Read Dreamwalkers Book One - The Intruder. A Markland Garraway Paranormal Mystery Thriller Page 7
Chapter 6
19th September
8.18 p.m.
Howie Doyle closed the book, lay it next to him and blew air through his cheeks.
“That was one bloody hell of a good book,” he whispered beneath his breath.
He grabbed another can from the kitchen, and thought about what he’d just read. Howie wasn’t much of a reader. He wasn’t into fiction, he didn’t like biographies and didn’t often read the newspaper. About the only thing he bought and read regularly was Top Gear. Howie was a petrol head, but could only afford to run an old beat up Fiesta.
But he’d felt compelled to read Tom Judd’s bestselling book, ‘The Man Who Caught His Killer’. He didn’t buy it, but borrowed it from his sister Deb. She’d gone out of her way to get a copy because she knew the detective who had dealt with the murder of the man in Judd’s book, Sergeant Colin Matthews. Howie had begun the book the previous evening, and after three hours of continuous reading, had fallen asleep with it in his hands. He had read just over half the book. This evening he’d finished the rest of it.
Howie remembered the story when it had hit the news a couple of years ago, and how his sister would boast that she was friends with Matthews. It turned out that Matthews and Debbie Doyle weren’t close friends at all, but had both been in the Turnpike one evening to celebrate the birthday of a mutual friend. Someone had pointed Matthews out to Deb and told her that he was involved in the Ben Walker murder case. The strange story had gone viral on the internet and was on television around the world when word got out that Daniel Boyd had been found guilty of Walker’s murder by virtue of evidence given by a hypnotised three-year-old boy, whose identity had been kept anonymous.
It hit Howie, and many other Bristolians hard, that the whole creepy thing had happened on their doorstep. Just after the case was closed, Howie, along with thousands of other people, had visited the hill in Badock’s Wood where everything had happened.
Howie now considered and questioned the bigger picture, whereas before he’d no interest in religion, and had never really contemplated the idea of what happens after someone dies. Now, he’d just read definitive proof that a person can continue after they die. And not only that, they can communicate with the living.
Ghosts were real!
Tom Judd’s book was the first book Howie had read from start to finish since he’d left school thirteen years earlier, and now he was about to do something he’d never done. He picked up the book and started to read it for a second time.
He’d just got through the prologue, and was about to turn to chapter one, when his phone rang. It was a Bristol landline number which he didn’t recognise.
“Hello.”
“Hi, is this Howie?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“It’s Han, James’ dad.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know it was you. Last time you called you used James’ phone. Is there any news?”
“He’s back.”
“Thank God for that. This is brilliant news. Is he okay? Where did he go?”
“Well he seems okay physically, but as far as where he’s been for the past four days, he seems to think he’s not been anywhere. I think he’s suffering from some kind of mental block, or else he’s having a breakdown.”
“What’s he said?”
“That he needs to get back to his wife and family.”
“Wife? Family?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the only thing. It’s what he’s saying about you. I’d be grateful if you came over. You may be able to help.”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll come over now. What’s he saying about me?”
“He thinks you’re dead. He said you died when the two of you were at school. He reckons you were killed in a car accident, and that I was the one driving the car.”