Reckless Behaviour

By Tanya Bourton

Blue lights of the police car flashed silently. The empty ambulance with its door open at the end of the driveway. Something bad has happened at the Chambers’ home. What could it be?

There are people whose lives are linked with the Chambers family in one way or another who are hiding something. What will the outcome be once their secrets are exposed? There is one person in particular that will shock and horrify the rest of them.

It is a powerful and exciting story of love, betrayal, guilt and jealousy. It will have the reader absorbed to the last page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Mar 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728386652

Tanya Bourton

Tanya Bourton was born on March 17 1973, in Swindon, England. She gained a combined honours degree at the University of North London in English and Theatre Arts. After studying a PGCE course at Warwick University, Tanya became a teacher of English at secondary level in September 1997.

Book preview

© 2019 Tanya Bourton. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/27/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8666-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8665-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter One

It was late evening and the blue lights of the police car flashed silently at the end of the driveway. In front of it was an empty ambulance with its doors wide open. The whole street was silent and there was no one to be seen either walking their dog or simply taking a stroll along the tarmac path. The scene was eerie and ghost-like. However, now and again, curtains twitched as curious neighbours attempted to discretely take a peek through them to see what was going on. They felt more comfortable to remain indoors from fear of being considered nosey. They also shied away from getting involved even though it was obvious that something was terribly wrong. This was a respectable suburban area where nothing untoward ever happened and everyone kept to themselves.

A few moments earlier, the setting was quite different to the one now. There was the loud noise of sirens as the two vehicles sped into the cul-de-sac and screeched to a halt in front of the beautiful, large detached house situated in the quaint town of Cirencester. Like the rest of the houses on the street, it was built from Cotswold stone and in keeping with the rest of the surrounding area.

Sitting on the doorstep, encased by the glow of the house lights that radiated from the open front door, was a girl of sixteen. She hung her head down and was clutching a mobile phone, shivering and whimpering. One of the police officers, a 25 year old man moved slowly towards her, fully aware that she was in shock. He bent down in front of her and carefully tried to take the phone out of her sodden fingers; they were wet, as a river of tears had cascaded from her swollen eyes and trickled over her hands. Her grasp on the phone tightened and the police officer let go of it as he did not want to upset her in any way. It was his intention to try and comfort her.

‘Holly?’ he asked tenderly, pausing for a few moments, waiting for some kind of reaction from her. The police officer then took a deep breath and continued. ‘You are Holly Chambers of 5 Damson Close that made the distressed call concerning your mother?’

The girl stopped whimpering and raised her head to look at him. Her face was extremely pale and her lips quivered as she tried to hold back the tears. She nodded quickly and lowered her head once more.

One of the paramedics held out a blanket towards the policeman and said, ‘Here, put this around her.’

The policeman gently placed it around the girl’s shoulders and watched as she grabbed the sides of the blanket, pulling it tightly around her small, vulnerable body.

‘Holly,’ said the policeman as he licked his dry lips nervously. ‘We will have to ask you some questions about what happened here before you rang the emergency services.’ Suddenly, his eyes drifted towards the house after seeing his partner, a 43 year old harsh looking female, beckoning him inside. He stood up and whispered, ‘Sorry Holly, I must leave you for a moment to speak to my partner. It shouldn’t take long. Wait for me here.’ He squeezed her hand lightly and said, ‘My name is Dave. Dave Sutton.’ He then went immediately into the house.

Holly remained where she was but now stared absently at the blue lights. Their flashing rhythm was hypnotic as they lit up the dark surroundings, and touched every tree, bush, flower and loose stone on the pavement with their icy, sapphire glow.

Holly could almost visualise what was going on inside the house. Dave, the kind policeman, was being led through the long corridor, passing the study, the kitchen and then taken through the lounge into the massive conservatory that her mother insisted on having. Even though positioned from the back garden, the modern glass monstrosity ruined the overall effect of the house and Holly was extremely surprised that the local community had not asked them to knock it down. At the end of the conservatory was an oversized Jacuzzi where Dave would now be standing, looking down at her mother inside of it. Her head partially submerged in the bubbling water and her limp arms hanging over the sides of the tub. The picture was all too clear as she herself had stood in that exact place, staring at her dead mother’s body for a long time in total disbelief. She had froze to the spot, unable to fully take in what had happened. It seemed impossible for her mother to have suddenly died like that. At first she thought that her mother had just fainted and would wake up at any moment but there were no visible signs that she was still alive. In fact, her eyes were gruesomely wide and bulged out as a result of asphyxiation. Her mouth hung open in an eternal torment of pain and fear. The motion of the water filled her mouth like waves entering a cave. Holly knew that it was an asthma attack that had taken her away from this world.

