Behind the Mask (eBook)

Caroline Erwin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
290 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-9383-7 (ISBN)

Infos

A cold case, closed for over a decade, is finally being reopened... by 3rd year journalism student, Phoebe Hannigan. After all, she was one of the students in the classroom when a gunman stormed their small town primary school and her favourite teacher went missing. Navigating her way towards the truth is not going to be easy, aware she will be stepping on delicate toes with their parish priest (along with others) having been one of the main suspects. As Phoebe delves further and further into the backstories of what eventuated that year, she finds herself tangled up in religious controversies, old love triangles and devastating family dramas... Can Phoebe unmask the gunman though before he finds her first?

Caroline was born in Sydney, Australia and now lives an hour south of Sydney with her husband, three children, two dogs and a somewhat crazy (but sweet) miniature pony. She has also spent time living abroad in London, UK and New Zealand. Completing a degree in 'Advertising and Marketing' in the year 2000, Caroline went on to work at several large advertising agencies and in-house marketing roles. However, having had a love of writing stories since the age of 6, she now tries her hand at becoming an author and has since released 5 novels: Behind the Mask, The 25-Year Reunion and 3 books in the Southgate Trilogy. (Titles listed below) Book 1 - Between You, Me and the Gatepost Book 2 - Whistling in the Wind Book 3 - Fighting with Fire

---

A cold case, closed for over a decade, is finally being reopened... by 3rd year journalism student, Phoebe Hannigan. After all, she was one of the students in the classroom when a gunman stormed their small town primary school and her favourite teacher went missing. Navigating her way towards the truth is not going to be easy, aware she will be stepping on delicate toes with their parish priest - along with others - having been a possible suspect. As Phoebe delves further and further into the backstories of what eventuated that year, she finds herself tangled up in religious controversies, old love triangles and devastating family drama Can Phoebe unmask the gunman before he finds her first?

Textauszug

Chapter Two

‘What do you mean you’re heading home a week early?’ queried Tamara in confusion. ‘You’ll miss the Masquerade Ball, and surely you don’t want to do that… Toby will be there for sure.’

Phoebe sighed. She really didn’t want to miss the end-of-term ball, especially as Toby was going and she’d already purchased her mask and a little red dress to go with it but, ‘I just think two weeks at home won’t be enough to complete this assignment, to conduct all my interviews. I’ll need three or four at least and I’m keen to get started straight away.’

‘Do you have to do a case from your hometown? Why don’t you pick something different, where the scene of the crime and witnesses aren’t four hours away? Or couldn’t you just speak with them over the phone instead, like most of us will have to do with our cases not even being in the same state?’

Phoebe shook her head and sighed again. ‘I’ve been wanting to investigate this case for years and I feel like face-to-face interviews will be better, far better. I was planning to do it when I’d finished my degree but, well, now that Professor Bennett has set us this assignment it’s the perfect time. Especially with a job offer at Archibald Media on the line.’

The change of tone in Tamara’s voice was audible immediately. ‘I wouldn’t count your chickens Pheebs, you heard the man… no one’s ever achieved that during this task.’

Phoebe rolled her eyes discreetly. She liked Tamara, she did, but sometimes her friend could also be a little - what was the word - competitive, jealous, as if Pheobe’s throw away comment insinuated she had the role at Archibald in the bag. An event which, should it occur, would absolutely cause a tidal wave of jealousy in Tamara who saw herself as the nation’s next top female reporter. All of Phoebe’s closest friends here at Uni were doing a different degree to her though, not journalism and so it had been kind of nice when, last year, working on an assignment together, Phoebe finally formed a friendship with someone in her classes.

‘When are you leaving then?’ asked Tamara, the jealousy disappearing from her voice, intrigue replacing it instead. ‘I can’t believe you had a gunman storm your classroom as a kid! How petrifying! I don’t think I would have gone back if I were a student there… wasn’t everyone too scared to return the next day?’

Phoebe nodded, exhaling slowly before replying. If she were to investigate this case, then she would need to deal with the angst of reliving it a little.

‘They closed the school for three weeks and placed a huge amount of security around the grounds, both in manpower and cameras and for the remainder of the year - there were only a few weeks left once it re-opened, being late November - every entrance or gate was firmly locked. Except for one but two massive guards stood either side of this twenty-four hours a day. No one was allowed in except students or staff, not even parents,’ Phoebe paused. ‘Well, not until the final day of the year - awards day, when parents were foolishly allowed back in for the assembly.’

Tamara listened on in amazement. Stories like this might be unfortunately common in America but, Australia?

‘Why foolishly? Don’t tell me something happened on the awards day, when the parents were there? Surely that would lean to a parent possibly being a suspect, wouldn’t it?’

