she remained disappointed.

  Looking left again, into the crescent, her eyes fell onto the concealed entrance to the cut-through. It was a footpath between houses that led to a road and field beyond, and the play park it contained.

  Had the lure of the swings proven too much?

  The entrance was hidden by a tree. A bush surrounded its trunk, set right before the cut-through, beside the road. Hedges on either side added to the concealment. As Sue stared, she felt almost drawn to it.

  He was probably hiding in there, wasn’t he? Hidden in the bushes, waiting for her to get close so that he could leap out and scare her. She needed to look. She needed to see down the alleyway.

  Taking one last look up the road, she felt hesitant to move. What if Milo suddenly appeared, and missed her while she was in the cut-through?

  Maybe she should wait here.

  She looked at the time again.

  10:28 am.

  “Damn it.” she hissed.

  She needed to look.

  She set off, marching into the crescent, glancing behind her as she went, hoping she’d see him shoot past behind her. But no.

  As she neared the cut-through, she felt her heart rate quicken along with her breathing. Was he in here? Was someone else in here, waiting for her? Waiting to hurt her?

  These were silly, stupid thoughts, her rational side said. There was no one here, no one that wanted to hurt her. With a final look behind, she turned and walked between the hedges and the bush, turning into the cut-through.

  Looking up the fence lined alleyway, with whitewashed houses on either side, Sue froze. Her breath caught in her throat, and for a moment, she thought that she might not breathe ever again.

  Milo’s bike and helmet lay discarded, partway up the cut-through, but there was no other sign of Milo.

  Sue could only blink and stare at the scene before her, looking at it with steadily mounting terror. She looked behind her and then back around. Where was he?

  Catching her breath suddenly, she called out, “Milo?”

  There was no reply.

  “Milo, this isn’t funny,” she added. “Where are you?”

  No answer.

  She approached the bike, hoping there might be something else here. But there was nothing. Just the bike and helmet.

  “Milo? Milo!” she shouted, raising her voice, and all too aware of how it wobbled as her fear coloured her words. “Milo!”

  She was screaming now.

  She didn’t care. She needed to find him. She had to find him. She’d do whatever it took.

  “MILO!”

  2

  “You know, I think I’m starting to get the lie of the land down here now,” Jon remarked as he drove through the various small and not so small villages between Horsely Station and Epsom. He’d been driving around Surrey, on and off duty for several months following his move to the leafy green county on the edge of London.

  It was commuter belt country, with plenty of big houses—mansions really—where city brokers lived and settled while travelling into the city for their day to day jobs.

  Nestled between those nicer roads and the gated communities were plenty of council estates and rough areas, however. He’d found it interesting, over the few months he’d been here, to note the interplay between the haves and the have-nots, especially when it came to crime. It seemed that money was no indicator of how someone would act or whether they would hurt or kill.

  These people did seem to exist in the extremes, though, in his personal experience.

  Local statistics would likely paint a very different picture, of course. But then, the very nature of their job was to wade into the extremes that existed around the edges of day to day society.
/>   He wondered what today’s call out would bring them, and what horrors they would witness as they once again dug into the shit of humanity.

  “Well done. It’s only taken you three months. You should feel proud of yourself.”

  “It is Brighton we’re going to, right?” he joked.

  “Smart arse,” Kate quipped.

  “Aaah, well, now that you mention…”

  “Don’t!”

  “I was only going to say…”

  “No ass jokes.”

  “Spoil sport,” he said with a smile.

  “If you want a thick ear, carry on.”

  Jon made a big show of mulling the idea over, scratching his chin. “Hmmm. Well, maybe...”

  “Jesus. What did I do to deserve you?” She moaned, good-naturedly.

  “I know, you’re blessed. So, anything new come in about this one since we left the station?”

  “Nope,” Kate said, checking her phone. “We have a missing child on an estate in Epsom. That’s all so far. The scene’s been contained, and forensics are there.”

  “The parents?”

  “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out. I’m assuming they’ve been pulled in from work or wherever.”

  “Here’s hoping,” Jon said. “Do we have any names?”

  “Yeah. The missing boy is Milo Kay.” Her phone suddenly buzzed in her hand. “Oh, it’s Nathan.” She took the call. “What’s up?”

  “Are you there?”

  Jon could hear Nathan’s voice over the noise of the rumbling car.

  “Nearly there,” Kate replied. “What’s up?”

  “Debby told me about the case you’ve been called out to,” Nathan continued. “I recognise the name.”

  “Milo? The missing boy? Do you know him?”

  “No. I know his mother, Emily.”

  “Oh?”

  “She was a kidnap victim on a case I was on over ten years ago, I think. A whole bunch of kids were kidnapped and killed before Emily escaped and led me to the place the killer was keeping them.”

  “Shite,” Kate muttered, giving voice to Jon’s own feelings of horror at the thought of several families losing their child to a vicious killer. Adult on adult crime was bad enough, but it took things to a whole new level of mind-numbing nightmare when kids were involved.