Betrayal of Innocence (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 1)

CHAPTER ONE

Justin sighed and stared hard at the ceiling while he puffed out his cheeks and made popping noises with his mouth. To give himself something to do, he tilted precariously on the back legs of the spindle chair he sat on and tried to balance himself at an awkward angle for longer and longer periods of time in a demi-game of skill.

The rhythmic squeak the chair made was irritating enough to make his good friend and colleague, Angus, glare balefully at him.

“Do you not have anything else to do with your time?” Angus growled, blithely ignoring the fact that the only activity to challenge his own day was reading the same broadsheet for the third time while pretending to be interested.

“I am bored,” Justin grumbled. “Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. I need something to do with my time.”

“I confess, when I joined the Star Elite I expected life to be a bit busier than this,” Aaron admitted from his perch in the corner of the room. He peeked out from beneath is own broadsheet and yawned widely as he looked askance at his colleagues, seeking their agreement.

Phillip prised one eye open and peered at the men lounged casually at various points around the large square study. “Can I remind you that we are having a break before we start our next job? We only completed the last investigation a few hours ago, and already you are bored. We need to rest. Boss’s orders.”

“We had a rest,” Jasper replied sharply. “Last night. Before we all left our beds at dawn to arrest the bounders. Why do we need to rest some more already?”

“Because we have been busy lately,” Angus reasoned. “Really busy, as a matter of fact.”

Aaron nodded. “Too busy.”

“So, we are supposed to go from running around like headless chickens after criminals only to then stop and lounge around like toffs at White’s,” Jasper snorted. His tone left his colleagues in no doubt as to what he thought about toffs at White’s.

The derogatory term ‘toff’ was frequently used to describe the wealthy members of aristocracy who frequented the exclusive gentleman’s club. Today, Jasper’s use of it drew Angus’s frown.

“I would caution you to be careful, friend. Our boss is one of those toffs, and so is Simon Andrews. You won’t curry any favours if they hear you and take offense,” Angus chided. “Just enjoy this time to yourself and stop complaining.”

Justin smiled at Jasper and began to rock in his seat again. There was little he could do about the unease that refused to allow him to relax and enjoy the quietude like he was supposed to. He was on edge, restless, as though something was missing in his life.

Something is missing from my life, he thought with a disgruntled sigh. I need something to do.

Suddenly, the door opened. Sir Hugo, their boss, and two of their colleagues who had just returned from delivering several newly arrested prisoners to gaol, entered the room. The men tensed as they watched Sir Hugo, grim faced, take up position in front of the fireplace and turn to face them. They all knew from the look on his face that the news he had to impart was not good.

“What is it?” Justin prompted, eager to carry out whatever task Sir Hugo asked of him, if only so he could get out of the room for a while.

If there was one thing he hated more than anything it was being confined for too long. The longest period he usually spent indoors was when he was asleep, otherwise he preferred to be out in the open air. It was one of the pitfalls of taking a job with the Star Elite. The confined, often cramped city streets could be claustrophobic sometimes; suffocating with the stench of too many people and not enough fresh air. Still, it was a job, and it kept him busy – most of the time.

“We have had a request from the magistrate in Leicestershire, a Mr Weeks,” Sir Hugo announced to the deathly silence. When nobody moved or spoke, he looked at each man in turn.

Each member of the Star Elite before him was different in stature, looks, age, and experience. He knew this new group of men who made up some of the Star Elite had proven their worth on more than one occasion over the last several months. Even so, on the investigation he was about to send them on they were going to need all their investigative experience and then some to succeed.

“There have been several disappearances over the last few weeks,” he announced solemnly. He opened the parchment in his hand, and read the note from Montague Weeks, the magistrate for Leicestershire, to the men. “These are kidnappings, we think, rather than murders. So far, four young girls have gone missing and one boy. They have all disappeared from within a fifteen-mile radius of the same stretch of the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border, near a place called Brecester. The magistrate is completely lost to know how to handle it. His men have gotten nowhere in their investigation and, according to Weeks, have managed to upset the locals more than find the culprit. Weeks considers he needs a gentler hand at the tiller as it were. It would help if someone not familiar with the villagers were to investigate this.”

“Undercover?” Justin asked, his mind racing in several different directions at once.

Sir Hugo pursed his lips. “If necessary, but it isn’t essential to begin with. I think it might get the villagers talking if someone from London were to investigate.” He held his hand up when several of the men looked about to protest. “I know what you are going to say. The locals are more likely to want to talk to someone, well, local. However, Weeks has made it clear the locals are anxious and wary. They don’t seem to have much faith in him now and refuse to speak in case they draw attention to themselves. There is a lot of suspicion, I am afraid. It is what can sometimes happen in places like this. The magistrate’s men have done little to help placate the locals seeing as more disappearances have taken place while they have been investigating.”

“What has the magistrate’s men found out so far?” Callum asked in his usual quiet manner.

“Nothing,” Sir Hugo replied flatly. “Not a damned thing. Nobody has seen anything, heard anything, or been anywhere n