SYNOPSISA simple substitution of a Chinese Bronze statue, sets a chain of events in motion that even Geoffrey Summers finds difficult to control. There will be death, terror and tears before the completion of this assignment.
The second novel in the Geoffrey Summers series.
Extract
Prologue
Sally clutched the collar of her coat around her neck with both hands and walked quickly down the lane. It was early evening and the heavy clouds filled the skies shading the light from a setting sun,
The rain was streaming down her face, her hair soaking and dripping down inside her collar. Her shoes and legs splattered with drops of rain and mud.
If only she'd not upset the plant pot she thought, this would not be happening and she would have been blissfully unaware of the secret. She'd not meant to listen, but the words spoken caused her to gasp and shrink her body into an alcove. The voice had stopped and someone came to the door and looked out. Sally shrank even further back and held her breath. The door closed and she ran upstairs. She cleaned up the spilled soil, brushed it into the pan, returned down the stairs making sufficient noise to alert everyone.
They were all in the kitchen when she entered. She put the pan contents into the waste bin.
'Finished, dearie?' the cook said.
Sally tried to smile and act perfectly normal. 'Yes, Mrs Willis,' she answered, her heart pounding.
'I'll get off home now.'
'Right you are, my dear, see you in the morning,' said Mrs Willis.
With trembling hands, Sally took her coat down from the hook and went down the corridor to the front door.
Outside it was raining heavily, but her umbrella was back in the kitchen. Her nervousness may have been noticed and they would know she'd heard, so she decided to go without it. Leaving the house, she ran down the drive and through the open gates into the lane.
She wanted to get home and tell her father what she had heard.
The rain was quite heavy now and she skipped to avoid the patches that were forming into pools of water on the uneven ground. She heard a sound, turned and saw the lights of a vehicle coming down the lane towards her. She could see the sitting room lights from her home shining out on to the pathway and turning she saw in the dim light the car was approaching fast, spraying the water up from the wheels. I'm going to get soaked she thought and moved over to the side of the road. The car accelerated and she realised with horror that the headlights were coming straight at her. She turned to run, felt something hard smash into her back and heard a loud crash that sounded like thunder. The dark of the lane suddenly lit up with a bright light that seemed to explode.
The light faded and there was only the silence and darkness.
