Reluctant Witness Read online

  His eyes were on hers but Julia could tell he was not really seeing her.

  His brain was already busy processing what little information she had been able to give him. He put the pen down on the desk.

  “There’s something else I need to know,” he said. “Is there any chance, any chance at all, that the killer may have seen you?”

  Julia shook her head. “I don’t think so, he took off straight away.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t see you,” he said slowly.

  Julia blanched and fisted her hands in her lap. “I know it doesn’t, Inspector,” she said curtly, “but isn’t it your job to reassure me? Make me feel safe?”

  He didn’t answer, just continued to stare at her while methodically rubbing his hand back and forth along his jaw.

  Julia crossed her arms. “Well?”

  A flicker of something flashed behind his eyes as he watched her. Julia frowned. Doubt? Suspicion? No...wait a minute...was that amusement?

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded. “Don’t you believe me?”

  “I believe you, it’s just I’ve never come across such open hostility from a civilian before, that’s all,” he said, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Do you have a problem with just me or cops in general?”

  Reviews for Rachel Brimble

  “A very fine accomplishment for a first published novel [SEARCHING FOR SOPHIE]. It was a good read and I am sure Ms Brimble will continue to go from strength to strength.

  ~S. Wong (reader) Amazon.co.uk

  It [SEARCHING FOR SOPHIE] had a brilliant story line with very interesting characters and I found this book very hard to put down. In fact, Sunday lunch ended up being rather late due to me being glued to it!

  ~J Clark (reader) Amazon.co.uk

  Reluctant Witness

  by

  Rachel Brimble

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Reluctant Witness

  COPYRIGHT Ó 2008 by Rachel Brimble

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Kim Mendoza

  The Wild Rose Press

  PO Box 706

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0706

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Crimson Rose Edition, 2008

  Print ISBN 1-60154-341-7

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To Jessica & Hannah—

  the girls who are the light of my life.

  I love you.

  xxx

  Chapter One

  Julia Kershaw pulled her Volkswagen Beetle to a stop in the beach parking lot and killed the engine. With the afternoon to herself and the July temperature at a warm seventy-eight degrees, all she had planned was an afternoon relaxing in her private Cove. She stuffed a half-read paperback, sunglasses and binoculars into her handbag before making her way down the steps and over the soft golden sand. The salty smell of the sea momentarily swept away her anxiety and made her smile.

  The sounds of the jet-skis and children playing descended into relative silence as she strolled farther and farther along the beach until she was completely alone. She climbed over several sun-baked boulders and jumped into her own special space, where no one would find her.

  She slipped the leather flip-flops from her feet and sat in the sand. The ocean ebbed and flowed calmly beneath the sunshine, the beauty of the water shone with diamonds and fluffy white waves. Shielding her eyes from the sun, Julia contemplated a solitary boat way out on the English Channel as it lazily bobbed on the surface. A perfect day for sailing—or Julia’s preferred option right now—topping up the tan.

  She pulled her binoculars from her bag. The boat was too far out for her to make out the faces of the two men standing at the helm, but the way they were squaring up to each other spelled trouble. She fiddled with the focus on her binoculars but couldn’t see them any clearer.

  The heavier of the two wore a flamboyant printed shirt tucked into knee-length navy shorts, his grey hair thin on top and a little bushier at the sides. Julia chewed her bottom lip as she tried to figure out why he looked so familiar.

  The guy with him was an entirely different matter. Average height and slightly effeminate in his stance, he reminded Julia of her Uncle Charlie who had recently eloped with another man, causing her father to have a near cardiac arrest. Despite the sun’s heat, he was dressed entirely in black from the cap covering his hair to his baggy jeans. Julia grimaced. The arrogant tilt of his chin, told her he was vain enough to crack a mirror. She was just about to turn away when Mr. Conceited put a hand to something at the back of his pants and held it there.

  Julia narrowed her eyes but still couldn’t make out what it was. Using his free hand, he pointed toward the shore. The man in the shorts turned to follow the direction of his finger. That was when Julia’s blood turned cold. The man in black pulled the something from his pants—and the something looked very much like a gun. He raised it high and aimed it at the back of the other man’s head.

  “What the hell...?” Julia’s heart leapt into her throat and perspiration broke out on her forehead as she clasped a hand to her mouth.

  My God, he’s going to shoot him, right here, right now! I’ve got to do something. Call for help, ring 911. . ?

  She dropped the binoculars and desperately searched for her phone inside her bag.

  Where is it? Panicking, she looked back to the boat and froze. The shot was nothing more than a muffled bang—nothing distinct, nothing that would cause any attention. The victim’s body jerked hard and his arms flew back before he toppled backward onto the deck. Julia grappled for her binoculars once more. She watched with a thumping heart as the man in black stuffed the gun into his belt and leaned down to where the other man had fallen. The binoculars shook in Julia’s trembling hands.

