Nicolette Mace: The Raven Siren - Beginnings

By C.S. Woolley

My name is Nicolette Mace, though the city knows me as the Raven Siren. I'm the youngest private investigator most people have ever come across. I've been in hospital more times than I have been in a school class room.

I was playing with guns when I was four years old; I knew how to drive cars at seven. I've spent most of my life running around the toughest and meanest streets this city has to offer and they haven't found something that can kill me yet.

I am Nicolette Mace, I am the Raven Siren and nothing is going to stop me from taking my revenge.

Beginnings contains the following stories:
1. Medusa
2. Siren’s Call
3. Shadow
4. A Shot in the Dark
5. From Out of the Ashes
6. The Murder of Michael Hollingsworth
7. The Case of Mrs. Weldon
8. Hunting the Priest Killer

Nicolette Mace: the Raven Siren series (in chronological order)
Beginnings
1. Medusa
2. Siren’s Call
3. Shadow
4. A Shot in the Dark
5. From Out of the Ashes
6. The Murder of Michael Hollingsworth
7. The Case of Mrs. Weldon
8. Hunting the Priest Killer

Siren, Fred & Harry Saga
9. Manhunt
10. A Friend in Need
11. Gangster's Paradise
12. Murder in the First
13. Sabrina
14. Ring of Fire
15. Return of McGregor
16. Last Train Home
17. Til Death do us Part
18. How do you solve a problem like Siren?

Kevin Metis Saga
19. When 3 become 2
20. Ballad of Fallen Angels
21. Case of the Welsh Corgi
22. Murder at the Cricket Club
23. Backtrack
24. Once Upon a Dream
25. Witchcraft
26. Me, Myself and Fred
27. Friends will be Friends

Family Matters Saga
28. Thicker than Water
29. Money
30. The Shortest Day
31. Play it Again
32. Maneater
33. A Hard Day's Night
34. Ghosts
35. Easy Come, Easy Go
36. Dancing in the Moonlight
37. Deceiving Appearances

Midnight Saga
38. Midnight Runner
39. Charlie, Whisky, Tango
40. Double Down
41. New City, New Faces
42. At the Point of a 9mm
43. Siren's Last Stand
44. The Streets of the Living

Derek Long Saga
45. Dire Wolf
46. Red Rag
47. Epic Struggle

Lily & Rose Saga
49. Fred’s Story
50. Rick’s Story
51. Siren’s Story
52. Harry’s Story
53. Reunion

Legacy
54. Lily’s Story
55. Rose’s Story
56. Rick’s Story
57. Harry’s Story
58. Fred’s Story
59. Siren’s Story
60. Epilogue

Other Siren titles
1. Filling the Afterlife from the Underworld: Volume 1
2. Filling the Afterlife from the Underworld: Volume 2
3. Filling the Afterlife from the Underworld: Volume 3
4. Filling the Afterlife from the Underworld: Volume 4
5. Filling the Afterlife from the Underworld: Volume 5

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.S. Woolley
• Release date: Nov 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311883384

C.S. Woolley

C.S. Woolley (Caroline Sarah Woolley) was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire and raised in the nearby town of Wilmslow. From an early age she discovered she had a flair and passion for writing. This was fuelled by winning local poetry and short story competitions during her years at Mottram St. Andrews Primary School. During high school, she continued to write and found her time split between acting, writing and her studies. At 14 she began writing novels. University did nothing to change her love of writing. C.S. spent a year reading Law at Manchester Metropolitan University before changing her mind and moving to read English at Hull University. After graduating she moved to Nottingham where she stayed for the cricket at Trent Bridge. She currently lives with her partner, Matt, and their two cats in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2010, C.S published her first novel, Nicolette Mace – The Raven Siren: The Kevin Metis Saga. Since 2010 she has published books in five series – The Chronicles of Celadmore, The Mysteries of Stickleback Hollow, The Children of Ribe, The Children of Snotingas and Nicolette Mace: The Raven Siren - as well as a series of adapted classics for Foxton Books and a series of modernised Shakespeare and workbooks to help with GCSEs. Her upcoming series include Alpha Sigma, The Children of Danelaw, Dark Hearts,The Children of Ribe Story Books, The Children of Ribe: Tales from Ribe, The Children of Ribe: Ancestors, Yngvar and Reinholdt, Finestra, and The Children of Ribe: Legends. More recently C.S has taken part in charity projects that include producing content for charity books such as Standing by the Watchtower: Volume 1. C.S has also acted in several plays and films including Weekend (2011). Hobbies: horse riding, including show jumping and cross country, Formula 1, tennis, free climbing, singing, boxing, dancing, playing guitar, cricket and is also an avid PC and console gamer. Favourite movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Chisum. Favourite books: Sharpe’s Prey, Silverthorn and the Three Musketeers. Favourite bands: Thin Lizzy, the Darkness and McBusted. For more information please visit: http://www.mightierthanthesworduk.com

