The Dead Stay Dead

By Anthony Perham

Published by BooksForABuck.com

ISBN-13 978-1-60215-049-2

Copyright 2007 by Anthony Perham, all rights reserved. No portion of this novel may be duplicated, transmitted, or stored in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this

copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement,

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FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine

of $250,000.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and locations are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or people is coincidental

This is the opening scene to THE DEAD STAY DEAD ONLY. To buy the entire eNovel at the introductory price of only $3.99, click the Buy Now button below:

Preface

Sean should have been happy.

But he wasn't, and the reason that he wasn't had nothing to do with his work. In fact work was going better than he could have wished for. He had been a detective Sergeant for just under three years before getting promoted to Inspector, a rank that he was still getting used to three days later.

His partner, Dennis Harper, had been promoted to detective Sergeant, which eliminated the need to break in someone new.

No, as far as work was concerned, Sean was a very happy bunny.

He was unhappy because he had cohabited with the lovely vivacious Sarah for a little over twelve months now and he was beginning to believe that all was not well. The relationship seemed to be growing into something alien to him.

Sarah's mother had died in a failed robbery attempt at a local post office. She had been waiting in a queue to pay a bill when she had been shot accidentally by an over-enthusiastic member of the firearms squad. That, unfortunately, had put strains on the relationship, especially when Sean had eventually met the father and told him that he was a policeman.

Everything had seemed fine for his first two years with Sarah. It had been exciting and he had found himself looking forward to meeting her from the vehicle requisition department of one of the countries largest hire car firms after work and going on somewhere. She had introduced him to bowling, concerts and worse of all, poetry readings at the student's bar at the local University where she was doing a part time degree course in English History.

But since they had actually been living together in Sean's house, his brain had been in turmoil-as he watched the cushions and curtain ties being distributed around the place and the emergency bottle of whatever under the sink getting harder to find owing to all the other bottles of non drinkable cleaning stuff that now shared the same shelf.

As a direct result of his uncertainty about this girly way of life that slowly surrounded him, things had just gone from bad to worse. Tonight, he was going to have to tell her to move out while he took stock of his feelings. And during the drive home he composed the words that he was going to use on her when he eventually saw her.

His intention had been to go straight home and get it over with, but his nerve had deserted him after a few miles and he snuck into a pub for some Dutch courage. It was getting on for eleven by the time he had lost it for the second time and had stopped off at the local Doner Kebab shop for something to eat.

By the time he actually reached his house it was past midnight and he was surprised to see the television was still on in the lounge although the room itself was empty.

He was just starting to wonder where Sarah was when she came in from the kitchen and slumped down in one of the two armchairs. She did not look happy.

A male presenter came onto the television, dressed as usual for dinner at Buck House. "Good evening, and on the late news "

His co-presenter took over the conversation: "The suspected serial killer thought to be responsible for at least eight killings throughout London and the Home Counties was today arrested during an armed raid by police in North London and is now being held in custody in the high security Paddington Green police station."

Sean smiled and pointed to the screen. "That was us that was responsible for that collar-my first nick as an Inspector, a high profile one at that."

The male presenter continued, "And the water companies are made to pay a fine totalling £180 million, the highest since privatisation"

The woman again, "But first, a man has been found dead in a house about to be used in a television reality programme..."

Back to the male: "Yes, an as yet un-named man estimated to be in his mid to late fifties has been found dead at a country estate which until last year was the home of one of Britain's most decorated soldiers. Major General Bertram Cantrell died suddenly early last year at his Gentleman's club in London and having never lived in the house itself, sparking off rumours that the house was haunted, rumours that he had always denied out of hand, stating that the reason he had not lived there was because he had preferred to live at his club among people with whom he had spent his entire military life with.

"But this only fuelled the rumours and today a television crew from the program 'Haunted Places of Britain' made the gruesome discovery. For reasons or security we have been asked by the police not to divulge the whereabouts of the property. Now it's over to John Cummings who is reporting from somewhere in the south of England. John?"

The picture switched to a man standing across the road from the grounds of a large house. The footage had been taken in daylight and Sean noticed that, apart from a bored looking officer on duty at the entrance to the driveway of the house, there was apparently very little activity taking place, although he knew that there would be out of sight of the camera.

Sarah pressed the mute button on the remote.

Sean looked across the room. "I was listening to that love."

"I've heard it all before. In fact I've been listening to it all day seeing as I took today off work to sort out one or two things. Right now I think I would rather talk to you about us."

"Us?"

Sarah repeated the word "Us," then continued. "It doesn't actually matter if you don't want to because there isn't going to be an 'us' for much longer," she glanced at her watch, "about another ten minutes in fact."

