Ringers: Foxy Fowler, #3

By Lee Richards

London detective Lawrence 'Foxy Fowler' has a puzzle on his hands.

Serious crimes are being committed in different parts of the country, by what appears to be the same person.

The crimes are carried out at exactly the same time and even stranger are copycat offenses.

The perpetrators show no fear, in fact, they seem to enjoy being watched. These audacious criminals must be stopped and fast.

Lee Richards presents another thriller.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee Richards
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393413356

Lee Richards

Lee Richards is 55 years old. He spent his career in sales and marketing and has taken early retirement. A reading fan from the age of 12, when his mother presented him with the full collection of Agatha Christie novels. That was it. He was hooked, a fan of the written word for life. In the main, his interests in reading are within the crime, thriller, action and suspense genres. Lee was born and bred in the East End of London. After traveling the world with his career he has now settled in the English countryside with his wife and two dogs. To my American readers as I am English, some of the language used is in my native tongue. I apologize in advance if this causes some confusion, I hope you understand. Thank you Email  [e-mail]

Book preview

Prologue

As dawn was breaking, daylight started to stream through the cell like bedroom that the boys occupied.

They woke up at exactly the same time.

The boys sat on the edge of their beds, looked at each other without speaking. It was a morning ritual between them.

The twins were just reading each other's minds and thoughts.

It came to them at the same time. They smiled at each other.

Both realised that they would break out of this nightmare children's home and go on the run.

Soon.

They had been six years old when their parents were tragically killed in a house fire. Their parents had been staying at relatives for a night, and the horrific tragedy happened that dramatically changed their children's lives for ever.

They were put into care by the social system, some foster homes but mainly state-run children's homes.

Bobby and Timmy were identical twins not just in looks, but also in the way that they communicated with each other.

This communication was telepathic.

Each knew what the other one was thinking and feeling even when they were apart.

The boys had been through some pretty harrowing times.

Not only had they been sexually abused on a few occasions but they had been mentally and physically abused on a daily basis by a system designed to protect, yet let them down badly.

They spent every minute of every day together and discussed that when they reached the age of fourteen they would abscond from the children's home they were in and start to make their own way in the world.

Youth is a great thing; you believe anything is possible. Unfortunately, things are not simple as one thinks as all young teenagers do.

The twins would know this soon enough.

The system had taken in the boys under the premise that they would be protected and cared for, the opposite was true.

Bobby and Timmy did not complain or whinge about these things but just took it on the chin. They were tough lads even at a young age.

They had taken up boxing in order to defend themselves against any attacks from other children that were older within the system. These attacks were frequent and very violent. The worst of it was that the carers, the people in charge of the welfare of the occupants of the home turned a blind eye to violence between the children under their watch.

It was the summer of 1980, and it was a beautiful, sunny period. At their age, the boys should have been enjoying good, innocent fun. The reverse was true.

This is their story.

A story that has occurred in the past is taking place now, and no doubt there will be many more victims within children homes around the country. In the future, nothing will change.

This is a story of twin brothers, Timmy and Bobby. Orphans.

It is a harrowing tale, of revenge and hate.

The beginning of the summer of 1980 is the start of the life and times of these teenagers, who had been in the child care system for eight years.

A system supposed to look after and heal children under their watch.

A social care system that should help these kids for the future, so they would have bright futures.

In a way, it's a dark story, but it also has its lighter moments between the twins who are bonded together until they die.

They trust no one except themselves. Believe no one at all.

They had to seek revenge on the system and achieve it, at any cost.

Chapter 1

Three months later, and everything went to plan for Bobby and Tommy. They had absconded from the children's home.

For the first time in the young lives were free.

It was nearing the end of summer; the nights were getting slightly cooler.

For the past 12 weeks or so the boys had been sleeping rough, and even though that was bad, it was nothing compared to the nightmare they had run away from.