Phoebe exhaled slowly again, the memories now leaping vividly into her mind and, apprehensively, she began detailing the events of her final month of primary school.

Mrs Williams notified the front office immediately once the gunman left. Well, when she had finally come to again after briefly passing out from shock. She had been advised that all teachers and students were to stay in their classrooms with doors and windows securely locked, as the police had only just arrived and would be scouring the grounds to search for the man should he still be lurking about. Once they were satisfied that he was not, or had found him, each class would then be escorted out of their rooms by officers, across to the main street where parents had been notified to collect their children today, all buses having been cancelled. Police were also currently searching the outer surrounds of the school, although with little to go on as he would unlikely be wearing a balaclava still if he were out and about, his only identifiable feature then being that he was a six-foot-plus man.

The police search within the school had taken a good hour and during that time, as Mrs Williams attempted to calm a hyperventilating student at the back of the classroom and other students broke out into loud anxious chatter, Phoebe crept towards her teacher’s desk to sneak a look at the note the gunman had written. The year-six teacher had shoved it under her pencil pot for the time being, unaware that Phoebe - or any of her students - would sneak over to read it and despite some of the words being covered Phoebe could make out his request easily.

On the upcoming awards day, Mrs Williams needed to ensure that no child or teacher were within a three-metre radius of the principal when he announced the first award. Otherwise, they could be severely harmed. Should she fail to do this, or have the assembly cancelled, she - Mrs Williams - would become his new target instead. If she spoke to the police about this note, she would also become his victim.

Phoebe had inhaled sharply and immediately sworn to herself that there was no way on earth she would be attending this year’s awards ceremony. No matter how much she had been hoping to receive the coveted Year 6 English pennant. Phoebe had noticed Mrs Williams nod at the gunman in agreement, so did this mean she was actually going to oblige him in this request? Or had she simply been nodding at the time because, really, what else could she do to get him out of the classroom? Surely Mrs Williams would pass this note onto the cops later today.

When the police had finally arrived at their classroom, to escort them safely out to their parents’ cars, Phoebe watched her teacher grab the note and slip it into her handbag before turning to one of the officers and requesting to speak privately with him later. To which the officer had replied, ‘Of course, we’ll be needing to speak with you anyway as you seem to be the only one who had any interaction with the man today. The groundsman saw him enter through the front gate and alerted the office to sound the lockdown alarm, then, from what we can gather, the man ran straight into the main building and into your room. Most probably because it’s the first one he saw.’

Unable to stop herself from shaking, Phoebe had then followed the officer and the rest of her classmates out the front gate to be collected by their parents. Her eldest brother, Charlie, had been waiting there for her instead. Having recently obtained his drivers’ licence on his seventeenth birthday, he’d called their mum to say he would grab Phoebe as he was nearby and Phoebe had fallen into his arms and sobbed hysterically, the emotion finally all pouring out of her.

‘Wow, that’s insane,’ responded Tammy now as Phoebe finally paused for a few seconds. ‘I would have been terrified if that happened to me as a kid.’

It had been a long time since she had relayed this story to anyone but, no matter how many years had passed since the event, that feeling of terror still crept back in as she allowed the memories to become fresh in her mind again. And yes, Tamara was right, having a gunman storm your classroom at eleven years of age was obviously going to traumatise you for years, Phoebe thought with a deep sigh.

‘So, what happened then?’ prodded Tamara, her blue eyes wide with curiosity.

‘During those few weeks that our school was closed, I agonised over whether to tell anyone about the note. My mum, the police… anyone. But the more I thought about it the more scared I felt to do so. The gunman had no idea I’d seen it, but if I told my parents and they informed the police, or I spoke to the police directly, I was scared he’d find out somehow and come after me instead, or my family. All I could think of back then was keeping myself and my family safe, and Janie, my best friend. So, I decided to leave it up to Mrs Williams. For her to do whatever she thought best in the situation. Plus, I might have been endangering her if she had another plan, one which didn’t include the police intervening.’

‘And, did you go to the awards day? What happened?’

‘No way. I convinced mum that I had severe stomach cramps, lay in bed moaning and groaning the night before.’

‘What about your friend, Janie? Did you convince her not to go to school either?’

‘Her mum had already agreed she could miss the rest of the school year anyway. She was quite an anxious girl, even before the gunman incident and was more affected by the situation than me. She had several panic attacks the week after it occurred.’

‘Understandably,’ nodded Tamara in sympathy. ‘There’s no way I could have coped with that at age eleven.’

Phoebe sighed. ‘I know, it affected my classmates and me a lot. I was a little more resilient than Janie though and I was okay with going back there, especially once all the security measures were in place. Before returning, the school let us know that someone would be...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.3.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-9383-7 / 9798350993837