UNFINISHED BUSINESS by @Ted_Tayler #Thriller #Excerpt #BookClub

Colin Owens was going back.

His cloak of invisibility was still giving him good service despite the years he’d been living in West Africa, spending his days lounging in the sun and plotting. He had made the occasional flight to Europe, as had his wife Sue. Colin’s trips had been for cosmetic surgery; minor alterations to his nose and jaw line. Sadly, Sue’s journeys back to Europe had been far more serious and ultimately futile.

It had started out as yet another sun soaked lazy morning at their luxury villa at Cape Point. They had breakfasted late and while Colin used one of his recently acquired skills to drive their beach buggy into the local town of Bakau for a few odds and ends, Sue had taken a leisurely shower and as she had on thousands of mornings previously, checked her body for things she hoped she would never find. Colin found her sat on the end of their bed when he returned.

‘I’ve found a lump dear!’ she said, then crumpled. Colin consoled her and tried to convince her to remain positive.

‘We can afford the best treatment darling’ he had told her ‘let’s get moving quickly and hit this thing hard, head on. You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.’

The tears were soon gone, followed by anger and a steely will to fight whatever was going to be thrown at her. Sue Owens returned to the UK and sought out the best medical help. She made those long flights back and forth for almost two years, but she was to discover that she was in that small percentage of women who despite all medical efforts, are destined to suffer the hell of secondary cancer which spreads beyond the breast and the lymph nodes into the bones, liver and lungs.

Sue’s last flight home, ironically on her sixty third birthday some ten months before, had been when she resolved not to fight anymore, but to see out her final days with her second husband; the man she had married despite the knowledge that she had gained from her trip down into the tunnels of the Shaw Park mines almost a decade before. The man she loved unreservedly, despite knowing he was a stone cold killer.

Colin had listened to her decision as they drove back to Cape Point from the airport. He spent days trying to get her to change her mind to no avail. Sue would find him sat on the veranda with his laptop staring into space, the screen showing yet another possible treatment option that he was researching, no matter how expensive or bizarre. Every now and then a tear would appear on his cheek. Colin didn’t readily show emotion and Sue loved him even more in those final weeks than she had before, but as each week passed, all treatments having been withdrawn, her body slowly began to lose the battle that it was now fighting alone.

The end was painful for them both and as Colin had cradled Sue’s head against his shoulder on that last terrible afternoon, he had known that as her life was slipping inexorably away, the softer loving side of him that Sue had uncovered and nurtured was slipping away too. When the end had finally come and Sue’s ragged breathing had fluttered to a standstill, Colin hadn’t shed a tear. His heart was now a solid block of ice.

Colin was alone in the world.

The next few weeks were spent arranging a simple funeral for one of the only two people he had ever truly loved; the other of course being his beloved daughter Sharron, who had been so cruelly dispatched by Neil Cartwright, a man Colin had thought of as a friend, someone he believed he could trust. In his naivety, Colin had handed his little girl over to a practised and cunning sexual predator.

Sue Owens was buried near Cape Point overlooking the beautiful home they had shared since they had made their hurried escape from the UK. The villa was sold and the proceeds, together with the sizeable amount remaining in their joint bank account, were safely tucked away in accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

On the long overnight flight from Banjul to Schipol airport in the Netherlands, Colin had time to think; time to remind himself why he was making this journey.

The unfinished business back in the UK could now be dealt with once and for all. His constant checking on what was happening back ‘at home’, while he and Sue were enjoying the high life in The Gambia, had given him lots of new projects to attend to. The first priority however was Neil Cartwright. Colin allowed himself a brief smile of satisfaction as he closed the file on his laptop with all the data he had gathered on his first target.

The sequel to the award winning ‘The Final Straw’ sees Colin Bailey return to the UK after almost a decade abroad. With a new name and a new face he still has scores to settle. His meticulous planning takes him ingeniously across Scotland and the North of England ticking names off his list with the police completely baffled. 

DCI Phil Hounsell pitted his wits against Colin before and so he is sent to Durham where he teams up with super intelligent young DS Zara Wheeler; together they track their man to Manchester and then eventually south to Bath. 

The final scenes take place on the streets of the Roman city; Phil Hounsell’s family is threatened and in a dramatic conclusion reminiscent of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, the two men struggle above the foaming waters of the historic Pulteney weir. 

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Genre – Thriller

Rating – PG-18

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Website http://tedtayler.co.uk/