BOOK DESCRIPTION
THE NIGHTMARE’S JUST BEGINNING…
A rainy night in Buckinghamshire. A vicious homophobic attack in the centre of Aylesbury sees the start of a new investigation for detectives Lizzie Archer and Dan Baines. As they search for answers, another woman is found left for dead, her partner missing – and this time the victims are closer to home for the team.
Amid a desperate race to find the missing woman, Baines finds himself once again confronted by the demons he hoped he was finally putting behind him. It’s a distraction that could cost him his sanity – and a friend her life.
The latest in the popular Archer and Baines series, perfect for fans of Val McDermid and Peter Robinson.
When Baines arrived home, he found an unwelcome visitor parked outside his house. As he swung his car into the drive, the door of the red Mazda MX-5 swung open and a pair of shapely legs swung into view.
She must, he thought, be around his own age – mid-forties. Yet the passage of time seemed to have made no impression at all on her personal style. Still the mane of blonde hair. Still the trademark skirts, if anything shorter than ever. Still that flirtatious flutter of eyelashes, that knowing look in those china blue eyes.
“Whatever you want, Claire, I’m not in the mood,” he said, pressing the lock button on his key fob.
Claire King, chief reporter for the Aylesbury Echo, pouted. “Play nice, Dan. How do you know I haven’t come bearing a lead for one of your cases?”
He turned and eyed her speculatively. “And have you?”
“Well, no. But I might have. I was at the press conference, by the way. Horrible attack on those two girls. I hope someone comes forward.”
He sighed. “If it’s inside information on the case you’re after, you should know by now you’re wasting your time here. Speak to the press office. Just because we happen to live in the same village…”
“I like your new place, by the way. I think it’s good that you’ve moved on. Interesting that you didn’t get right out of Little Aston, though.”
“Not your business.”
She lowered her eyes and nodded. “You’re right, of course. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Yeah, well.” He turned towards his door. “Good night, Claire.”
“Two minutes. Please?”
There it was, that familiar wheedling tone. There’d been suspicions more than once in the dim, distant past that her charms had wheedled indiscretions out of male officers who’d let the bulge in their boxers run away with their brains. These days, every introductory briefing to new recruits to Aylesbury Vale included a Claire King health warning.
Baines had never fallen for it. This wasn’t the first time she’d doorstepped him. She was, if nothing else, persistent.
Yet he was curious, he admitted, at least to know what her angle was this time. He dropped his car keys in his jacket pocket, made a show of checking his watch.
“All right. Two minutes. It had better be good.”
She moistened her lips. “Well. The fact is… I’ve got a book deal. With a publisher.”
He was surprised. “Really? Wow! Well, good for you. But you didn’t turn up here just to share your good news.”
“It’s about the Invisible Man.”
He actually rocked on his heels. For the briefest of instants, the world seemed to turn monochrome, the dominant colour grey.
“You what?” he whispered.
“I know, I know.” He didn’t think the sympathy in her tone sounded fake, but you could never tell. “Look,” she ploughed on, “it’s well over fifteen years ago now.”
He stared at her, initial shock turning to rising anger. “You think I don’t know that? To the fucking day, Claire?”
She’d just talked of him moving on. And he’d thought, finally, finally, that he really was beginning to do so. The savagery of his response shocked him.
“And you what?” he heard himself barking. “You came here to tell me as some sort of courtesy? To maybe seek my blessing?” He locked his eyes on her china blues. “Oh, please don’t tell me you’re after some sort of endorsement. Or maybe an interview?”
“Dan…”
He was jabbing a finger at her now, barely in control. The space between them had somehow halved, although he had no recollection of closing the distance. “You write what you bloody well like, Claire. I can’t stop you.” There was a bitter, coppery taste in his mouth. “Eleven people died. Twelve, if you count…” he swallowed hard “…if you count Jack. Why can’t you let the dead rest in whatever peace there is for them?”
