The Sad Man Read Online Free PDF

is a song of grief. He knows it well. He lifts her, she weighs nothing, and carries her away from the room, out into a hallway and others take her. She will help later, answer questions later, but for now she just sings a love song for her poor pale daughter. Charlie …
    … he has a coffee and a bacon sandwich. He tastes nothing: his stomach god needs appeasing but his taste buds have deserted him. There are reports, paperwork to sign and overtime to agree. He looks at his watch: 2.27 p.m. Back to the unit, regroup and be briefed and …
    ‘FUCK! Bevans, you are off this case. You are too inexperienced for this.’
    Tom is back inside the chief superintendent’s office. The older man stands at the window watching the world pass by. It is 6 p.m. and the sun is a burning red ball: red sky at night, copper’s delight. Drake’s face is cut into strips by the last of the day’s light that swims through the venetian blinds. Soon it will fall away and be gone.
    ‘This case is toxic. No one is coming out of this looking good. If I leave you in place the press will hack you to pieces.’
    ‘Don’t take me off it.’ Tom asks, his voice strong.
    Drake shakes his head. Tom can see the tension in his jaw and a wildness in his eye he had not seen before.
    ‘I can’t afford an inexperienced man at the helm, this could turn into a circus very quickly. We either solve it double quick or we bury it.’
    ‘I gave the mother my word—’
    ‘This is not a normal case. Whoever did this wants the press. He’s some clever clever fuck who wants to show us how big his dick is. We do not give it the oxygen of publicity. We’ve got twenty-four hours and then we close it.’
    ‘And wait for the next woman to die?’
    ‘And maybe we make him so pissed off that he makes a mistake next time.’
    ‘I can’t believe th—’
    ‘Button it, Bevans. This is fucked up and we need to play it smart. We’re used to people knocking off their relatives for an inheritance, or a lover beating their partner to death because they fucked them over. This killer gave us a knot made of blood.’
    ‘Let me keep the case.’
    ‘No. I am going to withdraw your status as acting DI. We are going to allocate the case to DI Ashe—’
    ‘But Ashe isn’t here.’
    ‘And we still give it to him. That way we can fudge responsibility later, if we get crucified in the newspapers or shat on from above.’
    ‘Sir, with respect—’ Tom starts but Drake cuts him dead.
    ‘If a reporter gets hold of this…’
    ‘My head can roll. I mean it.’
    ‘You’re a fucking idiot, Bevans. I’m giving you a way out. Take it.’
    Tom cannot see himself going back to being a FLO. After one day he knows this is what he was meant to do. ‘Please, leave me on the case.’ Tom pauses, he rolls the dice. ‘I may have something.’
    ‘On the case?’
    ‘A line of enquiry.’
    ‘Well what is it? Out with it, man.’
    ‘Charlotte Brindley-Black was a brunette who dyed her hair silver. She did it for the first time just days before she was killed.’
    Drake stares at him for a few seconds. ‘Are you fucking me?’
    ‘I think she did it for the killer.’
    ‘That’s it?’ Chief Superintendent Drake sighs, he looks exasperated. ‘I said no fucking hunches.’
    ‘Instinct.’
    Tom looks into the chief’s eyes and holds his gaze. It has withered many DIs in the past but Tom feels strong. In Drake’s eyes he thinks he sees something akin to loathing – but there is also a glint there, deep in his eye.
    The chief superintendent finally nods. ‘Three days. You have three days and then we put this in a landfill.’
    ‘That’s all I ask.’
    ‘Okay, Bevans.’
    Drake turns back to the window. The red sky has fallen away and man-made light illuminates the city now. Tom watches him staring out at the city, there is no goodbye. He is merely meant to melt away from his senior officer’s presence. He turns to leave and slips out of the door. He imagines Chief