Church of Sin (The Ether Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

badly drawn heart. Frowning, he screwed it up and threw it in the bin.
    In the freezer he found three sausages which he covered in oil and pan-fried. When they were suitably coated in carbon, he sat down and ate them with bread and grated cheese.
    Breakfast was a quiet time. Thinking time. And Ash had a lot to think about.
    And the Innsmouth Institute was only part of the story.
    Ash had met Alix Franchot ten years ago and since then she had flittered in and out of his life in much the same way that cigarettes had: an enjoyable distraction while they were around and something that was vaguely missed when they weren’t. She had trained as a psychologist but he wasn’t sure whether or not she’d actually ever practised. They had studied together at Bristol University for a Masters Degree in criminology although for different reasons. Ash had done it because it represented one of the criteria for a fast track through CID. Alix had done it because she was bored and didn’t really know what to do with herself. Ash had applied himself, attended every seminar, absorbed every text, stayed behind and discussed topics with tutors and invested every spare waking hour to his studies. Alix had approached everything half-heartedly and swotted up for exams the week before. He had passed with merit. She had passed with distinction.
    Since then they had worked together on a few occasions. Perhaps most notably, two years ago Ash was investigating the disappearance of a young boy of twelve from a house outside the city. The boy’s name was Martin Falson, a name that Ash would never forget. The case had attracted some media attention for the usual reasons. The boy came from a middle class family of professionals – white, of course. The sort of Keeping-Up-With-the-Jones’ folk who people loved to link to scandal and corruption. The parents were quickly demonised as too emotionally detached and a number of family members were in the frame for a kidnap. Baron – the DSI – had led the case. Ash had been DS although his involvement had almost certainly kick-started his promotion to DI.
    The case was complex enough to warrant the involvement of a profiler. Ash had put forward Alix’s name and it took a degree of persuasion for her to be appointed considering her lack of track record. Fortunately for Ash, she applied herself considerably more diligently than her academic studies; sitting in on interviews, reading reams of evidence, producing psychological breakdowns of each family member. It was through her work that the boy’s uncle had been identified as a potential suspect. He was a complex man of many layers. Professional and above board on the surface, perverted and psychotic underneath.
    A nine week operation but little Martin was found, alive, strapped to a table in the Uncle’s basement. He had been systematically abused, starved and, at the end, abandoned . But in police terms, it had been a result.
    More recently , Ash found himself once again acting as Alix’s ambassador when a job came up with the Major Incident Unit for a profiler. Someone who wasn’t already integrated in the police system. An external. And someone cheap. To say that Ash manipulated the interviews would be being unfair. But he didn’t try particularly hard to find any other candidates with calibre either.
    That was last month. Today, Alix started her new job working in Ash’s team. Thus, she had become a permanent fixture in his world.
    He looked carefully at his half eaten sausage. They were supposed to be a bit pink in the middle, weren’t they?
    He scooped one and a half sausages in the bin and headed for the door. He had a mind to drop by to see Alix before she started. It was a push in at the deep end. A meeting with the CPS about Eugene Anwick. Something big. Something unusual. He should be pleased, excited even, he thought. But he wasn’t. He was nervous as Hell. A sucker for a pretty face, Baron had told him. But he hadn’t fought Alix’s