Grim North

By S.D. Gripton and Sally Dillon-Snape

Juliana Andrews is the daughter of Doctors', she is clever and regarded as a school swot; she is sixteen-years-old and she has been abused since she was fourteen. At the age of fifteen, she was convinced to become a tester for heroin. Two months after her sixteenth birthday she dies from an injection of pure Asian White heroin and the people she works for dump her naked dead body on a narrow mountain road in the middle of a freezing night. When the County Major Crimes Unit discovers her, Andy North becomes involved with his usual obsessive manner, his temper and his sarcasm but now he has another problem. He is now the father of a daughter; Astrid, his wife and the County Assistant Pathologist is on maternity leave, his home is full of babies because Ellie Tonbridge also has a baby, a son, and she gathers at the North abode every evening and weekend. Andy feels life is grim for him for his is mostly ignored in his own home. As he sets out to establish the facts of Juliana Andrews death, an-ex soldier assassinates his ex-wife and her mother and Andy wants to know why? He grinds his way through the investigations suffering from bad moods and lack of sleep and the people who employed Juliana have burned down their establishment and run and three people are dead because a doctor couldn't keep her mouth shut. Life is grim. Another in the Alphabetical series of Andy North novels, written so that they can be read in two days.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S.D. Gripton
• Release date: Oct 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463588536

S.D. Gripton

S.D. Gripton novels and real crime books are written by Dennis Snape, who is married to Sally who originate from North Wales and Manchester respectively and who met 18 years ago. I work very hard to make a reading experience a good one, with good plots and earthy language. I enjoy writing and hope readers enjoy what I have written. I thank everyone who has ever looked at at one of my books.

Book preview

Grim North

An Andy North Crime Novel

Book Seven

By

S.D. Gripton & Sally Dillon-Snape

Copyright © Sally Dillon-Snape & Dennis Snape (2023)

The moral right of the authors is hereby asserted in accordance with The Copyright Act 1988

All characters and events in this publication other than those of fact and historical significance available in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons living and dead is purely coincidental

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher

Cover by Snape

***

Chapter 1

Juliana Andrews had been working at the Takeaway since she just before her fourteenth birthday. It was a little one-day-a-week-job that both her mother and father agreed with, and something that Juliana looked forward to. She was now two months beyond her sixteenth birthday and she had developed into an extremely attractive young lady, cultured and intelligent and clever, someone her parents could be genuinely proud of.

Her parents were Charles Adrian Andrews and Anna Andrews and they were both doctors, both General Practitioners but in different practices. Juliana’s parents were deeply committed and sympathetic towards the less well off, the needy, the wanting, the old and the infirm, as evidenced by the fact that they both worked as doctors in practices that operated on the periphery of a city, where poverty was a way of life. Juliana’s parents were liberal in their politics, in the time they devoted to their patients and to the charities that operated locally from their home.

So Private education was ruled out from the moment Juliana was born; she would be taught within the state system and, if she were intelligent enough, she would rise up through the system by the benefit of her own talents as they, themselves, had risen; to be respected by many people locally, including many regional politicians.

And Juliana had risen; she was by far the most intelligent student in her 6th Form and was acknowledged as such without argument by all and sundry, students and teachers alike; and she was by far the prettiest of the girls.

Following 6th Form she would move on to university; which one had not yet been decided by her, though several had already been applied to; studying subjects yet to be finalised. School uniform now behind her, Juliana could dress as she wished for school as long as it was decent, her favourites being jeans and sweatshirt; her parents being immensely proud of her academic achievements, several subjects at which she was excellent, a successful future guaranteed for her, the world laid out at her pretty feet.

They were especially proud of the little job Juliana had found all by herself just before her fourteenth birthday; working in a local Takeaway until 11:30pm on Friday nights; one day a week only; Dr Anna secretly encouraging the owners to offer her daughter the job and, as loyal as they were to her, they had.

Dr. Anna was unbelievably proud but Charles Adrian was initially worried that Juliana would not have the stamina to work the hours set for her: except his daughter eased his worries; she had no problem working from 5pm until 11.30pm, one extra hour for cleaning up at the end of the night. She effortlessly laboured her way through the hours without problem; her father no longer worried about her, her mother most proud and thankful to the family who owned the Takeaway; and Juliana always slept until late on Saturdays; she was allowed to.

