RAVENous

By Sandra Maggs

After being accused of murder, Raven Aubry is released when a letter supposedly written by her friend Molly, turns up on the desk of DCI Herman Devereaux. Molly was discovered left for dead at the bottom of a valley and Raven is determined to clear both her name and find out who was behind the attack on her friend. With a hunger driven by an anger towards herself and the real killer, she uncovers an illegal deal made years before and with the help of her friends, justice is served.
This is the sequel to scAVENgeR.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sandra Maggs
• Release date: Jul 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463378861

Sandra Maggs

I was born in a library and raised on literature. From a young age I wrote my own stories and read them to anyone who would listen. After years of hard work and determination, I'm finally dabbling in the world of Indie Publishing and I love it! My favourite genre is fantasy, but I'll give anything a shot.

Book preview

RAVENous

Copywrite 2019 Sandra Maggs

Published by Sandra Maggs at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Index

Prologue

Chapter 1 Molly’s Rescue

Chapter 2 Raven’s Regret

Chapter 3 A Mother’s Torment

Chapter 4 Molly Comes Round

Chapter 5 Kate Aubry’s Anguish

Chapter 6 Back To The Warehouse

Chapter 7 Questioning Everything

Chapter 8 Another Discovery

Chapter 9 More Questioning

Chapter 10 Posting A Guard

Chapter 11 Night Visitor

Chapter 12 Stalking

Chapter 13 Why?

Chapter 14 Realisation

Chapter 15 Molly Comes Home

Chapter 16 Molly Remembers

Chapter 17 Boys Talk

Chapter 18 What Now?

Chapter 19 Confession

Chapter 20 Ravenous

Chapter 21 Police Talk

Chapter 22 All The Answers

Chapter 23 You’re Nicked

Chapter 24 That’s It

Chapter 25 Five Years Later

About Sandra Maggs

Prologue

Silence filled the room as they sat waiting for an answer to the question. It hung in the air like an icy curtain waiting to fall and reveal the truth. Difficulties putting sentences together and expressing what was going on inside clouded judgement, and although there was a need to tell them everything, right now it was supressed by emotion.

DCI Devereaux sat patiently while Adam tapped his foot petulantly. Herman looked down at the detective’s leg and then cast an accusing glance his way. The last thing he wanted was to agitate the suspect and cause some sort of problem.

Noticing his superior’s stare, Adam ceased immediately. He hadn’t realised what he was doing until now. Impatient to get an answer, he asked the question again. Why did you kill the vagrant?

It was a simple question, but the answer was complicated. Years of hiding the truth from everybody made it difficult now. Thinking about the past month and the sequence of events leading to that very moment it was worrying to think it would lead to losing everything. Choices had been made and there was no going back and changing any of it.

Staring at the two men, a voice began to rise to the surface. They wanted an answer and it was best just to start from the beginning. Not the night of the murder, but the very beginning. Thinking carefully, the structure of the sentence began to form inside, a logical string of words that would not just answer the immediate question but lead to a lot more. I killed him because I knew him.

Chapter One

Molly’s Rescue

As the ambulance pulled up at the hospital, she began to lose consciousness. Fighting to stay awake, Molly Blackburn tried to remember the events that had occurred over the past few days. It was all so difficult and the pounding in her head made it impossible to think properly, but she was alive and that was all that mattered, for the moment.

She wondered where her parents were. Perhaps they would be waiting in the hospital. Had they reported her missing at all? So many times Molly had spent nights away from home without letting them know where she was going. This time had been against her will and although she was sorry for the mistakes of her past, there was nothing she could do about them now.

How she had ended up in at the bottom of the valley was a mystery and as the ambulance slowed to a stop outside of accident and emergency, slowly, fragments of the predicament returned. Someone had hit her from behind. Having no idea who, or why, for that matter, didn’t help. What had she done to deserve to be left for dead under that stinking tarp?

It was strange really. For a moment she remembered being dragged along by someone who had been muttering something under their breath, but the voice was unrecognisable. After that everything went blank and there was nothing but the sounds of the natural surroundings she could see through a hole in the tarp, until the guy from the creepy house and his dog had found her. Dread had filled her, she remembered being frightened when he lifted her into his arms. But all of the stories about him had clearly been false. Beef stew cooking on the stove and the heat from an open fire had given her comfort. They were the memories she had from the cottage in the woods. There was nothing to be afraid of. She should have known that in a place like Oxmarsh the rumours would be rubbish. Rumours created to scare the pants of kids. For a moment, she felt bad for believing them. As her eyelids began to close, she felt the paramedics move her from the ambulance.

Unsure of how much time had elapsed, Molly opened her eyes slowly. There were flowers on the cabinet by the bed, colourful blobs of nature slowly came into focus. She couldn’t remember who had brought them in though. Surrounded by medical staff, someone smiled at her. She closed her eyes again and drifted off into a muddled sleep. A sleep filled with the terror of dying before her time. The memory of lying beneath a tarp in the damp filled her mind.

When she awoke again, she was alone. A pounding in her head made it difficult to concentrate. Pressing a button by the bed, Molly waited for someone to come to her rescue. Surely it wasn’t too much trouble to get her something for her pain.

How’s the leg feeling? A smiling nurse entered the room and picked up Molly’s chart. After reading it, she put it down and checked the drip. Do you have any pain?

Until that moment, Molly had forgotten about the pain in her leg. What’s wrong with my leg? Her voice was croaky, as if she hadn’t had a drink for hours, which was probably the truth.

Helping her to sit up a little, the nurse picked up a tumbler with some water in and encouraged Molly to sip a little through the straw. You have a fracture in your ankle. It’s not too bad, but you’ll have to stay off it for at least six weeks. The doctor will be in to see you later when she does her rounds. Do you have any pain?

Yes, she nodded miserably. My head is throbbing. Oddly enough her ankle didn’t hurt at all, there was numbness there, but that was it. Swallowing the pills and taking another sip of water, she leaned back against a cloud of pillows and closed her eyes. Relaxing, she breathed deeply, the smell of fresh linen and disinfectant mingled together