T.M.E. Walsh - For All Our Sins

Love M J Arlidge and Angela Marsons? Don’t miss For All Our Sins – the addictive new serial-killer crime novel from T M E Walsh.

When DCI Claire Winters is called to the brutal murder of a priest, it’s clear the victim’s death was clearly prolonged, agonising…and motivated by a fierce desire for revenge.

Allowing the killer to remain on the streets isn’t an option…but chasing a murderer with no leads was never going to be easy. And the closer Claire gets to the family of the victim, the more complex things become.

Soon, Claire finds herself in a race against time to connect the dots between a host of devastating secrets. And then the killer strikes again…

For All Our Sins introduces DCI Claire Winters – a hero to rival DI Helen Grace and DI Kim Stone.

For All Our Sins

T. M. E. Walsh

Copyright

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2015

Copyright © T. M. E. Walsh 2015

T. M. E. Walsh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

E-book Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9781474038072

Version date: 2018-06-27

TANIA (T. M. E.) WALSHbegan writing full time after becoming a casualty to the recession in late 2008. She successfully self-published the first two novels in the DCI Claire Winters series in 2013, and both appeared in the various best-selling Amazon Kindle charts before being picked up by HQ Digital in 2015. In 2011 Tania was the winner of the Wannabe a Writer competition sponsored by Writing Magazine and judged by Matt Bates, the Fiction buyer for WHSmith Travel.

Although writing now takes up most of her time, Tania has previously produced digital artwork that was published on a DVD-ROM for ImagineFX magazine’s FXPosé section twice in the early and latter part of 2007, which has been published worldwide. Tania is currently working on a new standalone novel and a third book in the DCI Claire Winters series. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and young daughter. You can follow her at tmewalsh.com, facebook.com/tmewalsh or @tmewalsh.

Thank you to the team at HQ Digital, especially my editor, Clio Cornish. You have contributed so much to help shape this novel to be the best it possibly could be. Thank you for championing the DCI Claire Winters series from the start.

Thank you to all the other authors from the HQ Digital family. What a talented and supportive bunch you are!

Further thanks must go to my Mum and Dad, for everything they have done and continue to do, to support me and my writing. To my husband, Daniel, for supporting our little family, allowing me to write full time.

And finally, thanks to my good friend, and literary guardian angel, Willow Thomas. You’ve been there since the first draft. Your unwavering support and sense of humour have kept me going, and for all you have done for me, I will be eternally grateful.

For Daniel and Eden

Contents

Cover

Blurb

Title Page

Copyright

Author Bio

Acknowledgement

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Chapter 91

Chapter 92

Chapter 93

Chapter 94

Chapter 95

Chapter 96

Chapter 97

Endpages

About the Publisher

The room smelled of blood, so thick that she could almost taste it…

CHAPTER 1

‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.’

Amelia scarcely heard the words escape her mouth as she crossed herself and clasped the rosary tighter in her hands.

The little dark-red wooden beads didn’t give her the strength they once did. As she stared at the silver cross that dangled between her fingers, she knew her traditional faith in God had died a long time ago and part of her felt like a fraud.

From inside the confessional, Father Malcolm Wainwright shifted his weight awkwardly, but never broke his concentration. He continued to remain silent, awaiting the inevitable confession.

But the confession never came.

The silence felt as though it would swallow him whole. He turned his head slightly, peering through the ornate carvings of the wooden partition, but could see little in the darkness.

His eyes were not what they used to be but he could just make out the outline of her face, and where the light crept through the small cracks in the wood, he saw the most beautiful shade of red hair. Like fire, it seemed to reflect in his eyes, flecks of light dancing across his iris.

‘Take your time, my child. Trust in God.’

Amelia closed her eyes, squeezed her rosary, but remained silent.

Then she turned to face him, her hands placed flat against the partition, her fingertips poking through the spaces in the wood.

The cross on the rosary was swaying back and forth against the wood, like a crude attempt at Morse code.

Wainwright saw her eyes for the first time as a stray beam of light caught the brightest shades of green, the colour of a turquoise sea.

Her eyes started to mist as she brought her face closer, her breathing heavy, her lips just inches from his face.

‘Do you remember the girl, Father?’ Her voice rasped from within her throat as her demeanour changed.