Lost in the Void: CCS Investigations, #7

By Susan Elle

‘I would rather go to heaven alone than go to hell in company.’

R.A. Torrey

The void, a space in time and between the realms of mortal existence and the gates of heaven…or hell. To be in the void is to be on the brink of death, the brink of life, and no balance is more precarious.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Elle
• Release date: Feb 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386632016

Susan Elle

Susan Elle is an author with a very large family and strong ties to Cornwall. Family is central to everything she does. Writing is a passion, but family is her life. For the first time ever, (2013) she travelled on an actual plane and flew to another country - when she got back she kissed the ground and promised never to leave it again.

Book preview

LOST IN THE VOID

by

SUSAN ELLE

for

URSULA PUBLISHING UK

This book is a work of fiction. Names and Characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

Cover Photograph

Pixabay

Copyright © 2017 Susan Elle

All rights reserved.

ISBN:

ISBN-13

Other Books by Susan Elle

The Sara Colson Trilogy

Sara’s Child

Sara’s Loss

Sara’s Shame

All the above also available as audio books.

Catherine Colson-Sayers Investigations

(CCS Investigations)

Book 1 : Missing

Book 2 : The Chosen

Book 3 : Travis

Book 4 : Deleted

Book 5 : Mind Games

Book 6 : Tormented

Book 7 : Lost in the Void

Tempest

Broken

Love, Lies & Consequences Trilogy

Book One : Love

Book Two : Lies

Book Three : Consequences

Langdon Trilogy

Heart & Home

Heart of a Lion

Heart of Stone

http://www.susan-elle.com

PROLOGUE

‘I would rather go to heaven alone than go to hell in company.’

R.A. Torrey

The void, a space in time and between the realms of mortal existence and the gates of heaven...or hell. To be in the void is to be on the brink of death, the brink of life, and no balance is more precarious.

Alone. I’ve never felt so alone nor have I endured such a depth of despair. Caroline...where are you, my love, where are my daughters...Sara and Leanne...?

Travis could see nothing but the beautiful emptiness of the void as he travelled along an endless path to nowhere.

Voices, some of them familiar, echoed all around him, but he couldn’t seem to get their attention.

On hearing his father’s voice, Travis called out to him desperate to make contact with someone who might save him from the nightmare he walked in, but his father’s voice faded and other voices took its place. None answered him, none seemed to hear his terrible pleas.

His senses were heightened and Travis smelled the fragrance of the roses his mother had loved to grow, the memories of his childhood taking his thoughts along a happier path.

Then he heard his mother’s voice. Travis. Travis. Oh dear, did you hurt your knee? He smiled, remembering his mother’s loving expression as she’d beckoned to him. Come along in, I’ll bathe it and put a plaster on, then you can go back out again.

He’d grown up at The Lovett Hotel, its expansive grounds his to play in, as long as he respected the plants and trees.

Another smile crossed Travis’ face, as he remembered climbing those trees as a boy. His parents had known, of course, though they always seemed to manage to be looking elsewhere when he did it. They wouldn’t condone his boyhood pranks, but neither did they curtail them.

Another voice called out to Travis, one he knew he should remember, but he was comfortable in his boyhood memories and was reluctant to leave them.

The woman’s voice was sad as she called to him, begging him to come home.

Caroline...? Travis frowned, trying to pull back a memory to go with the voice he heard. Caroline... he said again, experimenting with the name ...I should know that name, I know I should...

The longer he walked in the void the more distant the memories of his wife and children became.

In a hospital bed, with a nurse constantly monitoring his condition, Travis lay unmoving and unresponsive. Having risked everything to undergo experimental surgery and laser treatments on his badly scarred face, Travis needs something to live for, someone to pull him back from the precipice his soul teeters upon.

His doctors are shocked by the sudden deterioration in his condition, have tried everything they know to stimulate Travis and revive him from the coma he has fallen into, but nothing is working.

Having covered his tracks well, the doctors, knowing nothing of Travis’ family, can’t contact them for a last visit should his condition deteriorate further. All they can do is watch and wait and care for his body in the hope that his mind will one day wake up.

CHAPTER ONE

It was cold, not freezing but definitely on the chilly side, Catherine decided as she took her two sons out for a walk by the Koi pond Logan had had built in the grounds of Lakelands.