Book preview

MEDUSA

Investigation into Arthur Mace's activities overview

Project Name: MEDUSA

Lead Detective:D. Gary Rogers

Assistant to Detective: P.C. Fred Barlow

Report made by:P.C. Fred Barlow

The three year investigation into Private Investigator Arthur Mace's activities has yielded little result. The case was opened after information was provided by Private Investigator Danny MacDonald. The information suggested that Private Investigator Arthur Mace was involved in criminal activity including human trafficking and drug smuggling. Initial investigation revealed links between Arthur Mace and one Don Baldassare.

No solid evidence to confirm these links could be found. The information that follows is a full and accurate account of the investigation that was conducted upon the instruction of Detective Gary Rogers, assisted by Sergeant Richard Ellis.

Personal Note: The methods used during this investigation skirted between ethical and unethical. The information contained within this report will no doubt be censored in order to protect certain political individuals’ reputations and careers as well as other people that would otherwise be damaged by these pages.

I have decided to keep a record and copy of all documents in relation to this investigation to ensure that even if the truth will not be made public at least one person will know what really happened.

Ellis and Rogers

This is the first time that I had worked with Sergeant Ellis and Detective Rogers. In all honesty, I never want to again. There is something about the two of them that I just don't trust. I couldn't put my finger on it but there is definitely something they are hiding in the course of this investigation. 

Ellis is a man of ill-gotten independent means. This is, of course, conjecture. Ellis is too smart to put anything down on paper or to leave a trail to follow, but his natural propensity to flaunt his imagined genius in the face of people he thinks are stupid by comparison does lead him to almost betray himself.

Rogers is a slimy creature, none of his mistakes ever seem to come back to haunt him. He has the terrible ability to avoid taking responsibility and managing to pass it off onto other people. Looking at the files I can see all the careers he has ruined. He stores up information on people, leads them into situations where he is their only way out and then he has them working for him, forever, doing whatever he tells them to and if they try to walk out on him, he reveals everything they have done and none of it leads back to him.

Funny that it should be these two that were in charge of investigating Arthur Mace. Seems to me that someone has a vested interest in seeing Arthur Mace stopped. There seems to be a lot of interest in his daughters as well. Ellis has been assigned to track them, the way he pours over the photos of the two of them really isn't right. 

Working with them has even made me want to leave the police, but there are people like Harry Lee who make me see the good in those around me, people who want to see the streets clean of criminals. It's people like that, that I want to work with, not people like Ellis and Rogers but I don't think I am going to get much of a choice.

Project Name: MEDUSA

Lead Detective: Detective Gary Rogers

Assistant to Detective: P.C. Fred Barlow

Report made by: P.C. Fred Barlow

Private Investigator licence is up-to-date, all fees paid and no infractions of the law have been committed in the application process. Arthur Mace is a fully licensed P.I. with licenses for all his weapons and the weapons his daughters carry. The gun safes on his property are well beyond the legal requirements. His office and home are situated in an area that allows for small businesses to conduct on residential property without restriction. 

Personal Note:  Private Investigator, Arthur Mace has been viewed as a good luck charm for certain members of the police force for the last few years. This makes the investigation into him seem all the more suspicious and that there are those who are corrupt within the force that wish to have him disposed of before he can incriminate them.

Arthur Mace

The assignment to investigate a private investigator isn’t an unusual one. There are some who are above reproach; they have modelled themselves upon Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. They work inside the law, help catch the bad guys and have discretion about which cases they accept. Then there are those who don’t. By all appearances, Arthur Mace is one who doesn’t.

I am a little bit more than suspicious about why we are investigating him though. There are plenty of dirty P.I’s operating in the city that we turn a blind eye to, so why is it that we are looking into the activities of this one?

The trail that we have been following through his accounts and dealings with criminal syndicates seems far too simple to me to be accurate. It’s almost unbelievable how obvious the trail is to follow. I am more than convinced that this is a setup, more than that, I am pretty sure that the trial is being set up for me to follow by the two men that I am supposed to be working with.

