Beyond Evidence - my first Novel.

The synopsis

In the heat trapped back streets of Glasgow, there lies a decomposing corpse of a slain female baking in the midday sun. No one has found her yet, but medium Patrick McLaughlin knows she is there. It is not the first time he has dreamt of death... and he soon find out that it is not to be the last.

Meanwhile, the local police start to request DNA samples from twenty something men in the bustling city of Glasgow where several bizarre murders have taken place. Patrick is one of these individuals.

Through a hunch and in the belief that the terrifying dreams hold the key to the identity of the murderer, Patrick works alongside the police to track down the predator before they can strike again. 

The nightmares do not ease up and tears at Patricks sanity, and in the midst of the investigation, at what cost would Patrick have to pay to save the life of a woman he does not know? His family? His friends? His life? 


Sneak preview 

Chapter One

Wrong place, wrong time

She remembered the race that she had taken part in at her primary seven sports day back in 1997 and remembered thinking “You can do this Rebecca, you can win this and show them all that you’re not the fat slob that they say you are. Keep going you can do it.” She had put on a little more weight than she should have and wasn’t the fittest in her class. The other kids knew this too and they weren’t quiet about it either.

“Fatty” they’d call her as she passed them in the corridor at school. She was sick of the taunting and name calling that she decided to prove them all wrong and try her hardest to win the two hundred meter race in the Primary seven sports day. It was just before school broke for the summer holiday and the sun was splitting the sky. Not even a hint of breath in the air. The whistle sounded at the start of the race and Rebecca took off like a bullet from a gun. She could see from the corner of her eye that she was slightly ahead of the rest of the participants. All she kept thinking was that her legs were going to buckle under the feeling of jelly inside them. But she was so god damned determined to prove that she could beat them and their evil taunting. She was determined that they couldn’t hurt her anymore.

That was the exact thought that was going on in her head this night, the night of July 31st 2010. It was a typical summer night in Glasgow city centre, perfect for a night out after a hard days work with the girl’s. Life was going great at the moment for Rebecca. Working in Tesco’s wasn’t the best job in the world but it paid for her nights out, her rented flat which she shared with her best friend Caroline and her beloved Ford Fiesta Zetec.

That night in the pub was like any other normal night.  She had decided to get all dressed up and make herself feel good about her appearance. She hadn’t felt good about herself in a long time. She had finally slimmed down to a size ten and had been working herself ragged in the gym every moment she could.

“Are you absolutely sure it’s not too short?” she asked her friend Caroline whilst gazing into the stand alone mirror.

“Oh my god would you stop? I’ve told you a thousand times you look great. And anyway you shouldn’t care about what other people think Rebecca, it’s your body and as long as you’re happy then that’s all the matters!” Caroline said with sincere honesty in her tone.

Rebecca gave a sigh and glanced at herself in the mirror once more. She was very pretty. Her long loose brunette curls hung perfectly around her heart shaped face and down her back. Her skin was sun kissed and hazel eyes glimmered under the light. She gazed in the mirror and for the first time in a long time she actually agreed with Caroline.

She was twenty four and wore a long black dress that had one shoulder sleeve, with a slit up each side of the leg. Long gold costume necklaces hung from her neck she pulled her hair around one side of her face to let it hang over her left shoulder.

They left their flat on Great Western Road and made their way to the pub in the city centre. It was a hot night and the girls were excited to be having some ‘work free’ time together.

 On arrival to the bar named “My House” Caroline immediately noticed a man standing alone at the bar and he was staring at Rebecca as if he knew her. He smiled at Rebecca and as she entered the door but she hadn’t noticed him. Caroline began motioning a glance over to the bar at Rebecca and when she looked over she noticed the man who was around her age, watching her intently.

 He was tall, about 6ft 1” and he had dark, scruffy looking hair, a bit like Liam Gallagher’s from Oasis. He had day old stubble and dark clothing on with a black leather jacket. ‘Strange fashion for the middle of July’ Rebecca thought. He looked at Rebecca with a mysterious stranger manner about him. Rebecca did think he was good looking but she also felt very reserved about him. Something just didn’t feel right.  She took her eyes off him and took Caroline aside.

“He is so into you!” Caroline almost shouted over the music with excitement in her voice

“Nah, I’m not sure. He seems a bit strange!” Rebecca said with a little uncertainty in her voice.

