Getting Away With Murder

Barry Morgan

Description

'Getting Away With Murder' is an intense, exciting and highly original story about how blame is attributed, revenge fervently sought, justified, planned and finally carried out. This ruthless pursuit for revenge leads to the total unravelling of a mind in the process.This is an extremely black murder mystery, with a compelling examination of the killer's inner thoughts. The ultimate twist is that the murder is planned with the help of the police.After spending thirty years as a graphic designer and a technical writer, Barry turned his hand to writing short stories, before creating a crime trilogy about the detective Robert Steele. 'Getting Away With Murder' is the first book in the trilogy of Robert Steele detective stories.

Informations

• Publié par: Distributed by eBookpartnership
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781839784675
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Getting away with murder
Barry Morgan


Getting away with murder
Published by The Conrad Press Ltd. in the United Kingdom 2022
Tel: [phone]
www.theconradpress.com
[e-mail]
ISBN 978-1-839784-67-5
Copyright © Barry Morgan, 2022
All rights reserved.
Typesetting and Cover Design by: Charlotte Mouncey, www.bookstyle.co.uk
The Conrad Press logo was designed by Maria Priestley.


Chapter 1
S itting beside her, watching her life slowly drain away, he felt completely helpless. Tears ran down his face as he held her hand tightly, hoping that it might prevent her from dying.
Watching her slowly die like this broke his heart.
‘This is all so wrong, so unfair. You can’t do, you can’t leave me,’ his whispered voice faltering as he finally realised he was going to lose her that night.
Such a joyless, sad environment to die in. The tiny dark room was only illuminated by a diminutive bedside lamp that just about managed to cast a tiny pool of light over her face.
A room of total all-enveloping confinement, with walls that seemed to move in, to enclose and trap him. Shadows filled every corner of the room giving it an atmosphere of overbearing, sinister gloom, and he could almost imagine something evil hiding in the darkness, waiting to leap out and snatch her from his grasp. Only the lack of bars betrayed that this wasn’t a prison, but a hospital room.
Staring up at the ceiling, looking to heaven for help, he whispered, ‘Dear God, what does it take to give me a little happiness? Please, just a little happiness, just a little more time with her. What do I have to do? What do you need from me? All I need is a miracle, just a small one.’
But his request was shattered when he looked down at her and realised her breathing had become shallow and erratic now. He almost laughed at the futility of the pathetic wish he had just made. But his thoughts became angry and resentful as he helplessly watched her struggle for breath,
A miracle? Who are you fooling?
It isn’t going to happen is it? I’m going to lose you.
They warned me you wouldn’t make it through the night.
Now it is a just a waiting game.
A tear fell onto her hand, but there was no response now, no miracle.
And he knew she would die that night.


Chapter 2
H e could see nothing in the intense blackness that enveloped him. A massive weight on his chest made it hard to breathe.
A terrible notion of helplessness made him feel as if he were being pushed under water and there were huge waves crashing over him, trying to kill him.
It was akin to drowning, of desperately trying to get to a surface that wasn’t there. Get to safety.
But he had an instinctual struggle to live, and just one thought ran through his panicked brain over and over again.
Must fight. Must survive.
But as he reached out, there was nothing there, nothing but darkness. No substance, No where to go.
His mind struggled with this totally alien situation, he wasn’t just helpless, but completely overwhelmed in the darkness. He couldn’t make any sense of what was happening, he couldn’t move, it was a nightmare that he didn’t want to be part off. What was this place? How the hell did he get here?
His surroundings spun around him, a tunnel of darkness that he was drawn through, to what?
As he was moved around against his will he strained to see through the murk. See something, anything. Was there a destination in this madness? A place of safety, sanity, explanation?
But it was hopeless, just darkness, endless darkness. Round and around everything went, and he couldn’t work out if he was moving or everything else was.
But as he swirled around for what seemed hours, he thought he might have seen something. Was that a faint light? Was there a destination? A goal in this insane situation?
But it seemed an eternity before the darkness began to fade, but slowly, in the far distance, he could now definitely see a faint glimmer. There was hope his mind said, keep fighting.
The weight on his body seemed to lift and eventually the darkness began to lose its intensity. The blackness started to clear as he regained consciousness and his brain tried to focus on his surroundings. It was all a dream, a nightmare.
Utterly confused, he lay still, desperate to come terms with what was happening to him, but he couldn’t even conceive of where there hell he was.
Trying to speak, he found it was impossible, he couldn’t make a sound. Couldn’t even move his lips. His brain could only try and make sense of his situation. Hopeless.
Where am I? How did I end up here?
Why can’t I remember what happened?
Christ, I’m so weak. So helpless.
God, the pain. My head!
What have I done? Why does it hurt so much?
Can’t move at all. Why can’t I move?
Can’t speak. Need to shout for help.
My arm hurts. Is there a tube in my arm?
Am I in hospital?
Am I sick, ill? Dying?
Drugged? Kidnapped? Dead? Heaven or Hell?
His mind was in utter turmoil, there were too many images, too many jumbled thoughts swimming around his head, and he couldn’t make sense of any of it.
The intense pain forced him to close his eyes and the clouds of blackness instantly enveloped him again, pitching him into a dark hell of confusion.
A darkness that totally obliterated his senses. He had to let go, as there was no option but to let the darkness take over his body, plunging him back into the black void.
Back into his private hell.