For every single one of the Friday nights that Juliana worked at the Takeaway since she was fourteen; for over two years; she had been delivered to the address by her mother in her own personal car. Doctor Anna, as she was known to the owners of the Takeaway; who was known in such a fashion to the whole family who toiled there when she brought her daughter and stood with the family, chatting with them on the one night a week, talking with the mother, the father and their attractive older teenage children; two boys and one girl. Dr. Anna would stand and gossip for five minutes or longer every time she delivered her daughter to them. Every member of the family would be polite towards the doctor; Doctor Anna; who had fought so hard for them, leading a campaign to allow them to remain in the country after they’d proved to be hard-working and reliable immigrants, a battle that Doctor Anna and her husband and the community they served had won; winning their two-year battle, the family being given permission to remain.

The family of the Takeaway respected the Doctor totally, every one of them speaking with her while Juliana stood behind the serving counter, holding the loose blue tabard she was supposed to wear whilst she worked, something to pull over the colourful knee-length dress she wore Her mother, Doctor Anna, always drove away with feelings of happiness after delivering her daughter; feeling additionally happy with herself for being so perfect in her motherly choices, the ones she had so far made for her daughter, including the one that she’d made when she’d asked the family to offer her daughter work. Juliana was her only child and life seemed to be perfect for her.

Except life would not be perfect for Juliana Andrews on the very last Friday of her life; the Friday that was two months beyond her sixteenth birthday, the very last time her mother would deliver her to the Takeaway.

They all stood; the family; mother, father, eldest son, youngest son, daughter; all of them smiling with Dr Anna Andrews, who was forty-eight-years-of-age and saw at the Takeaway only what she wanted to see, not seeing that the grins on the faces of the family never reached their eyes; other than the smiles on their lips there was no humour in their faces at all. And her daughter, her beloved only child Juliana; she stood tensely behind the counter holding the blue tabard between her hands, wringing the article of clothing, twisting it slowly this way and that, wishing her mother would leave, wishing she would cease making noise whilst she continued to chattter away like a blackbird at feeding time. It was only five or six minutes of chat but it seemed to be much longer to Juliana Andrews. Dr Anna thought so much of the family at the Takeaway; she thought they were most personable and politest people she knew and she was justly proud of them and their work ethic. It was the main reason behind her decision to encourage her daughter to work at their business.

As was usual after chatting for five or six minutes, Dr. Anna stepped from the Takeaway; the fryers almost up to temperature; the place almost ready for opening on another busy Friday evening and night serving customers both sober and drunk. The doctor looked back one final time as she always did; waving goodbye to the whole family as they waved back through the large window, including her own daughter. Dr. Anna climbed into her car and closed the door, turning on the engine.

The moment she slammed the door of the car shut, the mother of the family, holding her hand low, snapped her fingers loudly at Juliana and pointed her index finger upwards. Juliana immediately stepped through a door at the back of the counter, followed through it by the mother and the daughter, and she dropped the tabard onto a table next to the door before climbing three flights of stairs, feelings of great excitement flooding through her; for this was her one night of the week; this was the one night of the week when she could be as bad as she wanted to be; this was the one night of the week when she didn’t have to be Juliana Andrews, the daughter of doctors’ and the school swot who was too clever by half, or so almost all of her classmates thought. This Friday, much like all the others since she began work, was another night when she could prove that she was a fully grown woman and not a schoolgirl who twittered on about kissing boys and having them push a wayward hand beneath a sweatshirt, as the other girls did. Juliana had no time for such gossip or silliness. Juliana was a fully grown, beautiful woman and she was wanted, indeed, needed. In fact, the family at the Takeaway demanded she be as bad as she could possibly be and Juliana; intelligent, clever, well-educated, bound for university and with doctors’ for parents; would spend the remainder of Friday evening and night just as she had spent every Friday night since she had begun working at the Takeaway, sinking to unbelievable depths of degradation and depravation; she would do it voluntarily; she would do it willingly and, mostly, she would enjoy every single moment of it. She would do it even though the family never once coerced or threatened her, not once in over two years.

For this was Friday.

It was the one night of the week when Juliana Andrews could, and would, participate in pornographic sex and drugs.

***

Life for Andy North was pretty grim when it shouldn’t have been. He was, after all, gloriously and happily married to a wonderfully caring and beautiful woman, who happened to be both Norwegian by birth and the Assistant County Pathologist by occupation; soon to be the top dog when the current holder of the senior position reached retirement age, something that seemed to have passed many a long day since.