“Ok well there are plenty of guys out tonight, we’ll find you one chick!” Caroline giggled.

“I’m not looking for one!” Rebecca gave a slight smile to lighten it but still remained deadly serious “Men complicate things!”

“Yes, yes ok. Well do you want to go somewhere else?” said Caroline, but toward the end of the sentence she looked beyond Rebecca and when she turned she immediately found herself  standing face to face with the man from the bar!

“Hi I’m Ross” he said in a very deep, nervous sounding voice “Any chance I could buy you a drink?”

‘Oh shit, what do I do now? Thanks Caroline!’ she thought to herself. “Erm, thanks but I’m just having a drink with my friend tonight, maybe another time?” Rebecca trailed off when she noticed Caroline walking away.

“Oh excuse me please” she said to Ross before chasing after Caroline in a panic to be left alone with a stranger that she wasn’t interested in.

“Caroline what the hell are you doing?” but she could clearly see that Caroline had spotted her on/off boyfriend standing outside the pub casually chatting to another girl. She knew immediately that she probably wouldn’t see her again until the next morning.

She laughed then remembered the man she had abruptly left standing, rejected at the other end of the bar. Even though she knew instantly that she was not interested in him (or any other man for that matter) she felt bad, so decided to go over and apologise. But when she got there he was waiting for her with a drink in hand.

“I hope you don’t mind but I saw you drinking this earlier and I decided to get another for you. The bar guy said it’s a Cosmopolitan. I hope it’s the right one.” He said a little softer this time “I realise you declined my offer at first but I noticed that your friend has other pressing matters to attend to” he made an inverted comas sign with his fingers and smiled a bright white smile.

Rebecca didn’t know what to do or think. If she accepted the drink then that may be seen as saying that she is attracted to him and then he may get the wrong impression. Or if she refused it he may get offended or hurt and she would have nobody there to back her up or give her an excuse to leave.

‘I over think things too much!’ she thought to herself.

“Well...?” said Ross offering the glass of very red liquid to her.

She looked at the glass and then at him “Ok then, just one. Thank you.” He handed her the glass and she took a sip.  She watched him as she drank the red liquid and wondered if she had been too quick to judge him. After all she didn’t know anything about him. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? She finished the cocktail and excused herself to go to the bathroom.

“I’ll be right back” she said, thinking about just picking up her coat and calling it a night.

“I’ll get another one for you if you like?” said Ross. He said it in a way that was more like a statement rather than a question. Rebecca just smiled and made her way to the bathroom. The butterflies in her stomach were going crazy and she didn’t know if it were excitement or something else.

The night went on and Rebecca found herself relaxing a little more. Ross was actually quite pleasant, he asked lots of questions, and to Rebecca it seemed like he was interested to know all about her.

His skin was pale, but he had dark eyes, which seemed unusual to her. To her they should’ve been blue. He seemed a nice enough guy. Why not give him a chance? When all said and done she wasn’t the biggest risk taker in the world. What’s the worst that could happen?

It was midnight and Rebecca was sitting on a bar stool next to Ross at the end of the bar talking about work, friends, family, holidays and other “date” type conversation. She wondered if that’s what it had turned into...a date?

Rebecca suddenly felt very tired and her head was beginning to ache.

“Ross it was lovely talking to you but I’m going to call it a night, I’m tired and I’m working a shift tomorrow” she smiled.

“Ok, well let me at least walk you home?” he said sounding a little disappointed.

Already he was off of the stool and helping her on with her coat. Rebecca smiled again and staggered slightly.

“Are you ok?” Ross asked sounding concerned.

“Erm yeah I think so. I think the best bet for me is my bed!” she gave a quiet laugh.

 They were on the street outside the bar and Rebecca began feeling woozy! They began walking down the not so busy street in the city centre.  Rebecca thought that was probably because there were still two weeks left before pay day. That would be to do with the current financial climate and everything that goes with it.  Rebecca suddenly realised that she didn’t recognise the streets that she was walking along with the friendly stranger she had met in the bar. She also thought to herself that they had both been very quiet and been walking for about ten minutes or so longer than it took to get to her flat from the pub where she had been drinking the cocktails. She began to think about how tired she had suddenly become and the now eye watering headache that seemed to be travelling down the back of her head into her neck. Ross was walking unusually fast for “walking someone home” and when she thought about it, he was more so pulling Rebecca by the wrist than just kindly seeing her home. It wasn’t long before she realised that she was in danger of being attacked by the ‘friendly’ stranger that she had said at the beginning she wasn’t interested in.