Chapter 3
S lowly the world filtered back into his head, but there was panic in his brain, confusion, he could hear people whispering, he could hear voices, or at least he thought he could.
Who were they? Were they talking about him? He had no idea where he was and he desperately tried to open his eyes to find out, to get a clue into this nightmare. But his eyes refused to open and he had no strength to force them. He stayed in a semi-unconscious state with his brain trying to come to terms with his predicament. His head was swimming and he was unable to make any sense of what was real, or if it was all some corrupt dream.
It didn’t really matter, he couldn’t do anything about it. The blackness swept over him again. It was a long time before he started to regain any real semblance of consciousness.
Still powerless to move he was determined to at least see his surroundings if he could. Straining to open his eyes, he realised this was not a clever idea as the room spun sickenly as a result.
The floor and walls seemed to have a life of their own, moving in a totally unreal fashion. Quickly, he closed his eyes again, the darkness felt safe and it at least it stayed still. He welcomed the black void this time.
Eventually when he was able to open them again, his eyes still couldn’t focus properly, everything was a blur, the room seemed to swim in front of him. Only dimly could he make out the lights overhead, harsh industrial strip lights. Slowly he began to realise he was in bed, but he had no idea why.
Am I ill? This feels like a hospital. Hospital?
Trying to focus, his memory franticly trying to the piece together what had happened. Finally, he remembered visiting a hospital.
Visiting. Hospital. That’s right, visiting.
Visiting? Visiting who? I wasn’t the patient. I was visiting someone. I shouldn’t be in bed, this is all wrong.
Why am I in hospital? Who was I visiting?
God! I remember I was visiting Anne. I was with Anne.
Anne? I was visiting, just visiting Anne.
Why was I visiting? Was she ill? What happened to Anne?
Can’t remember anything. It doesn’t make any sense.
Now totally confused, he was unable to get his thoughts in order. Nothing made sense. He knew this was all wrong.
Why am I in bed? Anne is the patient.
Laying there, with thoughts and questions whirling around in his brain, he just felt sick. Then his memory clicked into place and the awful realisation of what had gone before, became a stark reality.
Oh my God, she’s dead.
My Anne is dead. And I watched her die .
That terrible realisation struck him like a hammer blow.
Powerless, he lay there his strength gone, his energy totally sapped, his brain unable to accept the reality of the situation.
Waves of nausea swept over him and he struggled not to vomit. Painfully rolling onto his side, he lay there helpless, gasping for breath, his eyes fighting to stay open.
Need help. This can’t be true. Can’t cope with this.
Is this shock?
Am I reacting to her death?
Am I ill?
What have they done to me?
As much as he struggled, his body couldn’t resist the sedative that had been pumped into him through the tap in his arm.
His eyes closed again, and he plunged back into the darkness, his thoughts plummeting into a world of angry memories and confused images, his brain scrambling to get them into some sort of order. But he would be lost in his own private hell for hours yet. He was sedated, powerless, and unable to unravel what had happened to him.


Chapter 4
S lowly, as the drugs gradually lost their effect, the darkness receded, and his subconscious started to take command once more. Random memories flooded back, images, so many images.
His brain was still trying make sense of it all, to get everything into some sort of order. Memories, snapshots, just disjointed pictures swept in and out of his head.
Slowly one image kept reoccurring, a building. The hospital, he kept seeing the hospital. The ward, the nurses, then Anne.
She was a patient at the hospital.
I’m not supposed to be in hospital. Why am I here?
I’d been at Anne’s side for days.
Seen her die that night. Walked out into the night. Rain.
This doesn’t make sense. What happene