  “Oh God, oh God.”

  Julia muttered the words over and over as she watched a cold-blooded killer heave and shove the dead man over the side of the boat. She saw a splash before the body slid into its liquid coffin.

  Julia remained perfectly still, terrified to move. What if the man with the gun looked across the water and spotted her, sitting alone in her hidden cove?

  He would kill her, track her down and kill her.

  After what felt like a hundred years, the boat finally roared to life and took off. Julia exhaled in a rush and frantically shook everything out of her bag. Her phone wasn’t there. Cursing, she remembered leaving it on her Mom’s dining room table earlier that day.

  She threw her belongings back into her bag and raced from the Cove. The last thing she wanted was go to the police station but knew she had no choice. Of all the times to be drawn into another killing in Corkley Park.

  She pulled to a stop outside the police station, got out and ran up the stone steps, taking them two at a time. The lobby was deserted. Disregarding protocol, she strode straight past the front desk to the back offices, where she plowed through the door marked Detective Inspector. As it crashed against the wall announcing her arrival, Julia froze.

  The man who stood behind Inspector Langton’s desk with his hand hovering over the butt of the gun holstered at his hip was not the elderly, seaside
detective she had been expecting. It was someone else entirely.

  “Miss? Are you all right?” he asked, carefully. “Is there some sort of problem here?”

  Julia opened her mouth but nothing came out. His startled eyes were the deepest, darkest chocolate-brown and his hair as black as night.

  She swallowed. “What?”

  His hand didn’t leave the gun. “Are you all right?”

  She couldn’t drag her eyes from his. “Yes, yes, no, not really.”

  “Are you looking for someone?”

  She shook her head and refocused. “Detective Inspector Langton. I need to speak to him. Something’s happened, something terrible. I...” Her voice cracked and she couldn’t stop the tears that sprang into her eyes. “Oh, God.”

  The man moved his hand from the gun as he closed the gap between them. His fingers lightly touched her shoulder. “Why don’t you come and sit down? You’re really pale.”

  She let him steer her toward his desk and sank gratefully into the visitor’s chair. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Would you like a drink of water?”

  Julia shook her head.

  “Why don’t you tell me what’s happened?” he asked, gently. “Did someone at the front desk send you in here?”

  “No, there’s no one out there. I just came straight in,” Julia said, looking away from his concerned gaze and straightening her shoulders, suddenly feeling conscious of every part of her body. “Look, I’m sorry but I just need to speak to Inspector Langton. Can you tell me where he is?”

  He leaned a hip against the desk. “He’s taken retirement.”

  “He has? But I need to talk to him urgently.”

  He held out a hand, a small smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “Maybe I can help. I’m the new DI. Daniel Conway. Please to meet you, Miss...?”

  She snapped her head up to look at him. “You’re the new DI? But that’s impossible.”

  He arched an eyebrow and let his hand drop. “Oh? Why’s that?”

  “You’re...you’re...”

  Too bloody gorgeous to be a police officer for a start.

  “A bit young to be a DI,” she said, instead.

  He laughed, the sound warm and entirely masculine. “I’m thirty-two but thanks for the compliment.”

  A sudden heat warmed her cheeks. “It wasn’t meant as a compliment,” she snapped.

  He held his hands up. “OK, wow. Well, I moved here three weeks ago and took over Ed’s position,” he said, but Julia noticed a tightening in his jaw, before he seemed to visibly relax. “Look, Miss...?

  “Kershaw. Julia Kershaw.”

  “Look, Miss Kershaw, why don’t you tell me what brought you here?”

  “You don’t sound too pleased about that.”

  “About what?”

  “About taking over from Ed.” Was it possible that Corkley Park’s new DI was about as happy to be in this office as she was?

  “I’ll ask you again,” he said, ignoring her observation. “What brought you crashing into my office?”

  She straightened her shoulders and met his gaze. Touchy, touchy, Inspector. Cops. One rule for them, another for the rest of us.

  She blew out a breath. Common sense told her this was not the time to vent her frustration with the whole damn lot of them. A man was dead. A man she still swore she knew.

  “OK, there’s no easy way to explain this, so I’ll just go ahead and say it. I just saw a man shot and thrown into the ocean. There was nothing I could do to stop it and I don’t even know if anyone else saw it. I came straight here.”

  His cocoa eyes darkened. “You’ve just witnessed a murder?”

  “Yes, at the beach. Well, not the beach. There’s a Cove, a small inlet that can’t be seen from the beach. The boat was out on the water and one man just shot another stone dead, and then pushed him overboard.”

  “And this happened when?”