The chill January sun gleamed on the water as Catherine edged her sons’ pushchair nearer the food dispenser beside the pond and secured its brakes.

Pressing the plunger a couple of times, Catherine caught the fish pellets in her palm then knelt beside her sons’ pushchair.

Andrew and Adam were both used to this procedure, having watched their mum and dad feed the big fish many times. Their legs were kicking excitedly as they waited for Catherine to offer them the pellets.

Adam, I’m watching you, no putting them in your mouth, Catherine frowned, but couldn’t resist a grin when he gave her a look of pure innocence. You don’t fool me, just throw them in the water, like this, she told him, and threw a few of the pellets into the pond.

Tipping a couple of pellets into her other hand, Catherine held them out to Adam and watched as he took them then threw them towards the now churning water.

Good try... she said, picking up the pellets that hadn’t quite made it into the water and helping them along the way ...now let Andrew have a try.

Andrew took the pellets his mother held out to him and threw them into the pond.

He’s got a good right arm, Logan said, grinning at his sons then catching Catherine in a warm embrace as she stood to greet him. Maybe he’ll follow in his dad’s footsteps and become a rugby player.

Or he might decide to use his brain, instead of brawn, to become a computer expert, like his mum, Catherine countered.

Have I told you how much I love you today? Logan asked, just before his lips found hers and cut off any more words.

Her mind swirled in a dizzying dance that left her breathless and weak. She didn’t know why he always affected her so deeply, but Logan only had to look at her in a certain way to set her pulses racing.

The boys... Catherine said, when Logan finally lifted his head.

Are just fine, Logan grinned, his brown eyes, sexily molten, looking deep into her own. And it’s good for the boys to grow up seeing their mum and dad enjoying a loving relationship, and I do love you, Catherine, very much indeed.

Still awkward about relationships, Catherine had yet to understand what Logan saw in her. I love you, too, she told him shyly.

A chorus of Dad, dad, dad, dad, rang out from both boys as they looked up at their father, kicking their legs with glee as he turned to them.

Come on then... Logan bent and unstrapped both boys, taking Adam in his arms and waiting for Catherine to take Andrew ...let’s feed the fishes. Looks like they’re hungry, alright.

Logan pushed the plunger to dispense pellets into his hand then held them out to Adam. Catherine did the same with Andrew and both boys enjoyed watching the fish fight over the pellets they threw into the water.

It was on days like today that Catherine knew what it was to be part of a family, and treasured her good fortune.

All her younger life, Catherine had believed herself alone in the world, having watched her mother be tortured and murdered by a crazed killer.

She’d had no memory of her father, hadn’t even known if her parents had been married and, truth be told, she had never bothered to ask about him.

It had seemed to Catherine that she and her mother did alright without a man in their lives. From what she’d seen and heard of her peer’s parents, having a dad around was no great shakes, so what did it matter who he was.

It hadn’t been just her father that Catherine hadn’t known about, she hadn’t known she had a sister either. And not just any sister, she’d had an identical twin who had also grown up not knowing she had a sister.

Then there was Adrianne. Sweet natured Adrianne of the angel’s voice. No one had known about her.

Thought to be the product of a rape attack on Catherine’s mother, Adrianne had been adopted by a well-to-do couple to give her the future her mother could not.

It had been one of the hardest things Sara Colson had ever done, next to forcing her beloved husband to leave her and allowing him to take one of their twin daughters with him.

Life had been a lesson in torment for Sara Colson, and her daughters never forgot her.

Catherine looked at Logan and he saw the veil of sadness that shadowed her eyes.

Tipping his head to one side, Logan regarded her then asked, What is it? You’ve sadness in your eyes, Catherine.

Forcing a smile, Catherine shook her head. Just thinking of my mother...I miss her at the oddest moments.

Logan moved closer and put his free arm around his wife’s waist. I know what you mean, I miss my mother most when I’m feeling my happiest. I think it’s because we wish we could share that moment with them. Don’t you think?

Her smile became easier and the sadness began to lift. I do, yes. I just hadn’t thought of it like that before.

Their family was so precious, so completely made up Catherine’s life, it was hard for her to trust the happiness would last.

Sometimes, like now, she feared some unknown spectre was just