Hope Never Dies Read online

  “Boss, I’m sorry, we’ve lost the money”

  CHAPTER 38

  Epilogue

  Terry Kingsly perished in the car “accident”. He stood no chance and died instantly. All his possessions including the money were destroyed by the fire. There was a police investigation as some motorists swear they saw a 4x4 deliberately drive into his Ford Mondeo, although they could not agree on the type of vehicle they saw, let alone identify it. Others said they noticed nothing untoward. The investigation is still open with no one having been interviewed but fingers have been pointed at Vic Davies and his cohorts. Nothing has or is likely to be proved.

  Hannah Beaumont received an excellent report from Howard Parker despite her refusal to screw him. She has been promoted to sergeant with Alan Payne and Ben Cresswell working in her team. Ben Cresswell has never been discovered, up to the present time in the nefarious activities that Davies sometimes forces him to do. Cresswell still owes Davies a lot of money.

  Vic Davies continues to terrorise half of Manchester with his activities of drug-dealing, extortion, prostitution, trafficking and most other things in the city that are criminally profitable. His two sidekicks were released from hospital, with Brian Slater being on remand for the murder of Neil Haslam and transferred to a prison hospital. Paul Ellwood is again a free man. Davies solicitor, a very clever individual of dubious integrity has claimed that the police had acted illegally in shooting “his” client. Consequently Ellwood is now suing the police and claiming compensation.

  Neil Haslam was identified as having embezzled a large sum of money from Sapphire Computers, considerably more than the two hundred grand or so. The company have instructed lawyers to try and trace the money. Mrs Haslam has volunteered to help provided that she receives a percentage of the money recovered.

  Kim and Ned were unaware that Kingsly had been involved in the accident that they had witnessed until they visited the police station a couple of days later and were informed that the money was not recoverable. Their relationship flourished, either because of, or in spite of the weekend that they had just experienced. They reverted to their regular monthly meetings and their platonic relationship. Ned had never pushed Kim into any changes, as he was unsure of her immediately after her experience. She never gave him any indication that she wanted anything different, even though it was his great desire to have his end away with her again. However, what gladdened both of them was that their special friendship was strengthened even more and they both sought solace and the need to confide in each other even more than before. They had agreed to go on holiday together, the destination was Kim’s choice but Ned knew that he would be happy and content with her just about anywhere in the world, although his mind conjured up the vision of boat trips for some unknown reason.

  They were never charged or even cautioned with any offence.

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