A New Dawn Rising Read Free

not a totally unpleasant place. The police officer who provided her with Sam's address had certainly looked bemused.
    So, off she had set, aware of the risk she was taking in tracking this stranger down. What was she hoping to find? If a shining knight provided closure for her, then what would the opposite do? But having set the wheels in motion, there was no going back. She pushed any negative thoughts out of her mind and concentrated on finding the address she had been given.
    Having judged Carl Renshaw as a mystery, Sam would have grimaced at the irony of Lucy's character assessment of himself. She could tell immediately Sam was a genuinely decent guy. Modest, quiet, polite. By the same token, she couldn't fail to notice the run-down living premises. The smell of alcohol on his breath. The unsteadiness in his feet. The troubled look in his eyes. She had witnessed first hand his strength, now she was catching a glimpse of some vulnerability. A rough diamond? A troubled soul? Lucy mulled it over as she pulled up outside her home.
    She realised she didn't care.
    He was a good man at heart.
    That was all that mattered to Lucy Pargeter.

Chapter 4
    The late evening found Carl Renshaw sitting at his huge kitchen dining table, tapping his fingers impatiently on the surface. His eyes were locked on the mobile phone lying idle in front of him.
    Come on. Ring.
    He had spent a fraught evening calming Jenny down after her scare in the garden. Offering soothing words to his daughter and her sister, telling them there was nothing to worry about. Quietly reassuring their mother that young girls had vivid imaginations. Eventually, the twins had accepted his calming words and allowed themselves to be tucked into bed. His wife remained unconvinced.
    Carl chewed on his lip thoughtfully. He realised asking a total stranger to come and work for him was a long shot. Yet he needed someone. He had hoped Sam was that man.
    He continued to stare at the phone.
    Carl would have been delighted to know Sam was giving his offer serious consideration at that very moment. However, his pleasure may have been tempered somewhat if he could have seen the inebriated state Sam was in. Stretched out on his bed with his hands cupped behind his head, Sam was staring up at the bedroom ceiling. A ceiling that was spinning right now. A silent cascade of twirling patterns rendering him dizzy and disorientated. Acrid sickness once again rose within him. Pulling the empty washing-up bowl a little nearer, he groaned as the taste of bile hit the outskirts of his throat before subsiding again. It was only a matter of time. His head pounded. Beads of sweat bathed his skin.
    Still his mind raced.
    Sam Carlisle had resigned from the police force two years ago. Six months later, he had forsaken his home too, fleeing the large, bustling city in the Midlands, the place he had lived all his life, to start afresh here in Bursleigh, a small, rural district in the countryside of Northern England. After trading in his modern house and brand new car for the dilapidated cottage he now called home and the old banger rusting outside, Sam then worked his way through the profits from those transactions and now there was no money left. The pitiful police pension offered minimal financial support. Sam concluded he was desperate. Now, that would have cheered Carl Renshaw up.
    Hence Sam's trip to Bursleigh town centre that morning. He had wandered around the market town searching for job vacancies, gazing in shop windows and looking on notice boards. As far as Sam could recall through the thick fog now clouding his mind, the only opportunity he had seen was for a security guard in the department store. He had gone in there, collected an application form and left.
    Walked out into the cold sunshine.
    Into a mugging and a very strange offer.
    Sleep finally began to take Sam Carlisle. Carl Renshaw's face appeared in his dark and confused vision, muttering about a job and money. Lucy Pargeter