Whisper For The Reaper by Jack Gatland (best book series to read TXT) 📕

Monroe looked to Billy, who’d paused scrolling through the Eva Mencken file, pointing to a line on the screen.

‘When she raised the complaint, she said that Müller flipped a one mark coin,’ he whispered. ‘She says he flipped a coin to see if she would live or die.’

‘A game he kept playing after the fall,’ Declan muttered. ‘Interesting though that they stopped it before she could continue.’

’No proof,’ Monroe replied. ‘Her word against a Hauptmann? Needs more than that. And we already know Müller had high up friends.’ He looked to Billy, still scrolling. ‘Anything else?’

‘Most of this we already have,’ he admitted, ‘but I can go through it over the afternoon.’

With this agreed, Anjli and De’Geer had left, going to visit the Brunel family, while Doctor Marcos and PC Davey worked through the forensics reports that Patrick Walsh had encrypted, on the off chance that something might appear. With nothing else to do for the moment, Declan and Jess decided to take a break back at the house, see if there was anything missed in Patrick Walsh’s secret study before returning in the evening, while Monroe and Marlowe returned with them; Monroe because he still hadn’t seen the secret room, and Marlowe because he simply didn’t seem to want to leave for London just yet.

‘So, tell me about Monroe being your uncle,’ Declan said as he passed Marlowe a coffee. Monroe was upstairs, being shown the secret study by Jess, playing the role of an eager tour guide, and this gave Declan a chance to talk alone with Marlowe, something that he felt the spy had wanted since he’d first arrived.

‘He’s not an uncle by blood, so to speak, but he was close enough to the family to be called that,’ Marlowe explained. ‘Wintergreen too, although she’s told me that if I call her Aunt Emilia one more time, she’ll ensure when I’m next out on ops, she’ll have someone whack me in the back of the skull.’ He mimicked a gunshot motion. ‘And to be honest, I believe her.’

Declan nodded at this. He’d only met Wintergreen once, but he could easily believe that she was cold enough to do such a thing.

‘Anyway, my mum was in Military Intelligence,’ Marlowe continued. ‘Around 9/11 there was a lot of fear that something similar would happen in London, mainly Canary Wharf or the City, so the police were doing a lot more of the anti-terrorist thing, you know? One team was Patrick Walsh’s one. They’d just finished the Davies murder and were on a bit of a winner’s lap. Special Branch moved them onto the patch, and they liaised with Olivia, my mum.’

‘Wintergreen too?’

‘All of them,’ Marlowe counted on his fingers. ‘Walsh, Salmon, Wintergreen and Monroe.’ He looked back at Declan. ‘It was very much an ‘any means’ kinda remit. They were playing with terrorists who didn’t read the rulebook, so they had to be innovative, make deals with people they wouldn’t usually work with.’

‘The Twins,’ Declan nodded, finally understanding how his dad and Monroe had found themselves in league with Johnny and Jackie Lucas, the gangland kings of the East End of London. Marlowe nodded.

‘Yeah, that mad bastard was top of the list. He knew everything that was going on, and so they did a little quid pro quo with him.’ He sipped at the coffee. ‘That said, once you start down that route, you forget where the quid starts and the pro ends. You start turning your head, looking the other way. Maybe take a little wad of cash for your problems. You’ve been told to do this by your bosses anyway, so why not make a little scratch?’

‘My dad?’

‘All of them, mate,’ Marlowe nodded. ‘For a good couple of years.’

Declan sat for a moment as he digested this. ‘And then what happened?’ he asked.

‘My mum died,’ Marlowe replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world. ‘During the 7/7 attacks in 2005. She was following intel on one of the bombers, and followed him onto a train, intending to eradicate the threat.’

He sighed.

‘She got to him just after they left Kings Cross Station, and right as he detonated his bomb, killing her and twenty-six others. They didn’t add her to the victim list because she wasn’t officially there, but everyone knew. After that, it became a little personal for Wintergreen, and she accepted a role in the same department, mainly to avenge my mum’s death.’

‘Where were you then?’

‘I’d just started training at CTCRM Lympstone,’ Marlowe replied. ‘They didn’t even tell me about this until after I finished.’

‘Commando training?’ Declan was impressed. He’d known that Marlowe had trained with the SAS but hadn’t been accepted; this had been stated when they drove together to Hurley, but Declan had faced a few commandos in his years as an SIS officer, and they were no slouches. Marlowe though, shrugged.

‘I intended to work the route to get in with mum,’ he said. ‘Never happened though. And then a few years later I was headhunted by Wintergreen.’

‘Yeah, I still don’t get that,’ Declan mused. ‘How she went from DS in my dad’s squad to basically M in James Bond.’

‘Blame Monroe for that,’ Marlowe replied. ‘They were married.’

‘What?’ Declan almost dropped his mug. Marlowe smiled.

‘That’s a conversation for him to explain,’ he said, rising from the sofa as he placed his mug back onto the table. ‘I need to head back. But I wanted to give you something.’ He pulled out a small USB drive, passing it across to Declan. ‘Your dad didn’t just have folders on the Red Reaper on the drive you gave us,’ he explained. ‘There were some other things, about…’ he looked up the stairs, as if looking at Monroe.

‘…other people,’ he finished. ‘Things you should look at and know.’

Declan stared down at the USB drive, wondering what secrets he’d find on it.

‘She really wanted you for the team,’ Marlowe walked to the front