The authorities went through the regular paperwork routine as well as the concerned carers act, but in reality, they couldn't give a toss.

This gave the boys plenty of time to run far away from the place of evil and pain and try and start lives under the radar. They were still only 14 they would be 15 at the end of October to be precise the 28th.

They had met in the past couple weeks some young lads around the age of 17. They told them about squats they were living in and told the twins that they were welcome to join the commune in the derelict property.

This excited twins and they had long discussions about it.

Bobby, this is an opportunity we can't miss. I reckon we should take it because at the end of the day until we're 18 we have to stay off the radar. If we don't they will send us back to another institution and I can't handle that, what do you think, bruv?

I agree, let's take a risk with this new lad. What is his name again?

Tommy answered, I don't know his real name other than everyone calls him Ginger.

The twins then made their next move to make concrete plans with Ginger and get themselves a place in the squat. At least that way they would be covered for the winter and wouldn't freeze themselves to death outside, and bring themselves to the attention of the police.

It took Bobby and Tommy some effort to give themselves enough cash to buy food.

They kept themselves clean by going to the local swimming baths and showering and then swimming for fun and re-showering again, so they were consistently clean, again this made sure they didn't bring unwanted attention upon themselves.

Hi, boys, how are you keeping? Have you thought any more about moving into the squat?

As one, Bobby and Tommy answered Ginger, Definitely, pal, count us in. We will catch up with you later today, say outside the fish and chip shop at six pm. What do you think?

Nice one, lads, I will tell everybody in the squat that you're coming, we will have a couple of mattresses for you and make you welcome. I'll see you at 6 o'clock then.

Excellent, said the twins in unison. We will see you at 6 pm, and thanks for this Ginger it's appreciated.

Not a bother, lads, I'll see you later take it easy.

With that, the twins made their way to the local swimming baths, had a shower and a good swim. Because they had run away from the children's time which was based in Kent and made their way to Bournemouth in Dorset, they were pretty sure that nobody would be following them.

What they had to do between now and the age of 18 was keep their heads down. In this, they were doing nicely. Money wise they cleaned windows and gardened for a few pounds.

They were identical, tall for their age and very handsome with piercing blue eyes and dark hair. They looked a bit older than they were, it helped.

By joining the squat, they would be in the circle that if they wanted to move to another town, they would have squatters references which were worth their weight in gold to people who would otherwise be homeless on the streets.

A plan was formulating between the twins as to the type of revenge that they would carry out on the system.

As far as they were concerned the system was not just the children's homes, it included any part of any government department anywhere.

They wanted to exact a strong type of revenge over an extended period of time. The revenge they were thinking about would have to attack and wind-up as many government departments as they could.

It was early days yet, but between them, they were thinking and planning of attacking the biggest and most prominent authority in the land.

The police.

This made Bobby and Timmy realise that with a lot of different police forces around the country if they could formulate a plan in the next three and a bit years they could seriously run circles around the police.

This would end up in the newspapers and make the cops a laughing stock.

Whatever happened the twins had endured eight years of abuse of all types in the children's homes and having absconded at the age of fourteen a further four years of surviving on their own until they could put their plans into operation.

They were determined to do this. They had no fear of being imprisoned as anything would be better than the time they spent in the children homes.

So whatever plans the boys formed, and then carried out, the one advantage that they had was about they were brothers, twins and inseparable.

On top of this, they had no fear of the police which they saw as an extension of the authoritarianism that had ruled their lives for so long.

This was a dangerous combination to young lads with no fear of being imprisoned.

Because to be honest they were institutionalised and therefore did not see their lack of liberty by being banged up behind a prison cell door as a problem.

It just did not register in the lad's minds as a problem, in fact in a few of the chats that they had had between them; they agreed prison would be a better option than any children's home in the UK.

For the future, this made the lads a dangerous and unknown threat to society.

They would work part-time jobs to bring in cash, stay in exactly the same squat with Ginger and formulate their plans