FLINDER'S FIELD (a murder mystery and psychological thriller) (28 page)

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Authors: D. M. Mitchell

‘What about him?’

‘I read an article about him that mentioned a woman. Sylvia Tredwin? Well, it just so happens that I was going through some things in the lock-up when I came across a load of old audio tapes…’

His eyes lit up. ‘
Audio tapes?’

‘My grandfather was a doctor, a psychologist. He used to hypnotise people sometimes.’

‘Was his name Arthur Talbot?’ said Massey.

‘
That’s right. How can you know that?’

‘It’s a long story,’ he said. ‘
Your father, William Talbot, was asked by the police if George Lee had ever received tapes from him. He denied having sent anything. Even denied their existence. Said they’d been destroyed. Are these…?’

She nodded
quickly. ‘My father must have been mistaken, for the tapes were there all along. I came across a lot of my grandfather’s old cassette audio tapes of some of his hypnosis sessions with clients. And I noticed these two.’ She pointed to the ones that Massey had revealed beneath the wrapping paper. ‘They’re the originals, see?’ It had
Sylvia Tredwin
written on the cardboard inserts. ‘It just struck me that it had to be the same Sylvia Tredwin. With interest in George Lee’s case making the papers and there being some doubts expressed over his guilt, I thought you’d best have them. I don’t know what’s on them exactly, as I haven’t got an old tape player to play them on, but I thought, as they’d been mentioned in the papers, and that you were in charge of George Lee’s case notes, I’d give them to you. They may be useful.’

David Massey stared at the two audio cassettes. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ he said. ‘The originals, you say?’

‘That’s right. Well, I have to be off now. All manner of things to sort out and so little time to do it in.’ She turned to head for the office door. ‘I hope they prove useful.’

Massey gave a slow
nod. ‘Thank you for spending the time travelling here to give me these.’

‘You
will listen to them, won’t you? If they’re of no interest can I rely on you to destroy them for me? They’re of no use to anyone else now.’

‘I
will listen to them,’ he assured. ‘I believe I can locate an old tape machine. There’s bound to be one here somewhere.’

Karen Brody smiled, waved and dashed away.

Massey
studied the audio cassettes, stepping out of his office and calling out to his secretary, ‘Do we have anything we can play these things on?’ flagging one of the tapes.

‘Somewhere,’ she said, briefly glancing at the cassette.

‘Can you get it for me, please?’

‘What, right now? I’m very busy…’

‘Yes, right now, please,’ he said.

She returned some time later with a battered old silver portable tape and CD player. ‘It’s a bit dusty,’ she said.

‘Fine,’ he said, waving her away and waiting till she closed the door.

He plugged in the machine, placed the tape into the compartment and hit play.

Nothing, just tape hiss.

He pulled open a drawer and took out a file of case notes, dismissing the tape
and setting about delving into another client’s twisted head. He looked up at the machine, frustrated that there appeared to be nothing on it, and was about to stab out a finger to hit the stop button when a reedy voice issued from the speakers.

‘Try and relax, Sylvia. Make yourself comfortable. That’s right… OK, are you ready to begin?’

‘I’m ready, Doctor Talbot…’

Dear Reader,

Thank you for purchasing ‘FLINDER’S FIELD’.

If you enjoyed this novel, I would be grateful if you could take the time to let other people know and put a review on Amazon. I try to read them all and take every review very seriously. As readers your thoughts and insights are extremely valuable.

Yours
,

Daniel M. Mitchell

If you enjoyed
‘Flinder’s Field’
, I think you’ll like my novel
‘Mouse’
.

It’s the summer of 1976 and Vince Moody is a quiet and unassuming projectionist at the run-down Empire cinema in the small town of Langbridge in the middle of the Somerset Levels.

His life is a drudge, and he’s going nowhere; the only female attention he gets is a stream of cruel jokes and jibes from the Empire’s cleaners, and especially from the obnoxious Monica Andrews. But his life is about to change dramatically when he sees and falls secretly in love with Laura Leach.

Laura lives all alone in an 18
th
Century folly known as Devereux Towers; a brooding old building sitting alone in its field a few miles from Langbridge. Recently returned to the area to bury her father and having inherited Devereux Towers, Laura is something of a recluse. The local children call Laura the ‘Witch of Devereux Towers’; some people call her ‘damaged goods’. She too is lonely and unassuming, a desperately troubled woman haunted by her dark, secret past. Haunted by what lies behind the locked, blue-painted door in Devereux Towers…

Then Laura Leach meets Casper Younge. He’s handsome, well-spoken, gentle and loving, and Laura falls head-over-heels in love with him. Vince Moody is devastated to have lost the woman of his dreams, but he soon discovers that Casper Younge is not all that he appears. He’s blackmailing the Empire’s manager, Martin Caldwell, for one thing; and who is the attractive woman Vince sees Casper meeting in Glastonbury? Martin Caldwell is having serious troubles of his own – his affair with Monica Andrews the cleaner has gone horribly wrong. His world is falling apart, and the last thing he wants is a visit from Casper Younge dredging up a past he thought he’d left behind.

Then two people go missing, presumed dead.

Soon, everyone is caught up in a dangerous spiral of events that draws them inexorably into a world of jealousy, deceit, passion, blackmail and murder, where the hunter becomes the hunted, the mice turn on the cats.

Set against the impressive yet claustrophobic landscape of the Somerset Levels, Mouse is a chilling exploration of the corrupt depths people will sink to in the name of revenge, power, greed and love and is D. M. Mitchell at his imaginative best.

By D. M. Mitchell

Max

Silent

Mouse

Blackdown

The Soul Fixer

Flinder’s Field

The Domino Boys

The King of Terrors

The House of the Wicked

The Woman from the Blue Lias

Pressure Cooker