One Last Time , livre ebook

Pneuma Springs Publishing - Mark Beggs

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164 pages

English

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Description

David Munroe is disillusioned with his career and his life as a whole. The death of his wife leaves him floundering and to fill the void he finds a new love. His new love is costing him a lot, so he begins to borrow money from his employers without their knowledge. On the verge of being caught and losing everything he holds dear in life, he has to find a way to repay the money in four weeks. The banks turn him down for a loan so he decides to take the money from the banks the hard way. With incredible ingenuity and disguise he keeps the police on the wrong track and is all set to carry out one last job to clear the slate.Susan Williams is thirty something; a newly promoted detective who wants to prove herself. Her first assignment as detective sets her and David Monroe on a cat and mouse chase. Susan is closing in on David but she is in for the greatest shock of her life. Can she survive this rollercoaster ride of emotions and still do her job with a clear conscience. Book reviews online @ www.publishedbestsellers.com

Informations

Publié par	Pneuma Springs Publishing
Date de parution	15 septembre 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781782281887
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0160€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

One
Last Tim£

Mark Beggs
Copyright

First Published in 2007 by: Pneuma Springs Publishing
One Last Time Copyright © 2007 Mark Beggs
Kindle eISBN: 9781907728556 ePub eISBN: 9781782281887 PDF eBook eISBN: 9781782280392 Paperback ISBN: 9781905809264
Pneuma Springs Publishing E: admin@pneumasprings.co.uk W: www.pneumasprings.co.uk
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Published in the United Kingdom. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, save those clearly in the public domain, is purely coincidental.
Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife, friend and partner Anne Marie, who many years ago said that magic ‘Yes’, and changed my life for ever.
Without you, I would not be who I am.
The Novel
CHAPTER
One
D avid Monroe walked away from the window wondering how to handle this problem. His dress was long, almost brushing the floor and making him look like he was floating as he moved.
As he moved, he kept his eyes on the body on the ground, writhing in pain. As he inched closer to the body, he listened to the different sounds of chaos vibrate through the bank.
The sound of crying and sobbing from some of the bank staff and customers could be heard as they tried to make sense of all that had just happened. One moment they were all carrying out their normal daily routines; the next moment they were caught up in the violence that had just engulfed the small bank. Most of them were lying on the floor, as they had been instructed.
The main doors of the bank rattled and shook due to the pressure being applied to them by the police officers desperately tying to get in. But, they were wasting their time. The reinforced doors were locked, and everyone knew it.
The once peaceful, quiet street outside was now transformed into a street under siege. The piercing sounds of sirens filled the air and everywhere police officers raced back and forward, clearing the area, preparing it for the worst.
David walked closer to the moving body. He saw the blood on her face and, for a moment, he even thought he could smell it. As she turned around, he saw where the barrel of the gun had caught her just under her chin. Blood was flowing from her mouth and also from that nasty two-inch gash.
He looked out the window again as some man started to shout.
“Hello in the bank. Can you hear me?” the man, who David assumed was a police officer, shouted.
“Piss off,” came back the answer.
“Look, I just want to talk to you. My name is Detective Inspector O’Brien. Can I come in and see if everyone is okay?”
“I said, piss off.”
“Look, we have to talk. You’re trapped in there and all this is not doing you or anyone else any good.”
“If you don’t piss off, I’ll send someone out there in a bloody body bag. Now, piss off.”
That last comment seemed to have done the trick, because the officer walked away out of sight. “Probably to plan his next move,” David thought to himself.
“Have you got a first aid box?” David asked the manager, as he knelt down beside the woman on the floor, who was trying to push herself up into a sitting position. “Easy now,” he said as he tried to help her and then turned to see that the manager was still standing there.
“Menton! I said do you have a first aid box?” David shouted when he didn’t get an immediate answer.
“Yes. Yes, we do,” he replied, still in shock at not only having his bank robbed twice in one day, but also at the bloody face of the police officer lying on the floor.
“Well, man, don’t just stand there, go and get it!”
David kept his eyes on Menton as he ran towards the door, which only moments ago, both of them had just come through. The silver square box that sat over the door caught David’s attention. It wasn’t the time on it but the date that seemed to jump out and hit him.
In black letters it simply read April 29th.
CHAPTER
Two
March 29th, Four weeks earlier
“H ello,” David said as he answered the ringing phone on his desk. Glancing at the small screen on the unit, he could see that it was Tom Standwell, his boss, calling.
