Devil’s Way

BOOKS BY ROBERT BRYNDZA STAND - ALONE CRIME THRILLER Fear The Silence (Pre-order now!) DETECTIVE ERIKA FOSTER CRIME THRILLER SERIES 1. The Girl in the Ice 2. The Night Stalker 3. Dark Water 4. Last Breath 5. Cold Blood 6. Deadly Secrets 7. Fatal Witness KATE MARSHALL CRIME THRILLER SERIES 1. Nine Elms USA & CA UK & AUS 2. Shadow Sands USA & CA UK & AUS 3. Darkness Falls USA & CA UK & AUS 4. Devil’s Way COCO PINCHARD ROMANTIC COMEDY SERIES 1.The Not So Secret Emails Of Coco Pinchard 2. Coco Pinchard's Big Fat Tipsy Wedding 3. Coco Pinchard, The Consequences of Love and Sex 4. A Very Coco Christmas 5. Coco Pinchard’s Must-Have Toy Story STANDALONE ROMANTIC COMEDY Miss Wrong and Mr Right CONTENTS Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Epilogue A note from Robert Pre-order Fear The Silence Hear about Robert’s new books About the Author For Janeken Skywalker, my first reader You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute, And now and then stab, when occasion serves. ― Christopher Marlowe, Edward II PROLOGUE Thursday June 21st 2007 Jean Julings knelt down inside the small tent and tucked her three-year-old grandson, Charlie, into his sleeping bag. He had a tousled mop of white-blond hair, and his face was flushed with tiredness from fresh air and fun. He held onto a small brown teddy bear who had one eye missing. ‘Did you have a fun day with your gran?’ asked Jean. Charlie nodded sleepily and grinned, showing his perfect white baby teeth. ‘Good boy. And what about Button-Eye? Did he brush his teeth?’ ‘Top and bottom,’ said Charlie, holding up the teddy bear. Jean laughed, and her heart swelled with love for the little boy. ‘Good. It’s just as important for a teddy bear to brush his teeth. They eat all that honey.’ Her knees clicked as she sat back on her haunches and reached for the small battery-powered lamp, which was casting a soft yellow glow. ‘No, light on,’ Charlie whined. His little brow creased, and he kicked his feet inside the sleeping bag. Jean flicked it off, and a soft glow remained inside. The moon was full, and it shone through the canvas. ‘Look at that. We don’t need a light. We have God’s nightlight in the sky,’ said Jean, stroking his soft blond hair. ‘It’s not scary when the moon is so bright at night, is it?’ Charlie shook his head and tucked Button-Eye under his arm. ‘I’m just going to go outside for some fresh air,’ she said, patting the pockets of her shorts and feeling the pack of cigarettes and the lighter in the left-hand pocket. ‘No…’ ‘I’ll only be a few minutes. And then I’ll come back in, and I’ll tell you a story if you’re still awake. Okay? I’ll be outside, and you can say “Gran”, and I’ll hear you and come back inside. Yes?’ Charlie nodded. ‘Good boy.’ Jean kissed him on the cheek, and as she crawled out of the tent, she saw that Charlie’s eyes were already fluttering closed. They’d been on the go all day, playing and paddling in the river. He’d be asleep in a flash. Jean crept out of the tent doorway onto the long, matted grass outside and pulled down the zip behind her. The tent was pitched under the broad canopy of a vast, ancient oak tree, and its thick, bare branches reached far out like ragged arms casting malformed shadows across the grass. Jean stood up, hearing her knees click again. She took out a cigarette and lit up, exhaling into the night sky. Stars twinkled above, and she listened to the nearby river running into the gorge. It seemed louder at night. The moor stretched away like a blanket of blue satin, dotted with rocks, and a faint mist clung to the troughs and lowland areas. Directly to her right, across a short expanse of grass, Devil’s Tor towered above everything. Despite its imposing height, the stack of rocks looked very zen and calming, as if a giant had stacked a pile of large smooth stones on top of a grassy platform. At its base, and in shadow from the bright moonlight, was another tent belonging to Jean’s daughter, Becky, and her partner Joel. The canvas was dark, and it looked like they were already asleep. God, this place is beautiful, she thought. When she finished her cigarette, she stubbed it out carefully with the bottom of her shoe and slipped the blackened butt into the packet. She was about to back into the tent when she heard a faint voice calling her name. ‘Jean!’ She saw a dishevelled figure appear behind the Tor and stagger into a patch of moonlight on the grassy platform. ‘Jeeean!’ It was Declan, her sometime partner of many years. Jean cursed under her breath and, checked that the tent was zipped up. Seized with urgency, she hurried off across the long grass, terrified that Declan would wake the family up and cause a scene. She ran up the grassy bank to the platform to try and stop him from coming down, and she was out of breath when she reached him. Declan was dressed in the same ripped jeans and striped T-shirt he’d been wearing when he’d turned up by the river that afternoon. ‘What the