The Alibi

Evie Hunter

Description

The BRAND NEW addictive revenge thriller from Evie Hunter for 2023!

Don't get mad...get even!

Leona Carson thought Scott Jessop was a decent man…she was wrong.

When she discovers Scott has been lying to her, she knows it’s time to call it quits on their relationship. But Scott doesn’t take kindly to being rejected by Leona and begins a campaign to ruin her life just like he has done to many other women…

Determined to stop Scott and get her life back, Leona asks the police for help, but Scott always has someone ready to take the blame.

Tired of Scott’s lies, Leona tracks down his latest alibi, Hugo Rossiter. But rather than find another ready excuse, she meets a man who is also sick of Scott’s actions.

And together, they are determined to make him pay once and for all…

Praise for Evie Hunter:

'A brilliant read that hooked me from the outset. I couldn’t tear myself away!' Bestselling author Gemma Rogers.

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Policier
• Thriller
• Mashups
• Psychological
• Feminist
• Thrillers
• Suspenso
• Psychological thriller
• Domestic
• Psychology
• Feminism
• City Life
• Crime
• Revenge
• Suspense
• Noir
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 13 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781802803037
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE ALIBI


EVIE HUNTER
CONTENTS



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


Acknowledgments

More from Evie Hunter

About the Author

The Murder List

About Boldwood Books
1

‘This is a joke, right?’ Leona Carson stared at Detective Sergeant Potter in abject disbelief, her eyes wide with accusation. ‘He was here, posting dog shit through my front door like the cowardly bastard that he is. Yet you say that isn’t enough to haul him in.’
The sergeant looked bored as he waved a placating hand. ‘It isn’t that straightforward.’
‘It doesn’t have to be complicated,’ Leona shot back at him, seething with a blinding rage that threatened to bring on a headache.
‘Look, I know you’re upset—
‘Really?’ Leona rolled her eyes. ‘What gave me away?’
‘Upset and overwrought,’ Potter continued, talking over Leona’s sarcasm, ‘and understandably so.’
‘Don’t you dare patronise me!’
Leona had an honours degree from Oxbridge and was damned if she’d let a smug misogynist with a limited IQ and warped view of the world tell her that she was being emotional. She hadn’t met Potter before and would be perfectly happy if their paths never crossed again. He was about as much use in a crisis as non-alcoholic wine.
She got the impression that he’d drawn the short straw insofar as he’d been on duty when her call came in. He made little attempt to hide his boredom, or the fact that he wanted to get out of her cottage as soon as possible. Leona was equally keen to be rid of him, but not until she was satisfied that he’d taken her accusations seriously and intended to do something about them.
‘I wasn’t, love, but you have to see things from my perspective.’ He lifted one skinny shoulder. ‘My hands are tied.’
‘Firstly,’ Leona replied, striving to retain a modicum of composure, ‘I am most definitely not your love. And secondly, this has nothing to do with you. It’s all about Jessop and his fixation with me. If the restraining order that I’d tried to take out against him had been granted then he wouldn’t be allowed to come within spitting distance of me and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.’ She picked up the documentation she’d cobbled together in a futile attempt to have the order in question granted and waved it in his face. ‘And yet because the world and his wife think I’m overwrought, he can do what he damned well likes. And what he likes is to taunt me by demonstrating that he can get to me whenever he likes. And, trust me, he was here .’
‘You saw him?’
Ah, so now they got down to it, Leona thought. Of course she hadn’t bloody well seen him clearly enough to identify him! The conniving bastard was far too wily to get within camera range. But then, he didn’t need to let her see him. His calling card in the form of dog shit had his name all over it.
Classy!
Spring was almost upon them but the clocks hadn’t changed yet and he’d visited her after dark. But she had seen his car: his distinctive, penis-compensating, yellow Lamborghini. He’d even revved the sodding engine as he drove away, just to make sure that she knew he could get to her whenever he felt like it. His behaviour was designed to intimidate, and it damned well had. It had taken over an hour after his visit the previous night for her to stop shaking, and that had infuriated Leona. She didn’t want to be a victim and most definitely didn’t want Steve sodding Jessop to affect her in any way at all. She had put that episode in her life behind her, acknowledged to herself that she’d been an idiot to almost fall for his line and was now determined to look forward.
Never back.
No good could come from dwelling upon past errors of judgement. The only problem was, Steve would never let her win. Revenge would be his raison d’être now that she’d dared to defy him and he would procure it subtly, enjoying making her sweat. She had known it all along, which was one of the reasons why she’d held off from attempting to procure a restraining order, until his behaviour had grown so bizarre that it had forced her hand. His turning up wherever she went, or so it had seemed, just watching her. Coming to her cottage. Gaining access whilst she was away, going through her things and making sure he left enough clues behind for her to know that he’d been there. As if the lingering essence of his distinctive aftershave didn’t do the job. She couldn’t prove it, of course. Aromas weren’t evidence apparently, which is one of the reasons why her application for a restraining order had failed.