“David, hi, have you got a moment?” Standwell asked.
“Sure, go ahead,” David said as he continued organising some papers and company brochures into his briefcase.
“No, I mean can you drop in on me for a moment?”
“Oh right, yes, sure. I’ll be there in a few moments if that’s okay.”
“Fine,” Standwell answered curtly and hung up.
With the briefcase in one hand, he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and made his way past the other desks in the large open plan office towards the door that led to the corridor.
“So, how’s the month going?” Gerry asked as David passed by his desk. Like David, Gerry was nearly ten years working with Woods.
“Not bad, so far,” David lied. “What about yourself?”
“This month has been great. I’ve hit target already, so I’m a happy camper and that means our glorious leader will be happy also,” he offered with a smile.
“Well I hope so, because he has just summoned me.”
“And it’s only mid week. I hope you haven’t been a bad boy?”
“What? No. It’s probably just something stupid,” David said, only now he started to wonder what Standwell did want. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I need to run,” he said glancing at his watch.
“Sure, no problem.” As David was about to disappear through the door, he added, “David, remember, the force is with you.”
David gave a phoney laugh at the last comment and wondered how many times Gerry had really seen those Star Wars movies.
Halfway down the long corridor, he stopped to put his jacket on. The younger salesmen poked fun at how he always wore a jacket to every meeting, no matter how warm it was. But he reckoned that at fifty-eight he was just too old to change his ways.
He saw his reflection in one of the many photographs that lined the walls and used that opportunity to check his tie. As he finished adjusting his knot, the photograph to his right caught his attention. It was a picture of him, Ellie and some others from the company at the Christmas party nearly three years ago.
The smile on Ellie face reminded him how much they had enjoyed that evening. That was also the night that they agreed that to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary they would travel around Europe for four weeks. They still had two years to plan and save for it, but the decision had been made.
He knew it would have been a great trip, if only she had lived. David had lost a lot of his energy when Ellie passed away. After Ellie was told about the cancer, she seemed to lose some of her love of life. She still fought the cancer but eight months later, she was gone. The two girls were devastated. Michael, his son, had put up a brave front but the pain in his eyes was still visible. That was eighteen months ago. It seemed like yesterday. In a way, it was.
He thought about taking her around Europe while she was sick, but it would have been unfair to the children. He couldn’t take their mother away when they all needed each other.
The echo of a door opening and closing along the corridor abruptly brought him back to where he didn’t want to be. The present.
“Come in,” came from within after he knocked on Standwell’s office door. Standwell looked up as David appeared in the entrance.
“Ah, David, come in and take a seat,” he directed as he closed the file in front on him.
“Thanks,” David replied, noticing as he sat down that Standwell was wearing one of his trademark shirts. He looked more like a stockbroker than a sales director in the loud pin striped shirts, complete with starched white cuffs and collar, David thought to himself.
“I’ll make this quick because I’m already late for a meeting,” Standwell barked in his usually gruff manner. “We’re doing the sales audits a month early this year,” he began.
“Oh right,” David said as his mind went into shock and at the same time his mouth became parched.
“And, as you know, every year I pick two sales reps who have the honour of spending two weeks each with me as we visit their customers.”
“Yes, I know,” David answered tentatively as he tried to read into the small smile that had appeared on Standwell’s face. “You picked me a few years ago,” he added in case Standwell had forgotten.
“Yes, I know, and guess what? I’ve picked you again!” he said with a look of satisfaction.
“Why me again?” David asked as the smell of the sweat building up under his arms hit his nose. He wondered if Standwell knew everything and was anticipating a confession from him.
“Well, why not, David? Is there a problem?”
“Well, it’s just that I’m very busy at the moment and it doesn’t really suit,” David lied and cursed himself for not having a better answer.
“Don’t worry, David,” Standwell said as he rose from his seat, “I’ll make sure I won’t get in the way. So, I’m with Johnson first, then you, so how about we put May 2nd in our diaries as the start date.”
“Yes, fine,” he answered as he rose and thanked God for the small mercy of giving him some time.
As Standwell opened the office door to show David the meeting was over, he added “Sure, I’m looking forward to meeting some of your customers, especially the new ones.”
It took every ounce of strength he had to make it out of the building without getting sick.
Visions of the police busting into the office to arrest him raced around his mind as he sat in his car. What would his children think? His friends? He would lose everything, maybe even his house. For the first time, he was thankful that Ellie was not around to see him make a mess of his life. Actually, if she’d have bee