Tell No Lies by Lisa Hartley
Published: 19th February 2018
Publisher: Canelo
Pages: 331
Available on Kindle
Blurb
A tortured body is found in a basement. Drug dealing and people
smuggling is on the rise. Then police start going missing.
There seems to be no connection between the crimes, but Detective
Caelan Small senses something isn’t right.
Plunged into a new investigation, lives are on the line. And in the web
of gangs, brothels and nerve-shattering undercover work, Caelan must get to the
truth – or be killed trying.
And then there’s Nicky...
Extract
Ninety minutes later, Caelan stepped
off the train at Northolt and hitched her rucksack onto her shoulder. As she
left the station and crossed the road, she didn’t allow her eyes to stray
towards the entrance to the underpass where the man she had been following, the
man she should have kept safe, had been killed only a few days before. Standing
at the bus stop, she kept her head turned away as though looking out for a bus
approaching. She had done her best to keep him alive, her hands and clothes
stained with his blood when the paramedics arrived, but it had been futile. He
had died on the operating table as the surgeons fought to save him. She blinked
away the memory of the blood, and his mother’s devastated face. She was here to
speak to another grieving family, and they deserved her full attention.
A bus took her close to Radcliffe Way, where PC Ben Rainey had lived with
his parents and younger brother and sister. Large blocks of flats and
maisonettes dominated the area. The Rainey family’s home stood at the edge of
an expanse of concrete, facing a row of garages. There were ten properties, and
Caelan found the number she was looking for on the door of the house on the
bottom left of the block. Drifting from the property above through an open
window came beautiful, haunting music and a voice singing in a language Caelan
couldn’t understand. She stood and listened, the sounds of the street, of busy
modern London, fading into the background.
‘Any reason you’re waiting outside our house?’
The question came from behind her. Caelan turned to see two teenagers.
They wore black blazers and trousers, white shirts, blue-and-black-striped ties
and quizzical expressions. Joseph and Miriam, Ben Rainey’s siblings. She
smiled.
‘Yeah, sorry. I’m a police officer.’ She remembered her outfit – the
jeans, the gaudy trainers. ‘Though I might not look like one today.’
Joseph inclined his head. ‘You got ID?’
Caelan unzipped her jacket and reached into the inside pocket. Usually,
being undercover meant leaving your warrant card at home. Since she’d had to
pack as much as she could carry at Nicky’s flat with no idea when she might be
able to collect the rest of her belongings, her warrant card had been the first
item she grabbed. She’d just have to be careful, or give it to Achebe or
Beckett to lock away safely.
The boy took it, and he and his sister peered at it. Miriam looked Caelan
up and down.
‘Why are you here?’ she asked.
‘I need to speak to your parents, and the two of you.’
‘About…’ She stumbled over the name, was unable to say it. ‘About my
brother?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
Miriam screwed up her face. ‘More questions?’
‘Why haven’t you caught this…’ Joseph frowned, his mouth working. ‘Why
haven’t you found him?’
Caelan took back the warrant card, pushed it into her pocket. ‘Honestly?
I don’t know. I’ve only just been drafted onto the case.’
‘And what, you couldn’t read up on what we’ve told you people already?
You had to come here to upset everyone all over again?’ Miriam’s voice was
harsh, but Caelan could see tears in her eyes. Her brother stepped closer to
her, the two of them moving towards their front door, blocking it from Caelan’s
view. ‘We don’t want you to come in. Our mum and dad…’
‘They’re devastated.’ Caelan made it a statement, not a question.
Joseph scrubbed his eyes with his knuckles. ‘Can you blame them?’ He
folded his arms across his chest. ‘They won’t want to see you, or talk to you.
Can’t you leave us alone?’
Caelan paused. ‘I want to find the person who killed your brother, who
did this to your family. I wouldn’t be here disturbing you if it wasn’t
important, if I didn’t believe you can help me.’
About the Author
Lisa Hartley lives with her partner, son, two
dogs and several cats. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in English Studies, then
had a variety of jobs but kept writing in her spare time. She is currently
working on the next DS Catherine Bishop novel, as well as a new series with
Canelo.
Author Social Media Links
Twitter: @rainedonparade
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