  “Less than half an hour ago. I came here straight away, I didn’t know what else to do.” Her voice began to rise with each word.

  “OK, OK, it’s all right. You’re going to be fine.” He pushed himself away from the desk and dropped to his haunches in front of her. A breeze of sandalwood teased her nostrils. Ignoring the unexpected kick in her chest, Julia tried to concentrate.

  “You need to tell me everything just as you remember it,” he said.

  She swallowed. “There’s not much to tell. I was sitting on the sand and noticed this boat way out on the water. I picked up my binoculars—”

  “You saw their faces?”

  “No, they were too far out. I can tell you what the guy with the gun was wearing but I wasn’t close enough to describe him apart from his build. He was wearing a cap that covered his hair and I think he had sunglasses on too.”

  The Inspector stood and walked around the desk to his chair. He sat, took out a pen and paper, and looked at her expectantly. “Tell me what you can.”

  Julia closed her eyes and told him everything she could remember about the shooter.

  “The man who was shot...he seemed familiar to me but I have no idea why.”

  “Could he have been a local resident?”

  “I suppose it’s possible.”

  “What about the boat itself?”

  She blew out a breath. “It was white with a lot of chrome, I don’t know anything about boats. There was nothing different or particular that caught my eye.”

  “Nothing at all? Name, shape?”

  She opened her eyes. “Everything happened so fast. One minute I was thinking how much I would like to be on a boat like that, the next, one of the men had pulled out a gun.”

  His eyes were on hers but Julia could tell his mind was not really seeing her. His brain was already busy processing what little information she had been able to give him. He put the pen down on the desk.

  “There’s something else I need to know,” he said. “Is there any chance, any chance at all, that the killer may have seen you?”

  Julia shook her head. “I don’t think so, he took off straight away.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t see you,” he said slowly.

  Julia blanched and fisted her hands in her lap. “I know it doesn’t, Inspector,” she said curtly, “but isn’t it your job to reassure me? Make me feel safe?”

  He didn’t answer, just continued to stare at her while methodically rubbing his hand back and forth along his jaw.

  Julia crossed her arms. “Well?”

  A flicker of something flashed behind his eyes as he watched her. Julia frowned. Doubt? Suspicion? No...wait a minute...was that amusement?

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded. “Don’t you believe me?”

  “I believe you, it’s just I’ve never come across such open hostility from a civilian before, that’s all,” he said, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Do you have a problem with just me or cops in general?”

  Julia was on her feet in a instant. She hitched her bag onto her shoulder. “If we’re finished here, Inspector, I’ll leave you to it.”

  She turned toward the door.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Kershaw, but you can’t go anywhere yet.”

  She swiveled round to face him. “That’s where you’re wrong, Inspector. I can do what the hell I like. You’ve got no right...”

  He reached for the phone on his desk. “The first thing we need to do is get that body out of the water. I’ll get the troops down there, ready to meet us.”

  “Us?” Julia stared at him, floored. “What do you mean us?”

  “I’m sorry but you’re going to have to show me exactly where you were when you saw all this happen.”

  And as he spoke into the phone, Julia tipped her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. How the hell had this happened? One minute she was in her mother’s kitchen, talking about leaving Corkley Park, the next she was embroiled in a murder investigation. Could fate be any more cruel?

 
; “Julia? Are you all right?”

  She dropped her head, opened her eyes and sighed. “What would you do if I said no?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Exactly,” she said. “Your car or mine?”

  He smiled and Julia felt her stomach tilt. “We’ll take mine,” he said. “After all, I’m the one with a siren and flashing blue light.”

  ****

  Julia wrapped her arms tighter around herself as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. Feeling more than a little redundant, she watched in silence as Inspector Conway issued instructions left and right to the mass of people treading heavy footprints all over her precious cove. The space had been cordoned off with blue and white tape and as it snapped against the steadily rising breeze, Julia’s anxiety rose along with it.

  “At last,” the new DI said, joining her at the shore. “The troops have arrived.”

  She jumped. “Pardon?”

  “The troops. They’ve arrived.”

  She looked out across the water, following the direction of his outstretched finger. Up ahead, more or less in the exact spot where the killer’s boat had been, a black and yellow police boat bobbed on the waves. She pursed her lips tightly together as the divers pulled on their wetsuits and flippers.

  “Are you sure they’re in the right place?” he asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Definitely? I can always speak to them via radio if needs be.”

  She lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “That’s where he threw him in. Right there.”

  He nodded before turning back to the boat. Speaking into his hand-held radio, he said, “Go ahead.”

  Julia watched the divers leap overboard and into the water. Nothing remained for her to do now but wait to see who they brought to the surface.

  “Are you OK?” His smooth, masculine voice cut through her thoughts.

  She turned to look at him and the compassion in his eyes caught her completely off guard.