Her name was Astrid and Andy North was very much in love with her.

Except he never saw very much of her these days.

For she was no longer his companion, no longer his conversationalist, no longer his lover, no longer his wife.

She was one thing only.

She was the mother of a small child.

She was a completely different female of the species from the one he’d married. This new version was constantly tired and haggard-looking, with deeply set eyes and lived-in hair. This version of her did not want to eat out, did not want to enjoy a drink with him or even to sleep with him. This new version now slept in another bedroom with the baby, her daughter, because she needed her mother several times during a night. But Andy North needed her for the whole of the night.

Not just for bits of it.

He needed her to be there to hug and kiss; he could barely remember the last decent kiss he’d had; he needed to just feel her sleeping next to him; he needed to hear her snoring, he needed to feel her moving and groaning besides him; he needed her.

But his needs didn’t seem to matter any longer; all that seemed to matter was the baby, her daughter’s needs.

The baby was his daughter, too, of course, and Andy North loved her just as much as her mother did. At least, he thought he did; he held her just as gently as her mother did, he changed her, bathed her, fed her milk from a bottle when she needed one; his wife’s milk; his ex-wife it felt like, for she was a mother now. He dressed his beautiful daughter, kissed her, hugged her warmly, sang lullabies to her, lay her down to sleep, held her tiny hand and cried over the beauty of her. People said that she had the same glorious blonde hair as her mother; that she had the same gorgeous blue eyes; the same immaculate skin but with strong legs; everybody said the baby had his legs. That was simply great, he thought; his almost ex-wife and his almost ex-lover, the mother, gave his daughter all her beauty and he gave her his sturdy legs. Just great.

Not only that but Ellie Tonbridge, his erstwhile sidekick in the County Major Crimes Unit, his Detective Sergeant, his almost constant companion in his police duties, had turned into a mother, too. She lived with him and Astrid no longer; she lived with a stunningly long-legged beauty, a Professor in Veterinary Medicine at the University; Shirelle Thompson; but each evening when Andy arrived home from work, weary from chasing bad guys, ready to ease the problems in his mind and to discuss his day with his nearly ex-wife, Ellie Tonbridge was at his house with her son. Two babies, a boy, Konrad, and a girl, Kristina; two mothers, two smiling happy mothers, each of them knowing a secret about their babies.

The secret being that the babies shared a father.

And that father was…

…Andy North.

Life was grim.

***

We have visitors, the mother of the family said, as she followed sixteen-year-old Juliana up the staircases towards the attic.

Juliana stopped and gazed back over her right shoulder.

Visitors, mother? she asked.

Yes, the mother said, a distant cousin of father with his two sons; they are only in town for one night and they have travelled a great distance. Father offered his hospitality.

And that hospitality included Juliana Andrews.

Juliana smiled and shook her head as she continued climbing the stairs, wondering how many cousins father had in the world; everyone who visited seemed to be related to him. She climbed the staircases until she reached the doorway into the attic, which she pushed open and entered enthusiastically. Placed within the room were a double bed, which had caused some trouble when being lifted into the tiny space, and a large high-backed chair with wide arms and industrial legs. Along the length of the solid arms of the chair were several straps and on the high back a neck brace. All around the bed were spotlights and cameras and internet feeds and they stood on tripods of various heights, all of them able to be operated automatically.

By the time Juliana Andrews climbed into the attic room the time was 4:48pm. The Takeaway opened at 5:00 p.m. and remained open until 11:30pm. Allowing one hour for cleaning up afterwards, Dr. Anna Andrews would return to pick up her daughter from her toil at 12:30am. For her hours of toil, Juliana would receive twenty pounds of legal currency; which she would save towards university expenses.

That was the routine as Doctor Anna Andrews understood it to be.

For her daughter it was completely different.

From the beginning of her work at the Takeaway, two weeks prior to her fourteenth birthday, things had never been as they seemed. Juliana spent the first three weeks of her time of employment at the Takeaway sitting and talking in the family lounge with the mother and daughter, being told over and over how beautiful she was, as she was stroked and stripped and touched by both mother and daughter. During those three weeks Juliana Andrews did not carry out one second of work in the Takeaway but she was paid if as she did.

The first Friday that she was brought in by her Dr. Anna, Juliana sat on the comfortable family couch next to the