Devils way, p.28
Devil's Way, page 28
‘Hello, my loves,’ said Jean, reaching up to hug them both. Joel came over and shook hands with them. Charlie sighed, nodded, and leaned forward to shake their hands.
‘We just wanted to come and say hello, and see you both, didn’t we, Joel?’ said Jean, looking nervous.
‘Yeah. It’s been a lot to get used to having Charlie, sorry, David, back,’ said Joel. He put out his hand and touched Charlie’s shoulder. Charlie pressed his lips together and angled his shoulder away, nodding. He looked like he wanted to walk away, but he stopped himself.
‘He wants us to call him David, don’t you, love? But it’s tough. It’s really hard, Charlie,’ said Jean. ‘You’re my little Charlie. Always will be.’ She looked like she wanted to reach out and touch him on the shoulder like Joel did, but she stopped herself. She shook her head and took another drag on her cigarette.
‘How are you, David?’ asked Kate.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I don’t like the name Charlie, though. It’s a bit pikey.’
‘Charlie! That’s offensive,’ said Jean. ‘Don’t talk like that, please,’ she added softening her voice. There was an awkward silence.
‘How is Daisy?’ asked Kate.
‘She’s okay. She’s gone out with a school friend today. Joel bought her a phone, so he’s in her good books.’
Joel went to say something, but Jean cut him off.
‘Daisy misses her old friends up in Shropshire – she’s got the phone so she can keep in touch with them. Now they’re both staying with us. She wants to go back to her old school in September. We’re not sure what’s going to happen. Anyway. Char– David, what do you have to say to Kate and Tristan?’
‘Thank you for, er, unmasking my true identity…’ he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Jean opened her mouth to scold him again, and stopped herself. Kate couldn’t imagine how he felt.
'We’re just glad you’re okay,’ said Kate.
‘I’m like Harry Potter, the boy who lived,’ said Charlie with a grin.
‘You might have lived, but another young boy died,’ said Joel, quietly. Charlie blushed and looked at the sand, kicking at it with his feet.
‘He didn’t mean anything bad,’ said Jean.
‘I know he didn’t,’ said Joel. There was a tense silence.
‘Nice trainers,’ said Charlie, indicating Tristan’s new blue Adidas.
‘Thanks,’ said Tristan, smiling.
‘Can I be excused now? And go and skim stones?’ asked Charlie.
‘Okay. Yes. Don’t go too far…’ said Joel. His voice trailed off, and Charlie pushed his hands into his pockets and walked down the beach to the rock pools.
‘Jesus Christ. I never thought it would be like this,’ said Jean, taking out a tissue and pressing it to her face. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. ‘It’s like he hates me, us. We’re calling him two names. Sometimes I don’t even think it’s him.’
Joel nodded. Kate felt at a loss as to what to say.
‘He still thinks that Libby and Steve are his parents. And Daisy is his sister. And they have been, for most of his life,’ said Joel. ‘Although we’re making sure they’re still together as brother and sister. They’re very close, that’s why we want Daisy to stay with us, permanently,’ he said. They watched Charlie at the edge of the water as he knelt down and picked up a stone, skimming it into the waves.
‘He has no memory of when he was little,’ said Jean, taking another drag on her cigarette. ‘I’ve started bloody smoking again. We got them to do the DNA tests again, just in case. He’s ours. It is Charlie,’ she said insistently.
‘We know,’ said Kate.
‘What’s happening about custody? I read there were custody problems?’ asked Tristan. Joel nodded.
‘The courts have been useless. Libby and Steve Hartley tried to file an injunction through their lawyer, saying we don’t have legal custody of Charlie! We both had to go to court and explain to them that Charlie was abducted, so, technically, we’ve always had custody,’ he said.
‘But we never had a passport for Charlie,’ said Jean. ‘He was only just three when he went missing, but he’s got a passport in the name of David Hartley, medical records, and dental. And a passport is a passport. Definitive. So, it’s caused all kinds of problems.’
‘Where’s Charlie living?’ asked Kate.
‘With us, of course. Well, with Joel, above the pub, which is nice. Daisy is there too, and she gets on well with Joel’s girls. I’m staying with them too, for now… We’re all there, trying to make a go of it. The Crown Estate will take back the farm where Charlie and Daisy spent the last eleven years. I’m scared he’ll want to legally keep his name as David when he’s old enough.’ Jean became tearful. ‘I just wish Becky…’ Her voice trailed off. ‘I just wish Becky was here. And then there’s that poor little boy, the real David, who died. And that social worker, Anna.’