She stood there, flinching, as if every sentence was a blow. When he ran out of words, she squared her shoulders.
“I’d be giving them a voice, Dan. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“A voice?” He was incredulous. “A voice? Can you even hear what’s coming out of your mouth? And why now, anyway?”
“Oh,” she said, attempting lightness, “you know what the publishing world’s like.”
“Do I?”
“I’ve got to write it, research it, then there’s the editing, the lead time for actual printing and publishing. We’re looking at the book coming out in 2021.” She paused, looking away. “The autumn.”
“So…” He closed his eyes, doing the maths. “I never realised you were such a piece of work. The twentieth anniversary? Are you going to bake a bloody cake?”
She held her hands up, surrendering. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. But at least hear me out, now I’m here. You did give me two minutes, after all, and I’ve barely got a word in edgeways.”
He really wasn’t sure he hadn’t heard enough. He felt like a healing wound had just been ripped open. Yet a part of him was compelled to find out just why she’d brought this to his doorstep. There had to be an angle. Claire King always had an angle.
“Get to the point then,” he said, “and make it quick.”
“Maybe you could invite me in?”
“Don’t push it.”
Brian next door had come out and was fiddling in his car. Having done whatever he came out to do, he slammed the car door, gave Baines a cheery wave, and went indoors. Baines wondered what he’d be saying to his wife about the blonde their neighbour was in heated conversation with.
“All right,” she was saying. “Look, I meant what I said about giving a voice to the Invisible Man’s victims. This won’t be so much about him as about them. I think people should know them as the real people they were – six women and six children – not just twelve statistics. So yeah, Dan. If you could make some time to sit down and talk to me about Louise and Jack. I’m going to try to talk to the other fathers, too – well, most of them.”
She didn’t need to elaborate. Of six husbands and fathers whose worlds had been destroyed by the Invisible Man’s brief reign of terror, four remained. Sam O’Bryan had taken his own life within a year of his wife’s and daughter’s murders. Richard Cutler had died of a heart attack two years ago.
“And I want to give a voice to those fathers, too,” she was saying. “What their lives have been like. Where they are now.”
He laughed hollowly. “I guess I’ll be especially titillating, won’t I? The man who married his dead wife’s identical twin.”
“The man who managed to find happiness again. I think it’s a good thing.”
Yet he knew not everyone would. He and Karen knew from bitter experience that not everyone was comfortable with the spouse of a murder victim finding solace with someone who looked, walked and talked just like the woman who had died.
“You have a think about it,” Claire said. “I can see I’ve really upset you. I didn’t want to, and I’m sorry for that.” She paused. “There’s something else you should know.”
His guts squirmed with suspicion. “Go on.”
“Well, I can’t not write about the case itself. The autumn of 2001 and what happened.”
“Seriously? You think I’d talk about the case?”
“No, no. That wouldn’t be right, not with you still serving, I know that. But still, I’ve got someone on board to help me with this, someone who was part of the investigating team at the time.”
“Who?” Some pensioned-off copper who’d never got beyond Constable, looking for a few quid to help keep him in beer and fags?
“He was a Detective Sergeant. Your boss, I think.”
His jaw actually dropped. “Mac?”
AUTHOR BIO
Dave Sivers grew up in West London and has been writing all his life. His books include the popular crime series featuring the Aylesbury Vale detectives, DI Lizzie Archer and DS Dan Baines. The Scars Beneath the Soul and Dead in Deep Water were both top three bestsellers in the Amazon Kindle Serial Killers chart. In Ink, published in 2020, introduced DI Nathan Quarrel in a new series set in West Hertfordshire. Dave lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Chris, and is a founder of the annual BeaconLit festival of books and writing.
Die in the Dark - the gripping new Archer and Baines thriller from Dave Sivers, out in paperback and Kindle eBook on 2 March. ebook available for pre-order now at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08VH6KCLQ
Thanks so much for having me, Nicki!
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