The Wild Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

normally charged it to his credit card. ‘ Have you robbed a bank or something?’
         ‘ No, no. We’ve got some put by, you know? I wanted a holiday but as always, I’ve been overruled’.  
         ‘ I see’ said Ian who realised that Kevin had been avoiding his eyes throughout the whole conversation. He’d been looking at the floor, the desk, the walls, out of the window. He seemed embarrassed. What was that all about?
         ‘ Did you have a good time back home by the way?’ asked Ian, referring to Kevin’s recent visit to Northern Ireland to see his relatives. His parents had moved the family over when Kevin was two but he went back regularly. 
         ‘ Oh yeah, always do’.
     
         DCI Jimmy Kent had to let Derek and Shaun Campbell go. All his instincts told him that, particularly in the case of Derek, their hands were all over the murder of Jamie Robertson but he had nothing to charge them with, no hard evidence, no snouts coming forward, nothing to hold them on. Derek had been barely out of prison a few weeks.
         ‘ You’re not letting him go, Sir?’ said Graham. He’d been waiting in the corridor outside the interview room and collared Jimmy as soon as he came out. He’d decided not to share the intelligence Jamie Robertson had shared with him during their last meeting. If Duncan was alive and Campbell was intent on killing him, then Graham wanted Campbell behind bars for as long as possible. Maybe that way he could get to Duncan in time to warn him. That’s if he knew where he was.
         ‘ My office, DI Armstrong’ Jimmy instructed.
         Graham followed Jimmy into his office and closed the door behind him. Jimmy sat down at his desk. Graham remained standing.
         ‘ You know as well as I do that I’ve nothing on either of them. We’ve just been applying the pressure, making them know we’re onto them and waiting for them to step out of line’.
         ‘ What I know, Sir, with all due respect, is that my daughter is wetting the bed every night, my three-year old won’t leave his mother’s side for a second, and my wife is having to take sleeping tablets. She's got a plain clothes police officer with her at all times, even just to nip down to the shops. That’s what I know, Sir, and Campbell is responsible. You and I both know it’.
         ‘ Take a week off, Graham’ said Jimmy.
         ‘ What?’
         ‘ I said take a week off and … ‘
         ‘ … Sir, are you saying I can’t hack it because of what’s going on at home?’ He ran his hand through his mane of wavy brown hair. He’d not been able to settle all day but he didn’t need Jimmy fucking Kent to show concern or worse, understanding.
         ‘ No I’m not saying that. But your family have been through a traumatic incident and you need to be there for them. Now this isn’t a choice, DI Armstrong. I’m ordering you to take that time off’.
         ‘ You’re ordering me?’
         ‘ Yes, I’m ordering you. I am the DCI here in case you’d forgotten’.
         ‘ Oh how could I forget that. Sir’
         Jimmy Kent was on the verge of losing his temper. He leaned forward and spoke in as measured a tone as he could muster.  ‘ Now you listen to me, Armstrong, and you listen good. I am sick and tired of your petulant attitude towards me since I got this job instead of you and we both know that your objections run along sectarian lines. Well I’ve got news for you, sunshine, I’m here and I’m staying. So I suggest you use some of your time off to deal with it. Because if you don’t I’ll have you back in uniform so fast your feet won’t touch the ground. Understood?’
     
         Mark got off the tram at his usual stop and started down the street towards home. When he got to the building site he noticed that the big guy he’d had his eye on was clearing up outside the site office. He decided to take a chance. He took a