‘You have to keep faith,’ said Kate. Joel and Jean nodded, and they all looked over at Charlie. He’d taken off his shoes and he was now paddling in the sea.
‘I still don’t know how they got Charlie to be David,’ said Tristan. ‘He might have been small, but didn’t he get upset that these strangers had suddenly taken him in and made him live with them? And call them Mum and Dad?’
‘From what we’ve heard, they dosed him up on cough mixture for the first few weeks when they left the country with him,’ said Joel. ‘Once they were on holiday in Spain, they seemed to work on eradicating us from his memory. It didn’t take long, with him being only three. Who remembers much from that time of their life?’
‘He didn’t start school until almost two years later, and by then…’ Jean took another puff of her cigarette. ‘It’s still so hard to talk about. He’d forgotten about us, or at least, he’d accepted the new reality. We’re all having counselling together. It’s not going well.’
‘It will, Jean,’ said Joel, putting his arm around her. They were quiet for a moment, watching Charlie pull up the legs of his shorts and wade a bit deeper into the waves.
‘Anyway. We just wanted to come and see you both and say thank you,’ said Jean, taking hold of Kate’s hand. ‘I don’t feel I’ll ever be able to thank you enough. And just saying “thank you” never seems enough. Without you, we’d never know what happened, and we’d never have got him back.’
‘Yes. Thank you,’ said Joel. He had tears in his eyes now. Charlie was out of the water and picking his way through the sand back towards them, carrying his shoes. Jean and Joel hurriedly wiped their eyes. They were silent when Charlie reached them.
‘Could I have an ice cream? Please?’ he said, finally. ‘I saw a place up there.’
‘Course you can, love,’ said Jean. ‘And a flake.’
‘And a flake, cool, that’s almost worth getting abducted for!’ said Charlie. He grinned at them all. ‘That was a joke.’
Joel grinned, and Jean gave him a weak smile.
Kate and Tristan watched as Jean, Joel, and Charlie walked up the sandy cliffside to the ice cream shop.
‘The boy who lived,’ said Tristan with a laugh. ‘He’s certainly got an interesting sense of humour. Do you think they’ll be okay?’
‘I hope so,’ said Kate. ‘I hope so.’
A note from Robert
I want to send an enormous thank-you to the most important people, my readers. When I started, it was the real readers who championed my books, which is still the same today. Thank you to all those who love books and work so hard as booksellers, librarians and book bloggers.
I always say that word-of-mouth is the most potent form of advertising. If you enjoyed this book, please tell the people in your life who love to read, or tell someone who has lost their reading mojo! The greatest compliment is hearing that one of my books has helped someone back into reading.
Thank you to my first reader, Ján Bryndza, and the rest of Team Bryndza/Raven Street Publishing; Maminko Vierka, Riky, and Lola. I love you all so much, and thank you for keeping me going with your love and support!
Thank you to the fantastically skilled translators from around the world who bring my work to life, and thank you to Henry Steadman for another beautiful cover. Thank you also to Jan Cramer, who brings this Kate Marshall audiobook edition so wonderfully to life.
I want to say a special thanks to my mum and dad, who took my sister and me on holiday every summer to Devon and Cornwall. At the time, I moaned that all my friends were off to Spain or Disneyland, but I’ve come to appreciate how much fun and freedom we had on those holidays surrounded by the beauty and mystery of Dartmoor.
The Devil’s Way Tor, the river, the gorge, and the Devil’s Way sinkhole are all fictitious. I’ve walked the length and breadth of Dartmoor and Exmoor in sunny and rainy weather. They are beautiful and often dark and mysterious places to be. I have used those memories and all the places I explored to inspire these fictional locations in Devil’s Way.
And finally, as I always say, there are many more books to come, and I hope you stay with me for the ride! Please consider signing up to my new release mailing list on the next page, so you can be the first to hear when I have a new book published.
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Rob
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About the Author
Robert Bryndza is best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over five million copies. His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice, was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA, and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 2 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016); the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018); and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).
Robert has released a further six novels in the Erika Foster series; The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller. Fatal Witness and Lethal Vengeance are the seventh and eighth Erika Foster novels.
Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling Shadow Sands, the third book is Darkness Falls and the fourth is Devil’s Way.
Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time. You can find out more about the author at www.robertbryndza.com.
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All rights reserved in all media. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical (including but not limited to: the internet, photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system), without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Cover design by Henry Steadman
eBook ISBN: 9781914547096
Paperback ISBN: 9781914547102
Hardback ISBN: 9781914547119
ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOBOOK
Robert Bryndza, Devil's Way
