My Brother's Keeper

Table of Contents Title Page 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 23 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 CHAPTER 57 MY BROTHER’S KEEPER A DCI ROHAN ROY CRIME THRILLER Book 1 M.L. ROSE Copyright © 2023 by M.L. Rose All rights reserved. The right of ML Rose to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 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Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. CHAPTER 1 Nine-year-old Johnny looked around him fearfully. The dense trees stood silent with their thick, cracked brown bark, rising tall into the dark sky. Green undergrowth came up to his waist, covering the ground as far as he could see, which wasn’t far, as the trees, packed together like matchsticks in a box, blocked most of his view. “Dolly?” he called out; his voice wobbly. Dolly was the family’s mischievous black Labrador, who had run into the bushes. “Dolly, where are you?” Nothing but silence answered him, and a whisper from the trees, far above his head. The wind gathered pace, brushing through the skeletal October branches, the sound of it like a chorus of discordant, cold voices that murmured in his ears. Johnny shivered, hair rising on his neck. “Daddy?” He shouted. “Daddy! I can’t find Dolly.” Johnny heard footsteps trampling behind him. A frisson of fear ignited in his guts as he turned around quickly. A grey coated man was walking towards him, and he relaxed when he saw his father, Duncan Reid. His father’s face was like thunder, mirroring the grey sky above. “I told you not to go running after Dolly!” Duncan said. He got to his son and bent lower to face him. “Stop running after her. We’ll find her, don’t worry. But we go together, okay?” Johnny nodded, relieved that his father was here. “Okay, Daddy.” Duncan took his son’s hand, and they stepped over the thick shrubbery and twigs. “She’s chasing some rabbits. I just hope she’s not fallen in some hole.” He murmured the last sentence under his breath, to himself. He didn’t want Johnny to get worried. Like Johnny, he loved that dog, but she was always getting herself into trouble. After a few more steps, Duncan stopped. Ahead of him the knot of trees got thicker, and the shrubs rose higher. He needed a machete to hack through this crap, and he certainly couldn’t do it with his son in tow. Not that he had a machete to start with. He cursed the dog in silence. He should never have taken her off the leash. But they were on the hill, in open land, and though it was isolated, he came here often with the family. Mandy, Johnny, and him, with Dolly. This place was free of the other dogwalkers in this area. They were in Wyming Brook Nature Reserve, an area that was at the border between south Sheffield, and the beginning of the vast mountainous area of the Derbyshire Dales. Johnny tugged on his hand. “Daddy, what shall we do?” Duncan needed to make a decision. It was three in the afternoon on a Sunday, and Mandy would want him back soon. She was making a roast. Duncan did a 360, and all that met his eyes were fern leaves, foliage of various sizes, and the numerous trees that effectively blocked further advance with a child in tow. And yet, he needed to find Dolly. Where could that dog have gone? Not far in this thicket. He cast his gaze around but couldn’t see anyone else walking their dogs. It was remote here, and there wasn’t any other living person around for miles. Maybe he shouldn’t have come this far for a walk. “I’ll tell you what. Let’s go back to the car. You have a biscuit, while I look for Dolly. She can’t be that far ahead.” There was a stubborn look on Johnny’s face. His eyebrows lowered, and his lips followed. “No. Coming with you.” He tightened his grip on his father’s hand. Duncan sighed. Admittedly, he had his doubts about locking Johnny in the car. But that was better than being out here in the middle of a forest. “Let’s go on the path and walk around. Dolly’s probably back there anyway.” “Yes,” Johnny brightened. They walked back