No Going Back by Casey Kelleher (bill gates books recommendations TXT) 📕

Pete hung up. He’d thought that Ashley couldn’t stoop any lower than cheating on his daughter while she was in hospital giving birth to their child. But this. This was something else entirely. If his gut was right about this, then he was certain that Ashley had somehow put his daughter’s and grandson’s lives at risk. And Pete was determined to get to the bottom of it, if it was the very last thing he did. And then he was going to take great pleasure in annihilating Ashley Cooke once and for all.

15

‘Well, that took a little longer than I’d hoped but I’ve managed to get a press conference set up. It’s going ahead shortly,’ DS Morgan said as DC Murphy and DC Holder arrived back at CID. ‘How’s Shelby and the baby doing?’

‘Good, Sarge. Considering.’ Lucy smiled, glad that on this occasion there was a happy outcome. ‘She had a little boy. Riley. We’ve left her to get some rest. She seems pretty shaken up, which is to be expected. But other than that mother and baby are doing just fine.’

‘And she managed to give the Facial Imaging Officer a good description for the E-fit?’

‘Yes, Sarge. She was a bit worried about some of the details, but I believe she gave us a very accurate description of the attacker.’

‘Good,’ DS Morgan said, sensing that there was something the two officers were holding back on. ‘Is there something else?’

‘Her husband was attacked last night too, Sarge. Ashley Cooke. And he was acting a bit cagey while we were at the hospital. Too quiet and subdued for a man whose wife had just been attacked. The father-in-law picked up on it. Something isn’t right there,’ Holder said.

‘Hmm. The husband was attacked too. Yes, that’s a hell of a coincidence.’ DS Morgan nodded, instantly suspicious.

‘He told us that he was attacked by kids outside Smokes nightclub. Only Lucy and I decided to call in there on the way back from the hospital, and guess what? Ashley was bullshitting us. Because it wasn’t kids that beat him up. It was two grown men.’

Holder had DS Morgan’s attention now.

Ashley Cooke was lying. Why?

DS Morgan and his team were convinced that their attacker was linked to the previous murder in Richmond Park. What were the chances that the attack on Ashley Cooke on the same night as his wife was a coincidence? They needed to be vigilant and rule out any connection with this latest intel; otherwise they’d be leaving themselves wide open to criticism if this investigation turned into some kind of shitshow once it all went public. Which it inevitably would, and soon, in light of this new information.

DS Morgan had endured enough investigations in his career to know first-hand how quickly things could flip back around on them. They needed to be thorough and rule everything out and cover their backs at all times.

‘We’re going to run some checks through the system, Sarge, and see if the E-fit Shelby gave us has any similarities on either of the men. See if we can get a match,’ Holder said, feeling confident that there was more to this than they’d all been led to believe, and wanting to at least try and rule it out. ‘There was a lot of tension between Ashley Cooke and his father-in-law too. You might remember him. Pete Baker? I looked him up, and it appears he did a stretch about twenty years ago, but he’s managed to keep his nose clean since then.’

‘The name rings a bell.’ DS Morgan nodded, vaguely recalling the man’s name from when he’d started out. ‘That is a blast from the past. I’m sure he hired some flash lawyer to smooth his case over for him and managed to get out on appeal. Import and export, he claimed. Only it was a cover for moving around illegal goods.’

‘He’s got a temper on him though,’ Lucy interjected. ‘And he didn’t seem like a happy-chappy today, Sarge. Seems to us like he was gunning for his son-in-law. We could feel the hate radiating off him in waves.’

‘Right, well, Holder, I want you to run the checks on the E-fit,’ DS Morgan instructed Holder before turning to Lucy. ‘I’ve arranged a press conference for an hour’s time. And I’d like you to lead it. We need to gain the public’s support and compassion on this one, and I think that having a female officer lead the appeal will aid that.’

‘Of course, Sarge. No worries,’ Lucy said, aware that Holder was looking at her now, sensing a concerned undercurrent to DS Morgan’s tone and trying to read her expression.

‘Okay, well, how about you step into my office and we can go over a few things first?’

‘Happy to help, Sarge,’ she said with conviction that she didn’t feel, not wanting to show her apprehension about being bombarded with questions from most of London’s hungry journalists.

Because she knew before she even entered the press conference, that the police had a world of pressure on their shoulders now. There was a sadistic attacker out there on the streets of London. His target: pregnant women. Shelby Cooke had been one of the lucky ones; she’d managed to escape. But if Lucy and her team didn’t move fast, the next victim might not be so fortunate.

16

‘Is everything really okay, Lucy?’ DS Morgan said, offering Lucy a chair before making sure the door to his office was closed.

He wanted to talk to Lucy about the press conference, but he’d also wanted to make sure that she was really all right. Because he had a feeling that she wasn’t.

‘Not exactly, Sarge, no,’ Lucy said honestly. ‘Look, I wasn’t going to do this now. What with everything we have going on. But I have been going through some stuff.’ Lucy shifted in her chair, uncomfortable with how vulnerable she felt when she opened up about how she was really feeling. But if there was one person she trusted completely in her