Had he put something in the drink? Come to think of it, he had bought the drink for her without her witnessing it! Rebecca’s thoughts began to panic her.

‘He must have put something in my drink’ she thought to herself. She remained as calm as she could and tried to clear her mind so she could concentrate on getting away from him.

“I think I’ll be fine from here thanks” she said as normally as possible.

Ross said absolutely nothing, he just kept dragging her along the road, which was absolutely deserted.

‘How the hell do I get myself out of this?’ she thought to herself as she tried to keep up with his speed.

They were walking so fast that she could hear his breath coming in quick rasps. His touch made her feel sick to her stomach and her whole body was pulsing. She didn’t know if that were to do with any sort of drug he may have put in that cocktail or if it was adrenaline rushing through her veins! Probably both.

 The next thing Rebecca knew she was being dragged down an alley way and she began screaming. Not word’s, or at least she didn’t think she was trying to form any sentences, she just wanted to make some hellish noise in the hope that someone would hear her and come to her aid. Every time she screamed a pain surged from the back of her head to the bottom of her spine, but she tried to ignore it! What was to come would be worse she guessed. She pulled and punched with all her might and he resisted her physical pleas. Rebecca didn’t know how she managed it with all the fatigue that she was feeling but she managed to loosen his grip and make a run for it. She had no idea where she was and the heels on her shoes snapped with the thud of each step but she didn’t care, she just kept running. Everything around her seemed blurred but the adrenaline kept her going.

 He wasn’t far behind her. She could hear the heaviness of his breath, which made her shiver knowing what he had been thinking as he dragged her down that dark, rat infested alley. He was calling after her in a creepy, playful voice.

“Rebecca, come on now, you know that the headache will stop you dead in you tracks eventually. Why not save yourself the energy and just give up?”

That’s when Rebecca began thinking about that primary seven sports day back in 1997. There was no way that she would let the bullies think that she would give up that race because she was overweight, or fat as they called her. Although to be fair, kids are just kids. They probably didn’t realise the hurt and damage that they were causing at the time. But this monster did.

He knew exactly what he was doing the minute that he had tampered with her drink. It’s what he had had planned the minute he set his eyes on her in the bar. She began to think that she should have followed her initial instinct. She didn’t like the look of him, but Caroline put it in her head that he was attracted to her. And a girl can’t help feeling flattered. She pushed the thoughts out of her head and concentrated on running as fast as she could. She could feel a slight breeze on her face as she ran through the dark streets of now what seemed like the outskirts of town, which she did not recognise at all. Her head thumped like it was being battered with a brick and then wondered if that may be one of things that would happen to her if he caught her! She could hear the distant sound of traffic and a little hint of relief ran through her. If only she could make it closer to the motorway ahead then she may have a glimmer of hope that someone would see her and scare off the psycho behind her. She could hear him, closer now, could almost feel his breath on the back of her neck. This sent shivers of fear right through her whole body. She could feel the fear in her veins, it made her blood run cold. She could see the traffic on the motorway now, but still had no idea which part of town she was in, but she didn’t care. If she could just flag down a taxi at least, Caroline could pay at the other end, that’s if she had even made her way home. Would a taxi even stop on a motorway? It might if there were a hard shoulder.

Then she knew it was all over. The monster that had been pursuing her for what seemed like hours was now on top of her, but she had fallen face down when he had leaped on her from behind. She was pretty sure that she had created quite a distance between them whilst running. Maybe she was right, because it felt like he had taken a jump to reach her as he had almost landed directly on top of her head.

The scream didn’t want to leave her throat. She tried and tried, but then realised it couldn’t because he was squeezing her throat so hard that she couldn’t get a breath! His hands were cold and she could smell cigarette smoke from them. She knew she was going to die. She wasn’t ready for that. But at least she couldn’t see the crazed eyes of the beast that literally was squeezing the life out of her. She still fought though. But he had the advantage of being in control in how restricted her movements were. She closed her eyes and thought of who would find her. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long. She didn’t want her parents to have to identify a body that had been left to decompose so badly that it was unidentifiable! In fact, maybe that would be the better option. If she was unidentifiable then maybe the police wouldn’t let them see her. She preferred that thought.

Her parents were the last faces she saw in her mind. Then everything went black...