A while later, she could hear the clanking sound of the ambulance trolley as it wheeled her mother’s body through the corridor. She got up and moved to the side of the doorstep and watched as the two paramedics passed and placed the shrouded corpse into the ambulance.

Dave stood by her side and barely glanced at her. He merely placed his hand on her shoulder and quietly told her, ‘I am so sorry for your loss.’

They both stood in silence as the police car moved to the side in order to allow the ambulance access to drive off and head towards the hospital.

‘Where are they taking her?’ Holly asked in a thin, trembling voice.

‘There will have to be an autopsy to determine the cause of death. We are pretty certain of the reason but it has to be verified.’ The policeman decided to be honest with her.

‘It was her own fault; she is to blame. All her own fault.’ As Holly was saying this, she was staring at the empty space where the ambulance had stood only a few moments ago.

Dave was struck by the deep and firm tone of her voice. It was full of frustration and pain and at that moment, all he wanted to do was hold Holly in his arms to console her but of course, that would not be permissible. Nevertheless, his heart went out to her because for him, it would have been bad enough for an adult to find their mother dead in a Jacuzzi under such gruesome circumstances but for a child to have to go through it alone was unthinkable.

‘Holly, is there any way that we could contact your father? I don’t want to leave you on your own,’ Dave asked.

‘I already sent him a text.’ She gazed down at her mobile and without thinking stroked the screen. ‘He went to a work’s party; one of his friends is leaving, going to live in Australia I think. He shouldn’t be too long. I tried to make it appear normal so as not to frighten him. They say that you shouldn’t drive when you have something laying heavily on your mind. I don’t want to lose another parent right now,’ she answered in a flat and emotionless tone. ‘Can I wait in the police car? I don’t want to go back inside and it’s starting to get cold out here,’ she pleaded.

Dave was concerned by her erratic behaviour but thought it was understandable due to the state of affairs. He smiled and nodded. ‘Of course, if that is what you want.’

He led her to the car where his partner was already waiting for him, leaning her head out of the window and raising her eyebrows questioningly. Dave opened the back door and let Holly climb in.

‘I have never been in a police car before.’ She almost sounded excited.

‘Perhaps that is a good thing,’ Trisha growled.

Dave was quite worried when he began working in the police force after being partnered up with Trisha. Many of the older members of the precinct sniggered and warned him never to go against battle-axe Trisha as she would eat him alive. However, with some patience and understanding, he found her to be far more amiable than she was credited for. It was true that she was rough around the edges, as they say, and could be ruthless at times but her heart was in the right place when the need arose.

‘Holly just wanted to wait with us until her father arrives. He shouldn’t be too long,’ Dave explained.

‘Huh! Now we are babysitters,’ Trisha moaned under her breath and rolled her eyes.

Dave smiled to himself as he knew that would be her last verbal complaint.

‘I’m not a baby,’ Holly muttered disapprovingly.

‘Babes, when you get to my age, Davey-boy here is a baby to me. I babysit him every day. So tell me why I should feel any different about you?’

Dave knew that Trisha was only trying to placate Holly and it was clearly working. There were no further disdainful remarks coming from the back seat, just a little chuckle.

Suddenly a piercing glow of headlights grew stronger and abruptly halted just behind the police car. Both Dave and Trisha squinted as the light flooded inside the car.

‘Dad,’ Holly shouted and bounded out of the car and before the tall, well-dressed man could barely manage to step out of his, Holly threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her head in his chest.

The two officers also stepped out of their car and walked towards them. It was obvious that Holly’s father had no idea why his daughter wanted him to come home urgently. Nevertheless, he wasted no time in coming. He simply hugged her and kept asking, ‘What is it? What is going on? Are you okay?’

‘Mr Chambers, this is Officer Sutton and I am Officer Hudson. I understand that you are Holly’s father and you live with your wife, Stephanie Chambers and daughter at 5 Damson Close.’

Finn turned his attention to the officers and looked from one to the other. His expression was one of confusion.

Trisha continued, ‘The emergency services received a call from your daughter at exactly 6:45 p.m. stating that Mrs Chambers stopped breathing. We were requested to investigate the possibility of a crime scene.’

Finn regarded Trisha and screwed his face up as though he was finding the whole situation impossible to process. ‘What? Is she alright? Holly what happened?’ He moved his daughter away from himself and held her arms so that he could see her face.