Sean remained quiet. Maybe she would save him from having to say what he had been so long planning to say.

Sarah added, "I mean it."

Sean's mobile rang and he began his normal search for it. "I know you do and I want to talk about us as well."

He pressed the green button. "Hello?"

He listened for a few minutes and then thanked the person on the other end and replaced the receiver.

"That was Superintendent Roper, I have to go. We can talk when I get back."

As he stood up so did Sarah. After taking what appeared to be a deep breath she announced, "I won't be here when you get back."

Now that the time had come, he wasn't sure anymore.

"Okay" was the only safe thing he could think of saying. A cold shiver ran through him like an adrenalin rush and he knew that it was a warning sign that there was a good chance that he was making a grave error here. This was the other side of a partnership that no one gets told about, the part where you are about to lose what has seemingly been a permanent fixture. This was the part when one's brain starts to think about things like getting one's own dinner of an evening and how does the washing machine work? Had he been hoping for something that he didn't really want?

He was trying to think of a way to recover from the situation when she interrupted his thoughts.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about it for some time now"

Sean smiled "My long haired lady."

"What?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you about it for some time, my longhaired lady - it's the lyrics to a Paul McCartney Wings song".

"Really? Well can you think of any songs with the lyrics, 'I've had enough?"

Sean could feel the blood throbbing its way through his temple, "Not off-hand, no."

She smiled and repeated, "I've had enough and like I said, I won't be here when you get back."

Sean knew that he had been totally stupid. "I don't..."

"I'm moving in with a friend for a while until I find somewhere more permanent."

Sean wasn't comfortable with the way this conversation was going. Something that he now realised he treasured was slipping away from him and he was totally unaware of how to stop it. "Can you not wait until I come home later and we can talk about it properly?"

Sarah was becoming flushed and angry. "No. I have no intention of letting you talk me out of this. When I came to live here, it was as a partner, not a bloody skivvy. You take me for granted Sean; you never tell me when you're coming home. I accept that you are what you are, but that is no excuse for not giving me the occasional call to let me know that you are on your way or that you are going to be late. You are just so bloody thoughtless."

Sean's brain was in utter turmoil, "Is there anyone else involved here?"

"No."

He shook his head. "In which case, if you want to have a bit of time to yourself then that's good. I'll pay for you to have a holiday somewhere. But please don't just go away"."

She forced a smile. "I have to find a life, Sean, that I want to live. Being here with you is like being a cross between a servant and toy?"

"You knew what getting involved with a copper was like. I warned you about it."

"I told you, this has got nothing to do with your work and that is a good example of what this partnership is like. You just don't listen." She was close to tears again.

He went to her and tried to hold her. "Listen lovely lady"

"Don't call me that." Sarah pushed him away angrily.

"I've always called you that; you like it."

She turned away. "You don't get it do you? I have never liked it and I don't want to be your little housemate any longer. All right?"

Sean was about to say something else in his defence when the phone rang again.

He picked it up and angrily asked, "What?"

After a second he calmed down, said 'okay,' and replaced the receiver.

"I have to go. Dennis is outside. Will you please wait here until I get back? We can talk about it then, and I have so much that I want to tell you."

She turned to him, "Do you really care if I'm here or not?"

"Of course," he said honestly. "If you're going to be here I won't have to bother picking up some grub on the way home if this becomes an all-nighter".

She smiled. "Always with the jokes."

He reached the front door and turned towards her. "Seriously, please be here when I get back, we can't leave it like this. We've got far too much invested in this relationship?"

"Is that a plea from the heart, or is it that you have just thought about having to return to a life that includes the laundrette?"

"Please don't let me come home to an empty flat."

She laughed. "Go to work Inspector."

He opened the door and suddenly turned back to her. "If you have found someone else, someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with, to love, honour and do his ironing, just promise me one thing-he's not French."

She laughed again and held on to the front door, giving Dennis a little wave after good-humouredly pushing Sean through it.

The Inspector walked towards the waiting car muttering to himself. "God, what the fuck have I done? He suddenly felt a pang of sadness. He didn't want anyone else to have this woman.

He turned and waved.

In that moment, when he saw her silhouetted against the hall light, he knew that he had perhaps done the most stupid thing of his life.

He climbed into the passenger seat and was still putting his belt on as Dennis drove off with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing.

"Wonderful," he said out loud.

Dennis looked across at him. "What's up?"

"You and that fucking siren," he yelled, genuinely annoyed. "You do realise, I suppose, that I will have to attend yet another sodding meeting of the Neighbourhood Residents committee to explain once again why I have just woken up every pissing ankle biter and dog in the street!"

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