I am becoming increasingly concerned with Ellis and his obsession with the two daughters of Arthur Mace. From what I have seen they are both in their late teens and he is a man in his early thirties and all the photographs from the file of the two of them have disappeared. The index of the contents of the file states that there should be seven photos of the two girls in there, but I haven’t seen a single one.

When I tried to broach the subject with Rogers, he told me to mind my own business. I have been tempted three times to contact Arthur Mace directly but what I would say to him, I don’t know, and compromising this case would cost me my job. I don’t know what to do except to keep working on the case and try to expose Ellis and Rogers when evidence presents itself.

Project Name: MEDUSA

Lead Detective: Detective Gary Rogers

Assistant to Detective: P.C. Fred Barlow

Report made by: P.C. Fred Barlow

Accountants submitted for tax purposes by Arthur Mace seem suspicious. Upon further investigation into the accounts it has been discovered that his outgoings and his income do not add up correctly. There seems to be a large amount of money that is unaccounted for in his income. Over 50,000 seemingly appears in his accounts every year without any explanation as to what it is for. There also seem to be several accounts in his dead wife's name that are not only still active but receive 100,000 in total of undeclared funds. 

An investigation is being launched into whether or not similar accounts exist for his two daughters.

Detective Rogers has ordered all accounts for the family to be thoroughly investigated by Sergeant Ellis.

Personal note: It seems odd to me that such funds would not be attempted to be hidden by a man that seems to be so careful. I would have expected some form of explanation for the funds, even if it was highly suspect and unbelievable. The accounts in his wife's name seem to be accessed periodically by in-branch transactions; no further information has been obtained on his wife's accounts.

Laura Mace

Laura Mace seems to be a very interesting piece in the puzzle that is this investigation into Arthur Mace.

From the information I have been able to gather on her, she is the daughter of Colonel Samuel & Lady Isobel Moore. Her pedigree is impeccable and her fortune seems to have remained intact. Both Colonel and Lady Moore were killed in a mysterious fire when Laura was 17 years old. It was ruled an accident by the lead investigator, Detective Simon Hyett at the time. His personal logs reveal that he had suspicions that it was murder, but the higher ups wanted the matter resolved as quickly as possible and as discreetly as possible. A murder investigation did not fit either criterion, so it was ruled to be an accident.

Harry looked into the people who were surrounding the family at the time of the accident and I had the new guy, Rick Clegg, look into old police reports and complaints filed by and about the family. 

Harry thought it was a bit of a risk to involve the new kid, but he is, as of yet, untainted by corruption and if he mentioned anything to Rogers or Ellis I could simply explain away the line of enquiry as trying to see if Arthur Mace could be implicated in the death of Colonel & Lady Moore.

Laura Mace herself was reported to have been killed in the crossfire of two street gangs nine years ago. I have tried to get hold of the records of her death and the investigation into it but the records have either been deleted or are missing.

I am beginning to get the feeling that this branch of the investigation is going to get very dangerous, very quickly.

Investigation Methods

When I was originally given this assignment I was excited about working with two such experienced and distinguished policemen. This excitement went down like a lead balloon after three hours of being around both men. 

I tried to trace the source of the information we had received that had led to this investigation being launched, but all documents relating to the original report and the original report are missing from the case file, it seems all too suspicious to me.

The easy to follow trail through his accounts and business dealings, the information that led to this investigation being missing and there is one other piece of this strange puzzle that has begun to bother me.

I was wondering where I had seen the name 'MEDUSA' before, not in literature, but in case reports around the station. I went back and looked through all the reports where 'Albatross' was named, I spoke to all those that could be trusted not to report back to Rogers or Ellis.

It turns out that 'MEDUSA' was the codename for an informant who was working for the former superintendent to expose corruption within the police force. The informant went to ground and refused to speak again after the death of Superintendent Gregory Dean. I am starting to get a horrible feeling that I have gone down a rabbit hole that should have just been left undisturbed. The death of Superintendent Dean was explained away as an accident, caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs, but now I am not so sure. There is something pricking at the back of my mind that tells me to keep looking but I am not sure that what I find is going to be the healthiest thing in the world for me.

I spoke to my partner, Harry Lee, about it all and he has the same suspicions. It's nice not to feel alone in this, but I can't help feeling that whoever is behind all of this is not going to take too kindly to it all being exposed.

