In the Blood (57 page)

But who was she kidding?
 
Tayte knew Julia Kapowski wouldn’t have missed that flight, not even for a promotion.
 
He heard her before he saw her.

“JT!”

A petit figure in a fitted black trouser suit asserted her way through the masses, clearly in a hurry to get to him.
 
An amused smile spread across Tayte’s face, though he tried to guard it.

“JT, honey!”

Kapowski was almost running now.
 
When she was no more than a few feet away she stopped hard in her tracks.
 
Her eyes were big as a panda’s and radiated twice the sentiment.

“My God...
 
Sweetheart...” she said, eying the hospital dressings.
 
“What happened to you?”

“I don’t suppose I can get away with it being a long story?” Tayte said.

“Not a chance!”
 
She threw herself at him.
 
“We’ve got eight hours to kill, and look at you...
 
You’re gonna need someone to hold that
poor
hand of yours all the way to Boston!”

Acknowledgements

I can take no credit for the verse ‘Of all the mortals…’ reproduced here as part of the public domain.
 
I came across it in a National Trust pamphlet while visiting Cornwall.
 
It was written by an unknown Cornish farmer in the 19th century about the often tardy and drunken ferrymen who operated the Helford ferry service at the time.

My thanks to Tina Betts at Andrew Mann Ltd and to Cornerstones Literary Consultants for helping to shape this story.
 
To Inspector Pat Rawle for assisting with my enquiries.
 
To Mary Kemp for her encouragement and the pamphlet that started it all.
 
And to my wife, Karen.
 
For everything…

About The Author

Steve Robinson was born in coastal Kent, UK, and now lives near London on the Essex/Hertfordshire border. His passion for writing began at the age of sixteen when he was first published in a computer adventure magazine and he has been writing by way of a creative hobby ever since.
 
When a career in software and telecommunications ended in redundancy, he began to write full time.
 
In the Blood, his debut novel, was the result.

I write for the crime, thriller and mystery genres with a family history angle, having become interested in genealogy as a means to tell the story of In the Blood and perhaps because I have no idea who my own maternal grandfather is - which is something that has always intrigued me.
 
He was an American GI billeted in England during the second world war and to my knowledge a few years after the war ended he went back to America leaving a young family behind and no further contact was made. I traced him through his enlistment record to Arkansas and know very little else about him.
 
Perhaps this is also why my lead character is an American genealogist.

If you can find the time, please leave a review on the website you downloaded this eBook from.
 
If you enjoyed it, please tell someone.
 
If you would like to contact me, please visit my website at
www.steve-robinson.me
, or you can send an email to
[email protected]
.
 
I’d love to hear from you.

Further Reading

If you enjoyed In the Blood and would like to read another Jefferson Tayte genealogical crime mystery, please look out for To the Grave, which is the second book in the series.
 
See jacket images on the following pages for details.