SHADOW OVER THE FENS a gripping crime thriller full of suspense by JOY ELLIS Page A

number.’ He handed her a card, and gave her a brief peck on the cheek. He wanted to kiss her, really kiss her, but . . . then it was too late. Bryony was leaning towards the driver’s window and telling him an address on the far side of town, one that Joseph immediately made a mental note of. He opened the door for her and watched her get in.
    As he closed the door, he glanced across the road to the railway station buildings, and saw a man standing in the shadows, watching them intently. He was hardly visible, but Joseph caught sight of a dull gleam of pale hair in the orange glow of a street lamp
    ‘What’s wrong, Joseph?’ asked Bryony. There was a tinge of concern in her voice. ‘You’re as white as a sheet.’
    ‘A man. Over there.’ He pointed.
    ‘Where?’ She cast her eyes this way and that.
    ‘He’s gone. You didn’t see him?’ Joseph tried to get the panic out of his voice.
    ‘Sorry, no. Who is he?’
    ‘No one.’ He covered his anxiety with a smile. ‘No one at all. See you Friday. Take care, and thank you for tonight.’
    Bryony looked at him for a long while, then smiled back. ‘Goodnight, Joseph.’
    As the car pulled away, she called from the open window, ‘Got a good memory? Remember this!’ Then she called out her telephone number, and the window closed and she was gone.
    Joseph grabbed a pen from his pocket, wrote the number on his hand, and watched the car until it turned on the High Street. Then he sprinted across the road. He paced up and down the railway approach, looked in every hiding place, and tried doors to see if any were open, but the station was deserted.
    This time he really wasn’t sure about what he’d seen. The shadows had concealed the figure. All he knew was that someone had been there, and he had slipped out of sight quickly enough for Bryony not to see him.
    After one last look around, Joseph gave up and walked back towards the taxi rank. As he got close, he decided that he could not face being shut inside a cab. It was a fair distance, but he’d walk. He had so much on his mind, he could do with the time alone to try to make sense of things.
    He pushed his hands deep into his pockets and strode off in the direction of his lodgings. As he walked into the night, all he wanted to think about was Bryony. But try as he might, every time he remembered the outline of her face, it was overpowered by the ugly, uneven features of Billy Sweet.

CHAPTER TEN
    ‘Good morning, Sergeant.’ Nikki’s voice echoed across the CID room. ‘My office, please.’ Joseph felt distinctly as if he’d been summoned for a caning by the head mistress.
    He closed the door and looked at her speculatively. ‘Ma’am?’
    ‘A friendly word to the wise, my friend. Next time you plan an assignation, try to arrange it in a different pub to one that contains half the Fenland Constabulary! I’ve heard nothing else since I got in!’
    ‘But . . . !’ Joseph spluttered, ‘But I never . . . it wasn’t an assignation, ma’am! She was there by chance, and I know her from the fitness club. Like me, she swims most mornings. That’s all.’
    ‘Oh really? But you’d left before I even made it as far as the pub front door, and together, I hear. Or has the grapevine got it wrong?’
    ‘Well, yes, I mean, no.’ Joseph felt like a total idiot. For some reason, he hadn’t thought about what his colleagues would say the next day, and clearly, they were saying a lot. He looked up miserably, and saw his boss grinning at him.
    ‘Well done! At least that may quell some of the other things they say about you! Those mess room gossips won’t have a leg to stand on now, when they call you Holy Joe or Mr Goody Two-Shoes.’
    ‘Thanks for reminding me, ma’am. But I thought they’d already given up on that.’
    ‘They probably have. I wouldn’t know. I don’t pay the slightest attention to them anyway.’ She smiled up at him. ‘Why should I? While they are sniping at you, they are leaving me alone.