Steve knew she’d made the application though and that had probably made matters even worse for her. He would have taken it as a personal affront. No one got away with challenging Steve. She’d seen for herself just how ruthless he could be in the business world when crossed. That mantra clearly spilled over into his personal affairs. What Steve wanted, Steve got, and nothing and no one stood in his way. Certainly not a female. He claimed to love women but he actually loved to control them. Leona wouldn’t be controlled. By rejecting his advances and walking out on him, although she hadn’t realised it at the time, she’d dented his ego and challenged his authority.
Given her first-hand experience of his vindictiveness, would she have done things differently given her time over?
Almost certainly not. Leona wasn’t the passive type.
The man she had once worked for and admired was ruthless, cunning and very clever. Devious, dark and dangerous, he thought he could walk roughshod over the law and get away with it. Leona glanced at Potter in his rumpled suit, who was currently wiping his nose with the back of his hand. She turned away again, repulsed. If this was the best that the local constabulary could come up with to counter Steve’s games, then he would run rings around them and she was definitely doomed.
Dead already.
She shuddered, wondering if Steve would hold short of committing actual murder if she continued to defy him. She couldn’t be sure that a man with his arrogance and self-belief understood the need for boundaries. She’d heard him remark more than once that a man couldn’t thrive if he obeyed the rules. Rules were for other people. That being the case, she had to accept that Steve had no boundaries, which terrified her.
He would probably get away with killing her, despite the fact that she had repeatedly told the local force that he was capable of extreme bouts of rage. Another prediction that had doubtless been put down to the ramblings of a delusional, overwrought female who, according to Steve’s version of events, had come on to him and was now making accusations to salve her wounded pride. He had stopped short of publicly accusing her of manipulating company funds but that threat was never far from the surface. And infuriating. Leona had never stolen a penny in her entire life but she’d had plenty of opportunities to do so whilst working for Steve and knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to make that suggestion to potential employers. Ergo, her career prospects were bleak since any prospective employer would apply to Steve for a reference: a reference that would not be favourable.
‘Well?’ Potter appeared to be having trouble holding back a sneer. ‘Did you actually see him?’
‘I saw his car,’ Leona said with exaggerated patience. ‘It’s hard to miss, but that was the entire point.’
‘A car isn’t evidence.’
‘Oh for the love of God!’ Leona blew air through her lips. ‘How many yellow Lamborghinis are there in this part of the world? And who, other than Jessop, owns one, has reason to come to this isolated spot and would put dog shit through my door? What other evidence do you need to take this seriously?’
‘We take it very seriously.’ Potter cleared his throat. ‘But here’s the thing. Jessop was interviewed as soon as we received your complaint.’
‘He was?’ Leona blinked at the annoying detective, wishing she could wipe the smug expression from his face, wondering why he hadn’t mentioned that not insignificant point immediately. ‘Presumably he denied everything.’
‘More than that. He was in a restaurant with half a dozen business acquaintances at the time you say he was here. And he could prove it.’ Potter’s expression had turned condescending. ‘I don’t much like the man but even he can’t be in two places at once. I’m afraid he has a cast-iron alibi.’
‘He could have slipped out the restaurant for a while,’ Leona said, recognising the weaknesses in her own suggestion the moment it left her lips. Still unable to accept that anyone other than Jessop had invaded her privacy. No one else had any reason to.
Potter shook his head. ‘It’s half an hour away from here. He would have been missed if he was away for that long. We spoke to two of the people at that meal who both swear that he didn’t leave the table, other than to use the bathroom, for the entire evening.’
‘They were women, I suppose,’ Leona said scathingly, wishing after she’d spoken that she’d moderated her tone. She sounded like a jealous female, out to revenge herself on a man who’d jilted her, just as Steve had suggested. Not that she had been jilted but it would be a waste of breath to try and persuade Potter to believe her.
‘Only one. The other was a long-standing business associate. An upstanding citizen with no criminal record and no obvious ties to Jessop. Goes by the name of Hugo Rossiter: a self-made man in the electronics business.’
Leona nodded. ‘He’s one of Jessop’s suppliers. Provides him with components for Steve’s computer repair empire. People have woken up to the futility of renewing laptops every few years just so that they can say they have the latest model, or latest phone for that matter. It’s cheaper to have them repaired or upgraded. That’s how Steve h