Children in Chains by Lorraine Mace - Book Blitz
Children
in Chains
Detective Inspector Paolo Sterling is
determined to shut down the syndicate flooding Bradchester’s streets with young
prostitutes.
When a child is murdered, Paolo becomes
aware of a sinister network of abusers spread across Europe, and spanning all
levels of society. But Joey, the shadowy leader of the gang, always seems to be
one step ahead in the chase.
Has Paolo come up against a criminal he
cannot defeat?
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Excerpt
D.I. Paolo Sterling and his ex-wife Lydia are
at loggerheads over the best way to help their daughter, Katy. When Paolo sees
Lydia in the car park, he decides to try once again to talk to Lydia.
Extract starts …
He
waited until she’d finished her call and then walked over.
“Lydia,
wait up. I need to talk to you.”
She
spun round, looking furtive, almost guilty. “Paolo! What do you want?”
He
stopped at the car next to hers, desperately trying to frame the right sentence
so that he didn’t put her back up again – something he was so good at, without
even trying.
“I
wanted to talk to you about what the psychiatrist said ... about how our
arguing is affecting Katy.”
“Really?”
Lydia said, her eyes narrowing. “Funnily enough, I’ve just been talking about
exactly the same thing and have put steps in place to do something about it.”
Paolo
felt a massive wave of relief. This might be easier than he’d hoped.
Lydia
moved towards him. “You see, Paolo, I think the doctor is right. Katy shouldn’t
have to listen to you apologising, or hear me blaming you for what happened to
her. She needs peace and quiet so that she can get better. Do you agree?”
Paolo
nodded, stunned by Lydia’s change of heart.
“Good,”
Lydia said. “I’m glad you agree. I’ve just been speaking to my solicitor.”
“Solicitor?
What? Why?”
“To
get a restraining order, stopping you from visiting Katy until she’s well
again.”
He
felt like he’d wandered into a twilight world. Not be able to see his daughter?
He’d never let that happen. “Are you mad? On what grounds? You’ll never get a
restraining order. I’ll fight you all the way.”
His
phone rang. He ignored it while his fevered brain tried to put words together
that would get through to Lydia. One of the tunes Katy had chosen for him, so
that he’d know who was calling, played on endlessly. It was Dave Johnson, his
detective sergeant. It stopped briefly and then started again. He wanted to
ignore it, sort something out with Lydia, but Dave had been given strict
instructions not to call this afternoon unless it was urgent. He had to take
the call. Turning his back to Lydia, he flipped the phone open.
“Dave,
your timing stinks. This had better be important.”
“It
is, sir. We’ve found the body of a young girl, about ten or eleven. Dressed
like a hooker, it’s almost certain she’d been forced to work on the streets.
Barbara Royston says the girl had been sexually active for some time.”
“Cause
of death?”
“Looks
like an overdose, but you know Dr Royston. She won’t commit herself until after
the autopsy.”
“No,
I know. Where are you?”
“Heading
back to the station.”
“Okay,
I’m on my way.”
He
snapped the phone shut and turned back to Lydia. “I have to go. A child’s body
has been found. Please don’t go through with this, Lydia. Trying to cut me out
of Katy’s life will make it harder for her to recover, not easier.”
Lydia
looked at him as if he’d crawled out of a drain. “You don’t care about Katy.
You only care about your precious work. Look at you, raring to get back to the
office to weep over some unknown brat when your own daughter is ... is ...” she
broke off as tears streamed down her face.
Paolo
took a step forward, reaching for her, but she moved away.
“Don’t
come near me. Don’t touch me. Your bloody work killed one of our girls and
destroyed our marriage. Now you’ve allowed your job to put our other daughter
in hospital. I’ll never forgive you. Never. I hate you.”
She
wrenched open her car, slipped into the driver’s seat, and slammed the door.
The engine roared into life and Paolo had to jump out of the way as the car
shot out in reverse. He watched helplessly as Lydia manoeuvred out of the
parking space and turned the car, the tyres chucking up gravel as she ground
the gears and sped off towards the parking barrier. The car screeched to a halt
just before the bar and then stalled.
Paolo
thought about how distressed Lydia must be to drive so badly and realised he’d
managed to achieve exactly the opposite of what he’d hoped.
Well
done, me, he thought, I really handled that well.
Author
Bio – When not working on her D.I. Sterling Series,
Lorraine Mace is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist
for both Writing Magazine and Writers' Forum and is head judge for Writers’
Forum monthly fiction competitions. A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs
her own private critique and author mentoring service. She is co-author, with
Maureen Vincent-Northam, of THE WRITER'S ABC CHECKLIST (Accent Press). Other
books include children’s novel VLAD THE INHALER - HERO IN THE MAKING, and NOTES
FROM THE MARGIN, a compilation of her Writing Magazine humour column.
Social Media Links –
Website: www.lorrainemace.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lomace
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorraine.mace.52
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