The Hero's Fall (DCI Cook Thriller Series Book 14) by Phillip Strang (best classic romance novels txt) 📗

The Hero’s Fall

Phillip Strang

BOOKS BY PHILLIP STRANG

DCI Isaac Cook Series

MURDER IS A TRICKY BUSINESS

MURDER HOUSE

MURDER IS ONLY A NUMBER

MURDER IN LITTLE VENICE

MURDER IS THE ONLY OPTION

MURDER IN NOTTING HILL

MURDER IN ROOM 346

MURDER OF A SILENT MAN

MURDER HAS NO GUILT

MURDER IN HYDE PARK

SIX YEARS TOO LATE

GRAVE PASSION

THE SLAYING OF JOE FOSTER

THE HERO’S FALL

MURDER WITHOUT REASON

 

DI Keith Tremayne Series

DEATH UNHOLY

DEATH AND THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE

DEATH AND THE LUCKY MAN

DEATH AT COOMBE FARM

DEATH BY A DEAD MAN’S HAND

DEATH IN THE VILLAGE

BURIAL MOUND

THE BODY IN THE DITCH

THE HORSE’S MOUTH

 

Steve Case Series

PRELUDE TO WAR

THE HABERMAN VIRUS

HOSTAGE OF FEAR

 

Standalone Books

MALIKA’S REVENGE

Copyright Page

Copyright © 2021 Phillip Strang

Cover Design by Phillip Strang

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed by a newspaper, magazine, or journal.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

All Rights Reserved.

This work is registered with the UK Copyright Service.

Author’s Website: http://www.phillipstrang.com

 

Dedication

For Elli and Tais, without whose support and encouragement, I would never have discovered the infinite joy of crafting stories.

Contents

Title Page

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 1

Angus Simmons, the host of a popular television programme, a house in Chelsea, a beautiful girlfriend and an expensive car in the garage, had it made – up until the moment he fell.

He had been thirty-nine years of age, a wiry physique in his teens, a natural athlete, graced with an irrepressible need for adventure and challenge, the ultimate belief in self.

At the age of eighteen, he had climbed the three tallest buildings in London, the first two with ropes and a partner, the third, and more difficult, solo and with no safety gear. His exploits had shot him to national attention.

Seven years later, he had made the first of three ascents of Mount Everest, and he was regarded as one of the leading mountaineers of his generation. On the last climb, six years after the first and leading a group of climbers, one had died of asphyxia, and another had fallen to his death on the descent back to Camp Four. Simmons was emotionally upset at the tragic waste of good men’s lives. A subsequent inquiry exonerated him.

Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Cook had seen death before, but not a body that had fallen over eight hundred feet, hitting the building as it plummeted, before finally impacting on the roof of a parked truck.

Usually unemotional, he had to admit to surprise at seeing the man dead on the truck.

‘And you were filming this?’ Isaac Cook asked a film crew that stood to one side, separated from the body by crime scene tape and a couple of uniforms.

‘We had permission,’ an upset woman said.

‘Tricia Warburton?’

‘I was Angus’s co-host,’ the attractive and on-screen ebullient co-host of the weekly programme that showed obscure and unusual news stories from around the world, said.

‘Permission from who?’ Isaac asked. ‘Climbing the Shard, London’s tallest building isn’t usually allowed, sensitive about the bad publicity when some fool falls off.’

‘Not my area.’

‘I assume you took advice, informed your legal team?’

‘I followed procedure, not that it matters now, does it? Angus is dead.’

The woman was right, Isaac knew. The reason for the man being there, for his climb, and the situation’s stupidity weren’t important. It was that there was a suspicion as to why he fell.

Isaac could only imagine the panic at the television station: the fire-fighting, the pointing of fingers, a scapegoat to find.

‘A friend of yours, Angus?’ Isaac asked. ‘Were you close?’

‘My co-host, I’ve already told you that. We got on well enough, but we weren’t dating, not lovers if that’s what you’re implying.’

‘The truth’s best in situations such as this,’ Isaac said. He wasn’t going to push the point.

‘He fell, killed himself. Why ask these questions now?’

‘For one good reason, and regardless of the stupidity of you and your television station’s stunt, he didn’t fall through losing his grip.’

‘Then how?’

‘Someone took a shot at him. Anyone you might know, enemies of his?’

Isaac felt that he was hard on the woman, but it was the early stage of an investigation, and quick action was essential. The person most likely to know some of the innermost secrets that everyone carries, and the dynamics of the programme that she had co-hosted was Tricia Warburton.

‘Are you saying he was murdered?’

‘Yes, elegant in its execution.’

‘Elegant? That sounds as if you admire the person who did this,’ Tricia said.

‘Not admire, but it’s original, and all because of a stunt. Good for ratings, was it?’

‘It would have been. It was Angus’s idea. The man was fearless.’

‘And dead,’ Isaac added. ‘Whoever took the shot knew when he intended to climb.’

‘Before I became a television presenter, I studied nursing. I didn’t see a gunshot wound on the body.’

‘You saw it?’

‘What I could. Isn’t it instinctive to check if the person’s alive? Besides, it was surreal; none of us could comprehend what we had seen happen.’

Isaac