Louise Mace

If you want to know what kind of a man you are dealing with, you always look at his children - at least that is what my father always told me. I wanted to get a more rounded view of who Arthur Mace is and with him being a single parent, it seemed like a good place to start.

His youngest daughter is a hard creature to get a fix on - so far all I know is that she is called Nicolette. Her exact age, her date of birth and place of birth, all the normal information that people give away so freely, it’s just not there. By all accounts it looks as though someone as purposely gone through all known records and removed any and all reference to her.

It could be a response to all the horrendous comments that I have heard other people - namely Ellis and Rogers - make regarding what they'd like to do to her, but I don't know who in this station would be so protective over a girl they don't know.

Louise Mace, on the other hand, seems to have her own files listed with all national and international agencies already. She has set up an alias The Raven Siren to operate under in a similar capacity to her father and lists Little Sparrow as her business partner.

I assume that Little Sparrow is her sister, Nicolette, but other than my instincts, I have no proof of that. Louise's attendance at school is possibly the worst I have ever seen, even worse than my brother, Ryan's. Yet she seems to be very well educated and equipped with street smarts on top of that.

In some respects this does shine a positive light on Arthur Mace, yet there is something about a man who is willing to let his offspring follow him into a profession filled with danger and some of the seediest individuals on the planet that makes me uneasy. Though, that doesn't make him guilty of all the things he is being investigated for. There is something intangible that keeps eluding me. When I can pin it down, I think it will be the key to unlocking this whole mess.

SIREN’S CALL

Flashback

For the first few months (after it happened) I’d wake up in a cold sweat. I was always told it was one of the disadvantages of being the victim, though I doubt that any one of those nosy individuals was ever a victim in their life.

The thing is, to them it wasn’t a shame. There was no great tragedy for them; it wasn’t a sensational story for the newspapers, resolving it all wouldn’t win them any points in popularity polls.

My father had always warned me against them; told me they couldn’t be relied on and up until now I hadn’t really believed him.

His death wasn’t a tragedy because he brought it on himself. My sister’s rape and death wasn’t a tragedy because she chose to follow my father and my rape wasn’t a tragedy because I wasn’t dead.

It started with a call

Mace here. My father always answered the phone like he was Sam Spade or something. When I was eight I used to pretend I could only see in black and white and I’d follow him around imagining that he was on a case like Philip Marlowe. The truth of it was that his life as a P.I. was much less exciting than those in books and on the silver screen. He was hired for petty reasons by petty people whilst all the exciting cases seemed to be pushed the way of Danny MacDonald.

Danny was the same age as my father but that didn’t make him any less of a fantasy for me; a good looking rogue that oozed charm and charisma – it was more than I could stand at twelve, but at fourteen I felt my affections starting to wane. My sister was two years older and was already trying to follow in our father’s footsteps. She called herself the Raven Siren, like she was a superhero or something.

Our mother was dead and had been for as long as I could remember. She’d been killed by straying into the middle of a gang fight. With a husband as a P.I, you’d have thought she’d have known better, but the stink of it was she’d done it on purpose.

I think that’s why my father agreed to the ridiculous plan when he answered the phone that humid, dry and hypnotic summer’s day. He was chased into the case by the whisperings of all our neighbours and the ghost of a woman I’d never really known.

What is it that you want, Danny? The moment my father knew who it was he was talking to, his voice grew more strained. He’d always had his doubts about Danny MacDonald, always wondered what his deal really was. He’d apparently been in love with my mother, whether that was true or not I didn’t really know, but Dad, Dad always seemed to think that the way he had acted around her wasn’t the behaviour of a man who he could trust.

Yeah I heard about it, so what? Anger boiled in my father's voice. Danny discovered early on just how to crawl under his skin, something I admired him for more than I’d ever like to admit. Of course there was always the argument that Dad just didn’t like him enough to bother trying to be polite and reserved.

You’ve got to be kidding me. When my father’s voice tone changed from irritation to disbelief, I desperately wished that I was privy to more than half a conversation.

No. You come here. You’re the one asking for help. I felt a war was about to be waged to the detriment of my ear drums for at least the next fifteen minutes, so I decided to leave my father in his office and instead stumble about the four room apartment that his office was linked to.

This was our home. Four rooms for three people, a lounge, a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom. My father slept in his office chair, so that me and my sister could sleep in the bedroom.

