The Norfolk Beach Murders

THE NORFOLK BEACH MURDERS An absolutely gripping crime thriller JUDI DAYKIN DS Sara Hirst Book 5 Joffe Books, London www.joffebooks.com First published in Great Britain in 2023 © Judi Daykin This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Judi Daykin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. We love to hear from our readers! Please email any feedback you have to: [email protected] Cover art by Dee Dee Book Covers ISBN: 978-1-80405-858-9 CONTENTS Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Author’s Note 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 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Acknowledgements Love Free Bestselling Fiction? The Joffe Books Story Also by Judi Daykin A Selection of Books You May Enjoy Glossary of English Usage for US Readers Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Join our mailing list and get a FREE Kindle book from a bestselling author every week! Click here to join our mailing list and also get a free box set of short stories! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @joffebooks The miserable have no other medicine But only hope: I hope to live, and am prepared to die. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure Author’s Note It has been my great delight to call Norfolk my home for the last forty years. As with all regions, we have our own way of doing and saying things here. The accent is lyrical and open, just like the countryside and skies. If you would like to pronounce some of the real place names in this book like a local, the following may help: Happisburgh = Haze-bruh Wymondham = Wind-am Norwich hides its ‘w’. The derelict World War Two gun emplacement at Happisburgh is still there (at the time of writing). Urban Explorers took photos of the underground areas several years ago, circumventing the infill the local council had put in place earlier. It is one of several such batteries along this part of the coast, some of which are in better condition than the one at Happisburgh. So far as I am aware, it isn’t possible to go underground at any of them. Cliff collapses occur almost every winter, and the emplacement moves closer to the edge each time. Seal colonies thrive at various places around the north Norfolk coast. Some are more easily accessible than others. If you visit, please respect the seals’ privacy or you might cause a mother to abandon her pup, or you could get bitten. For the benefit of my readers who might not know: RSPCA = Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They run a seal sanctuary in Norfolk and are experts at helping injured seals. Secret Santa = an office tradition. Involves the random selection of a colleague’s name from a lottery. You purchase a present for the colleague up to a set value but don’t reveal who you have bought for. Occasionally used to play naughty jokes on the recipients! Ordinance Survey maps = OS have been mapping Britain since 1791. They are Prologue Thank you for choosing this book. Join our mailing list and get FREE Kindle books from our bestselling authors every week! CLICK HERE TO GET MORE LOVELY BOOK DEALS Childhood memories had led Mu here. No one else seemed to have used it or stayed long if they had. Mu snuggled down into her sleeping bag and roll of blankets. With luck, the cardboard would keep the dampness from rising under her during the night. Pulling Roger close to her, she tucked the edge of the blanket around him. It would help keep them both warm. She wound an arm around him and dropped a light kiss on his grizzled canine head. Part lurcher, part other unspecified breeds, the dog was about the size of a Labrador, though sleeker in build and mostly dark grey in colour. Roger huffed his pleasure in reply. The place was abandoned and, despite the tatty security signs nailed on the gate, Mu doubted if anyone would disturb them. Certainly not on a night like this so close to Christmas. The wind was getting up. It whistled through the broken skylight in the reception room and rattled the outer door to the admin block for the old caravan site. This second room must have been the office, its windows now boarded with plywood. Once, they would have looked out across the rows of caravans standing ready for the holidaymakers that Mu remembered. The caravans had long since been removed or broken up, only the wrecked concrete pads where they once stood remained. The remnants of gravel paths wandered through the encroaching scrub to the office building. Mu and Roger had arrived in the late afternoon. A violent red sunset had bloodied the clouds gathering over the North Sea. It had taken six days of walking, hiding, bin diving and sleeping in hedges