A Thoughtful Woman
They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but where's the fun in that?
Artist Sally Mellors has planned the perfect revenge, but with two secret agents on her tail, and her best friends running the police investigation, getting away with murder is going to be tricky...
Everybody loves Sally. She's a funny, generous, warm hearted friend, without a nasty bone in her body.
Isn't she?
Unknown to her friends, Sally's discovered another side to herself, cool headed and relentless, as she hunts down the three men who killed her husband. But Sally's not the only one with an interest in the trio. Unknown to her, two agents have arrived in town, urgently hunting a missing man and his diary, which could blow their organisation apart. Their best leads are the very men that Sally's hunting, and she's getting in the way...
The inspiration behind A Thoughtful Woman.
The justice system is an intriguing beast. We expect it to be fair, which is why we allow it to resolve our disputes instead of simply taking revenge ourselves, but watch an individual case play out in court and it can seem more like a high stakes game between lawyers than the pursuit of absolute truth. And if you think it's a game, do you still accept the result if you lose? Is that still justice? At what point will a perfectly normal, perfectly decent person snap, and what happens when they do? Is it possible to plunge into the darkness of revenge and remain the normal, decent happy person you were before you started? Sally Mellors is about to find out.
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ExcerptI chose this particular extract for Jasmine
because it introduces the quirky part of the story, and Jasmine might be the
best blogger on the book tour to actually use this kind of extract. I’ve given
her a completely different alternative though, to make sure she has a choice in
the matter.
We join the story as Sally and Emma
are deep in the planning stages of their revenge when Emma’s son Alan wanders
into the café to tell them something that gets Sally’s creative juices flowing.
Sally celebrated her return on the third of November by taking Emma to
lunch at the Cutty Sark café. They sat at the bench table by the window,
looking out across the road to the sea, and pored over the map as they ate
their pies, sandwiches and cakes. Emma was giving Sally chapter and verse on
what she’d discovered in the hills, when they heard a familiar voice behind
them.
‘Hello mum. Enjoying your lunch?’
Emma looked up. ‘Alan! What a nice surprise. Do you want to join us?’
Alan looked at the number of cakes still left on the table and smiled.
‘I don’t see why not. There seems to be more than enough left!’ He sat down and
leaned in confidentially. ‘What I really wanted to tell you though, is that
Holmes is in Miss Helen’s place again! I reckon he goes to see her every week!
Must cost him a fortune.’
Sally stared at him. ‘Who, or what, is Miss Helen?’
Alan grinned. ‘I understand she offers specialised services to gentlemen
who like strong women.’
‘Ooooooh!’ said Sally. ‘Now that is interesting!’
Emma rolled her eyes.
Sally ignored her, and asked. ‘Which place is hers?’
‘Just across the street, a little way up, the dark wooden door with the
iron knocker.’ said Alan, selecting a piece of chocolate cake.
Sally examined the door keenly.
‘Blackmail’s illegal you know.’ said Emma quietly.
‘And so is slander.’ added Alan, tucking into a nice piece of fudge.
Sally sipped her tea. ‘I never said a word!’ But her mind was in
overdrive about the intriguing possibilities Miss Helen might offer.
--------------------
The following day, Sally drove to Soho in London because the information
she needed was not to be found in the tiny worlds of Throcking or Dalton. She
worked her way through half a dozen adult stores, coming away with a large
collection of magazines and a few videos.
Emma arrived the following morning in response to Sally’s flags and sat
down to a fresh pot of coffee at the kitchen table.
'I did a lot of thinking yesterday.' said Sally. ‘Beyond mapping out
Thomlinson’s routine we haven’t discussed how we’re going to go about catching
these guys. I think we have to get Holmes first.’
‘Why?’ asked Emma.
‘Because he’s the smartest of the bunch, smart enough to infer a
possible threat to himself if one of the others is killed, and definitely after
a second. So he needs to go first and this Miss Helen business might just give
us what we need to do it.’
Emma opened her hands, silently
asking, ‘Explain.’
'I was wondering if Miss Helen might like an assistant from time to
time.' continued Sally.
'Oh that would do wonders for your reputation!' laughed Emma. 'And in
any case, Holmes would recognise you.'
'Not as myself silly.' giggled Sally. 'I’ll need an alter ego, and
transport, a cover story, and to know at least something about what I'm doing.
I made a trip to London yesterday, and brought back a few things that will help
us learn a little bit about Miss Helen's world.'
She retrieved the magazines and videos and spread them on the table.
Emma's eyes bulged as she flipped through the first of the magazines.
'Oh my word! Do we really have to?' she said, looking at a welted
bottom.
'Think of it as furthering your education.' laughed Sally. 'But I tell
you what, I'm the one that's going to have to know this stuff, not you. So why
don't you look through these magazines and see if you can find Miss Helen?
There's bound to be an ad in here for her. We need a phone number, and a rough
idea of what she's into.'
'I can see quite enough of what she's into!' grimaced Emma.
'No you can't.' said Sally. 'This is a huge world, with almost infinite
variation. She won't do all of it. She will have some specialist areas. We need
to find out what they are.'
For the next hour the two women worked their way through the pile of
magazines. Just when Sally was about to suggest a break for morning tea, Emma
quietly announced. 'I've found her.'
And there she was, a three line advertisement in the back of one of the
magazines.
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