It wasn't much, but at the time I didn't know any more or less. My sister and I didn't fit in at school. We hadn't done from day one, not that this ever bothered either of us. We had each other and we had Arthur. Needless to say, because of this we didn't get invited to people's houses much – well not at all.

Life was simple and how we wanted it; just a breath away from our next adventure, the next case. This made homework very boring by comparison; I highly expect that I would have found it boring even without the call of the underworld quests. I know Louise did.

She'd already left school and though it had meant I was there on my own there, I didn't care – I was hardly there enough to make it matter. Arthur had taken many calls from the school asking why I wasn’t going to lessons and threatening to take action through official channels. Each time my dad had laughed down the phone at them and hung up.

When I walked into the living room, Louise was sat on the sofa cleaning her favourite rifle. The coffee table was covered with a multitude of other weapons including six revolvers, a colt that had been a gift from my dad to me, a shotgun and my dad’s favourite assault rifle.

I never thought it was fair for a P.I. to carry an assault rifle, but he mainly used it for intimidation since it had a high tendency to misfire. Most people tend not to argue with someone carrying an assault rifle, but then again there are always exceptions.

I can remember my father being hospitalised for three weeks after he had to use it against a small time gang that seemed immune to intimidation. Any normal person with any amount of sanity would have probably gotten rid of it after that, but honestly I think it increased his love of the stupid thing.

At least it wasn’t a misfiring shotgun, though there were days when I am sure that Danny had tried to sell him one.

I walked over and sat beside Louise and picked up my colt. It was a beautiful antique six shooter that I lavished more care and attention on than spinsters do on their cats.

Louise always mocked me for it, said a love affair with a gun wasn’t normal – rather rich coming from her considering how much time she spent talking to her rifle.

What it came down to is that our weapons were our greatest friends, the only things we knew we could count on as long as we took care of them. Dad had taught us from a very early age that we couldn’t rely on each other but if we looked after our guns - we could rely on them.

Louise took this very seriously. She spent more time cleaning and maintaining all our weapons than I have spent sleeping in my fourteen years on the planet. As I sat down next to her I picked up the small brushes and began examine my colt for the smallest specs of dust that could have gotten past my sister’s inspection.

It didn’t take long for my father’s voice to reach decibels that shook the building and caused glass to fall out of the rotting window frames.

He’s getting worse. Louise shook her head in despair. She always did think that dad lost his temper too easily, especially when he was on the phone to Danny.

I don’t think he is, I think you’re getting less tolerant as you get old.

You mean older.

No, I know what I meant. Definitely old. I said staring down the inside of the barrel of the colt.

Louise would have retaliated for a comment like that, normally with some form of excessive violence, but it was this moment that my father chose to throw down the phone and storm into the apartment.

We’re going out. He growled in our general direction.

Why? I asked putting down the little brushes. Louise hadn’t missed even the smallest speck of dust.

Because Danny knows how to push the old man’s buttons and he thinks we have nothing better to do than come along. Louise sighed as she polished the barrel of her rifle.

You don’t have anything better to do.

Dad was never very good at recognising we had our own lives to lead.

Niccy doesn’t. Louise shot back.

And you do? I always hated it when she called me that.

I have my own case to work on. Louise always was more independent than my father liked. After Laura had died, he’d always been very protective of us both – at least that’s what Louise always told me. She said that before mum had died he’d been different, much more easy going than he was now, not quite so prone to violent outbursts of temper.

He wasn’t a man that doted on his daughters in the same way that I have seen most men dote on them. He didn’t try and buy love because he couldn’t really afford to – there were no ponies or promises of trips to Disneyland, there was no coming home from being on a business trip laden with foreign gifts – there was always the possibility that he would come home from the hospital; bleeding, carrying pizza, but that’s about as far as it went.

The way my father showed his love was teaching us to shoot, teaching us to fight and teaching us how to survive. Louise had learned these lessons very quickly. She had a tougher skin than even my father did, and her ability to shoot straight under pressure was legend. I, on the other hand, hated the sight of blood, flinched at loud noises and missed every target I shot at.

Arthur said it didn’t matter, that I would get better with practise but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I was beginning to feel like I wasn’t cut out to be a private detective, but then again there was nothing at school that interested me either. It’s an odd feeling that you might not have a place in the world. But at fourteen, I hardly let that bother me.

What case is that? Arthur growled. He wasn’t very good at hiding when he was angry, or supporting what he disapproved of.