‘I am afraid your wife passed away before the paramedics arrived. There was nothing they could do. I am so sorry but there was no other way of breaking this bad news to you,’ Trisha informed him.

Finn let go of Holly and clutched his head in both hands. For a moment he was silent but his breathing became laboured. He began to swallow with difficulty and then whined pitifully, ‘Dead? She can’t be; it’s not possible. I only saw her this morning.’

‘I am afraid so Sir.’ Dave’s tone was more sympathetic.

Trisha continued. ‘At this time we have no reason to believe that your wife’s death was due to foul play as all the indications are pointing towards a violent asthma attack. Nevertheless, there will be an autopsy to verify this.’

‘She was pregnant with our child,’ Finn screamed.

Holly merely watched and listened as she stood next to her father. The mention of the pregnancy made her flinch.

‘Sir, we will come tomorrow to ask some questions. For now, I think it best you take your daughter home. She was the one who found your wife and made the emergency call. What she saw was very distressing. We will contact you in the morning.’ Trisha then turned and made her way towards the police car, followed by Dave. As they drove out of the cul-de-sac, Dave looked back. He could see Finn and Holly clutching each other and crying bitterly.

Chapter Two

Sometime after the police had left, Holly and Finn stopped sobbing and broke away from each others’ arms, rubbing their sore knees after kneeling on the hard tarmac floor. They reluctantly walked slowly towards the house and made their way inside. They felt as if they were floating in time and nothing seemed real anymore. Their thoughts and feelings were trapped within them, waiting to be shaken back to reality. The joy, warmth and happiness of their home had become cold and empty. Familiar items that were part of the many joyful memories that they all had shared together were now painful reminders of what they have lost. Finn absently picked up a photograph of Stephanie and him on their wedding day from the mantelpiece and reflected on the occasion and the wonderful years they spent together. His eyes then moved towards the painting of Malibu Beach above the fireplace where they had a memorable holiday five years ago and made a pact to return one day. How could they have known that time would be against them and that they would not realise their dream. A pile of romantic comedy DVDs lay on the coffee table together with various takeaway leaflets ready for Holly and her mother to choose from for that evening whilst he was at a party. It all seemed so strange that all their plans for the future were suddenly destroyed. How could such a vibrant and amazing woman be extinguished like a swift blow of wind eradicating a strong, flickering flame on top of a large, thick candle?

Finn then turned his attention in the direction of the conservatory. He moved slowly towards the open door and stood close to the entrance. The glow of false candle light pulsated from within. Even though the Jacuzzi was turned off, he could swear that he heard the sound of water dripping over the sides of the tub. Just imagining Stephanie’s lifeless body made Finn feel sick to the pit of his stomach. An unbearable thought struck him almost immediately. If he was suffering by simply standing and envisaging what took place, then how would Holly be able to get through this nightmare when she was the one who actually found her mother and saw the horror of it all?

‘Please close the door and shut the curtains for now.’ Holly’s voice was barely a whisper.

Finn spun round and looked at his daughter who stood in the middle of the lounge. With her pale complexion and glazed eyes, she looked a heart-rending vision of melancholy. Both of her feet were planted to the spot and there was no sign of movement in her body. She just stood there, looking into the room that would haunt her forever.

Without a word, Finn nodded. He grasped the handle of the door and quickly pulled it shut and turned the key that had remained in the lock. After this, Finn drew the grey velvet curtains, blocking the view of the conservatory. He stood there for a moment, thinking of ways to deal with Holly. She was very vulnerable and he would have to tread carefully. He had to reassure her in some way and make her feel loved. Even though his whole being urged him to curl up into a ball on the floor and cry out with grief and exasperation, he had to stay strong for her sake. Slowly, he turned towards his daughter and before he could do anything else, she ran towards him and cuddled into him. She took in a sharp breath and cried so hard that her whole frame shook violently. Finn merely held her tight and let her cry until she had no more tears left.

When Holly appeared to calm down a little, Finn held her hand and guided her to the sofa where he sat down beside her. Holly did not take her eyes off her father but regarded him closely as if trying to read his thoughts.

‘You want to know what happened don’t you?’ Holly asked in a matter of fact way.

Finn pressed his lips together and nodded. ‘Of course I do but only if you are up to it, otherwise it can wait.’

Holly nodded her head with determination. ‘No, I need to tell you, I need to get my thoughts straight. It all seems so bazaar. I cannot believe she is gone.’ She paused for a moment to compose herself and then continued. ‘This morning, before I left for school, we were joking about how grumpy you would be when you come home. You always say that you like going to events but then grumble afterwards about how awful it was. We sorted out what we were going to do when I returned