The Sixth Estate (The Craig Crime Series) Read Online Free PDF

then he sat down and scoffed the best biscuits before anyone else could. Julia smiled at Craig with the fondness that only ex-lovers share.
    “I’m good, Marc. You?”
    Her clear, half-English accent catapulted him back in time and he was momentarily nostalgic. He remembered their arguments and recovered rapidly.
    “Fine.” He gestured at her left hand. “Congratulations seem to be in order. Who’s the lucky man?”
    She blushed in a girlier way than he’d ever seen her do before. “His name’s Matt Thomas. He’s a surgeon at Peter’s Hill in Enniskillen, where my brother works.”
    Craig smiled, relieved at his complete lack of jealousy. His smile deepened; another doctor. What was it with medics and the police?
    She laughed. “He puts up with my strange little ways, which is saying something.”
    Craig laughed with her. “Even your smoking?”
    She shrugged and smiled. “I’m down to two sneaky ones a day.”
    She’d had a twenty-a-day habit when they’d dated; Dr Love must have been some man to separate her from her cigs. As Liam chomped at the biscuits, he listened, smiling to himself at how Craig had managed not to mention Katy’s name. He wasn’t hiding her but he was gentleman enough to let McNulty have her happiness without playing tit for tat. As the chat lulled naturally, Julia waved Craig to a seat, pouring the coffees as Liam brought up the reason that they were there.
    “Interesting case.”
    She nodded and opened a drawer, removing a buff-coloured file. “Have you been to the house yet?”
    Craig noticed a framed photograph on the desk; it was of a man around his age, with blond hair and a tanned face that sported a two-day beard. The snow behind him and skis in his hand completed the image of relaxed happiness and health. Dr Thomas I presume. Julia’s shy smile as she caught his gaze was endearing, embarrassed, but most of all unambiguously in love.
    The moment was broken by Craig answering “we’ve just been there” and within a minute they were hard at work. He had a list of questions on the case, but top of it was ‘who’?
    “Who’s your best pick for the Bwyes’ disappearance?”
    Julia wrinkled her forehead glumly and sat back in her chair, picking at the edge of the file.
    “It depends if they’re dead or just injured.”
    She’d got it in one. Craig joined her train of thought.
    “OK. So far there’s no sign that it was a burglary, so the real question is, was it a kidnap that went wrong where the Bwyes fought back, in which case they could still be alive somewhere. Or…was it always the plan to murder them? You haven’t received a ransom demand yet, four days after they disappeared, which points away from kidnap, but if murder was always the intention then why bother removing the bodies? They could have just killed them and left them at the house.”
    Julia thought for a moment then ventured a suggestion that reminded them just how perverted criminals could be.
    “Could…could they have taken them somewhere to torture them? Before…”
    Craig frowned. “I sincerely hope not, but we can’t rule it out. There’s a third possibility I should have mentioned. Oliver Bwye could be a family annihilator who rigged the scene to make us believe that he was a victim as well. Fifty per cent of family mass murders happen from within.”
    Her eyes widened as he went on.
    “Annihilators have four types: anomic, disappointed, self-righteous and paranoid. Anomic annihilators see their families as status symbols and if something happens to negate their worth they become disposable.”
    Julia shook her head. “Bwye was a model family man. Successful career, pillar of the community; his wife’s charity efforts practically built the local hospice. Everyone I’ve questioned says there was nothing strange about the family in any way.”
    Craig shrugged, unconvinced, and Liam agreed. They’d seen enough of people’s façades to know that often even their nearest and dearest